Meetings

Future Meetings

British Geophysical Association Meeting 2012: The Geophysics of the Cryosphere and Glacial Products, 9-10 February 2012

Applied geophysics, together with more fundamental theoretical and forward and inverse modelling advances, has played a major role in the exploration of the world’s ice masses and their geological settings and sedimentological legacies for more than half a century. Geophysical techniques have also proven to be highly suited for the characterisation of the properties of and processes within permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, as well as those within snow and other frozen materials. Geophysical exploration, often qualitatively or quantitatively integrated with other geoscientific methods and findings, has thus resulted in many exciting discoveries and case studies.

Prof. David Vaughan (British Antarctic Survey, UK), Prof. Robin Bell (Lamond-Doherty Earth Observatory, USA) and Prof. Christian Hauck (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) are keynote speakers at the event.

We cordially invite contributions from all areas of geophysics and associated disciplines as applied or relevant to present-day ice masses, ice cores, frozen ground or snow. Likewise, we are keen to receive contributions on the application of geophysical and associated techniques to glacial materials and products to reconstruct past ice masses, dynamics, and hydrology. The conference website has more detailed information, and you are able to submit an abstract (deadline: 6th January 2012) and/or register (deadline: 13th January 2012) for the event. Please also find all key information attached below.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting on 9-10 February. Please do not hesitate to contact the Chair of the Organising Committee, Bernd Kulessa, if you have any queries.

Past Meetings

Seismic Applications in Geotechnical Engineering - 13th December 2011

A meeting organised by the Near Surface Geophysics Group (NSGG) held at The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London

Over the past decade advances have been made in the fields of 2 and 3D refraction seismology, high resolution 2 and 3D reflection seismology and the exciting emerging fields of active source and passive MASW which give the end user the potential to make measurements of engineering properties in the field from analysis of surface wave velocities. The meeting provided a vibrant forum for geophysical practitioners and end users from the engineering geology community to share knowledge about the possibilities of the current state of the art of these seismic techniques.

The programme for the meeting was:

09:50 - Opening
10:00 - Keynote 1: Ranajit Ghose, TU Delft - Multidisciplinary integration for reliable near-surface characterization
11:00 - Rod Eddies, Fugro Engineering Services - Reducing subsurface uncertainty with onshore seismic reflection: a UK case study.
11:25 - Rob McDonald, Terradat - Seismic experiences on landslides/wind farms
11:50 - Tim Henstock, Southampton University - Quantitative information from high-resolution 2D and 3D marine seismic reflection data
12:15 - Frode N. Eriksen, P-Cable Seismic - Experiences using the High resolution P cable 3D marine seismic system
12:40 - Lunch
14:15 - Keynote 2: Chris Clayton, University of Southampton - The value of stiffness from Seismic surveys, a geotechnical engineering perspective
15:05 - Peter Styles & Victoria Lane, Keele University & SeisUK - Micro-tremor analysis for wind farm site investigation
15:30 - Hartmut Krahn, Minerex Geophysics - Practical MASW experiences in Ireland
15:55 - Break
16:15 - Geoff Ricketts, ESG Pelorus - Some experiences in performing Crosshole seismology for engineering foundation design
16:40 - Chris Leech, Geomatrix Earth Science - High resolution land 3D experiences for site investigation
17:00 - Closing remarks

The NSGG 2011 AGM took place during the lunch break of the SAGE meeting.

Workshops at Near Surface 2011

There were two workshops which ran the day before the main conference. The workshops were (click on the titles for a PDF flyer):

Passive Seismic Methods: Sunday 11th September 2011
Ground Penetrating Radar: Sunday 11th September 2011

Special Student Programme at Near Surface 2011

There was a special student programme at EAGE Near Surface 2011 in Leicester. As an incentive for students to participate there were bursaries available. Please download the flyer for more details.

EAGE Near Surface 2011

Leicester was the host of Near Surface 2011 – the 17th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics of the Near Surface Geoscience Division of EAGE. The meeting was held from 12 – 14 September 2011.

Recent Work In Archaeological Geophysics - 15 December 2010

Shallow geophysical techniques are now a well established tool for the evaluation of archaeological sites, from their initial discovery to subsequent interpretation and management. This was the ninth in a succession of biennial meetings in which contributors present and debate the results of recent research and case studies. Suppliers of equipment and software also attend and the meeting therefore represents an invaluable opportunity for both archaeological and geophysical practitioners and those in academia to take advantage of recent research and developments.

The Programme and Abstract volume is available to download.

Environmental Forensics - 16 December 2010

This multidisciplinary meeting captured shared interests between the geological, environmental science, engineering, geotechnical, mining and archaeological communities in assessing the impact of changes to the environment that may result in legal proceedings. Sessions included geophysics, remote sensing, geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, isotope geochemistry.

Programme is available to download.

Annual General Meeting - 13th July 2010

The Annual General Meeting of the NSGG took place on 13th July 2010 at 12:30 at the Stoughton Road Test Site, Leicester during the NSGG Geophysical Field Exhibition (held at the same location).

NSGG Geophysical Field Exhibition - 13th July 2010

The latest in the series of geophysical field exhibitions was held at the Near Surface Geophysics Group, Stoughton Road Test site, Leicester on 13th July.
New this year we was field data acquisition master class, which will qualify as a CPD event for those attending and the aim of which is to tutor the attendees in how to acquire the best possible field data for each techniques. Independent experts in field data acquisition will be tutoring each section of the course

Two techniques were covered this year, GPR and magnetic surveying, which are complimentary, are applicable to near surface investigations. Topics covered included survey design and layout given different field constraints, data sampling regimes to reduce aliasing effects, knowing the errors in the survey, the importance of accurate positioning in the overall error envelope, sensor selection, heights and positioning, noise reduction, in-field QC of your data, the importance of field notes and general good field practice applicable to each technique.

2008 Near-Surface Geophysics Postgraduate Symposium at BGS, Keyworth