Marine Operations
BGS Science Facilities
The engineers of BGS Marine Operations are a highly experienced team that have undertaken both scientific and commercial offshore projects within UK waters and internationally, from inshore to mid-ocean regions and from polar to tropical environments.
The team has expertise in:
- seabed coring and drilling operations using our suite of remote seabed corers
- marine geophysical surveys using the latest in multibeam sonar equipment
- loch, lake and inshore surveys using the BGS survey vessel the White Ribbon
- providing support for the International Ocean Discovery Programme
BGS Marine Operations works out of a dedicated, purpose-built building, the George Bruce Building, which is part of the Lyell Centre complex based at the Heriot-Watt University Riccarton research campus in Edinburgh. This facility is fully equipped with internal gantry cranes and container-moving equipment and a 7 m-deep test tank, as well as a test borehole for carrying out onshore equipment testing.
Previous projects
Seabed coring and drilling equipment
RD1 – Rotary rock drill and vibrocorer
The unique BGS combined rotary rock drill and vibrocoring system, RD1, offers the versatility of two sampling systems on one rig. It can penetrate to 5m below seabed in rotary coring mode and 6m below seabed in vibrocoring mode and operates down to water depths of 2000m.
RD2 – Robotic rotary rock drill and corer
The BGS Remote Drill Two, RD2, is our most advanced seafloor robotic drilling and coring system. It can penetrate up to 50m below the seabed and operate down to water depths of 4000m.
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