UK Dark Matter Collaboration

The Directional Recoil Identification from Tracks (DRIFT) detector is a low pressure negative ion time projection chamber (NITPC) designed to detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) - a prime dark matter candidate.There are currently two DRIFT detectors in operation. DRIFT-IId, which is located 1100m underground in the Boulby Underground Laboratory at the Boulby Mine in North Yorkshire, England, and DRIFT-IIe, which is located on the surface at Occidental College in Los Angeles. The DRIFT collaboration ultimately aims to develop and operate an underground array of DRIFT detectors for observing and reconstructing WIMP-induced nuclear recoil tracks with enough precision to provide a signature of the dark matter halo.

The ZEPLIN-III dark matter experiment attempted to detect galactic WIMPs using a 12 kg liquid xenon target. It operated from 2006 to 2011 at the Boulby Underground Laboratory in Loftus, North Yorkshire. This was the last in a series of xenon-based experiments in the ZEPLIN programme pursued originally by the UK Dark Matter Collaboration (UKDMC). The ZEPLIN-III project was led by Imperial College London and also included the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the University of Edinburgh in the UK, as well as LIP-Coimbra in Portugal and ITEP-Moscow in Russia. It ruled out cross-sections for elastic scattering of WIMPs off nucleons above 3.9 × 10−8 pb (3.9 × 10−44 cm2) from the two science runs conducted at Boulby (83 days in 2008 and 319 days in 2010/11). Direct dark matter search experiments look for extremely rare and very weak collisions expected to occur between the cold dark matter particles that are believed to permeate our galaxy and the nuclei of atoms in the active medium of a radiation detector. These hypothetical elementary particles could be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs, weighing as little as a few protons or as much as several heavy nuclei. Their nature is not yet known, but no sensible candidates remain within the Standard Model of particle physics to explain the dark matter problem.

Boulby Mine is a 200-hectare (490-acre) site located just south-east of the village of Boulby, on the north-east coast of the North York Moors in Loftus, North Yorkshire England. It is run by Cleveland Potash Limited, which is now a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL). In early 2016, polyhalite mining commenced. Polyhalite is a natural multi-nutrient fertiliser providing a source of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. It is marketed as Polysulphate by ICL and is sold in 3 grades: granular, mini-granular and standard. As well as producing Polysulphate, a granulated blend of potash and Polysulphate is sold as PotashPluS - part of ICL's wider FertiliserPluS product spectrum. It originally produced half of the United Kingdom's output of potash, an agricultural fertiliser. The mined ore consists of 35–45% sylvite ("potash", specifically potassium chloride) and 45–55% halite (rock salt, or sodium chloride). The rock salt is extracted as a by-product and used across the region as a de-icing agent on roads in winter conditions. Other minerals are produced as waste (gangue) to the main effort, but may be sought after by mineral collectors, such as boracite, which occurs just above the beds of potash.

Grinkle Mine, was an ironstone mine working the main Cleveland Seam near to Roxby in North Yorkshire, England. Initially, the ironstone was mined specifically for the furnaces at the Palmer Shipbuilders in Jarrow on the River Tyne, but later, the mine became independent of Palmers. To enable the output from the mine to be exported, a 3-mile (4.8 km) narrow-gauge tramway was constructed that ran across three viaducts and through two tunnels to the harbour of Port Mulgrave, where ships would take the ore directly to Tyneside. During the First World War, the threat of wartime action on the harbour at Port Mulgrave led to a connection being built from the mine site direct to the Whitby to Loftus railway line just to the north of the mine head. Whilst this allowed for the closure of the port to shipping in 1917, the tramway stayed open to transport miners from Port Mulgrave to the minesite. The mine first ceased production in 1921, with sporadic years of mining taking place, however the mine closed for good in 1930. Part of the site is now underneath the surface workings of the Boulby Mine complex, though some buildings remain at ground level.

Boulby is a hamlet in the Loftus parish, located within the North York Moors National Park. It is in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. The hamlet is located off the A174, near Easington and 1-mile (1.6 km) west of Staithes. It was in the North Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, followed by the county of Cleveland until 1996. The village formerly had alum mining activity and is currently the site of Boulby mine, a 200-hectare (490-acre) site by Cleveland Potash Limited which produces half of the UK's potash output.

Roxby Hall (or Rousby Hall) is a former manor house or castle in the town of Roxby, North Yorkshire, England. Only one ruined corner and earthworks of Roxby Hall remains in a field adjacent to St. Nicholas’s Church.

Roxby (formerly Rousby) is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located near Staithes. The population of the civil parish was estimated at 120 in 2014, about the same as the 2001 UK census figure of 119.Roxby was historically a township in the parish of Hinderwell in the North Riding of Yorkshire. It became a separate civil parish in 1866.St Nicholas's Parish Church was built in the 17th century on the site of an earlier church. It is a Grade II listed building. It includes family tombs of the Boynton baronets.

Easington is a village in the civil parish of Loftus, in the Redcar and Cleveland district, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England and is part of the North York Moors National Park. The village is situated on the A174 road, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Loftus, 8 miles (13 km) east of Guisborough, and 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Whitby. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 923.

Boulby Quarries (grid reference NZ745200) is a 40.3 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England notified in 1989. It is located close to the coast and the village of Boulby.In England SSSIs are designated by Natural England and Boulby Quarries is one of 18 SSSIs in the Cleveland area of search. The site is identified as being of national importance in the Geological Conservation Review. The quarries are wholly within the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast and partly within the North York Moors National Park and the historic North Riding of Yorkshire. The fossil content of Boulby Quarry is particularly important with two plesiosaur species (Eretmosaurus macroptera and Thaumatosaurus zetlandicus), an ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurus crassimonus and the only Upper Lias pterosaur known in Britain, Parapsicephalus being found at the site. The fossil are found in the bifrons zone, and although not abundant, it is very different from surrounding fossil sites.

The Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery is an Anglo-Saxon burial ground, dating to the second half of the 7th century AD, that was discovered at Street House Farm near Loftus, in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, England. Monuments dating back as far as 3300 BC are located in the vicinity of the cemetery, which was discovered after aerial photography revealed the existence of an Iron Age rectangular enclosure. The excavations, carried out between 2005 and 2007, revealed over a hundred graves dating from the 7th century AD and the remains of several buildings. An array of jewellery and other artefacts was found, including the jewels once worn by a young high-status Anglo-Saxon woman who had been buried on a bed and covered by an earth mound. The woman's identity is unknown, but the artefacts and the layout of the cemetery are similar to finds in the east and south-east of England. There are contradictory indications of whether the occupants of the cemetery were Christian or pagan, as signs of both traditions are present. It perhaps represents a fusion of the two traditions during the "Conversion Period" when Christianity was taking hold among the Anglo-Saxons but pagan rituals had not yet been displaced, even among Christians. Archaeologists have suggested that the woman and at least some of the people buried around her may have migrated from the south, where bed burials were more common. They may all have been buried together within the space of a single generation, after which the cemetery was abandoned. The finds were acquired by Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar, in 2009 and have been on display there since 2011.

Grinkle railway station was on the Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway. It was opened on 3 December 1883, and served the village of Easington in North Yorkshire, England. It was originally named Easington, but was renamed Grinkle on 1 April 1904 after the nearby baronial mansion of Grinkle Park, to avoid confusion with Easington station on the North Eastern Railway's Durham Coast Line. The station originally had only one platform, a second being added around 1906 to increase the passenger capacity of the line. A small goods yard with one siding was situated west of the station, serving a coal depot. There was a brick-built station building along with a signal box.The station closed on 11 September 1939, but was used as a passing loop afterwards. Though the line is closed to passengers, the track remains to service the nearby Boulby Potash Mine. However the track layout has been changed and the station has been completely dismantled.

Scaling is a village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England