February 2014 ESE Newsletter

Hexagonal Shaped Salt Crust at Badwater, Death Valley National Park, California, USA. Photograph: Wing-Chi Poon.

Publications, talks, awards and dinosaurs galore this month in ESE!

Publications
Conference Talks and Lectures
Awards
Research Grants
Research Activity
Impact and Media
PhD Vivas

Publications

Leal, A.M.M., Blunt, M.J. and LaForce, T.C. (2014). Efficient Chemical Equilibrium Calculations for Geochemical Speciation and Reactive Transport Modelling. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2014.01.038.

Jacquemyn, C., El Desouky, H., Hunt, D., Casini, G. and Swennen, R. (2014). Dolomitization of the Latemar platform: Fluid flow and dolomite evolution. Marine and Petroleum Geology. Doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2014.01.017.

Magee, C., Jackson, CA-L. and Schofield, N. (2014). Diachronous sub-volcanic intrusion along deep-water margins: Insights from the Irish Rockall Basin. Basin Research. Doi: 10.1111/bre.12044.

Mark, C., Gupta, S., Carter, A., Mark, D.F., Gautheron, C. and Martín, A. (2014). Rift flank uplift at the Gulf of California: No requirement for asthenospheric upwelling. Geology. Doi:10.1130/G35073.1.

Michael, N.A., Whittaker, A.C., Carter, A. and Allen, P.A. (2014). Volumetric budget and grain-size fractionation of a geological sediment routing system: Eocene Escanilla Formation, south-central Pyrenees. Bulletin Geological Society of America. Doi: 10.1130/B30954.1.

Xiao, D., Fang, F., Buchan, A.G., Pain, C.C., Navon, I.M., Du, J. and Hu, G.  (2014).Non-linear model reduction for the Navier–Stokes equations using residual DEIM method. Journal of Computational Physics. Doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2014.01.011.

A special issue of Basin Research entitled “Deep Water Continental Margins” is out this month edited by Tiago Alves, Chris Jackson, Rebecca Bell and Tim Minshull. This thematic set explores themes such as the evolution of deep-water margins and their role as recorders of plate boundary forces, tectonics and magmatism.

Conference Talks and Lectures

James Hammond gave a public lecture at the Herdman Symposium on Geoscience Frontiers in Liverpool.  The talk was titled ‘Science without borders: Unravelling the mysteries behind Mt. Paektu Volcano, North Korea’.

Carl Jacquemyn gave a talk at the Vertical Geology Conference in Lausanne (4-6 Feb) on 3D geostatistics and dolomitization, entitled: 'Distribution and geometry of dolomite bodies in the Latemar platform (Dolomites, northern Italy)'.

Chris Jackson has been invited to give a talk as part of the Geological Society of London Lecture Series (formerly the Shell London Lecture Series). These are public lectures and accordingly attract academics and industry professionals, as well members of the public. The talk, which will be given on December 10th, is entitled "Terra Infirma: What Has Salt Tectonics Ever Done For Us?". and will celebrate salt as a rock type, a thing of natural beauty, and a key element in many petroleum systems.

On January 30^th, Chris Jackson presented an invited talk entitled 'Impacts of igneous intrusions on hydrocarbon prospectivity in sedimentary basins; concepts and examples' at the Aberdeen Geological Society (AGS).

On 11 February, Robert Zimmerman gave an invited seminar in the Department of Earth Sciences at UCL, entitled 'Measurement and Modelling of the Failure of Anisotropic Rocks such as Shales'.

Awards

Tareq Al Ansari has received the 2014 Qatar Energy R&D Award. Tareq is a 3^rd year PhD student in ESE developing a Life Cycle Assessment model for the analysis of the Energy, Water and Food Nexus (supervised by Anna Korre and Nilay Shah). The award recognizes current PhD candidates or recent graduates for their outstanding research achievements that could impact Qatar industry. Mr Al Ansari is one of four individuals who will be presented with the inaugural Award at the Qatar Energy R&D Forum on March 18th, 2014 in Qatar University New Research Complex. He was selected for this award by Gulf Intelligence in recognition of his achievements, motivation and potential as a Future Thought Leader of Qatar.

Research Grants

James Hammond was awarded a grant from the Lounsbery Foundation (linked to the American Association for the Advancement of Science) for $115,000 to extend the seismic deployment in North Korea, allow for geochemical analysis of some geological samples and for collaborative research visits between North Korean and UK based scientists.

Research Activity

Chris Jackson has taken up a position as a Visiting Research Scientist in the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (AGL) in the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), University of Texas at Austin. This position, which arises from his sabbatical in 2013, will see Chris continuing to collaborate with researchers on salt tectonics during twice-yearly visits to Austin.

Impact and Media

Trevor Almeida was awarded the status of Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society.

James Hammond featured on the Imperial College podcast this month, chatting about North Korea Volcanoes.

Susannah Maidment’s discovery of dinosaur fossils at Ardingly College in June appeared in BBC News on 5 February.  

A piece of dinosaur bone. Photograph: Susannah Maidment.

Dick Selley was interviewed for a US Public Broadcasting channel on his research into the impact of climate change on UK viticulture.

PhD Vivas

Congratulations to Anna Joy Drury, who successfully passed her PhD viva on 27^th January! Her thesis, supervised by Cedric John, is entitled 'Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Palaeoceanography at the Eastern Equatorial Pacific IODP Site U1338: Implications for Climate Evolution and Stability'. Anna was examined by Tina van de Flierdt and Bridget Wade (UCL). She will now start a postdoc position at the MARUM, University of Bremen in Germany.