UK: Stream sediment geochemistry

BGS Datasets

UK: Stream sediment geochemistry

  • Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Open / Premium

The BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) and the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland’s TellusNI projects set out to map and establish the geochemical baseline of the UK surface environment by collecting stream sediment, stream water and soil samples.

Supporting documents

Key information

Coverage:
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Availability:
Open / Premium
Price:

Gridded data free for commercial, research and public use under the Open Government Licence.

Underpinning survey point data available under licence on request.

Format:
Ascii grid data (500m cell size). Printable maps in png format. Database tables for survey points.
Uses:
Local-level to Regional-level use
Themes:
Environmental change, Geochemistry, Geoscience information, Hazards, Mining and minerals, Soils and landscapes

The BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) and the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland’s TellusNI projects set out to map and establish the geochemical baseline of the UK surface environment by collecting stream sediment, stream water and soil samples.

The baseline stream sediment maps for the UK present data compiled from the G-BASE and TellusNI geochemical projects. The maps are based on analyses of the <150 μm size fraction of up to 110 794 sediment samples collected from first- and second-order (i.e. small) streams across the UK, which have been analysed for up to 52 major and trace elements (e.g. calcium, magnesium, cobalt, nickel etc). An atlas of the element stream sediment concentrations for the UK is available to download. Similarly, a guide to the stream sediment dataset of Northern Ireland is available online for viewing as an ebook download.

For the rest of the UK, more detailed information on the G-BASE stream sediment dataset, including a series of regional geochemical atlases, is also available to download.

UK stream sediment geochemical data information

The underpinning stream sediment sample data from the G-BASE project is available under licence; please contact BGS Enquiries. An example extract of this data is available to download. Search the geochemistry section of the BGS Onshore GeoIndex to view the availability of G-BASE stream sediment, stream water and soil data in Great Britain.

The equivalent data from the TellusNI geochemical survey is available from the GSNI’s Tellus website.

Map downloads

The data for 18 elements presented in the UK stream sediment atlas, which can be downloaded as a set of PNG interpolated concentration maps (37.4 MB) and as Ascii raster files on a 500 m grid across the UK.

Stream sediment grids and maps available for download

Element Units Ascii grid (incl. standard deviation) PNG (classified and inferno colour schemes)
Arsenic (As)mg/kgAs_grid.zipAs_png.zip
Barium (Ba)mg/kgBa_grid.zipBa_png.zip
Calcium (CaO)weight %CaO_grid.zipCaO_png.zip
Chromium (Cr)mg/kgCr_grid.zipCr_png.zip
Cobalt (Co)mg/kgCo_grid.zipCo_png.zip
Copper (Cu)mg/kgCu_grid.zipCu_png.zip
Iron (Fe2O3)weight %Fe2O3_grid.zipFe2O3_png.zip
Lanthanum (La)mg/kgLa_grid.zipLa_png.zip
Lead (Pb)mg/kgPb_grid.zipPb_png.zip
Magnesium (MgO)weight %MgO_grid.zipMgO_png.zip
Manganese (MnO)weight %MnO_grid.zipMnO_png.zip
Nickel (Ni)mg/kgNi_grid.zipNi_png.zip
Potassium (K2O)weight %K2O_grid.zipK2O_png.zip
Rubidium (Rb)mg/kgRb_grid.zipRb_png.zip
Uranium (U)mg/kgU_grid.zipU_png.zip
Vanadium (V)mg/kgV_grid.zipV_png.zip
Zinc (Zn)mg/kgZn_grid.zipZn_png.zip
Zirconium (Zr)mg/kgZr_grid.zipZr_png.zip

Access the data

UK: Stream sediment geochemistry

Open access

Our free data is available under the Open Government Licence. Please acknowledge reproduced BGS materials.

GeoIndex ViewerDownload stream sediment grids and maps

Premium access

Underpinning survey point data available under licence on request.

Licence this dataDownload sample data

Download BGS sample data

Thank you for your interest in our digital data. BGS is constantly reviewing and developing our suite of data products and we value feedback from users to ensure that we are meeting their needs. Understanding how our data is being used also helps us to tailor future development plans and verify that we are providing data in the correct formats.

Before you download the data, we would really appreciate some feedback on how you plan to use BGS geochemistry data. The information provided through this form is anonymous and will only be used by BGS and our partners to improve our products and services. It will be held securely and will not be used to identify any individual. For details on how we use your information, please view our privacy notice.

What sector do you work in?(Required)

Was this page helpful?

  • How can we make this section better?*

  • Please select a reason*

  • How can we make this section better?*