BGS News Releases

Missing links in our evolutionary past

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT

To explain how life evolved from fish-like vertebrates 360 million years ago, scientists from the British Geological Survey (BGS) and its partners are drilling a deep borehole at a location near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.

Material from the 500 m-deep borehole will provide scientists on the TW:eed project with details of the entire rock record in which these new fossils have been found.

The core will act as a timeline on which to pin the fossil finds and allow scientists to (literally) unearth the evolutionary relationships among these early tetrapods and find out how they developed into modern forms.

Drilling began on 8 April 2013 and marked a major step in this ground-breaking scientific research project.

Download the full Press Release

Scientists reveal rapidly failing health of Iceland’s glaciers

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:00:00 GMT

New work published today, by scientists from the British Geological Survey (BGS), shows how the very rapid retreat of Iceland's glaciers during the last 10 years – unprecedented in over 80 years of measurements - is due to a combination of interlinked processes driven by warmer summers.

BGS scientists have been monitoring a retreating glacier in south-east Iceland for over 15 years, making detailed measurements of its health and the dramatic changes currently occurring.

In the last five years, its health has noticeably deteriorated: the front of the glacier has retreated at a rate of around 40 m per year, or almost 200 m in total since 2007.

The new work not only identifies these recent rapid changes but suggests that this accelerated retreat is due to more than a decade of warmer than average summers.

These warm summers have caused enhanced glacial thinning and ice stagnation resulting in a new, more unusual (and more rapid) style of glacier retreat by ice margin collapse.

Download the full Press Release or the Boreas open-access paper: Recent, very rapid retreat of a temperate glacier in SE Iceland

BGS appoints new Director of Science & Technology

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:00:00 GMT

The British Geological Survey (BGS) announces the appointment of Professor Mike Stephenson as the new Director of Science and Technology at the BGS.

Mike is presently Head of Energy Science at the British Geological Survey and Deputy Director of the Nottingham Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage. He holds a PhD and MSc in Earth Science and has visiting Professorships at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester. His main expertise is palynology and stratigraphy applied to petroleum geology and past climate change. Following his degree from Imperial College, Mike worked as a school teacher in Botswana for 10 years. He then completed an MSc and PhD at the University of Sheffield. He joined BGS in 1999 and became Head of Energy Science in 2008. He has represented BGS at Government level and regularly speaks on the national stage on energy issues including carbon capture and storage (CCS) and UK and world-wide shale gas resources.

David Willetts visits the British Geological Survey to open the National Geological Repository

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The Rt Hon David Willetts MP will be at the British Geological Survey’s Nottingham headquarters on 27 February 2013, to officially open the new National Geological Repository (NGR).

The National Geological Repository (NGR) is the UK’s largest collection of information and samples gathered from and beneath the earth’s surface. It houses enough drill core to stretch between London and Edinburgh (over 500 kilometres) and cuttings from over 23 000 wells and boreholes. There are over three million fossil specimens from the UK, which chart the evolution of life from over 600 million years ago. The NGR also includes the library, which holds over 500 000 books and reports.

The NGR was created following the extension of the British Geological Survey’s (BGS) core store in order to house the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) oil and gas cores that were relocated from Gilmerton during 2011–12. This facility now means that the majority of the BGS holdings are in one place, where they can be fully exploited in the specialist examination facilities and technical laboratories.

ETI launches project with Foster Wheeler and BGS to assess flexible power generation systems

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:00:00 GMT

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has launched a project to increase the understanding of the economics and potential use of energy systems involving low carbon hydrogen production, storage and flexible turbine technology.

The £300 000 project will be led by global engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler, in collaboration with the British Geological Survey.

The five-month-long project will assess the economics of flexible power generation systems which involve the production of hydrogen from coal, biomass or natural gas, its intermediate storage (for example, in underground salt caverns) and production of power in flexible turbines.

The ETI commissioned and funded project will look to map suitable hydrogen storage salt cavern sites in and around the UK. The sites, which tend to be located inland or up to 25 miles off the UK coastline, will need to be of sufficient size, depth, location and quality before they can be considered for hydrogen storage.

Download the full ETI Press Release

Tiny fossils hold answers to big questions on climate change

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Pioneering techniques used to analyse Antarctic fossils smaller than the width of a human hair could provide answers to the big question ‘What caused climate change in the past?’

The Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet is one of the most rapidly warming areas of the planet. This is causing concern as it contains enough water to raise global sea levels by 5m. By analysing the chemistry of microscopic marine algae that lived in the ocean surrounding Antarctica, scientists have created a record of the amount of melting of the ice sheet that stretches back 12,000 years. This window through time has already unlocked hidden patterns in our past climate.

ETI license The Crown Estate and British Geological Survey to develop its UK Carbon Dioxide Storage Database

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has announced that it has agreed a licence with The Crown Estate and the British Geological Survey to host and to steward the development of an online database of mapped UK offshore Carbon Dioxide (CO2) storage capacity.

Going underground – 3D geology map goes national

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The geological map of Great Britain has been extended into the third dimension with the release of GB3D by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This model of the geology beneath our feet is made up of a network of cross-sections through the earth s crust of Great Britain. This new way of visualising national-scale geology will benefit all seeking to understand its relationship to landscape and resources (such as water, oil, minerals, coal and gas), and for educators and the public.

Free UK maps help keep us just the right temperature

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:00:00 GMT

A free tool has been launched today which assesses whether a location could be suitable for a large (>100 kilowatts) open-loop ground source heat pump (GSHP) scheme.

This is the first freely available screening tool to cover the whole of England and Wales. GSHPs can provide an energy-efficient, low-carbon alternative to traditional heating/ cooling systems.

The British Geological Survey has developed this tool, in partnership with the Environment Agency, to encourage the uptake of open-loop GSHP technology in suitable areas.

Users can zoom and click on the map, type in a postcode or a place name to identify their location. The map shows whether the location is likely to be favourable or less favourable for an open-loop GSHP scheme.

A pop-up table and maps provide more information about the different factors affecting the outcome, including whether an aquifer is present beneath the site and the size of licensed groundwater abstractions in the vicinity.

More than 10 national datasets which influence the feasibility of large open-loop GSHP schemes have been incorporated into the web-based GIS tool.

Dive into the British Geological Survey’s Open Day | 22 Sept 2012

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Scientists at the British Geological Survey (BGS) in Edinburgh will be opening the doors and manning their exhibits, experiments and displays at an open day on Saturday 22nd September 2012. Murchison House, the Scottish HQ of the BGS, will be open to the public from 10am to 5pm as part of this year’s Doors Open Day in Edinburgh, which has the theme ‘Hidden Treasure’.

The interactive exhibits will include a brand new 2708 gallon pool that will allow visitors to pilot an underwater ‘Remotely Operated Vehicle’ (ROV) and discover hidden treasures at the bottom of the deep blue ‘ocean’. Marine Geoscientists will be on hand to guide children and adults alike through the mysteries of this underwater environment.

Also on display will be a collection of 400 million year old fossil fish rescued from paving slabs on East Market Street, Edinburgh. These fish would have thrived in sub-equatorial lakes (at about the same latitude that South Africa occupies today). Some of our pavement specimens are up to 60cm in size.