August 2015 ESE Newsletter

Palaeomagnetic fieldwork in northern Iceland

Sea level in the Pleistocene, salt tectonics of the of the Precaspian Basin, and sampling in Iceland; all in this months ESE news

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Awards
Impact and Media
Research Activity
Fieldwork
PhD Vivas

Publications

Almeida, T. P., Muxworthy, A. R., Kasama, T., Williams, W., Damsgaard, C., Frandsen, C., Pennycook, T.J., Dunin-Borkowski, R. E. (2015) Effect of maghemization on the magnetic properties of non-stoichiometric pseudo-single-domain magnetite particles. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. DOI: 10.1002/2015GC005858 

Almeida, T. P., Muxworthy, A. R., Kovács, A., Williams, W., Dunin-Borkowski, R. E. (2015) Visualisation of high temperature magnetisation states in magnetite grains using off-axis electron holography. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. (in press) 

Allen, P.A. (2015) Snowball Climate Conundrum. Nature Geoscience, News and Views, vol. 8, 668-669, published online 24 August 2015.

Beckert, J., Vandeginste, V., John, C.M., (2015). Exploring the geological features and processes that control the shape and internal fabrics of late diagenetic dolomite bodies (Lower Khuff equivalent - Central Oman Mountains), Marine and Petroleum Geology, doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.08.038.

Bradbury, H.J., Vandeginste, V., and John, C.M., (2015). Diagenesis of phosphatic hardgrounds in the Monterey Formation: A perspective from bulk and clumped isotope geochemistry, GSA Bulletin, v. 127, no. 9-10, p. 1453-1463, doi:10.1130/B31160.1 

DeJong, B.D., Bierman, P.R., Newell, W.L., Rittenour, T.M., Mahan, S.A., Balco, G., Rood, D.H. (2015). Pleistocene relative sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay region and their implications for the next century. GSA Today. DOI: 10.1130/GSATG223A.1. 

Hönig, M.R., John, C.M., (2015). Sedimentological and isotopic heterogeneities within a Jurassic carbonate ramp (UAE) and implications for reservoirs in the Middle East, Marine and Petroleum Geology, doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.08.029. 

Kele, S., Breitenback, S.F.M., Capezzuoli, E., Meckler, N.A., Ziegler, M., Millan, I.M., Kluge, T., Deak, J., Hanselmann, K., John, C.M., Yan, H., Liu, Z., Bernasconi, S., 2015 (in press). Temperature dependence of oxygen- and clumped isotope fractionation in carbonates: a study of travertines and tufas in the 6-95?C temperature range, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (available online, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.06.032)  

Muxworthy, A. R. (2015). Investigation of magnetic particulate matter inside animals’ lung tissue: preliminary results, Studia Geophys. Geod. DOI. 10.1007/s11200-014-0777-6

Salimzadeh, S., Khalili, N. (2015). A three-phase XFEM model for hydraulic fracturing with cohesive crack propagation. Computers and Geotechnics. doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2015.05.001

Thompson, D., Kendall, M., Helffrich, G., Bastow, I.D., Wookey, J. Snyder, D. CAN-HK: An a priori crustal model for the Canadian Shield, Seis. Res. Letts., doi:10.1785/0220150015, 86(5), 2015.

Windsor, K., Carlson, A.E., Caffee, M.W., Rood, D.H. (2015). Rapid last-deglacial thinning and retreat of the marine-terminating southwestern Greenland ice sheet. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.05.040.   

Wilson, P., Elliott, G.M., Gawthorpe, R.L., Jackson, C.A-L., Michelsen, L., Sharp, I.R., (2015). Lateral variation in structural style along an evaporite-influenced rift fault system in the Halten Terrace, Norway: influence of basement structure and evaporite facies. Journal of Structural Geology, v.79, p.110-123. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsg.2015.08.002.

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

Our department continues to be a recognized international geochemical powerhouse, with a strong showing at the preeminent annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Prague, Czech Republic 17-21 August. Imperial presented a diverse range of research encompassing reactive transport, economic geology, anthropogenic pollutant tracing, cosmochemistry, paleoclimate, uranium adsorption, mantle geochemistry, and clumped isotopes. Oral presentations were given by PhD students Maartje Boon, Luke Bridgestock, Peter Lai, Katy Murphy, Rob Sievwright and postdocs Janice Kenney, Myriam Lambelet and David Wilson. Posters were presented by Cedric John, PhD students Peter Lai, Tamara Markovic and postdocs Raquel Ochoa-Gonzalez and Roland Stumpf. Other staff in attendance included Julie Prytulak, who gave a keynote address on mantle crustal recycling and Tina van de Flierdt.

Matthew Genge, Matthias van Ginneken, Adrian Muxorthy, Jay Shah, and Martin Suttle, attended the 78th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Berkeley, USA. Oral presentations were given by Adrian on "Magnetic Fabrics in Allende: Implications for Magnetic Remanence Acquisition", and Jay on "Using Micro-CT to Map Meteoritic Magnetism". Posters were also presented by Matthias, Martin, Jay, and Matt, who decided to take a novel approach to presenting (see below)

Zita Martins gave two invited talks at the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

PhD student James Derrick gave a talk at PETER 2015 on Mesoscale simulations of the compaction of granular Tungsten Carbide: benchmarking iSALE against CTH on 27 August. Co-authors were Garath Collins and Thomas Davidson.

Janice Kenney presented work on The Effect of High pH and Ionic Strength on the Adsorption of Uranium to Quartz, Sandstone, and Volcanic Rock at Goldschmidt 2015 16-21 August.  Janice’s work was also presented in a poster and talk by collaborating authors.

Carl Jaquemyn presented work on surface-based modelling of storm scours in the lower Arab-D at the Mountjoy meeting on modelling and characterization of carbonates. Cedric John also gave an invited presentation.

Impact and Media

Dylan Rood's 2015 research Pleistocene relative sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay region and their implications for the next century was featured on websites and in print articles including CNN, The Washington Post, AAAS, and MSNBC.

Research activity 

As part of his Visiting Scientist role, Chris Jackson spent five weeks at the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG), University of Texas at Austin, working with members of the Applied Geodynamic Laboratory (AGL). Along with ex-ESE PDRA Oliver Duffy who now works full-time in the AGL, Chris worked on a project focusing on salt tectonics of the Precaspian Basin, Kazakhstan. As part of this project and along with AGL PDRA Naiara Fernandez, they will also undertake numerical modelling of the initiation and growth of salt minibasins. 

Fieldwork

Adrian Muxworthy, PhD-student Radchagrit Supakulopas and MSci-student Kathryn Turner were joined by Morten Riishuus (University of Iceland) and Brendan Cych (University of Oxford), for two weeks palaeomagnetic fieldwork in northern Iceland. Around 850 cores were successfully sampled.

Mitch Liddell, Amy Gilligan, and Alistair Boyce have been in South East Canada doing seismological fieldwork. 

PhD Vivas

Alex Norori-McCormac successfully completed his PhD viva on "The relationship between particle size, cell design and air recovery; the effect on floatation performance".