The Tellus survey is a national programme to gather geochemical and geophysical data across Ireland – in other words, to examine the chemical and physical properties of our soil, rocks and water.
Tellus is undertaken by Geological Survey Ireland and is funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. All data from Tellus is made available free of charge online.
Tellus involves two types of surveying – airborne geophysical surveying using a low-flying aircraft and ground-based geochemical surveying of soil, stream water and stream sediment.
Tellus has established a Product Development workstream in order to produce more focused, user-centric data products, the need for which has been identified through stakeholder consultation, independent reviews of Tellus and government policy. Product development is undertaken under five main themes: mineral prospectivity, smart agriculture, environment and health, climate action and education.
To date, Tellus surveying has been completed in Northern Ireland (2004–2008) and the border region of Ireland (2011–2013). Tellus airborne surveying has been completed in the north midlands region of Ireland (2014–2015), the eastern midlands region (2015), the west of Ireland (2016–2017) across counties Limerick, north Tipperary and west Cork (2018–2019) and most recencelty in south east Ireland (2019). The Tellus airborne geophysical survey has now mapped 75% of the country.
Details for the 2020 Tellus fieldwork season will be announced in due course.
