Marine sediment particle size analysis (PSA) data from around the UK (1966 onwards)
Results of particle size analysis (PSA) performed on approximately 29,000 seabed sediment samples collected by BGS from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and adjacent deep water areas, mostly using sediment grabs, but also sediment corers on occasions. Measurements were also made on approximately 8,000 downhole sub-samples from shallow cores and boreholes. Data from other UK organisations have also been added to this PSA dataset. The data are held within the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) as the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) Data Archive Centre (DAC) for geology and geophysics. Data are delivered via the 'Offshore samples: particle size analysis data' layer on the BGS GeoIndex.
Simple
- Date (Creation)
- 1966
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
- Maintenance and update frequency
- irregular Irregular
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
- BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
-
- MEDIN
- Marine sediments
- Bottom sampling
- Geological data
- Sea floor sediments
- UK Location (INSPIRE)
- Marine geology
- Marine surveys
- dataCentre
- Keywords
-
- NERC_DDC
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
- Other constraints
- Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"
- Spatial representation type
- vector Vector
- Denominator
- 250000
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
- Geographic identifier
-
ENGLISH CHANNEL [id=2001401]
- Date (Revision)
- 2010
- Geographic identifier
-
IRISH SEA [id=2001430]
- Date (Revision)
- 2010
- Geographic identifier
-
NORTH SEA [id=2001452]
- Date (Revision)
- 2010
- Geographic identifier
-
NORTHEAST ATLANTIC OCEAN (40W) [id=2001453]
- Date (Revision)
- 2010
- Geographic identifier
-
UK CONTINENTAL SHELF [id=121701]
- Date (Creation)
- 1979
N
S
E
W
))
- Begin date
- 1966
- Unique resource identifier
- ED50 (EPSG::4230)
- Unique resource identifier
- WGS 84 (EPSG::4326)
- Distribution format
-
-
CSV file (.csv)
()
-
Vector GIS data
()
-
CSV file (.csv)
()
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
- OnLine resource
- http://www.bgs.ac.uk/GeoIndex/offshore.htm
- OnLine resource
- Offshore theme
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Other
- dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2011
- Explanation
- See the referenced specification
- Pass
- No
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
- See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
- Pass
- No
- Statement
- Seabed sediment samples were collected by BGS during offshore surveys mainly using grabs, but also sediment corers on occasions (vibrocorers, gravity corers). Particle size analysis (PSA) was performed on approximately 29,000 samples. The dried samples were split into gravel, sand and mud fractions using sieves and the weights were recorded. The carbonate content of each fraction was then measured. The grain size of the sand fractions from a subset of the samples has been analysed in more detail at either whole or half phi intervals. For some locations, more detailed measurements were made for both the gravel and sand fractions. Measurements were also made on approximately 8,000 downhole sub-samples from shallow cores and boreholes. Most test results are available digitally, although there are a significant number of legacy results stored on paper. Data are held within the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC). Core material are managed as part of the BGS materials collection and are available for examination, testing or sub-sampling.
- File identifier
- c35e3405-9db0-6d8b-e044-0003ba9b0d98 XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-07-06
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
+44 131 667 1000
- Dataset URI
- http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13605646
Overviews

Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
))
Provided by

Associated resources
Not available