April ESE Newsletter

A bumper month for awards in the department, for fellowships, research, outreach and scholarly excellence.

Publications

Selley, R.C. (2013) Greater flexibility needed in supplying energy. Letter in 'The Times' 28 March. p.27. Availble online.

Hammond, J.O.S, Kendall, J-M, Stuart, G.W., Ebinger, C.J., Bastow, I.D., Keir, D., Ayele, A., Belachew, M., Goitom, B., Ogubazghi, G. and Wright, T.J. (2013). Mantle upwelling and initiation of rift segmentation beneath the Afar Depression. Geology. doi:10.1130/G33925.1. Article available online.

Edgecombe, G.D. and Legg, D.A. 2013. The arthropod fossil record. 393-415 in Minelli, A., Boxshall, G. and Frusco, G. (eds.). Arthropod Biology and Evolution. Molecules, Development, Morphology. Springer-Verlag Verlin Heidelberg. Abstract online.

Biggin, A. J., Badejo, S., Hodgson, E., Muxworthy A. R., Shaw, J., Dekkers, M.J. (2013) The effect of cooling rate on the intensity of thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) acquired by assemblages of pseudo-single domain, multidomain and interacting single-domain grains. Geophysical Journal International. doi: 10.1093/gji/ggt078. Article available online.

Muxworthy, A. R. (2013) The role of magnetic interactions in natural systems. Astronomy & Geophysics. doi: 10.1093/astrogeo/att036. Article available online.

Emmerton, S., Muxworthy A.R., Sephton, M. A., Aldana, M., Costanzo-Alvarez, V., Bayona, G., Williams, W. (2013) Correlating biodegradation to magnetization in oil bearing sedimentary rocks. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2013.03.008. Article available online.

Goes, S. (2013) Western North America's jigsaw. News & Views, Nature. doi: 10.1038/496035a. Article available online.

Goes, S., Eakin, C.M., Ritsema, J. (2013) Journal of Geophysical Research. doi: 10.1002/jgrb.50092. Article available online.

Houben, A.J.P., Bijl, P.K., Pross, J. Bohaty, S.M., Passchier, S., Stickley, C.E., RÓ§hl, U., Sugisaki, S., Tauxe, L., van de Flierdt, T., Olney, M., Sangiorgi, F., Sluijs, A., Escutia, C., Brinkhuis, H. and the IODP Expedition 318 Scientists (2013) Reorganization of Southern Ocean Plankton Ecosystem at the Onset of Antarctic Glaciation. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1223646. Article available online.

Latham, J-P., Anastasaki, E., Xiang, J. (2013) New modelling and analysis methods for concrete armour unit systems using FEMDEM. Coastal Engineering. doi:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2013.03.001. Article available online.

Vandeginste, V., John, C.M., Manning, C. (2013) Interplay between depositional facies, diagenesis and early fractures in the Early Cretaceous Habshan Formation, Jebel Madar, Oman. Marine and Petroleum Geology. doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2012.11.006. Article available online.

Vandeginste, V., John, C.M. (2013) Diagenetic implications of stylolitization in pelagic carbonates, Canterbury Basin, offshore New Zealand. Journal of Sedimentary Research. doi:v10.2110/jsr.2013.18. Article available online.

Mannion, P.D., Upchurch, P., Barnes, R.N., Mateus, O. (2013) Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12029. Article availble online.

Wilson, P., Elliott, G.M., Gawthorpe, R.L., Jackson, C.A-L., Michelsen, L., Sharp, I.R. Geometry and segmentation of an evaporite-detached normal fault array: The southern Bremstein Fault Complex, offshore mid-Norway. Journal of Structural Geology. doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2013.03.005. Article available online.
*Gavin Elliott was a Statoil-funded PDRA at Imperial College from 2009-2012

Olafiranye*, K, Jackson, C.A-L, Hodgson, D.M. The role of tectonics and mass-transport complex emplacement on upper slope stratigraphic evolution: a 3D seismic case study from offshore Angola. Marine and Petroleum Geology. doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2013.02.016. Article available online.
*Kehinde Olafiranye was a PTDF-funded PhD student at Imperial College from 2008-2012

Sømme*, T.O., Jackson C.A-L. Source-to-sink analysis of ancient sedimentary systems using a subsurface case study from the Møre-Trøndelag area of southern Norway: Part 2 – sediment dispersal and forcing mechanisms. Basin Research. doi: 10.1111/bre.12014. Article available online.

Sømme*, T.O., Jackson, C.A-L., Vaksdal, M. Source-to-sink analysis of ancient sedimentary systems using a subsurface case study from the Møre-Trøndelag area of southern Norway: Part 1 - depositional setting and fan evolution. Basin Research. doi: 10.1111/bre.12013. Article available online.
*Tor Sømme conducted the research underpinning these papers whilst he was a Visiting Research (VISTA-funded) at Imperial College in 2011

Waters, C.L., Sims, K.W.W., Soule, S.A., Blichert-Toft, J., Dunbar, N.W., Plank, T., Prytulak, J., Sohn, R.A., Tivey, M.A. (2013). Recent volcanic accretion at 9-10°N east pacific rise as resolved by combined geochemical and geological observations. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. doi: 10.1002/ggge.20134. Article available online.

Research Awards

Jan Cilliers has been awarded a Fellowship of the City & Guilds of London Institute (FCGI) in recognition of his professional and personal achievements.

Adrian Muxworthy has been awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society's Global Exploration Fund for a project entitled "Large igneous provinces and mass extinctions: magnetostratigraphically constraining the extrusion rates of the Etendeka traps, Namibia". This is in collaboration with Co-Is Conall Mac Niocaill at the University of Oxford and Karl-Heinz (Charlie) Hoffmann at the Geological Survey of Namibia.

Fiona Larner and Randall Perry have been awarded a grant of £19,250 by the Royal Academy of Engineering to the Space Science and Engineering Foundation, based in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering. The grant is to expand the current UK Space Design Competition, run in conjunction with NASA, to regional events around the UK for school children aged 11-16.

Naomi Jordan has been awarded a £600 Harwood Award (British Sedimentological Research Group) to make thin sections of unstudied sediments from an Ordovician lagerstatten in Wales in collaboration with Joseph Botting and Lucy Muir, formerly of Nanjing University.

Fiona Larner was awarded the Janet Watson Memorial Prize for scholarly excellence and Antony Burnham won a Citizenship Prize for services to the department in this year's PhD graduation ceremony.

Impact, Outreach, Media

Since the book authored by Jian Guo Liu and Philippa J. Mason: Essential Image Processing and GIS for Remote Sensing, was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2009, it has appeared to be popular enough to merit the second edition. Liu and Philippa have just signed the book contract with Wiley-Blackwell to deliver the second edition in 2015. The key contents and illustrations of the new edition will be made available online, which matches our effort toward online lectures for self learning.

James Hammond participated in a pilot for the BBC show Dara O'Briain's Science Club discussing early warning systems for earthquakes.

The Geology paper by James Hammond and Ian Bastow was featured in an Imperial news article.

Richard Selley gave radio interviews on gas hydrates for the BBC and Radio Russia, and an interview for 'The Times'. His views were cited in 'The Times' on 13 March.

Just before the Easter break, 200 school students competed in the UK Space Design Competition, hosted in and supported by ESE. The annual event, now in its fifth year, gives UK students in years 10 to 13 a unique opportunity to design a space settlement for up to 10,000 people, in just 24 hours and be in with the chance to win a trip to NASA’s Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in America. Department members Randall Perry, Laura Davies, Fiona Larner, Gareth Morris, Riki Hihinashvili and Adam Laycock were all involved in the event. The full story can be found online.

Research Activity

James Hammond gave invited seminars at the Universities of Leeds and East Anglia entitled, 'Continental rift or seafloor spreading: The nature of the crust and mantle beneath the Afar Depression'

Ian Bastow gave an invited talk on 12th April at the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Precambrian plate tectonics: seismic evidence from northern Hudson Bay, Canada".

Naomi Jordan has been to Cincinnati University (USA) discussing research ideas on epicontinental seas, taphonomy and geological interpretations with Prof. Carlton Brett and other members of staff and students at the university, both in the lab and in the field.

The Petroleum Masters course has been on fieldwork in Texas and New Mexico looking at carbonates.

Professor Sidney Hemming (Columbia University, New York) will be visiting 3 -17 May. She will be visiting with Tina van de Flierdt and will be sitting in the fourth floor visitors office. Please get in touch with Tina if you would like to meet Prof Hemming or just stop by her office. She will also be giving an Earth and Planets seminar on 8 May (1pm, G38).

Currently Marijn van Cappelle is performing geological fieldwork at the Sego Sandstone Formation in the Book Cliffs in Utah, USA. The research is about the sedimentology of the transition from a fluvial environment to a tidal delta. Daniel Collins is assisting him in the field and the project is supervised by Howard Johnson and Gary Hampson. See below for a picture from an a-typical day in the field.

Sego Sandstone Formation