TerraDat

04/07/2025

The river that runs through Thaw Valley is a trickle — but the landscape it sits in tells a story of glacial chaos, ancient floods, and time on a different scale.

For the second year running, TerraDat UK Ltd. has partnered with A-level geology students from Cowbridge School through The Royal Society STEM Partnership scheme. Together, we tackled a deceptively simple question: “How deep was my valley?”

Armed with electrical resistivity tomography, aerial imaging and 3D terrain analysis, the students investigated the Vale of Glamorgan’s dramatic, meandering palaeo-valley — a landform far too large for the modest Thaw stream that flows through it today.

The valley is a misfit: a relic of meltwater torrents from retreating glaciers to the north. And thanks to these young geoscientists, we now understand its origin with fresh clarity.

Last night, their results were presented at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition. Watching them explain geophysical data to world-class researchers, Fellows and even Sir Chris Whitty was humbling. They weren’t just keeping up — they were shining.

At TerraDat, we believe the next generation doesn’t need to be inspired later. They need to be included now.

27/06/2025

An Earthquake of Emotion in Oviedo...

Geophysicists from TerraDat UK Ltd.'s Spanish office placed twelve seismometers around the city of Oviedo to monitor a football match between Real Oviedo and Mirandés.

Alemão Chaira's decisive goal and the final whistle caused detectable tremors in response to the crowd's celebrations.

These short-lived but intense events produced frequencies between 1.5 Hz and 3.5 Hz "typical of crowd noise, jumps and cheers"

13/06/2025

Here's a panoramic view of our study site invstigating the Thaw Valley near Cowbridge.

This also gives competitors in this weekend's Burn Series adventure race a bird's eye view of much of the run/bike/kayak course. Good luck everyone!

11/06/2025

Peter Brabham joined us today—for the second day of fieldwork with Cowbridge School’s A-level Geology students, as part of our STEM Partnership supported by The Royal Society.

Pete first introduced TerraDat co-founders Nick Russill and Rob McDonald to geophysics over 35 years ago as students of Cardiff University, so it was a reunion in the field—this time helping inspire the next generation.

We explored the Thaw Valley using geophysical techniques to investigate its origins as a classic misfit stream in a disproportionately large valley. Today’s focus was on acquiring subsurface data to help map the depth to bedrock and gather evidence supporting the glacial outwash theory.

11/06/2025

06/06/2025

A fantastic, albeit wet, day of fieldwork with Cowbridge School's A-level Geology students! We were investigating the intriguing palaeo-landscape of the River Thaw, a classic example of a 'misfit' stream in a disproportionately large valley.

Our investigation continues next week as we conduct geophysical transects. This will allow us to map the depth to bedrock and gather crucial evidence for the glacial outwash theory behind the valley's dramatic formation.

Thanks to The Royal Society support via their STEM Partnership Programme.

04/04/2025

Here's some footage of our Sensys magnetometer cart in the Vale of Glamorgan.

19/03/2025

TerraDat is proudly sponsoring the upcoming British Geophysical Association (BGA) "New Advances in Geophysics Meeting 2025: Frontiers of Electromagnetic Geophysics" at Swansea University

This event will gather leading experts and researchers to explore cutting-edge developments and applications in electromagnetic geophysics, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in subsurface exploration.

Join us on September 8th and 9th, 2025, for insightful presentations, networking opportunities, and collaborative discussions shaping the future of geophysical innovation.

Learn more and register here:

This two-day in-person meeting at Swansea University will bring together researchers and practitioners from the UK and abroad that are developing or applying electromagnetic (EM) induction techniques to a wide range of geoscientific problems.

23/08/2024

One more week to send in your application for the Senior/Project Geophysicist position with TerraDat!

More details at:

Geophysicist Job Opportunities - Join our team! TerraDat (UK) Ltd. is a leading engineering and environmental geophysical survey company based in South Wales with offices in Scotland and Spain. We are trusted leaders in our field, and we have over 30 years of experience working in environmental, geo...

22/08/2024

Join us at CLR 2024, where TerraDat will be exhibiting (CLR-A50) and showcasing the latest innovations in geophysical surveying for ground investigation. Explore cutting-edge environmental solutions and connect with industry leaders on September 11-12 at NEC Birmingham. Don’t miss this opportunity to see how TerraDat's technology is shaping the future of sustainable development.

More details & free tickets at: https://www.ess-expo.co.uk/

18/07/2024

Congratulations to Rhys Jones, on winning the 2024 TerraDat UK Ltd. prize for "Highest Achievement on the Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd Applied Environmental Geology Masters" course.

Rhys also won the 2023 national Curry prize for the best MSc geoscience dissertation on the 3D evaluation and remediation of mine workings on a development site in Ebbw Vale, sponsored by consultants Yellow Sub Geo, which continues to employ Rhys.

04/07/2024

A proud and inspirational evening at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition where TerraDat and Cowbridge School geology students exhibited our Geovoyager project, presenting evidence for a British tsunami using VR.