December in ESE: Earth Scientists attend the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco and the LODE group head to Tasmania

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Awards
Research Activity

Publications

Amitai, S. & Blumenfeld, R. (2017). Modifying continuous-time random walks to model finite-size particle diffusion in granular porous media. Granular Matter 19:13.

Bertei, A., Tariq, F., Yufit, V., Ruiz-Trejo, E., & Brandon, N. P. (2017). Guidelines for the rational design and engineering of 3D manufactured solid oxide fuel cell composite electrodes. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 164, F89-F98

Jordan, O. D., Gupta, S., Hampson, G. J. & Johnson, H. D. (2016). Preserved stratigraphic architecture and evolution of a net-transgressive mixed wave- and tide-influenced coastal system: Cliff House Sandstone, northwestern New Mexico, USA. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 86, 1399-1424.

Lei, Q., Latham, J.-P., Tsang, C.-H. (2017). The use of discrete fracture networks for modelling coupled geomechanical and hydrological behaviour of fractured rocks. Computers and Geotechnics, 85, 151-176. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2016.12.024

Schofield, N., Holford, S., Millett, J., Brown, D., Jolley, D.R., Passey, S., Muirhead, D., Grove, C., Magee, C., Murray, J., Hole, M., Jackson, C. A-L., & Stevenson, C.T. (2016). Regional magma plumbing and emplacement mechanisms of the Faroe? Shetland Sill Complex: implications for magma transport and petroleum systems within sedimentary basins. Basin Research, 29, 41–63. DOI: 10.1111/bre.12164.

The department is excited to announce the recent publication of two books by ESE researchers. Martin Blunt is the author of “Multiphase Flow in Permeable Media, A pore-Scale Perspective”:

John Cosgrove and John A. Hudson are the co-authors of “Structural Geology and Rock Engineering”:

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

This year’s Sustainable Gas Research Annual Lecture (December 6) was given by guest speaker Richard Court (Head of Regulation & External Affairs on the Gas Distribution at National Grid). Richard was introduced by Nigel Brandon giving a talk entitled “Renewable Gas: The lowest cost pathway to decarbonising heat?” You can watch a video of the event on the SGI YouTube channel here.

Chris Jackson gave the departmental seminar at Cardiff University (December 8). His talk was entitled “Hot Rocks Under Our Feet; Seismic Imaging of the Igneous Geology in Sedimentary Basins”.

Gaurav Bhutani presented a paper at the Emerging Trends in Minerals Engineering Conference (December 12-13) entitled “A Novel Framework for Modelling the Pulp Phase in Flotation” The paper was co-authored by Jan Cilliers and Pablo Brito-Parada and the conference was organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3).

ESE researchers travelled to San Francisco between 12-16 December to attend the 2016, Fall Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Two PhD students from the Rock Mechanics group gave presentations. Helen Lacey (with co-authors Yongsheng Zhou, Rebecca Bell, Lei Zhang, Thomas Phillips, Graham Stevenson, and Robert Zimmerman) gave a talk entitled “Stick, slow-slip and slide: the continuum of fault behaviour controlled by the mineralisation potential of a carbonate saturated solution”. Robin Thomas (with co-authors Adriana Paluszny, Anozie Ebigbo, and Robert Zimmerman) presented a poster entitled “Permeability of three-dimensional rock masses containing geomechanically-grown anisotropic fracture networks”.

Ian Bastow attended giving a talk on the architecture of the Danakil depression, Ethiopia along with Elizabeth Day, Saskia Goes and PhD students Laura Petrescu, Alistair Boyce and Mitch Liddell. 

Alistair presented a poster entitled "Tectonic processes bounding the Superior Craton: Body wave tomography of the North American Shield" and Mitch presented a poster entitled "The Formation of Laurentia: Evidence from Shear Wave Splitting".

Elizabeth Day gave a talk entitled "Inner Core imaging using P′P′” based on MSci student Jamie Ward’s work. Ian Bastow and Jessica Irving (Princeton) are also a co-authors. Elizabeth also presented a poster entitled "Improving Scientific Writing in Undergraduate Geosciences Degrees Through Peer Review” with Gareth Collins and Lorraine Craig, and was the co-author of two additional posters: "A first step to compare geodynamic models and seismic observations of the inner core" and “Density and Vs contrasts across mantle transition zone discontinuities beneath the Central Pacific” with Saskia Goes and our former MSci student Rachel Blythe. After the meeting Elizabeth visited Jessica Irving at Princeton University, funded by the Imperial College Teaching Fellows Development Fund.

Saskia Goes presented three posters: "Reconciling Mantle Wedge Thermal Structure with Arc Lava Thermobarometric Determinations in Oceanic Subduction Zones “ the work led by PhD student Alex Perrin; "Testing the seismic signature of upper-mantle plumelets: application to the Northern East-African Rift”, the work led by former PhD Chiara Civiero; and "A model of buoyant ridge subduction: effects of ridge width, buoyancy and obliquity”, work to which two MSci students (Kamile Rudaviciute and Luke Jenkins) and a former postdoc Loic Fourel have contributed.

Chris Jackson gave a talk, on behalf of BRG PhD student Tom Phillips, at the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG) AGM, which this year was held at the University of Cambridge (December 18 - 20). The talk was entitled “Seismic geomorphological analysis of the Farsund Basin, offshore southern Norway: Identification of rivers, reefs and shorelines”.

A delegation of LODE researchers (Jamie Wilkinson, Richard Herrington, Robin Armstrong, Inja Thijssen, William Brownscombe and Matt Loader, and PhD students Emily Brugge, James Davey and Katie McFall (Southampton) attended the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDSG) AGM at the University of Bristol from 19-21 December. Three posters and four oral presentations were co-authored by the group. Matthew Loader received commendations for both his poster and oral presentations on his research on igneous processes controlling the fertility of porphyry-copper systems and James and Katie, who both carried out some of their research in the LODE LA-ICP-MS laboratory, shared the best student talk prize.

A highlight was the award of the MDSG prize for the best undergraduate student project in the field of mineral deposits to Luke Neal for his MSci project supervised by Philippa Mason and Jamie Wilkinson on the development of short-wave infra-red spectroscopy of altered rocks in porphyry systems as an exploration tool (now in review as a paper in the Journal of Geochemical Exploration).

Awards

Gaurav Bhutani was Awarded the Arthur Holmes Centenary Research Grant to present a paper at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Meeting in San Francisco (November 13-18).

Research Activity

In late November, Jamie Wilkinson, Robert Sievwright and Lisa Hart attended the 3rd Sponsors Review Meeting of the AMIRA P1153 research project in Hobart,
Tasmania in which the LODE research group are participating. The project, entitled “Applying the explorers' toolbox to discover Cu, Au and Mo deposits” is managed by AMIRA International, led by the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits (CODES) at the University of Tasmania, and is supported by 14 mining and mineral exploration companies.

The project is developing and applying a range of tools, including mineral chemistry and mineral reflectance spectra, to help in exploration for porphyry and epithermal deposits. Rob and Lisa gave very well received presentations on their research as non-confidential (not funded by the project) contributions to the project objectives. The meeting was followed by a field trip to the Freycinet Peninsula in eastern Tasmania to view remarkable, volatile-rich granite textures. Despite a very damp day, there was great enthusiasm on the coastal outcrops because of the amazing features that could be observed.