Instrumenting the Earth

You might remember the TV coverage of last winter’s floods, reporters standing in waders in the suburban streets of west London, talking about the mysterious phenomenon of ‘groundwater flooding’. Occasionally they might bring in a BGS (British Geological Survey) expert to explain the process. The whole thing was replayed for ‘sinkholes’. Why do they happen and where would they happen next? Shale gas started to worry people too. Where is the shale gas, and what are the consequences of drilling for it - for the landscape... and house prices? Rarely have geological processes been so close to people’s lives.