From Window Sampling to IPhone App

November 20, 2012

Recently we were very excited to see our percussion drilling system on the BBC’s Countryfile programme. Charlie Stratford and the team from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are drilling into the dunes of Sandscale Haws to understand more about the make-up of the landscape and its effects on the plant life that lives there. They are taking cores of sand and sediment for analysis back at their laboratory.

This little-known corner of Cumbria has been shaped by nature and man over the centuries since its ice age beginnings. A representative from the British Geological Survey was also featured on the programme to talk about charting the glacial origins of the geology beneath the landscape and from all the environmental research that has been done in Cumbria, it’s not just the rock that’s on the move; there is a never-ending battle against the shifting sands.

If you want to know more about the geology literally under your feet, the British Geological Survey has developed a free smartphone App: iGeology that lets you take a geological map of Britain with you wherever you go to help you learn about the rocks beneath your feet. And with the phone’s GPS, you’ll know exactly where you are.

The App is suitable for amateur geologists and school/university students who can learn more about their landscape wherever they are in Britain. Geology comes to life when you learn about it in the in the great outdoors and can apply it to areas you know. iGeology gives you access to the national scale and most of the 1:50 000 scale maps of the UK and is intended for non-commercial use. The App can be downloaded from http://www.bgs.ac.uk/igeology.

The data in iGeology is from the British Geological Surveys (BGS) – OpenGeoscience web portal which offers free access to maps, photos, reports, data downloads and software — for non-commercial users.  This information brings street-level scale geology to anyone in the UK and the plan is that by giving access to this information it will help develop new and innovative ways to  solve the problems of climate change, sustainable energy or geological hazards such as earthquakes or landslides.

The BGS hope that by harnessing the power of the public they may soon be able to ‘crowdsource’ ideas that may help reduce the impact of these issues.  iGeology is just the start of this process and in the future they may be able to get data on earthquakes, gather video or georeferenced photos, or as technology advances, use mobile phones as seismometers.

Watch this space!