BGS in the media Jun 2012

Putting time into perspective when talking about hundreds of thousands of years can be difficult, especially for younger learners... While preparing a short talk for the recent sixth grade promotion ceremonies at my school, I wanted to discuss how little time in the overall age of the earth have we as humans been influenced by the current technologically-rich environment, I discovered a great web resource - the Geological Timeline - from the British Geological Survey.

This year has been very changeable across the UK in terms of water availability through droughts and in terms of the prices for metered water... The British Geological Survey offer a 'Water Borehole Prognosis Report' service and many hydrogeological consultancies and drilling companies can advise on this further.

We are used to hearing news of earthquakes in the developing countries or places such as New Zealand. Most of the time we might empathise briefly with the victims before then get on with our daily lives. Thank God such things don't happen here, we say to ourselves. But they do... Several hundred earthquakes are detected by the British Geological Survey every single year and while most of these, measuring less than 2.5 on the Richter Scale, are too small to even be felt by people...

Vale is a global company headquartered in Brazil, but operating in 38 countries... Any mineral extraction process involves copious amounts of geological research and geo­scientists around the world have been increasingly following BGS's trailblazing lead in using GeoVisionary to aid the visualisation of their complex data...

FOR a continent where more than 300 million people lack access to safe drinking water, Africa is sitting on a lot of it... The journal Environmental Research Letters recently published a set of maps of groundwater resources in Africa, the results of two years of research led by the British Geological Survey and financed by the British Department for International Development.

On a small Finnish island and deep in remote rural France, far from the debates and doubts that followed Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, the ground work is underway for a commitment to atomic power for the long term - the very long term... Richard Shaw, a radioactive waste specialist at the British Geological Survey, also said: 'Deep geological disposal is the way forward for managing our waste in a safe way.'

Last June a small tsunami struck the south-west coast of England. It was 40cm high at Portsmouth, and was first thought to have been caused by an underwater landslide. But it was actually a weather effect... The British Geological survey examined the 2011 event, and found no corresponding seismic activity. The wave coincided with intense summer squalls in the Atlantic and was created when many waves generated by the wind merged into one.

An earthquake has shaken parts of Shropshire. The tremors were felt in Ludlow and Church Stretton at about 13:16 BST. The British Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 2.5 and occurred at a depth of 14km (nine miles). Nobody is thought to have been injured.