BGS laboratory capability

BGS's research provides an integral and essential part of the BGS science strategy particularly within the Energy, Minerals and Waste, Land Use Planning and Development, Climate Change and Groundwater Science areas. For more information on the laboratory-based research we undertake, please see our separate webpages dedicated to our two centres of excellence: the National Physical Properties and Processes Laboratories and the National GeoEnvironmental Laboratories. The laboratories are managed through four discipline-based facilities, as detailed below:



Sampling in the field Analytical geochemistry

Sample handling, inorganic and organic geochemistry, and groundwater tracers.


Chalcedony photomicrograph Mineralogy, petrology, microanalysis and imaging

Mineralogy, petrography and microanalysis, thin sections, biostratigraphy.


Ultrasonic laboratory Physical properties

Rock mechanical properties, hydrophysical and geophysical properties, geotechnical properties, hydrogeological properties and processes.


CO2 hydrate sample Fluid processes research

Transport properties, hydrothemal, hydrates and ice, geomicrobiology, gamma ray spectrometry / radiochemistry.


Panning Geochemical baselines and medical geology

National and regional geochemical maps of soil, stream sediment and stream water. Medical geology: studies on the relationship between geology and health.