The British Ocean Sediment Core Repository (BOSCOR) is the United Kingdom's national repository for deep-sea cores. It is funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is located at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK. It was set up to provide long-term storage of sediment cores collected by NERC ships and NERC-funded researchers under controlled conditions to ensure optimum preservation; and to promote secondary usage of this material amongst the scientific community. The core collection currently consists of 676 sediment cores, although exclusive data are held on 1184 sample stations.

BOSCOR now has a brand new website (http://www.boscor.org), which contains information on the facility and its holdings. It also contains a number of 'public understanding of science' pages, demonstrating the value of marine sampling in understanding some of the big environmental questions of our times. 

Searches of core material held by BOSCOR can now be made online and the metadata given includes sample number, sampling device type, core length and diameter, cruise, ship and cruise report number, water depth, oceanic area, locality and physiographic region, latitude, longitude, contact details, whether samples are available and related accessory data sets. BOSCOR is also working on a CD-ROM version of the database, which additionally will have accessory datasets (such as graphic logs, core photographs, multi-sensor logging data etc.) directly linked to cores. 

BOSCOR welcomes enquiries form the marine science community to sample the cores in its care. 

For more information, please visit the BOSCOR website or contact:

Guy Rothwell, BOSCOR Curator:
R.G.Rothwell@soc.soton.ac.uk

Dave Gunn
D.E.Gunn@soc.soton.ac.uk