Four UK national parks labelled suitable sites for fracking
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File photo dated 06/10/13 of a view of the Lake District, Cumbria, as most of the country's national parks are unsuitable for fracking because of their geology, a report has found. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday April 30, 2015. Scientists from Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences have reviewed existing data for each of our 15 national parks and found only four where it could be considered. The briefing document found the four parks with geology to interest companies looking to exploit shale gas, shale oil or coalbed methane were the North York Moors, the Peak District, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales. Fracking was considered "unlikely" in the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, New Forest and Northumberland. They have shales or coals present but other aspects of their geology make fracking unfavourable. The remaining seven national parks - the Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Snowdonia - have geology which rules out fracking, the report found. Those behind the study, published today, said they produced the report as, they claimed, there remained uncertainty about the policy on fracking in national parks. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Fracking. Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire
Lake District, Cumbria
Most of the country's national parks are unsuitable for fracking because of their geology, a report has found.
Scientists from Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences have reviewed existing data for each of our 15 national parks and found only four where it could be considered. WORDS: PA.
The briefing document found the four parks with geology to interest companies looking to exploit shale gas, shale oil or coalbed methane were the North York Moors, the Peak District, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales.
File photo dated 04/01/14 of a view of the North Yorkshire Dales as most of the country's national parks are unsuitable for fracking because of their geology, a report has found. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday April 30, 2015. Scientists from Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences have reviewed existing data for each of our 15 national parks and found only four where it could be considered. The briefing document found the four parks with geology to interest companies looking to exploit shale gas, shale oil or coalbed methane were the North York Moors, the Peak District, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales. Fracking was considered "unlikely" in the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, New Forest and Northumberland. They have shales or coals present but other aspects of their geology make fracking unfavourable. The remaining seven national parks - the Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Snowdonia - have geology which rules out fracking, the report found. Those behind the study, published today, said they produced the report as, they claimed, there remained uncertainty about the policy on fracking in national parks. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Fracking. Photo credit should read: Jonathan Pow/PA Wire
North Yorkshire Dales
Fracking was considered "unlikely" in the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, New Forest and Northumberland. They have shales or coals present but other aspects of their geology make fracking unfavourable.
The remaining seven national parks - the Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Snowdonia - have geology which rules out fracking, the report found.
Those behind the study, published today, said they produced the report as, they claimed, there remained uncertainty about the policy on fracking in national parks.
File photo dated dated 29/03/11 of a view of the South Downs, West Sussex, as most of the country's national parks are unsuitable for fracking because of their geology, a report has found. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday April 30, 2015. Scientists from Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences have reviewed existing data for each of our 15 national parks and found only four where it could be considered. The briefing document found the four parks with geology to interest companies looking to exploit shale gas, shale oil or coalbed methane were the North York Moors, the Peak District, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales. Fracking was considered "unlikely" in the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, New Forest and Northumberland. They have shales or coals present but other aspects of their geology make fracking unfavourable. The remaining seven national parks - the Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Snowdonia - have geology which rules out fracking, the report found. Those behind the study, published today, said they produced the report as, they claimed, there remained uncertainty about the policy on fracking in national parks. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Fracking. Photo credit should read: Chris Ison/PA Wire
South Downs, West Sussex
Dr Liam Herringshaw, of Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences, said: "The geology of the UK is well-known, so we can examine which national parks are potential targets for fracking, and which national parks can be ruled out.
"Some national parks have no shales or coal within them or adjacent to them, so are of no interest to fracking companies. Many other national parks do contain shales or coal, but their nature means that they are unlikely to yield economic quantities of oil or gas.
"We hope that this review of existing information about the geology of the UK's national parks will help provide all sides involved in the fracking debate with some clarity about the potential for fracking in these areas, which currently appears to be lacking."
