Initial work during the 2001/2002 field season commenced with reconnaissance and sampling in northeast Palmer Land. Over a two month period, outcrop from the Welch Mountains to the Eternity Range was visited, the geology described, and mafic dyke samples collected for analysis. This was followed by a further two months based on the ship HMS Endurance, carrying out helicopter assisted sampling of numerous islands and coastal localities along the western and eastern margin of northern Graham Land. Approximately 200 rock samples (400kg of dyke and host rock at Palmer land and 80kg at nine localities in Graham Land) were collected.

The British Antarctic Survey holds one of the most extensive collections of Antarctic rocks and fossils anywhere in the world. These are predominately from the Antarctic Peninsula region and Scotia Arc, although there is also important material from areas such as the Ellsworth Mountains, Marie Byrd Land and the Transantarctic Mountains. Some of these specimens go back to the very earliest days of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in the 1940s, and include collections made by the pioneer geologists at bases such as Hope Bay and Deception Island. Right from the outset, every specimen collected in Antarctica has been numbered and catalogued, and a vast reference archive is now available for use by the geoscience community. We currently have information relating to 150,000 field samples often with associated analysis data such as geochemistry. Additionally we hold a variety of data for nearly 500 marine cores. Metadata and data are stored digitally within a number of Oracle 10g database tables and for some datasets such as the type and figured fossil collection there is external access through a web interface. However, a significant number of datasets exist only in analog form and are held within the BAS archives organised by individual geologist. This abstract acts as an overview of the BAS geological data - both terrestrial and marine.