This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Investigations of the hydrocarbon prospectivity and earthquake activity include the whole of SEA7 but in this report investigations of the sea-bed sediments are restricted to the Hebrides Shelf, Rockall Trough and east Rockall Bank. On the Hebrides Shelf, Hebrides Slope, east Rockall Bank and in the deep-water Rockall Trough the modern sea-bed sediments are mainly composed of mixtures of former glacial deposits and grains of modern interglacial biogenic carbonate shell. Former glacial deposits and modern biogenic carbonate are now mainly mixed and transported by wave-orbital currents and residual currents on Rockall Bank and by combinations of wave-orbital currents, tidal currents and residual currents on the Hebrides Shelf and upper Hebrides Slope. Below approximately 300 metres water depth in the Rockall Trough the sea-bed sediments are mainly transported by circulating deep-water residual currents.

As part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA7 an environmental survey was carried out from the SV Kommandor Jack. The aim of the survey was to acquire seabed samples for biological, physical and chemical analysis together with video and digital stills photography to ground truth the geophysical data and enable a general characterisation of seafloor habitats and community types present within the SEA7 area. The area sampled included Anton Dohrn Seamount, Rockall Bank, Hatton Bank, George Bligh Bank and Rosemary Bank. This report provides a log of the field sampling work undertaken for SEA7, in particular the biological, physical and chemical sampling.

This report is the product of the laboratory analyses carried out on sediments collected on the MV Kommandor Jack during the summer or 2001 as part of Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2. The results of the analyses include tables and curves from the samples collected from the southern North Sea, the associated distribution curves, results of the analyses of the fine-grained samples collected from the northern North Sea, and the results of the Loss on Ignition analysis. An Excel data file is also available.

This report pertains to samples collected for the UK Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) as part of Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA1 (White Zone) from west of the Shetland Islands by Geotek Ltd from the RRS Charles Darwin during the summer of 2000. This report is the product of statistical analyses on grain size data of 109 seabed samples.

This report contains heavy metal concentrations (As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Cd, Fe, Hg, Pb, Mn, Ni, Sr, V and Zn) and sedimentological characteristics (particle-size analysis) which were determined in respectively 61 and 68 samples for the Atlantic margin Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) . A spreadsheet of data is available.

This data report contains the results of the analysis of sediment samples collected by Geotek on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) as part of the Strategic Environment Assessment SEA1 (White Zone) environmental sampling programme conducted from RRS Charles Darwin in summer 1999 (cruise 119C leg 2). The analyses undertaken includes total organic carbon and total organic nitrogen, particle size distribution (including silt, clay, silt/clay, carbonate and organic matter content), total and aliphatic hydrocarbon content); 2 to 6 ring polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) content and metal oxides and heavy metal content.

As part of the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment project for Area 5 (SEA5) an environmental survey was carried out in the North Sea (Moray Firth, Southern Trench, Sandy Riddle, Pobie Bank, Braer Study Area, Fair Isle, Papa and Turbot Banks, Smith Bank and JONSIS Transect). The aim of the survey was to acquire biological, physical, and chemical sediment samples together with video and digital stills photography to groundtruth the geophysical data and to enable a general characterisation of seafloor habitats and community types present within a number of offshore areas. A report is available which provides an overview of the field sampling work undertaken. 565 samples were collected. 47 videos are available. 1073 photographs are available

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA6) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). This report contains heavy metal concentrations (As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Cd, Fe, Hg, Pb, Mn, Ni, Sr, V and Zn) and sedimentological characteristics (particle-size analysis) which were determined in respectively 61 and 68 samples for the Atlantic margin Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA6) campaign. A spreadsheet of data is included.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). This report describes the results of particle size and organic content analysis on samples obtained during the 'Biology' Leg of the SEA5 programme (RV Jean Charcot, September 17th - October 8th 2003; Outer Moray Firth and Northern North Sea). 216 samples sediment samples where analysed for particle size distribution and organic content. Standard geological methods were used to derive the following: percent total carbon, percent nitrogen, percent carbonate, percent organic material, particle size distribution and mud:sand:gravel ratio. Data are summarised within an Excel spreadsheet.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). This report reviews published and newly-acquired seabed geological data in an area of 78,000 square kilometres extending from the coast to more than 200 m water depth to the east of the British Isles. While it can be argued that the modern environment is a product of past environmental conditions, the basis for the review is also that our understanding of the modern environment can be significantly improved if new techniques, data and ideas are applied to a revision of the existing research knowledge. The purpose of the review is to place the characteristics of the seabed features that were surveyed by the DTI in 2003, and the processes forming them, into an improved understanding of their historical, local and regional context. In this way a strong element of the review is to include the results from exploration and discovery. The survey data included multibeam, sidescan sonar, seismic-reflection profiles, sea floor photographs and samples.