This dataset contains the sediment descriptions and diatom data from a series of isolation basins in northwest Scotland. The data are from different areas in northwest Scotland: Raasay, Fearnmore, Loch Ewe, Reiff, and Inverkirkaig. For each area, sediment gouge and Russian cores were taken at possible isolation basin sites; the collection dates, location information (latitude/longitude) and sediment descriptions are provided for the coring sites in each area. The accompanying diatom counts are provided for cores that underwent diatom analysis. Data derived from NERC Grant NE/X009343/1 part of grant NSFGEO-NERC: Collaborative Research: How important are sea-level feedbacks in stabilizing marine-based ice streams? The project focusses on constraining the relative sea-level history of northwest Scotland, around the former Minch Ice Stream, to provide records for testing models of the interplay between ice-sheets, glacio-isostatic adjustment, and relative sea-level changes. Samples were collected 2022- 2025 and diatom analysis undertaken 2022- 2026.

There is a great deal of uncertainty as to the levels of stability of slope components of the European margin, other than localised detailed surveys completed using a combination of side-scan sonar and swathe bathymetry in recent years. These surveys have revealed that the factors which control the locations of areas of potential slope failure are complex and manifold. Clearly slope gradients, sediment supply, physical oceanographic conditions and sediment type all have major roles to play, but their interaction is far from well understood. One of the problems to be addressed is the lack of a comprehensive and focussed data synthesis with which to derive and test models of slope behaviour. A promising way in which this shortfall could be rectified would be to combine selected parts of the extensive survey database acquired by the telecommunications industry in its search for suitable pathways in which to lay earlier copper-core and now, more recently, fibre-optic cable systems. These data would be interpreted in conjunction with a rigorous analysis of the industry's historical cable-fault database which provides parameters of naturally occuring cable failures (through sediment failure, for example). Together these data will provide an understanding of the geological characteristics of key parts of the European shelf, underpinned with the statistics of active slope processes over the most recent decades. The benefits of such a synthesis to both the telecommunications and hydrocarbon industries cannot be overstated.

PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. The main project of this study has been the analysis of all the Cretaceous deposits exposed in East Antrim. This has been attempted with a view to determining the stratigraphical sequence of both the rock units and the geological events.

The C V Jeans collection of x-ray diffraction films and x-ray diffractograms form the basis of my investigations into the clay minerals stratigraphy of the Cretaceous, Jurassis, Permo-Triassic and Old Red Sandstone strata of the British Isles. It covers the period from 1965 to 2006 and involved both my own private research as well as investigations carried out for clients

The data presented in the Table 1 are U-Th chronology results of Siberian and Mongolian speleothems. This data is a basis for a scientific paper of Vaks, A. et al. (2013) "Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost." Science 340 (6129): 183-186. The table shows the ages of 111 layers of 36 speleothems taken from the six caves of Siberia and Mongolia. Vadose speleothems grow in caves of unsaturated zone when atmospheric water infiltrates into the caves from the surface. Therefore these speleothems cannot grow in permafrost, as well as in dry desert conditions. Therefore in Siberia the periods of speleothem growth show intervals during which the Siberian permafrost thawed and became discontinuous or absent. In Mongolian Gobi Desert the speleothem deposition periods show when the desert was both humid than present and warm enough to enable water infiltration into the caves. The data presented in tables 2 and 3 are OxCal-4.1 modeling results of the Table 1 chronology data for the Holocene (Table 2) and Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5.5 (Table 3). The tables show exact durations of Holocene and MIS-5.5 permafrost thawing periods in Botovskaya and Okhotnichya Caves.

PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. This proposal addresses the geometry and flow dynamics of three large ice caps in the Canadian arctic islands, with implications for glacier mass balance and the rate of sea-level change in a warming world. The work involves a combination of airborne 60 MHz radar to measure ice thickness, which is at present poorly known for these ice caps, and satellite remote sensing of ice velocities. Thickness and velocity data allow calculation of mass loss by iceberg production from the major outlet glaciers of these ice caps. Iceberg production is widely acknowledged as the least well known element in the mass balance of arctic glaciers, and indeed, ice masses worldwide. Internal radar-reflecting horizons and bed power-reflection coefficients also indicate glacier thermal structure. The data will be used as boundary conditions in three-dimensional numerical modelling studies of the response of these ice masses to climate change through time

PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. Tuberculosis (TB) is a reemerging infection that was also common in the past in Britain. Poverty, drug resistance, the HIV, and migration are key factors in its occurrence today. The disease can be caused by any one of five related bacteria known as the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In Britain the two most likely candidates are Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. M. bovis can infect many different animals, including cows, and humans were often infected by drinking milk, which is why it is pasteurised in Britain. Today, most TB infections occur in the lungs, because it is transmitted via coughing, but other parts of the body can also be infected, especially if the disease is caught by eating or drinking infected foods. If left untreated the infection can cause damage to different bones in the body, most commonly the spine, ribs, hips and knees. Archaeologists have used this information to study TB in the past, but visual examination of skeletons does not reveal which bacterium has caused the infection, nor which strain of either species is present. We would like to be able identify species and strains because this would enable us to trace the origin of TB in Britain. We think TB came to Britain from the Mediterranean region but to confirm this idea we would have to compare the particular strain present in early British skeletons with that in bones from southern Europe. Similarly, we believe that there were changes in the frequencies of different strains of Mycobacterium over time, and these changes were possibly influenced by factors such as immigration, changes in population density, and changes in the environment. There are also interesting questions about the evolution of TB in the New World after contact with Europeans. All of these questions could be addressed if we could identify the particular strains of Mycobacterium in skeletons from different places and different time periods. Until recently, this was impossible, but now there are techniques for studying the small amounts of 'ancient' DNA that are preserved in some archaeological skeletons. We will therefore extract ancient DNA from a variety of skeletons that show the bone changes associated with TB, and use DNA sequencing to determine which Mycobacterium strain is present in each case. The proposed project will carry out this work with skeletons from Britain and Europe. Our Project Partners in Arizona State University are doing similar work with bones from North America, and by comparing our two sets of results we will be able to study the impact that Contact had on TB in the New World.

This image dataset was captured as part of the operation of a river gauging station on the Virkisá River, SE Iceland. The station formed part of the BGS Iceland Glacier Observatory network of sensors, deployed between 2009 and 2020 in order to characterise and identify glacial, geomorphological and hydrological drivers and processes and their timescales across the deglaciating Virkisjökull-Falljökull catchment in SE Iceland. The records presented here begin in September 2011 with the installation of the river gauging station, and continue to August 2020. Responsibility for the station passed to the Icelandic Meteorological Office in January 2018. The gauge is understood to remain operational as at August 2024. The data complements the published meteorological and river gauging datasets published here, and will be of use to researchers and students interested in the hydrology of a rapidly deglaciating landscape, including anyone interested to follow up on the various research studies published from this site in the international literature.

Cruise reports and interim reports

PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. We propose a detailed study of the biotic record (foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils) of the Eocene/Oligocene transition in ODP Hole 647 in the Labrador Sea. The sediments in this core constitutes the only continuously-cored high-latitude record of biotic and climatic change available for study in the northern North Atlantic recovered by Ocean Drilling. The record is unique because the sediments contain well-preserved calcareous micro- and nannofossils as well as agglutinated foraminifera (Kaminski et al. 1989, Pearson & Burgess, 2008). We wish to document the nature of faunal change in the deep North Atlantic across this critical interval in Earth's Climate History, and link the record of faunal change to palaeoclimatic proxies in the same core. As a first step in understanding the magnitude, duration, and ultimate cause of faunal changes, we propose to compile a microfaunal record consisting of 57 new samples collected across the Eocene/Oligocene transition in ODP Hole 647A.