July 2017 ESE Newsletter

PhD student Helen Lacey launches her report for a sustainable Brexit in Parliament

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Awards
Research Activity
Impact and Media
Departmental Activities
Outreach
Fieldwork

Publications

Boldrin, D., Boldrin, P., Ruiz-Trejo, E., & Cohen, L. F. (2017). Recovery of the intrinsic thermoelectric properties of CaMn 0.98 Nb 0.02 O 3 in 2-terminal geometry using Ag infiltration. Acta Materialia, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2017.04.067

Boon, M., Bijeljic, B., Krevor, S. (2017). Observations of the impact of rock heterogeneity on solute spreading and mixing, Water Resources Research, 53, 6, 4624-4642. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016WR019912/full

Chen, J., Bertei, A., Ruiz-Trejo, E., Atkinson A., Brandon, N.P. Characterization of Degradation in Nickel Impregnated Scandia-Stabilize Zirconia Electrodes during Isothermal Annealing Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Energy Conversion, Journal of The Electrochemical Society. doi:10.1149/2.0821709jes

Collins, D. S., Avdis, A., Allison, P. A., Johnson, H. D., Hill, J., Piggott, M. D. and Damit, A. R. (2017). Tidal dynamics and mangrove carbon sequestration during the Oligo–Miocene in the South China Sea. Nature Communications, 8, 15698. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15698

Flood, Y.S. and Hampson, G.J. (2017). Analysis of floodplain sedimentation, avulsion style and channelised fluvial sandbody distribution in an upper coastal plain reservoir: Middle Jurassic Ness Formation, Brent Field, UK North Sea. In: Sedimentology of paralic reservoirs: recent advances (Eds.Hampson, G.J., Reynolds, A.D., Kostic, B. and Wells, M.R.), Geological Society of London Special Publication, 444, 109-140.https://doi.org/10.1144/SP444.3

Hampson, G.J., Reynolds, A.D., Kostic, B. and Wells, M.R. (2017). Introduction to the sedimentology of paralic reservoirs: recent advances. In:Sedimentology of paralic reservoirs: recent advances (Eds. Hampson, G.J., Reynolds, A.D., Kostic, B. and Wells, M.R.), Geological Society of London Special Publication, 444, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP444.14

Little, S. H., Vance, D., McManus, J., Severmann, S., & Lyons, T. W. (2017). Copper isotope signatures in modern marine sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 212, 253-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2017.06.019

Muxworthy, A. R., Bland, P. A., Davison, T. M., Moore, J., Collins, G. S. and Ciesla, F. J. (2017). Evidence for an impact-induced magnetic fabric in Allende, and exogenous alternatives to the core dynamo theory for Allende magnetization. Meteorit Planet Sci. doi:10.1111/maps.12918

Poropat, S. F., Nair, J. P., Syme, C. E., Mannion, P. D., Upchurch, P., Hocknull, S. A., Cook, A. G., Tischler, T. R. and Holland, T. (2017). Reappraisal of Austrosaurus mckillopi Longman, 1933 from the Allaru Mudstone of Queensland, Australia’s first named Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur. Alcheringa. DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2017.1334826

Paulatto, M., Laigle, M., Galve, A., Charvis, P., Sapin, M., Bayrakci, G., Evain, M. & Kopp, H. (2017). Dehydration of subducting slow-spread oceanic lithosphere in the Lesser Antilles. Nature Communications, 8, doi: 10.1038/ncomms15980

Reynolds, C.A., Menke, H., Andrew, M., Blunt, M., Krevor, S. (2017) Dynamic fluid connectivity during steady-state multiphase flow in a sandstone, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702834114 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/14/1702834114.short

Ruiz-Trejo, E., Bertei, A., Maserati, A., Boldrin, P., & Brandon, N. P. (2017). Oxygen Reduction, Transport and Separation in Low Silver Content Scandia-Stabilized Zirconia Composites. Journal of The Electrochemical Society doi:10.1149/2.0081710jes

Sievwright, R.H., Wilkinson, J.J., O’Neil, H. St. C., and Berry, A.J. (2017). Thermodynamic controls on element partitioning between titanomagnetite and andesitic–dacitic silicate melts. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 172:62. DOI 10.1007/s00410-017-1385-6

Singh, K, Menke, M, Andrew, M, Lin, Q, C. Rau, Blunt, M. J. and Bijeljic, B. (2017). Dynamics of snap-off and pore-filling events during two-phase fluid flow in permeable media. Scientific Reports 7(1): 5192. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05204-4.

Wei, F., Prytulak, J., Xu, J., Wei, W, Hammond, J.O.S., Zhao, B. 2017. The cause and source of melting for the most recent volcanism in Tibet: a combined geochemical and geophysical perspective. Lithos, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2017.07.003

Nigel Brandon, Paul Boldrin and Enrique Ruiz-Trejo edited the new book:

N. P. Brandon, P. Boldrin and E. Ruiz-Trejo (Editors); Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Lifetime and Reliability: Critical challenges in Fuel Cells. Elsevier, ISBN: 9780081011027. 

They also wrote the following chapter:

F. Tariq, E. Ruiz-Trejo, P. Boldrin, A. Bertei, and N. P. Brandon. Microstructural degradation: mechanisms, quantification, modeling and design strategies to enhance the durability of SOFC electrodes, in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Lifetime and Reliability: Critical challenges in Fuel Cells, N. P. Brandon, E. Ruiz-Trejo, P. Boldrin, editors. ISBN: 9780081011027.

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

On July 4, Dick Selley gave a lecture, practical workshop and field trip at Denbies Winery on ‘The impact of geology and climate change on 2 millennia of English viticulture’ to the Geological Society Discussion Group.

PhD student Dan Collins gave an invited presentation entitled ‘Numerical Modelling of Ancient Tides: The Impact of Palaeogeographic Uncertainty on Prediction of Shoreline–Shelf Processes’ to Getech group companies in London, Henley-on-Thames and Leeds.

Phil Mannion and PhD student Ale Chiarenza attended the annual Macroecology meeting of the British Ecological Society at the Natural History Museum (5–7 July). Phil presented an update on his work on ancient latitudinal biodiversity gradients, whilst Ale talked about using ecological niche modelling to reconstruct Cretaceous dinosaur diversity.

On 14 July PhD student Michael Steventon from the Basins Research Group showed his work as part of the Research as Art exhibition at the Graduate School Summer Showcase.

Awards

The following article was selected as one of the highlights of 2016 in the Sensors and Sensors systems section of the journal Measurement Science and Technology:

Yáñez-González, Á., Ruiz-Trejo, E., Van Wachem, B., Skinner, S., Beyrau, F., & Heyes, A. (2016). Development of an optical thermal history coating sensor based on the oxidation of a divalent rare earth ion phosphor. https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/27/11/115103

Research Activity

MSci Geology student Chetan Nathwani has been working at the Diamond Exploration Lab at the University of British Colombia, Canada, on the International Research Opportunities Programme (IROP).Chetan is researching kimberlite petrology. The aim of his project is to model the importance of crustal xenolith entrainment, on the emplacement of kimberlite pipes, and also the geochemical reactions between xenoliths and the kimberlite melt.

The MAGIC group welcomes IROP exchange student Rhys O’Connor from the University of British Columbia, for his 8 week project at Imperial. Rhys is using thallium isotopes to investigate the ingredients in Cascade Range (western USA) volcanoes.

Can the UK's gas grid go green? New white paper explores options.

Researchers at the Sustainable Gas Institute (SGI) at Imperial have reviewed evidence on low-pressure gas networks, which is the part of the gas infrastructure that supplies homes and businesses. The researchers investigate switching the gas network to other sources of energy such as biomethane and hydrogen, which can be produced without carbon dioxide emissions – a process called decarbonisation. The lead author of the white paper, Jamie Speirs from the Department of Earth Science & Engineering, discusses the findings in this short video. The report and summary can both be found on the Sustainable Gas Institute’s website.

Impact and Media

On 12 July, PhD student Helen Lacey launched her report 'Principles for a Sustainable Brexit: A Strategy for Clean Growth' as part of her secondment at Policy Connect with the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. The launch event was held in Parliament and was chaired by Tom Heap, BBC Broadcaster, with panellists including Peter Aldous MP, Geraint Davies MP, The Rt Hon the Lord Deben (Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change) and Dr Alan Whitehead, Shadow Minister (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) (Energy and Climate Change). Read the report here. 

Maartje Boon’s article is featured on the cover of the current issue (Vol 53, Issue 6) of the journal Water Resources Research.

The July issue of the ‘Explorer Magazine’ of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists published an interview with Dick Selley on the economic potential of UK shale gas and oil.

Departmental Activities

On July 13 PhD students presented their research at the ESE departmental conference. The conference featured poster presentations by 1st year PhD students and presentations from 2nd and 3rd year students.

Outreach

We welcomed over 200 students to ESE this month with a full schedule of outreach events and summer schools. Thanks to all those who helped out and inspired the prospective students.

Pete Fitch and Emma Passmore led “Between a rock and a hard place: From holes to hydrocarbons” for 20 Y10 pupils on 27 July as part of the Insights Summer School. The students made great posters about their visit to the department.

During taster days on 11 and 25 July, the department welcomed students who were keen to get a taste for geology and geophysics. Sarah McMullan and Philippa Mason presented interactive workshops with engaging research talks from Becky Bell and Peter Allison. Thanks go to Sneha Desai, Rita Kounoudis, Laura Jackson, Dylan Rood, Lizzie Day and to Emma Passmore for organising and introducing the events and everyone else that helped out.

On 20 July the department hosted 60 Y9 girls for an Engineering Summer School. Victoria Murphy introduced the session with PhD student Jennifer Quye-Sawyer using goo to teach students about glaciers, and Rob Lowther leading a gold panning exercise.

ESE hosted the European Youth Debating Championship UK finals on the topic of petrochemicals on 17 July.

On 6 July ESE hosted 50 Y12 and Y13 students for the Global Summer School, where Sanjeev Gupta ran a Curiosity Workshop and Lizzie Day led a Space Exploration workshop. Thanks to Emma Passmore for introducing the session and to helpers Rebekah Moore and Laura Jackson.

On the 3 and 4 July, 35 Y12 students attended “Space Exploration” and “From Rocks to Riches” workshops, to introduce them to ESE. Thanks to our presenters and helpers Emma Passmore, Lizzie Day, Izzy Mackay and Pablo Brito-Parada.

Fieldwork

Julie Prytulak, Davide Novella, and colleagues from Cambridge spent a week in Iceland undertaking NERC-funded fieldwork to hunt down crystal-rich picritic lavas. The lavas will now undergo mineral separation at Cambridge followed by isotope analysis in the MAGIC group.

PhD student Jonathan Rio travelled to China this month to visit museum crocodile collections in Beijing and Hangzhou. Jonathan also met collaborators at Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, who will be facilitating his future conservation fieldwork on the Critically Endangered Chinese alligator.

During the trip, wild alligator sites were visited, in addition to the Anhui Research Centre for Chinese Alligator Reproduction in the southeast of Anhui Province. This site is home to nearly 10,000 captive bred alligators.