The first few links are rankings of undergraduate courses in things like Geology, Earth Sciences and Environmental Science. The last two are links to the 2001 research assessment of Earth and Environmental sciences faculties, to give you an idea of the quality of research they’re doing.

The best thing to do then is check the institutions that pique your interest on UCAS and then look at online prospectuses to see which ones suit you best.

I’d recommend looking at Manchester, UCL, Leeds, Imperial, Edinburgh, Bristol and either Oxford or Cambridge – you can only apply to one of these two, and unfortunately I think you’ll be too late to apply for this year.

If you decide the Oxbridge environment is for you (small colleges, one on one tutorials, very intensive studying) then it’s definitely worth waiting a year to apply to them.

All of the places I’ve mentioned are highly regarded in terms of academics and I’ve heard generally good things about the social environments there. I generally find that most people are pretty accepting of international students, so if you make the effort to get to know people you should be able to mix with people from all over the world.

All the places I suggested are in cities though (Cambridge is the smallest), so if you prefer a slightly smaller town you might want to consider places like St. Andrews, Royal Holloway or Durham.

Good luck!