Identification

Title

2006 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA7 Technical Report - hydrocarbon prospectivity, earthquakes, continental shelves and Rockall Trough surficial and sea-bed geology and sea-bed processes

Abstract

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Investigations of the hydrocarbon prospectivity and earthquake activity include the whole of SEA7 but in this report investigations of the sea-bed sediments are restricted to the Hebrides Shelf, Rockall Trough and east Rockall Bank. On the Hebrides Shelf, Hebrides Slope, east Rockall Bank and in the deep-water Rockall Trough the modern sea-bed sediments are mainly composed of mixtures of former glacial deposits and grains of modern interglacial biogenic carbonate shell. Former glacial deposits and modern biogenic carbonate are now mainly mixed and transported by wave-orbital currents and residual currents on Rockall Bank and by combinations of wave-orbital currents, tidal currents and residual currents on the Hebrides Shelf and upper Hebrides Slope. Below approximately 300 metres water depth in the Rockall Trough the sea-bed sediments are mainly transported by circulating deep-water residual currents.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html

name: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal

description: The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.

function: download

Unique resource identifier

code

BGS_SEA_107

codeSpace

British Geological Survey

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

authority code

OGP

code identifying the spatial reference system

urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

Additional information source

http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

geoscientificInformation

oceans

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2011-03-25

Keyword set

keyword value

Geology

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-24

East bounding longitude

-5

North bounding latitude

60.2

South bounding latitude

55.2

Extent

Extent group

authority code

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2006-01-01

code identifying the extent

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2006-01-01

End position

2006-01-01

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2006-01-01

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

This report was prepared by Richard Holmes, Ken Hitchen and Lars Ottemoller of the British Geological Survey as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. Sediment analyses have been derived from samples taken from sea-bed to approximately 10 cm below sea-bed. After laboratory quantitative analysis of dried sediments, the BGS classifies sea-bed sediment textures to accord with modified Folk (1954) classes, which are based on weight % of sediment grains over a range of Wentworth size classes. The values of weight % carbonate in the total sediment and in the sediment-size classes are also routinely determined. These values can be interpreted as a measure of the inputs to the sediment from biological sources of calcium carbonate. For the BGS regional surveys, the proportions of mud, sand and gravel were quantified by square-mesh wet sieving using a 63micron sieve to determine mud (a mixture of silt and clay) and with a 2mm sieve to determine gravel (in the granular gravel to pebble and larger size classes).

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.

Constraint set

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey (BGS)

full postal address

Murchison House, West Mains Road

Edinburgh

EH9 3LA

UK

telephone number

+44 (0)131 667 1000

email address

offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

custodian

Responsible party

organisation name

Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

full postal address

Admiralty Way

London

SW1A 2HD

UK

telephone number

+44 0300 060 4000

facsimile number

+44 (0) 1823 284077

email address

enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk

responsible party role

originator

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

British Geological Survey (BGS)

telephone number

+44 (0)131 667 1000

facsimile number

+44 (0)131 668 4140

email address

offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2011-08-30

Metadata language