July 2013 ESE Newsletter

The East African Rift at Afar, Ethiopia. Photograph: Derek Keir.

From the boiling mantle to frozen ice sheets via a little trip to Mars... Take a tour of this month's amazing research and activities!

Publications

Journal articles

Armitage, J.J., Duller, R.A., Dunkley Jones, T., Whittaker, A.C., Allen, P.A. (2013) Temporal buffering of climate-driven sediment flux cycles by transient catchment response. Earth & Planetary Science Letters. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.020. 

Armitage, J.J., Jaupart, C., Fourel, L., Allen, P.A. (2013) The instability of continental passive margins and its effect on continental topography and heat flow. Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth. doi: 10.1002/jgrb.50097.

Cook, C.P., van de Flierdt, T., Williams, T., Hemming, S.R., Iwai, M., Kobayashi, M., Jimenez-Espejo, F.J., Escutia, C., González, J.J., Khim, B.-K., McKay, R.M., Passchier, S., Bohaty, S.M., Riesselman, C.R., Tauxe, L., Sugisaki, S., Lopez Galindo, A., Patterson, M.O., Sangiorgi, F., Pierce, E.L., Brinkhuis, H., IODP Expedition 318 Scientists (2013) Dynamic behaviour of the East Antarctic ice sheet during Pliocene warmth. Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/ngeo1889.

Carys and Tina’s article has had plenty of coverage in the press (see Impact, Outreach and Media)!

Ferguson, D.J., Maclennan, J., Bastow, I.D., Pyle, D.M., Jones, S.M., Keir, D., Blundy, J. D., Plank, T., Yirgu, G. (2013) Melting during late-stage rifting in Afar is hot and deep. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature12292.

Griffith, J.D., Barker, S., Hendry, K.R., Thornalley, D.J.R., van de Flierdt, T., Hall, I.R., Anderson, R.F. (2013), Evidence for increased silicic acid leakage to the tropical Atlantic via Antarctic Intermediate Water during Marine Isotope Stage 4. Paleoceanography. doi: 10.1002/palo20030.

Jackson, C.A-L., Rotevatn, A. (2013) 3D seismic analysis of the structure and evolution of a salt-influenced normal fault zone: a test of competing fault growth models. Journal of Structural Geology. doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2013.06.012.

Khan, F.R., Laycock, A., Dybowska, A., Larner, F., Smith, B.D., Rainbow, P.S., Luoma, S.N., Rehkämper, M., Valsami-Jones, E. (2013) Stable Isotope Tracer To Determine Uptake and Efflux Dynamics of ZnO Nano- and Bulk Particles and Dissolved Zn to an Estuarine Snail. Environmental Science and Technology. doi: 10.1021/es4011465.

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

Passchier, S., Bohaty, S.M., Jimenez-Espejo, F., Pross, J., Röhl, U., van de Flierdt, T., Escutia, C., Brinkhuis, H., Expedition 318 scientists (2013) Early Eocene to middle Miocene cooling and aridification of East Antarctica. G-cubed. doi:10.1002/ggge.20106.

Vandeginste, V., John, C.M., van de Flierdt, T., Cosgrove, J.W. (2013) Linking process, dimension, texture, and geochemistry in dolomite geobodies: A case study from Wadi Mistal (northern Oman). AAPG Bulletin. doi:10.1306/11011212076.

Books

Allen, P.A. & Allen, J.R.  Basin Analysis: Principles & Application to Petroleum Play Assessment, Third Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 619pp.

Conference lectures

Dick Selley gave a talk on UK shale gas resources at the 2nd UK Annual Shale Gas conference in London.

On 11^th July, Robert Zimmerman delivered an invited plenary lecture at the 5th Biot Conference on Poromechanics in Vienna, entitled "The effect of pore shape and pore fluid on the Poisson ratio of porous materials".

Impact, outreach, media

Dick Selley contributed background material for BBC TV & Radio & Sky News on UK Shale gas & hydraulic fracturing in general, and Cuadrilla's Balcombe well in particular.

Trevor Almeida was invited to the House of Commons to attend a Royal Microscopy Society (RMS) Reception ‘Innovation under the Microscope’, hosted by Nicola Blackwood MP. The reception celebrated the 175^th anniversary of the RMS and the success of UK innovation in the field of microscopy, with emphasis placed on its role in underpinning the future of UK science and technology. The event was reported on the RMS website.

Carys Cook and Tina van de Flierdt's Nature Geoscience paper on the dynamic behaviour of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene has seen a flurry of coverage in the news! This has included articles appearing in Nature Geoscience News and Views, Science Magazine, the Imperial College front page, NBC news, the Daily Mail, National Geographic, CS Monitor and the ESE news page.

Tina van de Flierdt also had a live interview with Al Jazeera.

Mark Sephton puts on his space suit in this short BBC documentary about sending a man to Mars. He explains what humans would look for on Mars and why human exploration can achieve more than robots. Mark also took part in a number of BBC interviews on designing a manned mission to the red planet.

Departmental awards

Lorraine Craig was awarded the President’s Award by the President of the Imperial College Student Union and the Fellowship of the Students Union by the Imperial College Student Union.

Research activity

Adrian Muxworthy and Owain Roberts completed a week's fieldwork in Iceland in collaboration with Arne Døssing of DTU. As part of Owain's MSci thesis to look at geomagnetic field behaviour at high-latitudes,
they collected basalts dating from 0.5 - 2.5 Ma.

PhD vivas

Congratulations to our new doctors!

Nikolaos Michael: Functioning of an ancient routing system, the Escanilla Formation, South Central Pyrenees. PhD supervised by Philip A. Allen.

Anmol Bedi successfully passed his viva on 18^th July: A proposed framework for characterising uncertainty and variability in rock mechanics and rock engineering. PhD supervised by John Harrison.

New Staff

New postdoctoral researcher Torben Stichel arrived on 1 August. Torben will work with Tina van de Flierdt on understanding the marine biogeochemical cycle of neodymium through a combined data-model approach.

 
Exciting refurbishment

Construction for the new MAGIC clean laboratory space has commenced on 29^th July!