October ESE Newsletter

Well done to the department for publishing 17 papers this month!

Publications

Sims, K.W.W., Pichat, S., Reagan, M.K., Kyle, P.R., Dulaivoa, H., Dunbar, N.W., Prytulak, J., Sawyer, G., Layne, G.D., Blichert-Toft, J., Gauthier, P.J., Charette, M., Elliott, T.R. (2012). On the timescales of magma genesis, melt evolution, crystal growth rates and magma degassing in the Erebus Volcano magmatic system using the 238U, 235U, and 232Th decay series. Journal of Petrology.
doi: 10.1093/petrology/egs068. Article available online.

Mijic, A., Mathias, S.A and LaForce, T.C. (2012) Multiple well systems with non-Darcy flow. Ground Water. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.00992.x. Article available online.

Elsila J. E. , Glavin D. P., Dworkin J. P., Martins Z., and Bada J. L. (2012) Inconclusive evidence for nonterrestrial isoleucine enantiomeric excesses in primitive meteorites. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1213261109. Article available online.

Duller, R.A., Whittaker, A.C., Swinehart, J.B., Armitage, J.J., Sinclair, H.D., Bair, A. & Allen, P.A., 2012, Abrupt landscape change post-6 Ma on the Central Great Plains, USA. Geology. doi:10.1130/G32919.1. Article available online.

Magee, C., O'Driscoll, B., Petronis, M.S., Stevenson, C.T.E., Clay, P., Gertisser, R. (2012) Magma Rheology Variations in Sheet Intrusions of the Ardnamurchan Central Complex (Scotland) Inferred from Gabbro Inclusion Characteristics. Journal of Petrology. doi: 10.1093/petrology/egs064. Article available online.

Sutton, M. D., Briggs, D. E. G., Siveter, David J., Siveter, Derek J, Sigwart, J. D. (2012). A Silurian armoured aplacophoran and implications for molluscan phylogeny. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature11328. Article available online.

Legg, D. J., Sutton, M. D., Edgecombe, G. D., Caron, J. B. (2012). Cambrian bivalved arthropod reveals origin of arthrodization. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1958. Article available online.

Garwood, R. J., Ross, A., Sotty, D, Charbonnier, S., Sutton, M. D., Withers, P. J. Tomographic Reconstruction of Neopterous Carboniferous Insect Nymphs. PLOS one. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045779. Article available online.

Cairns , G.*, Jakubowicz, H., Lonergan, L., Muggeridge, A. (2012) Using time-lapse seismic monitoring to identify trapping mechanisms during CO2 sequestration. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. doi: 10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.08.014. Article available online.
*Grace Cairns completed her PhD in Summer 2012 and was supervised by co-authors on the paper. She now works at BP as a geophysicist.

Stewart, M.A.*, Lonergan, L., Hampson, G.J. (2012) 3D Seismic Analysis of Buried Tunnel Valleys in the Central North Sea: Tunnel Valley Sedimentary Architecture. From: Huuse, M., Redfern, J., Le Heron, D. P., Dixon, R. J., Moscariello, A. & Craig, J. (eds) Glaciogenic Reservoirs and Hydrocarbon Systems. Geological Society, London, Special Publications. doi: 10.1144/SP368.9. Article available online.
*Margaret Stewart completed her PhD in 2009, supervised by co-authors. She now works for the BGS in Edinburgh.

Hammond, J. O. S., Collier, J. S., Kendall, J-M., Helffrich, G., Rumpker, G. (2012) Plume scar in the mantle lithosphere beneath the Seychelles revealed by seismic imaging. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.08.020. Article available online.

Spencer, A.R.T., Hilton, J., Sutton, M.D. (2012). Combined methodologies for three-dimensional reconstruction of fossil plants preserved in siderite nodules: Stephanospermum braidwoodensis nov. sp. (Medullosales) from the Mazon Creek lagerstätte. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology.
doi: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2012.09.001. Article available online.

Davies, D. R., Goes, S., Davies, J. H., Schuberth, B. S. A., Bunge, H.-P. & J. Ritsema (2012). Reconciling dynamic and seismic models of Earth's lower mantle: the dominant role of thermal heterogeneity. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2012.08.016. Article available online.

Villamaire, M., Darbyshire, F.A., Bastow I.D. (2012) Evolution of the mantle from Archean to Phanerozoic and its modification during subsequent hotspot tectonism: seismic evidence from eastern North America. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi:10.1029/2012JB009639. Article available online.

Keir, D., Bastow, I.D., Pagli, C., Chambers, E.L. (2012). Spatial and temporal constraints on mechanisms of continental breakup: evidence from Afar. Tectonophysics. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2012.10.015. Article available online.

Almeida, T. P., Fay, M. W., Zhu, Y., Brown, P. D. (2012) Hydrothermal synthesis of homogeneous and core/shell CoxNi1-xFe2O4 nanoparticles. IEEE-NANO Proceedings. doi: 10.1109/NANO.2012.6322173. Article available online.

Larner, F., Dogra, Y., Dybowska, A., Fabrega, J., Stolpe, B., Bridgestock, L.J., Goodhead, R., Weiss, D.J., Moger, J., Lead, J.R., Valsami-Jones, E., Tyler, C.R., Galloway, T.S., Rehkämper, M. (2012) Tracing Bioavailability of ZnO Nanoparticles Using Stable Isotope Labeling. Environmental Science and Technology. doi:10.1021/es302602j. Article available online.

Research Grants

Cédric John has been awarded a 1 year grant from TOTAL to cover the costs of a PDRA position to look at clumped isotopes applied to well-characterised subsurface samples.

Ian Bastow was awarded £10,000 from the "Faculty of Engineering EPSRC Internal Funds for a Kick-start Activity".  The funds will be used to purchase seismograph equipment, and to facilitate the easily stages of a new seismological research project between me and colleagues in North America.

Research Awards

Adam Pacey, just starting his PhD working with Jamie Wilkinson, has won first prize in the 2012 Neftex Earth Model competition for his MSci project work at Durham entitled ""A lithospheric control on the position of arc volcanism?" Adam is also the recipient of a prestigious Society of Economic Geologists Fellowship to support the first year of his studies at Imperial.

Ian Bastow was elected to give the "Lord Kelvin Award Lecture for Mathematics and Physical Sciences" at September's British Science Association festival in Aberdeen.

Research Activity

Craig Magee recently presented a poster at the 'Deepwater Continental Margins' conference, held in the Geological Society of London, and a talk at the LASI V (Laccolith and Sill) conference, held in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) enititled, "Interactions between faults and igneous intrusions in sedimentary basin".

Robert Zimmerman gave the opening invited plenary lecture, entitled "Some new developments in modeling failure, fracture and fragmentation of rocks", at the 7th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium in Seoul, Korea on 15 October 2012.

Chris Jackson has recently been appointed as an Editor for Basin Research and as an Associate Editor for the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).

Chris Jackson will start his one-year Research Fellowship at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, on the 1st of November.

The carbonate group  has started work on the second phase of the Qatar Carbonate and Carbon Storage Research Centre. The focus of this major research efforts are carbonate reservoirs and seals at outcrop locations including Spain, the UK, Oman and the UAE.  The supervisors involved include Cédric John, Veerle Vandeginste, John Cosgrove and Al Fraser, with 5 new PhD students who have started their projects (Sunshine Abbott, Julia Beckert, Sergio Esperencinha, Martin Hönig, and Kimberley Johnston) and a post doctoral research associate position in clumped isotope geochemistry (Tobias Kluge).

Adam Booth has been working with a project at the University of Leeds to survey for some buired aircraft in Burma.

Impact, Outreach, Media

The journal articles by Mark Sutton and David Legg were represented widely in the media. Here's a selection of the best - International Business Times, Wired, Nature Research Highlights, Discovery News.

Susannah C. R. Maidment took part in Science Uncovered at the Natural History Museum with a display of British dinosaurs at the end of September. She also recorded a podcast on how we reconstruct what dinosaurs looked like from a few fossil bones as part of a new gallery opening at the Natural History Museum called 'Treasures'. The podcast will be online on the museum's website from mid November to coincide with the opening of the exhibition.

Adam Booth has been interviewed about his surveys of buried aircrafy in Burma, such as this one from Radio Australia.

Telus World of Science, Edmonton, Alberta opened a new gallery in October, 2012, featuring research by new Carbonate Research PhD student, Kimberley Johnston with husband and palaeontologist, Dr. Paul Johnston and mining exploration colleague, Stanley Keith. The group's work on a new depositional environment paradigm for the Burgess Shale is among the Canadian geological highlights in the Rock Hounds area. For more on their new idea which was given as a keynote presentation for AAPG 2010 in Calgary see this article online.