BGS in the media Mar 2012

Two of the solar system's best natural timekeepers have been caught misbehaving, suggesting that the accepted ages for the oldest known rock samples are off by a million years or more... 'If you have a critical event in Earth's history, something like an extinction event or a climate change shift or a meteorite impact, you need to know the absolute age with the most confidence,' says Joe Hiess of the British Geological Survey, who led one of the studies.

Rich deposits of gas have been discovered under the rolling countryside of Melton and the Vale of Belvoir. Shale gas, a natural gas contained in rocks hundreds of millions of years old, has been found by geologists at the British Geological Survey (BGS), just over the Leicestershire border at Keyworth, in Nottinghamshire, as part of ongoing geological survey work.

Balearic shearwaters take 'female only' migrations to France over the summer, say scientists. Migratory societies may be segregated, with females also spending longer on migrations, a study found...A team of researchers from the University of Oxford, together with the National Oceanography Centre, the British Geological Survey and local experts in Mallorca, Spain carried out the study

It's a rare fight. The US, Europe and Japan have lodged a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization over China's export of rare earths - or lack of it... China is now imposing stricter regulations. As of last year, only companies that comply are allowed to export rare earths. 'They are heading in the right direction,' says Paul Lusty of the British Geological Survey.

Scientists are looking at what climate conditions were like 3.3 to 3 million years ago... USGS researchers collaborate with scientists at the University of Leeds, University of Bristol, Columbia University, Northumbria University, University of Leicester and the British Geological Survey to better understand Pliocene climate.

Scientists are warning of further solar storms this week after Earth was hit on Thursday by one of the fastest clouds of energy to emerge from the surface of the sun in recent years... Satellite images of the latest flare show 'a complex network of sunspots indicating a large amount of stored magnetic energy', according to the British Geological Survey (BGS). The particles left the sun at more than 1200 miles per second...

A strong solar storm is expected to hit Earth shortly, and experts warn it could disrupt power grids, satellite navigation and plane routes... The storm - the largest in five years - will unleash a torrent of charged particles between 06:00 GMT and 10:00 GMT, US weather specialists say... In the UK, the best chance to see them will be on Thursday night, the British Geological Survey says

One year ago this Sunday, a huge earthquake - the fifth largest ever recorded - ripped through the seabed about 40 miles off the coast of Japan... So what can scientists do to predict a quake? According to Brian Baptie, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, the answer is nothing. 'Nobody has been able to predict an earthquake in terms of where, when and how big it might be,' he says.

Residents in one Edgware Road housing block reported their properties shaking during the gigs with one woman even running out of her flat in fear... Westminster Council has confirmed it is in talks with the British Geological Survey (BGS) to use its seismometers to investigate this summer... The BGS was even able to predict that earthquake-like tremors would be felt a kilometre away from an Oasis concert at Earls Court in 1995.