As part of our continued commitment to putting more information out for open access, the BGS has released a number of its digital image collections on OpenGeoscience. These include the GeoScenic photograph archive, photographs of hydrocarbon well cores and petrological thin section images.
Terms of use
The borehole core photographs and thin section images are delivered under the Open Government Licence, subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced BGS materials: “Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI [year]“.
GeoScenic images are delivered free for non-commercial use; use this material for private study, research and educational activities. See individual websites for specific terms and conditions.
Browse our photo collections
Borehole core sample photographs
All BGS core samples are being photographed as high-resolution colour images, commencing with the UKCS (hydrocarbon) well cores.
GeoScenic geological photographs
View and download images from the National Archive of Geological Photographs.
Petrological thin section images
Microscope slides are being imaged (plane and cross-polarised light) and progressively linked to the rock collections database.
You may also be interested in
Data collections
Scans, photos and publications that are stored and managed by the BGS
Scanned records
Open access to a number of our digital scan collections, including borehole log scans and published maps.