Moomin71

Good one Baylor, I meant to make that point as well. Northern Italy, in fact most of Italy, is tectonically very active, the stresses built up by these forces will far out weigh the forces induced by fracking. However, some caution does need to be exerted as there is the potential for injection of water to release those forces if not done carefully. Some research was done in the states on this a number of years ago following earthquakes generated as a result of water injecting by the US Army, it was unintentional and I can't remember why they were doing it, possibly some form of aquifer storage/artificial recharge scheme perhaps. It did give people the idea that it could be used to 'lubricate' fault lines allowing lots of smaller earthquakes to release the pressure on faults like the San Andreas with the result that the massive earthquakes would be less likely. Nice idea in theory but hasn't been taken any further forward as far as I am aware, probably due to the fact that no body wants to be responsible for levelling large chunks of LA and San Francisco if they get it wrong! M

Quite right 4WD, this process is no more risky in terms of generating earth quakes than deep geothermal heat recovery, deep mining or oil extraction. There may be pollution potential but that is up to the Environment Agency to ensure their sites are up to scratch and the pollution prevention procedures are appropriate and adhered to. The alternative is not sun, wind or wave it is as you state imported gas or coal. I would have thought FoE would be better suggesting a more emphatic drive on energy efficieny and energy saving, that makes more enviornmental sense to me. M

At the risk of inflaming things, but isn't that exactly what the models were showing all the way through Nov and Dec 2010? Short term severe cold breaking down from the west, but the reality was that the breakdwon kept getting pushed back and back in the models and in reality (obviously). Very much looking forward to the start thread re-opening in Oct. M

.Not a meteorological modeller myself but I do model groundwater frequently and it is very interesting what the models can and cannot handle easily. it must be highly senstive to some parameter(s) that are present/interact differently coming from the south as opposed to SW or W. Perhaps the way in which the models are configured doesn't have the continental effects from Europe quite right, would love to understand the models more. M

What is interesting and different to last year but similar to Autumn 2010 is that there are signs, they may not verify but last year we had no signs, then from the end of October we had a very cold stratosphere. Obviously we won't know for a few weeks yet how the startospheric conditions will affect the early winter but the fact that there are so many factors allowing this sort of discussion has be encouraging for the moment. The other factor is that my landrover is currently off the road thus almost guaranteeing bad weather. M

The big problem is that traction control on modern cars is too good/efficient, particularly the German ones, friend of mine has an E Class Merc and it wouldn't get off his drive when there was half an inch of snow. They don't allow any slippage before kicking in. the new Jags are better at it as they use a derivative of the landrover traction control which is designed to work in slippery conditions and allows partial loss of traction, the new jags allow the car to slide around abit to keep momentum for getting going in the snow. Incidentally this is also how modern freight locomtoves work, they have a sort of traction control which allows some slippage as the maximum tractive effort is acheived just as the wheels start to slip on the rails. However, as I cannot afford a new Jag I will be using my ancient landrover and mark 2 jag, both of which are lots of fun in the snow. the answer for everyone else is to buy a Jag or switch off the traction control completely as mentioned in earlier posts. however, we seem to have drifted off topic somewhat. I do hope we get a snowy winter after last years disappointment but I have to keep reminding myself that it is very early in the season still. Having said that there do seem to be a lot of encouraging signs, very much looking forward to the SSW thread renewing in a couple of weeks. I would be astonished if those Metociel charts verify and would worry that it is very early in the season if they did verify - peaking too soon? M

Could well be Rybris, it is utterly irrational, although snow raven is quite right that they are vicious bugg*ers.

I can confirm that they are all in my garden terrorising the kids. Already dispensed with one nest in the bird box and still they keep coming from somewhere! I do find it interesting how one small insect can cause such abject fear in humans, I too go into near blind panic when a wasp comes within stinging range, no idea why just can't help it. M

That's an outrageous fee, I really can't see how anyone can justify that sort of thing. It is counter productive as well as it surely stiffles research, yes I know the Unis have access but what is wrong with people outside of research establishments wanting to do their own research or just reading out of interest? Do you know what the School of Mines library like now they've moved to Falmouth, it wasn't bad when I was at CSM in Pool but geared towards mining and geology as you'd expect, now they've branched out into renewables and more environment type work their library may be less specific, and bigger on new premises. M

I quite agree its not good, I don't see how it is protecting the work in any way either its already published and would have to be referenced in any future publications if quoted or used in any way. It might be worth getting in touch with Bristol Uni or Exeter as they may have those journals in their library for reference. Whilst I was a post grad at UEA most of the journals including Environmental Geochemistry were on the shelves and archived versions could be retrieved easily so Bristol may have a similar set up. Depending on what it is you are trying to find out the Environment Agency or even the planning auithority may be useful as well. Many of the planning applications I get involved with for work now require some form of contamination assessment, sometimes intrusive ground investigations and chemical testing, these should be public register information and retreivable from the regulators, unfortunately I can't help directly as none of my projects have been in N Somerset. M