ESE February Newsletter

Department of Earth Science and Engineering

Recent publications, events and exciting work that is happening in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

Content

Publications
Congress, Talks, Lectures, and Seminars
Awards
Research Grant
Research Activity
PhD Vivas
New Staff
Obituary

Publications

Alsuwaidi, E. S., Xi, G. F., and Zimmerman, R. W. (2021) Mechanical characterization of Laffan and Nahr Umr anisotropic shales. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 

Boyce, A.,  Bastow, I. D.,  Cottaar, S.,  Kounoudis, R.,  De Courbeville, J. G.,  Caunt, E., & Desai, S. (2021).  AFRP20: New P?wavespeed Model for the African Mantle Reveals Two Whole?Mantle Plumes Below East Africa and Neoproterozoic Modification of the Tanzania Craton. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 22, e2020GC009302. 

Chowdhury R., Banerjee A., Zhao Y., Liu X., Brandon N., (2021). Simulation of Bi-layer Cathode Materials with Experimentally Validated Parameters to Improve Ion Diffusion and Discharge Capacity,   Sustainable Energy Fuels.

Erdi, A., & Jackson, C. A. (2021). What Controls Salt?Detached Contraction in the Translational Domain of the Outer Kwanza Basin, Offshore Angola?, Basin Research.

Farsi A., Xiang J., Latham J.P., Carlsson M., Stitt .E.H., Marigo M., Packing simulations of complex-shaped rigid particles using FDEM: An application to catalyst pellets, Powder Technology, 2020.

Huq, F., Smalley, P.C., Yarushina, V., Johansen, I., Schöpke, C.A., Øvrebø, L.K., Skurtveit, E. and Hartz, E.H. (2021).  Integrated study of water Sr isotopes and carbonate Sr-C-O isotopes reveals long-lived fluid compartments in the Langfjellet Oil Discovery, Norwegian North Sea.  Marine and Petroleum Geology, 127, paper 104958.

Karlowska E., Bastow I. D., Rondenay S., Martin-Short R., Allen R. M., (2020). The Development of Seismic Anisotropy Below South-Central Alaska: Evidence from Local Earthquake Shear-Wave Splitting, Geophysical Journal International.  

Lior Suchoy, Saskia Goes, Benjamin Maunder, Fanny Garel and Rhodri Davies (2021). Effects of basal drag on subduction dynamics from 2D numerical models. Solid Earth, 12, 79–93.

Mackie, L., & Evans, P.S., & Harrold, M.J., & O`Doherty, T., & Piggott, M.D., & Angeloudis, A. (2021). Modelling an energetic tidal strait: investigating implications of common numerical configuration choices. Applied Ocean Research, 108.

Nathwani, C.L., Simmons, A.T., Large, S.J.E., Wilkinson, J.J., Buret, Y., Ihlenfeld, C. (2021). From long-lived batholith construction to giant porphyry copper deposit formation: petrological and zircon chemical evolution of the Quellaveco District, Southern Peru. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 176, 12.

Rasheed, S., Warder, S. C., Plancherel, Y., & Piggott, M. D. (2021). Response of tidal flow regime and sediment transport in North Malé Atoll, Maldives, to coastal modification and sea level rise. Ocean Sci., 17, 319–334.

Segura-Salazar, J., & Brito-Parada, P. R. (2021). Stibnite froth flotation: A critical review. Minerals Engineering, 163, 106713.

Quintanilla, P., Neethling, S.J., & Brito-Parada, P.R. (2021). Modelling for froth flotation control: A review. Minerals Engineering, 162, 106718.

Wang, H., & Brito-Parada, P.R. (2021). The role of microparticles on the shape and surface tension of static bubbles. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 587, 14-23.

Congress, Talks, Lectures, and Seminars

Rob Lowther wrote an article for the Geological Curators Group “Six Questions of a Geological Curator” series. This article outlines his role, the Departmental collections and his experiences.

Robert Zimmerman gave an invited presentation entitled "Failure of Anisotropic Rocks such as Shales, and Implications for Borehole Stability", to the School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing on 20 December 2020. The Zoom-seminar was attended by 93 participants.

The 14th World Congress in Computational Mechanics (WCCM) ECCOMAS Congress 2020 was postponed from holding on 19 – 24 July 2020 at Paris. On 11 - 15 January 2021, the WCCM held online where Dr Ado Farsi convened a mini-symposium on ‘The Combined Finite-Discrete Element method for Multi-body Dynamics and Fracture Mechanics’ and presented a talk with the same title. Dr J-P Latham presented a talk on his work with co-authors Dr J Xiang and Dr Bin Chen entitled ‘Grain-Based FDEM using CT-Scan Micromorphology with application to Brazilian Disc Failure and Water-Jet Destruction of High Porosity Sandstone’.

On 28 January, Pablo Brito-Parada gave the presentation "Optimising froth stability for enhanced flotation performance" at the first 'UK-Brazil Mining Academia Webinar', organised by the British Government in Brazil and the Minas Gerais State Agency for Research and Development, with support from the British Council. The aim of the event was to promote academic partnerships between both countries, in order to contribute to innovation and new technologies for the mining sector.

PhD student Rita Kounoudis was invited to give an online talk hosted by the National Observatory of Athens on 10 February. Her talk was entitled ’Seismic Tomographic Imaging of the Eastern Mediterranean Mantle’ and was based on work published in June 2020.

Awards

On 10 February 2021 we announced the winners of the 2020 Postgraduate Prizes at an online event. 

Congratulations to the winners:

• Catherine Booth, Janet Watson Prize for Citizenship
• Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Janet Watson Prize for Research
• Navjot Kukreja, John S Archer Award 

LODE MSci students Katie McCann and Elin Mars were both successful in the sponsorship competition held by the MinSouth branch of the IOM³ - with Katie winning the first award of £1000 and Elin the second place award of £500. Well done to both, and fantastic recognition of the calibre of undergraduates in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

Research Grant

Dr J-P Latham and Dr J Xiang were awarded €0.83M funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme for numerical modelling research on the €4 million grant ‘ORCHYD’ that kicked off at the beginning of 2021.
ORCHYD will develop a new drilling technique whose implementation will combine existing technologies to help reduce the operational time for geothermal exploration and thus the total cost to utilise the geothermal energy. The project, led by researchers from ARMINES/Mines-ParisTech in France together with their partners Imperial College London, Norway’s SINTEF, University of Piraeus, China University of Petroleum and French drilling company, Drillstar could expand the use of this renewable energy source and help tackle the global climate crisis. Further details of the modelling research were presented in a recent Departmental seminar on 4 February. You can watch the seminar recording on YouTube.

Research Activity

The Horizon 2020 IMPaCT project (PI: Pablo Brito-Parada) had its final meeting on 10 December 2020. The project developed containerised mineral processing equipment for a Switch-On/Switch-Off exploitation of small scale but high grade deposits of critical minerals. The Imperial team was closely involved in the deployment and validation of the technology on site and developed a novel modelling framework to account for variability in the mineral processing circuit.

PhD Vivas

Emily Brugge successfully defended her PhD thesis on 16 December, with only minor corrections required. Her thesis, entitled "Apatite in Porphyry Systems and its Applications in Mineral Exploration", was a NERC-Industrial CASE award in collaboration with Rio Tinto and supervised by Professor Jamie Wilkinson. The external examiner was Professor Adrian Finch from the University of St Andrews, and the internal examiner was Dr Matt Genge. Congratulations to Emily who started in her new role as a mining analyst in January.

Larry Kostorz passed his PhD viva with thesis entitled ‘Fast Methods for Modelling Fluid Flow and Characterising Petroleum Reservoirs’ with some very minor corrections on 28 January. Congratulations to Larry!

New Staff

James Burtonshaw started as a Research Assistant with Professor Robert Zimmerman on 25 November 2020

Guanglei Zhang started as a Research Associate with Professor Martin Blunt on 4 January 2021

Keir Nichols started as a Research Assistant with Dr Dylan Rood on 22 January 2021

Nicky Jenner started as Communications Officer in the Department on 25 January 2021

Joe Wallwork started as a Research Assistant with Professor Matthew Piggott on 8 February 2021

Victoria Milanez Fernandes started as a Research Associate with Dr Gareth Roberts on 15 February 2021

Obituary

Professor John Ramsay FRS CBE, one of the greatest structural geologists of the 20^th century, died in Zurich on 12 January 2021. He was 89 years of age. He began his career at Imperial College London where he studied for his bachelor's degree in Geology, graduating with first class honours in 1952 under the guidance of Dr John Sutton. Later in 1957 he returned to Imperial where he was appointed to a teaching position in Geology. Many of his early fundamental research papers were written whilst at Imperial and he became Professor of Structural Geology in 1966. The following year saw the publication of his first book, Folding and Fracturing of Rocks, which established him as a structural geologist of the first rank.
John was a remarkable researcher and teacher and left behind an army of enthusiastic and grateful students who continue to carry on his tradition. Read more about John here [PDF 93KB].