Dried up river.
Drought and record rainfall, indoor avalanches
8 May 2012
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: researchers explain why, despite record rainfall, England is in drought. Later, how scientists are using indoor avalanches to figure out where to put buildings and roads. Finally, news of ice loss in Antarctic, and the benefits of bat dung.
Last month was the UK's wettest April for more than a century. Even so, England is still in drought. Sue Nelson goes to the River Thames in Oxfordshire to meet water availability specialist Jamie Hannaford from Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and groundwater expert John Bloomfield from British Geological Survey to find out why.
Later on, Sue meets Nathalie Vriend from the University of Cambridge to find out how she studies avalanches – indoors. Her findings will help find safe sites for roads and buildings.
Listen
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A full text transcript is available.
Finally, how an international team of researchers realised it's warm ocean currents that are driving ice loss in Antarctica, rather than warm air. And why scientists are using ancient bat dung to figure out why South East Asia has two species of orangutan.
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Keywords:
Climate system,
Europe,
Flooding,
Freshwater,
Geology,
Hydrology,
Natural resources,
Rivers and lakes,
UK,
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