The Britrocks database provides an index to the BGS mineralogical & petrological collection. The computer database covers samples in the UK onshore mapping collection together with world wide reference minerals and the Museum Reserve collection. Currently circa 200k out of circa 300k samples are recorded in the computer database. A collection audit is ongoing, so availability of any particular sample is not guaranteed. The first England and Wales collection sample is from circa 1877, Threshthwaite Comb, Cumbria (collected by the Reverend Clifton Ward). The addition of new samples, transfer of records from registers and updates of existing records is ongoing on a regular basis. Internet access to the database is provided on the BGS web site.

Rocks, thin sections and paper registers: samples from past BGS surveys and projects overseas. Though neglected for several years, the collection has been re-opened for addition of new material from overseas projects and donations. Paper registers are arranged by accession order on a country by country basis. The records have not been placed in electronic format and are not currently machine readable.

Sometimes known as the "One-Inch Collection", this is an archival collection of rock samples collected by BGS field staff during surveys within England and Wales, arranged by 1-inch (or 50 K) scale BGS geological map sheet area. It was intended as a representative suite of the lithologies present in each sheet, although this was only partially achieved. Documentation is via archive of rock sample collection sheets (see COLLECTIONSHEETS) but is poorly coordinated at present.

Named after the former BGS sample store at Gorst Road, London, this archival collection of c.600 rocks is made up of a series of sub-collections donated by past senior members of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The donators include several past Directors and other important figures in the history of the GSGB, including Sir Henry De la Beche, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, Sir Archibald Geikie, Sir J.J.H.Teall, A. Greenly, A.C. MacGregor and many others. Many of the specimens have original labels attached to them. However, only scant details of tray contents are recorded in a local (PC-based) database, and there is no other register of the contents.

Archive of rock collector's record sheets, giving details of what samples were collected for, petrographic characterisation and storage in the BSG petrological collections. The proformas record what was collected, where, when and by whom. The oldest include records compiled in 1891 by C.T. Clough. The sheets are archived in accession sequence by collector's name. Although most of the sheets refer to samples collected onshore in the UK, there are also sheets for overseas collecting, for instance by A.C. MacGregor in the Caribbean Islands. Paper sample collection record sheets remain in active use in the BGS, a few new sheets are added each year. System has remained essentially unchanged except for change from lat-long to national grid. High proportion have grid references to 10m precision whilst some sheets only have written locality descriptions.

A collection of large-size, representative hand samples of building stones from current and historic quarries in the UK, together with specimens from historic buildings supplied by conservation architects and contractors, currently c.680 samples. The sample coverage extends across the whole of the UK and supplements material in the Keyworth BGS BRITROCKS collection (Petrological Collection Database). The data included with the samples includes quarry and building locations and relevant lithostratigraphic information. The collection is ongoing and new material is added on a regular basis. The collection was created to mitigate the massive gap in knowledge resulting from the non-transferral of the main BGS Building Stone Collection to Keyworth from the Geological Museum in London, when the original move by BGS from London took place. The samples have been collected to assist in the sourcing, identification and matching of buildings stones from historic buildings throughout the UK. The collection provides essential support for the numerous enquiries the BGS receives through its GEOREPORTS Building Stone Assessment programme.

The BGS 3D scans store holds digital 3-dimensional scans of BGS palaeontological and petrological specimens. The data include 3-dimensional meshes and 2-dimensional images exported by the scanning hardware and software. Data are stored in software-independent 3D modelling formats such as .OBJ and .PLY. These scans are useful for research purposes, for example allowing members of the broader geoscience community to interactively view a particular specimen, and for publicising BGS specimen holdings.

This dataset (1.5 GB) comprises SO2 emission data (SO2 camera and DOAS) of parts of the active 2013 phase from Colima, as well as Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and microprobe data of the collected ash from explosions and lava and dome rock. These data were used in the following paper: Cassidy, M., Cole, P.D., Hicks, K.E., Varley, N.R., Peters, N., Lerner, A. 'Rapid and slow: Varying ascent rates as a mechanism for Vulcanian explosions' Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 420: 73-84. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.03.025

Here, we provide data corresponding to the experimental conditions used, the results gained via electron microprobe for natural and experimental volcanic samples. Mass balance calculations and a compilation of monitoring data for recent explosive eruptions.

This dataset comprises continuous logging of clasts >2 mm from International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 374 Site U1521 to the Ross Sea, collected on the RV JOIDES Resolution. Shipboard biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy suggests the sediments are early Miocene in age (McKay et al., 2019, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program). Logged clasts are grouped by core into seven main lithological groups: igneous rocks, quartz fragments, dolerites, volcanic rocks, metamorphic rocks, sedimentary rocks and sedimentary intraclasts. A full methods description is provided at the bottom of the data file. The clast abundances can be compared to knowledge of terrestrial geology, allowing the changing provenance of the sediments to be traced.