Browsing the BGS News Archive - DIARY

The Open Day in 2011 will be held on Saturday 24 September. Further details will be confirmed soon or contact Ted Harris for the latest information.

We would encourage any groups to come in between 10:00 - 12:00.

• How to get to BGS Edinburgh.
• 2011 Flyer
• More information about the 2011 Open Day

BGS are hosting the free event 'Metals, mines and mobiles: The life cycle of metals in the natural and human environment' at the British Science Festival at the University of Bradford 1-4pm Monday 12th September 2011. This event will examine the life cycle of 'technology metals', such as neodymium and tantalum, that are used in high tech industries making smart phones, laptops and solar cells. Our experts will take you through their origins in the Earth, their extraction, use, re-use and substitution by man, to their ultimate fate in the natural environment.

The experts taking part in the event are: Andrew Bloodworth (Head of Minerals & Waste, British Geological Survey, BGS), Professor Frances Wall (Head of Camborne School of Mines, CSM), Dr Alan McLelland (Director, National Metals Technology Centre, NAMTEC) and Dr Paul Mitchell (Director, Green Horizons Environmental Consultants Ltd).

This event is free to ticket holders - BOOK HERE

For further information please contact: Clive Mitchell

Bringing together scientists studying the different components of Polar Earth science to exchange information and perspectives.

As we come to terms with climate change, understanding the landscape and environmental response of the Polar regions, in particular the great Antarctic ice sheets, becomes ever more important.

The study of geological archives, ice cores, and modern systems offers an unrivalled opportunity to reconstruct and understand the Earth's climatic variability something which impacts on all countries and peoples of the world.

This 500-delegate Symposium is a joint effort between the BGS, the BAS and the University of Edinburgh and has taken over two years to co-ordinate.

More about the 11th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences

Registration has closed.

Conference Theme: Energy

More information and booking form.

Much of the coal we are burning today in power stations was made in the 'coal forests' of Europe and North America in the Carboniferous Period, and the CO₂ released is altering our atmosphere dangerously quickly. The idea of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is to re-bury the CO₂ that's been released. In countries which rely heavily on coal to generate electricity CCS could be a vital technology which allows them to continue to grow but also to cut their CO₂ emissions. The British Government predicts that CCS could be an industry the size of present day North Sea oil, and be worth £2-4 billion per year by 2030, sustaining 50 000 jobs.

BGS Head of Energy, Prof. Mike Stephenson, will follow the CCS process from 'source to sink' looking at the best places and best rocks to store CO₂ . He will also show that the process is part of a cycle: ironically Carboniferous coal forests themselves were very good at sequestering carbon (coal), though modern forests are not such efficient carbon sinks'. Finally, ending by comparing and quantifying some carbon burial rates (natural and artificial) and look at the the rates we need to achieve to keep the planet habitable.

More about Coal, Climate Change, and Carbon Capture and Storage