BOSCORF runs a core-scanning training course annually. We also provide one-to-one training on specific advanced non-destructive analytical techniques and descriptive sedimentological core logging; in case your project requires it.

 

Non-destructive Sediment Core Scanning & Digitisation Techniques

The British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF) at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton invites submissions of interest for our annual training course on non-destructive sediment core analysis techniques.

Course Details:

  • Dates: March 2027 TBC
  • Location: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
  • Cost: Free for NERC-funded ECRs. Course fee will be £120 for ECRs that are not NERC affiliated and £500 for industry attendees. Lunches and one networking dinner provided
  • Participants: Limited to 15 participants (priority given to NERC-funded PhD students)

What You'll Learn:

  • Sediment core logging techniques
  • X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) core scanning
  • Physical property measurements (magnetic susceptibility, density)
  • X-ray imaging for internal structure visualisation
  • Data processing and analysis techniques
  • Data management and best practices

This hands-on course addresses the growing need for expertise in analysing sediment cores non-destructively, providing crucial skills for research on past environmental conditions, climate change, geohazards, and more.

BOSCORF offers world-class facilities and specialised staff with decades of experience in applying core scanning technology to geo-environmental questions.

Please register your interest by emailing us boscorf@noc.ac.uk

 

Sediment Description & Logging Techniques

BOSCORF's annual sediment description and core logging course is open to postgraduate researchers, early career scientists, and industry professionals. The course takes you from first principles through to carrying out compliant, consistent sediment descriptions to British Standards.

You will develop a solid grounding in sediment types, grain size analysis, colour description, and engineering behaviour, before applying these skills hands-on to a variety of real sediment cores. The course also covers the full QA/QC workflow, from coring and subsampling through to producing sediment logs.

A highlight of the programme is a series of four specialist masterclasses delivered by NOC scientists, exploring the cutting edge of marine sedimentology:

  • Submarine geohazards: The sedimentary record of catastrophic events including the Storegga Slide and its far-reaching deposits
  • Volcanic event stratigraphy: Identifying and interpreting tephra layers and turbidites from major eruptions such as Santorini and the 2022 Tonga event
  • Polar palaeoenvironments: Arctic and Antarctic sediments, ice-rafted debris, glaciomarine facies, and what they tell us about past climate

  • Deep-sea contourites: Ocean current-driven sedimentation, contourite drift systems, and their use in palaeoceanographic reconstruction

    Course Details:

    Dates: September 16th - 17th, 2026

    Location: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

    Cost: Free for NERC-funded ECRs. Course fee will be £120 for ECRs that are not NERC affiliated and £500 for industry attendees. Lunches and one networking dinner provided

    Participants: Limited to 15 participants (priority given to NERC-funded PhD students)

    Please register your interest by emailing us boscorf@noc.ac.uk