Peter Styles

Professor Emeritus in Geophysics, Keele University

The Conversation

Peter Styles, is Professor Emeritus of Applied and Environmental Geophysics, University of Keele, and taught environmental geophysics for 37 years.

Peter Styles, is Professor Emeritus of Applied and Environmental Geophysics, University of Keele, and taught environmental geophysics for 37 years. He was President of the Geological Society of London from 2003 to 2006 and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Geology Section) for 2006. He chaired the DEFRA committee on exclusion criteria for geological disposal of radioactive waste. He was a member of the Royal Society Committee on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Geosphere Characterization Panel of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He is an author of the DECC report on induced seismicity associated with shale gas hydrofracturing in the UK. He was President of the International Commission on Hydrocarbon Related Seismicity. He has carried out research in to the detection, monitoring and remediation of natural and man-made sinkholes for more than 35 years in the United Kingdom, Middle East and Australia. He developed the technique known as microgravity ( the measurement of minute changes in gravity) associated with sinkholes to detect them and by making repeated measurements over extended periods to track their growth towards the surface so that they can be remediated


sinkhole

How to detect a sinkhole — before it swallows you up

Science

Sometimes sinkholes are a purely natural phenomenon, but they may also be associated with previous industrial activities, most commonly mining.