April 2017 ESE Newsletter

Research cruise to the Antilles explores water subduction in the Atlantic plate

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Departmental Activities
Research Grants
Research Activity

Publications

Agrusta, R., Goes, S., Van Hunen, J. (2017). Subducting-slab transition-zone interaction: stagnation, penetration and mode switches. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 464, 10-23, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.02.005

Doughty-Jones, G, Mayall, M and Lonergan L. (2017). Stratigraphy, facies and evolution of deep-water lobe complexes within a salt-controlled, intra-slope mini-basin. AAPG Bull. doi: 10.1306/01111716046

Goes, S., Agrusta, R., Van Hunen, J., and Garel, F. (2017). Subduction-transition-zone interaction: A review. Geosphere, 13, doi:10.1130/GES01476.1

Jolly, B. A., Whittaker, A. C, Lonergan, L. (2017). Quantifying the geomorphic response of modern submarine channels to actively growing folds and thrusts, deep-water Niger Delta. GSA Bulletin. doi: 10.1130/B31544.1

Maguire, R., J. Ritsema, and S. Goes. (2017). Signals of 660 km topography and harzburgite enrichment in seismic images of whole-mantle upwellings. Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, doi:10.1002/2017GL073120

Singh, K., Scholl, H., Di Michiel, M., Scheel, M., Herminghaus, S. and Seemann, R. (2017). The role of local instabilities in fluid invasion into permeable media. Scientific Reports, 7, 1, 444.

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

Once again the MAGIC group showed a strong presence at the annual Geochemistry Research in Progress Meeting (GGRiP) in Bristol. The meeting was hosted by the University of Bristol’s School of Geographical Sciences on 3–4 April. Julie Prytulak, Tina van De Flierdt, Susan Little, David Wilson, Katy Murphy, Myriam Lambelet as well as PhD students Martin Mangler, Tabea Junk, Rachel Bertram, Patric Simoes Pereira, Denny Tarnovska, Alexander Griffiths, Sven Kuthning, Davide Novella, Alex Brett, Naomi Pratt and MSci student Sophie Munson all attended to represent geochemical research within ESE. Martin Mangler received a prize for best talk about his work involving Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico. Sophie Munson, who presented her MSci project findings on Zn stable isotope variations during lateritic weathering, received an honourable mention for her talk.

Lizzie Day gave an invited talk at EGU, "Probing the inner core's African boundary with P'P' ", presenting Jamie Ward's MSci work. Ian Bastow and Jessica Irving (Princeton) are co-authors.

Dick Selley gave a talk on 'Fracking Shale Gas' at a symposium on Fracking Shale gas at Kingston University (Former member of the department Prof Ernie Rutter also spoke).

On April 24 ESE, Chemical Engineering and LT team hosted a visit from education-focussed colleagues at the University of Wolverhampton, to showcase the results of ‘Panopto on Location’, a video-led-teaching feasibility trial. Working with Shireen Lock (Faculty LT team), Rob Lowther gained a grant from the Faculty Teaching Committee to build a mobile bench unit, incorporating a new Leica transmitted-/reflected-light polarizing microscope, flexible webcams and a PC.

Emma Passmore used the bench to record instructional videos for petrology teaching, which were rolled out to Y1 in Spring term, to extremely positive feedback. Emma presented the results of the ESE trial via a well-attended seminar, sharing ideas with colleagues from Wolverhampton, and the department of Chemical Engineering. We thank the Faculty LT team for their support. If you are interested in learning more about the Panopto bench, or how to incorporate video-led teaching into your courses, please get in contact with Emma or Rob, or the Faculty LT team. 

Chris Jackson visited the Horsham Geological Field Club on 12 April to give a talk entitled ‘Salt; The Most Exciting Rock on Earth’. His talk is available on figshare.

Chris Jackson also completed the 2nd and final leg of his GSA James B. Thompson Distinguished Lecturer tour. In a whirlwind 10-day tour of North America that saw him cover several thousand kilometres, he visited University of Texas at El Paso, University of Oregon, Virginia Tech, University of Connecticut, Columbia University (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), and University of Arkansas. You can read about Chris' exploits here on his seis_matters blog.

It is only a few weeks until this year’s Pint of Science Festival, during which researchers from all over the world head to their local pubs to talk science. This year, four speakers from the department of Earth Science and Engineering will speak at the Hand and Flower in Hammersmith as part of the Imperial College Pint of Science events. Take a look at the details and buy your tickets now!

On 15 May, Gareth Collins and Paul Barrett from the NHM will be talking about the Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. 

On 16 May, Susan Little from the MAGIC group and Paul Williams from Reading take us on a journey into the oceans and the air to explore how carbon dioxide actually interacts with our environment. 

And on 17 May, Christopher Jackson and Gareth Roberts will show us how to decipher processes shaping our Earth’s surface, from rainfall to magma ascent.

Departmental Activities

Following the success of last year’s lunch time quiz, we have decided to host another one! Click here for more information and to register a team.

Research Grants

Lidia Lonergan (PI) secured a grant worth £146,000 from the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED)/PetroChina for the project: 'Formation of evolution of intra-cratonic rift from Late Sinian to Early Cambrian in the Sichuan Basin, China'. Dr Zidong Gu from the RIPED will join the Department in May to work on the project.

Research Activity

Several members of the NERC funded VoiLA large grant (Jenny Collier, Jamie Wilkinson, Saskia Goes, researchers from Durham, Liverpool, Leeds, Southampton, Bristol, IPG Paris and its observatories on the Antilles, University of Potsdam and the Seismic Research Centre in Trinidad and Tobago) are currently on a research cruise in the Antilles. The cruise on the James Cook is led by Jenny Collier. It will last a total of two months, and several PhD students including Rob Allen, Chris Ogden, Melissa Gray, Sian Evans, Tatiana Kalinicheva and undergraduate Sophie Butcher will be joining for all or part of the cruise to help with data collection and whale watching. Expedition progress can be followed via blog, twitter and a map of live updates. 

The James Cook is recovering OBS (ocean-bottom-seismometers) which it deployed about 14 months ago and have recorded earthquake data (we hope) and will be redeploying them for an active seismic experiment on the subducting plate. They will also carry out an active shoot to record on seismic stations on the island to image arc structure. They will do a detailed swath bathymetry on the active under water volcano Kick-em Jenny and collect magnetic and gravity data.

The overall objective is to find out how much water is subducted by the Atlantic plate, where it is released during subduction, and how it relates to the seismicity and volcanism along the arc. It is expected that a lot more water will be carried in the Atlantic lithosphere than in commonly studied Pacific lithosphere because during slow-spreading, larger fracture zones are formed (along which water can infiltrate deep into the lithosphere) and at the ridge core complexes, mantle lithosphere (which is much more readily hydrated) is exposed directly at the sea floor. Several large fracture zones are subducted below the Antilles so the team hopes to image significant lateral variations in water content and release, and thereby get a much better idea of the Earth’s internal water cycle.