Department of Earth Sciences Graduates Newsletter 2015

Home , Dawes (Martian crater), Roberta Rudnick

Research Excellence CONTENTS Just before Christmas 2014 we were told the results of page the periodic review of our research, REF14 (Research 2. Conferences Excellence Framework). These confirmed that the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway is a 12. Events world-leading research department. We have improved 34. Field Trips since the last review, RAE2008, and are now second 39. Fieldwork nationally in terms of the percentage (94%) of our high impact research publications ranked 4* and 3*, which 50. People underlines the influential contribution that our research 57. Research makes to society and the economy, and a research environment reflecting our world-leading research quality, in terms of its vitality and sustainability. In 2008 we did Please click on page numbers or text in The winning team collecting the Imperial Barrel Award in particularly well to achieve a high standing but to con- blue to navigate the Newsletter Denver. L to R: Ben Said, Stuart Munro, Kimberley Dunn, solidate it now is an even greater success as it confirms Low Wan Ching and Arran Waterman with tutor how well it can be sustained. Nicola Scarselli The Department is 30 years of age. MSc Team are World Champions! Barrel Award competition in Denver. Over that time it has gained in size, academic range, Our MSc Petroleum Geoscience team entered the See full report stature, global impact and achievement. Now one AAPG Imperial Barrel competition for the European Re- Very many thanks to our external consultants Leigh of the top Departments in Britain, it is recognized gion 2015 and WON it in March, beating 21 teams from Truelove and Bernie Vining, whose help has been ab- amongst the elite in the world. Beginning as a De- other leading universities in 10 different countries! It solutely crucial! Many thanks are also due to our Geo- partment of Geology from the amalgamation of three was a tremendous achievement, which took them on to science MSc students and staff members Jürgen Adam, small Departments in Univerity of London colleges the global finals in Denver at the end of May. There they Pete Burgess, Ken McClay, Said Al Tofaif, Ian Watkinson, Bedford, Chelsea and King’s it has grown to become a competed against the best in the world, the 11 regional Dave Waltham, Lloyd White, Nanpan Vuructu, Dan Le Department of Earth Sciences. winners from over 100 teams. The regional winners in- Heron and Duncan Macgregor, who attended numerous cluded a team from Curtin University, Perth, Australia, presentation dry-runs and provided excellent feedback coached by Chris Elders, who won the competition for as well as “grilling” the team with a variety of questions the SE Asia–Australia region. Our MSc student team – this was invaluable for preparing our team for their then went on to WIN the global final of the Imperial presentations in Prague and Denver.

1 Department of Earth Sciences Conferences

CONTENTS 3. IGAC workshop – Martin King The Future of Sequence Stratigraphy: Evolution or Revolution? – Dilshad Ali 4. AGU Fall Meeting – Alfend Rudyawan et al. – 5. AGU Fall meeting: 3D Terrain Modeller – Alfend Rudyawan 6. Collapse caldera course and workshop, Taupo New Zealand – John Browning 7. EGU General Assembly – Lucia Pérez-Díaz and John Browning 8. Southeast Asia Research Group at IPC in Jakarta and AAPG in Kota Kinabalu – Amy Gough

9. EGU Summer School: “Structural Analysis of Crystalline Rocks” – Lloyd White 10. PESGB Africa Conference

Home Events Field Trips Fieldwork People Research

2 Chemical Atmosphere-Snow-Sea The Future of Sequence Stratigra- Ice Interactions: taking the next big phy: Evolution or Revolution? step in field, lab and modelling Dilshad Ali Cambridge, UK 13–15 October 2014 Attending a conference is a good opportunity for gain- Martin King ing experience, meeting leading researchers in the field, and exploring how techniques in the subject area An international workshop was held in Trinity Hall might be applied to your own research. “The Future of Cambridge in October 2014. The 3-day workshop was Sequence Stratigraphy: Evolution or Revolution?” was a successful International Global Atmospheric Chem- Reports from station and ice breaker personnel about the title of the William Smith Meeting at the Geologi- istry (IGAC) meeting that produces states of science the capacities of their platforms and how to get on cal Society of London, held on 22–23 September, 2014. reviews (e.g., http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/spe- these platforms was a significant session and particu- At this meeting there was a lot of discussion about dif- cial_issue275.html)). Over 70 participants from at least larly important for those attempting to do science on ferent aspects of sequence stratigraphy, including new 15 countries attended the workshop, which follows on the platforms of another country. The closer integration terminology, predictive power and new ideas (e.g., from the successful meeting in New York two years ago. of modellers, laboratory scientists and field scientists auto-stratigraphy). Many people from various coun- The workshop was organized by British Antarctic Sur- was an important target as well. tries and oil companies came to exchange ideas about vey with an international organization committee in- The audience was mixed, with field/lab and modelling the topic. The meeting started with a review of basic cluding the author. The purpose of the meeting was to expertise from atmospheric, sea ice and snow scientists principles, revisiting old issues of terminology and as- review the current state of the science and to produce a and biologists. sumptions, and progressed at the end to new trends of state of the science (and how to move forward) 2- page Trinity Hall was a fantastic location for the workshop, auto-stratigraphy. New terminologies and workflows report for hopefully Science or Nature. which included a tasty formal meal in Corpus Christi were suggested by members of Exxon Company (Peter The first two days of the meeting reported on the influ- Hall followed by a significant number of beers in the Vail and colleagues at Exxon initiated the concept back ence of Arctic clouds (mixed phase) in the Arctic energy infamous Eagle Pub. in 1977), and the first day was ended by a lecture from budget, laboratory studies exploring the interaction of Professor Ron Steel (University of Texas at Austin and ice with chemical constituents, the latest results from Aberdeen University) on ‘The Sequence Stratigraphy central Antarctica, Greenland and field campaigns, and Revolution’. The second day focused more on autogenic results from sea ice campaigns looking at haloform processes; these are processes like delta-lobe switch- coming from sea ice. There were reports from the new ing or delta autoretreat that are intrinsic to the depo- sea ice facilities, and some guy from RHUL talked about sitional system and produce changes in strata without the complexities of light and sea ice and the different any change in external factors like sea-level or climate. considerations needed for photochemistry, photobiol- Tetsuji Muto gave an excellent talk on this topic based ogy and modern climate change. There were some brief Back on more than 10 years of experimental evidence. At the comments on Martian astrobiology. end of the conference, the convenors, Peter Burgess, A significant part of the workshop was spent with dis- Philip Allen, and Paul Wright asked how the predictive cussion and tutorials on new opportunities and money power of sequence stratigraphy can be improved. Like for the creation of a new project in the Future Earth many Geological Society of London meetings, this Wil- Programme (http://www.icsu.org/future-earth) and a liam Smith conference should lead to production of a session on how to get large EU projects off the ground, Special Publication of the Geological Society of London all being very useful. – we await this book with barely contained excitement.

3 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 15–20 December 2014 Alfend Rudyawan with Eldert Advokaat, Tim Breitfeld, Giovanni Pezzati, Sebastian Zimmer- mann, Lloyd White and Robert Hall At the end of 2014, AGU (American Geophysical Union) had its 47th Fall Meeting. It was held at the Moscone Centre in downtown San Francisco, California. The venue can be easily reached from San Francisco airport by taxi or other public transportation. With more than 26,000 attendees from all over the world, this meeting is one of the best venues to present our recent research Tim poses in front of the empty Moscone West venue prior to findings to fellow members of the scientific community registration. and to gain insights to the latest cutting edge research. The numbers from the meeting are amazing. Three ister late. It is better to register early before the confer- large venues host 17,000 different sessions, 23,000 ac- ence starts and we saved a lot of time for the talks and cepted oral and poster presentations, 250 exhibitors posters. At the end of the registration you will have a and more than 50 career advancement opportunities copy of a rather thick booklet with the meeting infor- Eldert, Giovanni and Tim getting ready to put up which were spread over a busy five days from 15th–20th mation – no information on each abstract though, but the poster December 2014. Each day was full of many interesting I can imagine with 23,000 accepted posters and talks event in the exhibition hall. Earth science topics from Atmospheric to Ocean Sci- it will be thicker than one’s thesis. This made planning ences and Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior to Earth and important to get the most out of the conference. Since In the poster halls, both in Moscone South and West Planetary Surface process that I found relevant to our there are a lot of sessions with interesting topics I found Hall, there were different kinds of hectic situations. Department. it quite challenging to find and attend a particular talk. Every morning hundreds of poster presenters were I am very pleased that our Department was involved Sometimes they are not only presented in a different ready to discuss their research with us using more in the meeting. Seven personnel from the South Asia room but also quite often in a different building and than 35 rows of double sided poster booths. They are Research Group (Robert, Lloyd, Tim, Eldert, Sebastian, could take you 5–10 minutes of good walking – maybe divided into two groups, presenting in the morning or Giovanni and me) took part in the conference with six slightly faster during the heavy rain (because you have afternoon. But even if you are scheduled in the after- posters and three oral presentations from our current to run!). To help us arrive at the right place there were noon, you more than likely will be busy answering ques- research in Indonesia, Malaysia and the region. There big screen monitors outside every room with the talks tions from fellow scientists who happened to be there were also our fellow PhD students among the attend- rundown. There is also smartphone application for when you were putting your poster up, and based on ees, Miguel and Giulia, and colleagues (Marta) present- the tech savvy attendees designed for the conference our experience, a few of them kept coming back to your ing their posters and talks. which enabled you to browse through your interests poster. The conference started on Monday and, as we expect- and give all the information you need with a little help There were more than 250 exhibitors in the exhibition ed, the registration process was quite lengthy for most from the internet. The first of five busy days full of inter- hall who entertained us with their latest inventions and of the attendees who had just arrived or decided to reg- esting sessions and topics was ended by an ice breaker products in science and offered lots of free souvenirs

4 Poster hall at the Moscone South venue. It looks very busy (A) Panoramic view from the Fisherman’s Wharf looking at the Can you see the fault in this image taken from the United from the lobby Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island Airlines flight to Los Angeles in the distance. on top of the Western Transverse Range? from as small as a pin to as large as a poster calendar. (B) The World’s most famous cable car at the Many university booths offered various study pro- Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco I would like to say thanks for the support from the grammes and their excellent research projects. There SEARG and its consortium members for the whole con- were also several company recruiting stands offering Car. It was an enjoyable ride but beware there can be ference trip and help from Dominique Tanner in prepar- placement opportunities and career advice. It was al- long queues. I would suggest always bringing a raincoat ing the posters. ways an exciting challenge to find a place to get your or umbrella with you as the weather can change quickly lunch without a long queue at lunch break. Agility and and often it rains heavily. perfect timing are important. I learned that if you can Although jetlag from long haul flights is almost una- 3D Terrain Modeller and Google break earlier than most people you will avoid the queue voidable, as an experience for a first timer like me, the Earth Engine at the AGU and be able to return to your talks in time. conference was really rewarding. I met fellow students Fall Meeting When you have some spare time before, during or af- and scientists who share the same interests in the sub- ter the conference there are a few places to visit in San ject that I am working on and received a variety of feed- Alfend Rudyawan Francisco. You can take part in the activities arranged back, some of which I had not thought of before. For There was one exhibitor in particular at the AGU Fall by the AGU or spend time simply walking and asking me, and I am sure for many other people too, a lot of Meeting that caught my eye; it was University of Alaska around. The conference venue is within walking dis- the talks and posters were inspiring. I got to see many Fairbanks (UAF) which developed a real time 3D con- tance or a short trip on public transport to the down- interesting presentations and as a bonus I met a few touring device using an Xbox Kinect device and open town area, the famous Pier 39 in the San Francisco Port Indonesian attendees for a nostalgic reunion. It cer- source program and normal, white, reflective sand. They area where we can also visit the Alcatraz Prison, and the tainly is surely something not to be missed if you have called it Hands-on Virtual Reality 3-D Terrain Modeller Golden Gate Bridge. A little further exploring will take the chance to go in December this year. On the return (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqj4gxCE128). us to the Muir and Redwood National Parks to see some flight, I would suggest to return via Los Angeles in day- It basically scans the surface and feeds the proof the oldest living trees and geology. Tim and I went time because the view of the Transverse Range and gram with data that enabled it to manipulate the to ride in the world’s most famous San Francisco Cable Sierra Nevada Mountain Range is breathtaking! topography and even simulate rain via a connected pro-

5 ers, and scientists just with an exchange of your email address. There are also a number of applications that are ready to be used such as: detecting deforestation, estimating forest biomass and carbon. Find here http:// earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest for an example dataset used in global forest change. However, if we are keen enough we can cus- tomise the application with certain algorithms to satisfy our needs. With the recently available Landsat 8 dataset, there is a huge potential use of the application and they said that all of us are invited for research collaboration.

Collapse Caldera course and 3D Terrain Modeller using loose, reflective white sands. We can play with the sands and the 3D modeller will create contours workshop – Taupo New Zealand from the topography. Rain and water (blue) can be simulated John Browning just by covering the topography with our hand. I was awarded £900 from the Department’s research jector. It responded almost immediately to any altera- committee which enabled me to attend the 2014 tion in the topography and intended simulations, so we IAVCEI organized Collapse Caldera course and work- could play with the sand and it will recreate the con- shop held at Taupo in New Zealand. The meeting’s set- tours at will and the simulated rains can fill up streams ting at the boundary of one of the world’s largest cal- and basins we created with the sand. It clearly has the dera complexes was ideal. Each morning conference potential to develop more to suit our scientific needs, participants were treated to views across the lake to the teaching material or even as a brilliant display in the active Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe, the latter made foyer for our guests (or for us) with a relatively cheap famous by its depiction as Mt Doom in the Lord of the budget. The exhibitor said we can discuss with them Ring’s trilogy. The workshop consisted of three full days anytime about the terrain modeller and the program of presentations and posters and three field trips. These John at Mount Ngauruhoe which is available on their website (http://www.alaska. trips highlighted the numerous calderas which lie within scientists and those newly working on calderas. The edu/epscor/highlights/). the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Interesting field sites included the inspection of incredibly thick ignimbrite deposits, course was presented by leading experts working on There was also a reminder of Google Earth Engine as well as post-caldera silicic domes, faults associated calderas within New Zealand and elsewhere. (http://earthengine.google.org/) where we can get with the regional rifting and geothermal sites. I found both the course and the workshop very useful cloud-free Landsat images from all over the world for and I thank the research committee for providing funds more than 40 years and also available as time-lapse im- We were fortunate to be given a tour of the Geothermal which allowed me to attend. It was also really fantastic ages. Unfortunately they are not available for the polar power plant at Ngatamariki. I gave an oral presentation to be able to visit such a beautiful and inspiring coun- area. The prototype was launched in 2009 and now has of my recent paper which was well received. Prior to try as New Zealand, and meet researchers who I do not been improved with many interesting and helpful fea- the workshop IAVCEI organized a course specifically on normally have the chance to interact with from Japan, tures. They make it online-ready for students, research- caldera processes, attended predominantly by young Australia, USA and New Zealand.

6 Graeme and Amy discussing Amy’s poster Lucia and Graeme in front of their poster John with Kyriaki Drymoni, University of Athens, and their attention of many geoscientists working in a variety of poster on Magma Chambers Euoropean Geosciences Union 2015 fields, demonstrating the importance of plate tectonic Lucia Pérez-Díaz research as a framework in which smaller scale studies The EGU General Assembly took place in Vienna the can be put into context. week of the 12th to the 17th of April 2015, bringing to- Amy presented the new plate kinematic model of East gether over 11,000 participants from 108 countries. “A Africa and the Northwest Indian Ocean that she devel- voyage through scales”, this year’s theme for the con- oped during the first year of her PhD and is now utilising ference, gave us the chance to contemplate the Earth’s it to model the intraplate stress field of Africa through variability and complexity at a variety of spatial and time, generated by plate boundary forces. temporal scales, somewhat forcing us to think outside the box and encouraging us to develop a greater en- Graeme and I presented a new kinematic model for the gagement in interdisciplinary research, strengthening opening of the South Atlantic Ocean, which has been our connections with other institutions. recently published in Tectonics. It was a very busy week and a great chance to present John Browning our work to a broader audience. The Department’s re- In April 2015 I attended the EGU General Assembly in search was represented by a number of PhD students Vienna where I presented five papers, four as first au- (Arnaud, John, Rebecca, Giovanni, Amy and myself) thor; one as a talk and the rest as posters. My talk pre- John with Rick Wall, UCL and University of Liverpool, and their and some members of staff (Marta Pérez-Gussinyé, Ja- sented results from experiments carried out at UCL and poster on Investigating Tension in the Laboratory son Morgan, Graeme Eagles). It was a great chance for demonstrated insights into the mechanisms of cooling- the University of Athens. My other posters presented those of us working as part of the COMPASS Consor- induced fracturing in volcanic rocks. Two of the post- numerical modelling results concerned with deforma- tium to give the group some well-deserved publicity, ers were on experimental fracture mechanics related tion and stress interactions at caldera volcanoes. This and get something back from the Assembly, especially to tension and more specifically failure mechanisms at was a very busy but ultimately valuable conference, I during the poster session discussions. Both mine and the boundaries of magma chambers: these were col- am thankful to VMSG (Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Amy’s posters on plate tectonic modelling attracted the laborative studies with UCL, University of Liverpool and Group) for providing me with a conference bursary.

7 The conference was a great chance to discuss ideas with the Lloyd and I debating the main points raised by the talks with Southeast Asia Research Group top researchers in the area. (L-R) Manuel Pubellier, Robert fellow delegates at the group break-out session Hall, Claude Rangin, Chris Morely, and past SEARG students and discussion. (SEARG) at IPC in Jakarta and AAPG Duncan Witts and Moyra Wilson. from his PhD at Royal Holloway looking at the ‘Age and in Koat Kinabalu SEARG at AAPG Kota Kinabalu Character of Basement Rocks in SW Borneo: New In- Amy Gough sights from Ar-Ar Dating of Pinoh Metamorphic Group Amy Gough Rocks.’ It was a great conference for catching up with On the 21st and 22nd of May, Robert Hall and Lloyd After leaving our biennial consortium meeting in Ja- (and in my case, meeting) past SEARG members, in- White attended the 39th Indonesia Petroleum karta we waved off Ben Jost, Christof Liebermann, Max cluding Moyra Wilson, who gave a presention on mixed Association (IPA) convention and exhibition 2015 in Webb, and their counterparts from ITB, Darmawan carbonate-siliciclastic systems with Duncan Witts. Jakarta. On top of a range of interesting talks regard- Ramade and Herwin Tiranda, as they set off on a few ing the geology of SE Asia, there was a presentation by Following on from the conference, Robert Hall left for months fieldwork for their projects. Ramade will be Duncan Witts, an ex-Royal Holloway and SEARG stu- Kuala Lumpur, whilst the remaining four of us departed joining us at Royal Holloway later this year, and we look dent. Duncan is currently working for CGG. on a short fieldtrip around Sabah. For the first two days forward to welcoming him when he arrives. As they set we travelled around the Kota Kinabalu area, looking On the final day of the IPA conference, nine members off to prepare for fieldwork, Robert Hall, Lloyd White, at the remarkably well-exposed submarine fan depos- of SEARG (Robert Hall, Lloyd White, Amy Gough, Do- Juliane Hennig, Tim Breitfeld and I departed for Kota its of the Crocker Formation. After this, we travelled minique Tanner, Juliane Hennig, Tim Breitfeld, Ben Jost, Kinabalu, Borneo to attend the AAPG GTW conference. northwards to Mount Kinabalu National Park where we Christof Leibermann, and Max Webb) attended their bi- On the first day of the conference, Robert Hall gave a observed the basement peridotites, the submarine de- annual consortium meeting in Jakarta where talks were keynote speech entitled ‘Trenches, Troughs and Un- posits of the Trusmadi and Crocker formations, and the delivered to company members from a range of ongo- conformities; Collision, Contraction and Extension: Kinabalu Granite. We stayed overnight in the nearby ing postdoc, PhD and Msc projects. All the talks were South China Sea, Borneo-Palawan and Sulu Sea’ which town of Ranau, and had the pleasure of watching the well received, and valuable feedback was given for each proved highly interesting and informative, and sparked sun rise over the unique landscape of Mount Kinabalu. of the current research topics. a hearty discussion between the delegates. The follow- On the drive back from the park, we kept an eye out for ing day Tim Breitfeld gave an equally thought-provok- Rafflesia, the world’s largest flower, but sadly we didn’t Back ing talk on the ‘Proto-South China Sea and South China find any in bloom. Shortly after we left Sabah, a5.9 Sea Early History: A View from Sarawak.’ Alongside magnitude earthquake hit the Mount Kinabalu region, this, ex-SEARG student Lorin Davies presented work the strongest earthquake in the area since 1976.

8 EGU Summer School: “Structural Analysis of Crystalline Rocks” Lloyd White I spent the last week of August in the Italian Alps with the 3rd EGU Summer School on “Structural Analysis Alpine Hut of Crystalline Rocks”. The course consisted of spending three days in the field, at the foot of a glacier in the Nevessee (Lago di Neves) region of Italy, followed by four very full days of lectures and student poster presentations. The course was run by Neil Manktelow (ETH Zurich) and Giorgio Pennacchioni (Padua) who have been working in the region for a very long time, investigating how ductile shear zones develop from very fine brittle faults. Other academics from various parts of the world were involved in the lecture series that followed the field work [Stephen Cox (ANU, Australia), Luca Menegon (Plymouth), Michael Stipp (GEOMAR, Kiel), Philippe Conclaves (Universite de Franche-Comte), Dani Schmid (Oslo) and Luiz Morales (Potsdam)]. This included talks on various topics from brittle fault development, fluid rock interactions during deformation, numerical modelling of deformation and microstructures. Students Magma Mingling and postdocs were also encouraged to present their own posters and the relaxing environment meant that there was considerable discussion of everyone’s work. EGU Summer School The highlight was spending several days crammed into Calcite harder than quartz a showerless Alpine hiking lodge with a bunch of stinky geologists (above). The lodge owners managed to keep everyone warm, well fed and in good spirits despite some shocking weather on the first two days in the field (right). We were also treated to spectacular structures and scenery on our final day (Following page). I would encourage any structurally inclined, hard- rock postgraduate or early career geologist to attend this course if they choose to run this summer school for a fourth time.

9 Paired Shear Zones Paired deformed dykes

EGU Summer School group by the glacier

Back

10 PESGB Africa Conference

Amy Tuck-Martin discusses her poster Amy Tuck-Martin and Lucia Perez Diaz in front of their posters

Competing with our 30th Anniversary Symposium on 3rd September was the PESGB Africa conference, held at the Business Design Centre in London. Lucia Perez Diaz and two other postgrads, Amy Tuck-Martin (PhD student) and Toya Latham (Petroleum MSc student) attended to display their Royal Holloway posters, which proved quite popular! Quite a large number of former Royal Holloway MSc students also took part to present their work, particularly from Tullow Oil.

11 Department of Earth Sciences Events

CONTENTS 13. AAPG Imperial Barrel Award European Finals 2015 – MSc Petroleum Geoscience Team 14. Imperial Barrel Award Victory – Ching, Kim, Stuart, Ben and Arran 16. Inaugural Lecture by Professor Jason Morgan: How Serpentinization during the Bending of Tectonic Plates Plays a Key Role in Earth’s Carbon Cycle. Report by David Waltham 17. Women in Science Lecture by Professor Lynne Frostick: Why do we need women scientists and engineers? – Report by Derek Blundell 18. Lyell Society activities and Lyell Day – Report by Niall Mullins 19. What’s in your tap water? – Dave Alderton 19. Industry Mentor Scheme and the Linkedin Group – Howard Falcon-Lang 20. UN Climate Conference 2015: hope for civilisation or a lot of hot air? – Neil F. Adams 21. Andrew Scott’s Retirement Party – Derek Blundell and Margaret Collinson 23. Earth Sciences’ Team Sappho win their division in the “Round the Island Race” – Marianne Brett 25. Three MSc symposia – Derek Blundell 30. Rocks and the Art of Geology: Valedictory Lecture by Martin Menzies – Report by Derek Blundell

Home Conferences Field Trips Fieldwork People Research

12 AAPG Imperial Barrel Award satisfactory answers! We had even managed to predict a couple of the questions, allowing us to be well pre- European Finals 2015 pared with our answers. We even got the chance to flick MSc Petroleum Geoscience Team through our appendix slides! The Imperial Barrel Award programme is a competi- The role of Nicola Scarselli, our Faculty advisor, was tion run by AAPG (American Association of Petroleum key! He was so great at being patient with us but also Geologists); an annual competition where teams are pushed us pretty hard to get things done! He was al- required to give a 25-minute presentation assessing ways on top of organizing meetings with Bernie Vin- the hydrocarbon prospectivity of an area from the data ing and Leigh Trulove (our external advisors). He was provided. The aim of the competition is to give a great not allowed to be in the presentation room with us so learning experience to students allowing them to un- he met us afterwards and we decided to stick around dertake a workflow similar to that used in the upstream and watch last year’s winners IFP present to see what oil and gas environment. The competition is divided we were up against. Their presentation was good and into regions across the globe with the winners in each The Royal Holloway MSc Team. they had performed some really interesting analysis. category going on to compete in Denver at the end of L to R: Arran Waterman, Ben Said and Stuart Munro at the We didn’t feel like we were too far behind – we were back, Low Wan Ching and Kimberley Dunn in front May just prior to the start of the annual AAPG confer- still in with a chance. We then decided to change and night owl Arran who had sat up revising possible ques- ence. In the European Region this year there were 22 head into Prague to explore the city as it was lovely and tions (in the bath, of all places) unable to sleep most competing teams from 10 different countries in what sunny, so we found the metro and headed to the town of the night before. We were given the opportunity to was anticipated to be a hotly contested competition. centre. Prague was very pretty, lots of ornate buildings practise in a conference hall before our presenta- and stalls selling souvenirs on the bridges over the river. Royal Holloway has entered a team for a number of tion and Nicola Scarselli was able to give us some last years, reaching 2nd place back in 2012, so we were keen minute words of wisdom – ‘Smile’, ‘Use the Pointer’ and That evening we relaxed around the bar at the hotel be- to show we could do it again. Despite a very busy few ‘Mention geology!’ Sounds simple but under pressure fore getting a relatively early night! The next morning months building up to the Imperial Barrel Award, with it’s amazing the silly things you forget. We were pre- was taken up with sleeping, then wandering around the endless late nights, thoughts of winning such a compe- senting to a panel of 4 industry judges with a wealth of town and we even managed to watch a few more pres- tition were just a nervous dream. A team made up of experience as well as a few students and advisors. entations from the other teams – again all very inter- Arran Waterman, Kimberley Dunn, Ben Said, Low Wan esting and it was great to see how other teams had ap- Once in the presentation room we were introduced and Ching and Stuart Munro set off for Prague on the morn- proached the analysis. After lunch we quickly changed given the start signal – Ben introduced us confidently ing of 18th March 2015 ready to present our analysis of back into our suits ready for the announcement of the and it definitely helped to calm the rest of us down. the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, largely based on Pet- final 4 teams – and we’d got through! We were all really Arran then stepped in to talk the judges through the rel (Schlumberger’s exploration and production soft- excited and thrilled to have got into the top 4 teams in tectonic elements, which was met with nods from the ware), which proved to be of great help.The Wednesday Europe. The team names were pulled out of a hat in or- Judges. After this came the petroleum systems from evening prior to the beginning of the competition was der to determine the order in which we would present Kim, plays and lead evaluation by Ching and Stuart taken up with practises and last minute adjustments for the final that afternoon. Aberdeen University was up and finally our conclusions and recommendations be- to the presentation, but it seemed to all be coming to- first, followed by VU Amsterdam, then the University of ing rounded off by Ben. We’d done it! It had been one of gether. We were within our 25 minute time limit and Manchester, leaving us to present last. the best performances we had done and although we the presentation was looking slick and months of hard were slightly faster than expected, we had covered all We took the time to run through everything again and work seemed to be paying off. The following morning the key points and were pleased with how it had gone. slightly modify our talk to answer the questions we got we got up early enough to have a few runs through The questions were tough but we had answers for them asked the day before, before heading down towards and wake up properly, especially for our resident and the judges’ nods seemed to suggest we had given the conference centre. We all felt relatively calm, we

13 Imperial Barrel Award Victory Ching, Kim, Stuart, Ben and Arran The Imperial Barrel Award Programme (IBA) is an annual prospective basin evaluation competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world organized by the American Association of Petro- leum Geologists (AAPG). In this global competition, university teams analyze a dataset (geology, geophysics, land, production infrastructure, and other relevant materials) in the eight weeks prior to their regional competition. This year the competition included over 100 teams from 11 regions. Each team delivered their The team relaxing in the sunshine Beside the Vitava River – Charles Bridge results in a 25-minute presentation to a panel of indus- in thebackground try experts. The judges selected the winning team on had got this far, we had a good presentation and now the basis of the technical quality, clarity and originality we were ready to give it our best shot for first place! of presentation. The project assigned to our team was The atmosphere was far different this time – we were on the Taranaki Basin, offshore New Zealand. now presenting to a couple of hundred people and 8 in- One of the big challenges of this project was time man- dustry judges. The presentation once again went really agement. A normal weekday throughout the proc- well, although there was a notable step up in question- ess included attending our MSc classes from 10am to ing and a fine-combed examination of our conclusions 5pm and work on the IBA project after classes and at – however, again we managed to answer them and if weekends. This meant we had to juggle with attending anything we over-answered them in our eagerness to classes, complete weekly course assignments and work show off everything we knew. on our IBA project all at the same time – not forgetting The awards ceremony was on soon after we had fin- that our dataset was very large with 215 seismic lines ished our talk. When the time came for the 4th place from 11 different seismic surveys to interpret! to be announced all our fingers were crossed – we re- After finishing the class at 5pm, we would head straight A quick lunch before getting back to work! ally wanted to be placed above 4th, having got this to the computer lab to work on the project and camp far! VU Amsterdam were called up – we had made the incredibly close between us and Manchester. Unfortu- there till late at night. The last few weeks close to the top 3! Next came first and we only needed to hear the nately we had been unable to see their presentation so competition, the work intensified as we put our pres- ‘Royal….’ at the beginning to know we had made it – we will never know what the differences were! entation results together and went through several dry and there it was! We couldn’t believe it. Huge grins and AAPG had put on an amazing traditional Czech meal for runs, very often practicing till late at night so that our hugs all around as we headed up to collect the medal us in the evening, with dancing and music and endless presentation ran smoothly! No matter how hard we and giant certificate. We had done it – we had made wine refills! It was great to talk with the other teams worked there was always more to be done, right up to first place, won a $5,000 cheque and most importantly from Europe and make contacts and talk about our ex- the day of the competition. booked a place in the Global Imperial Barrel Award fi- perience. It was a really amazing experience and we are Another challenge we faced was to work together as nals in Denver next month. We thanked the judges and all still buzzing – its not over yet though – Denver here a team. The Taranaki basin is a really interesting and didn’t stop grinning all evening. Apparently it had been we come! complex area, with the geology ranging from volcanics,

14 fault interaction and oil generating coals. This resulted in many different interpretations between us, leading to healthy debates and disagreements on how to develop our ideas. However, in the end, we always worked as a team and discussed the ideas together to come up with the most feasible interpretation and reach a conclusion which we were all able to support. The strongest point of our team was our incredible bond together, as we became close friends through the process, and how well we managed to build up confidence to present the work in front of -the judg es. From the beginning of the project we worked really well together as a team despite all coming from very different backgrounds. When we started off the project, different tasks were assigned according to in- The winning team visited Dinosaur Ridge in the Morrison fossil area, just west of Denver dividual strengths. However, we all undertook different Nicola Scarselli relaxing with the team tasks as different priorities arose, allowing us to get the The team: L to R – Ben Said, Kimberley Dunn, Aaran Waterman, Stuart Monroe and Low Wan Ching work done effectively, enabling everyone to know a bit of each other’s work, and all of us had a bird’s-eye view really was an incredible experience and we would en- Nicola Scarselli writes “ The winning of this prestigious of the whole project. courage anyone who is able to take part in the competi- award is a huge achievement for the team as well as Having presented twice in the European region finals tion, it is a steep and quick learning curve of team work, for the Department of Earth Sciences and Royal Hollo- in Prague in front of a large crowd definitely helped to geology, the petroleum industry and presentation skills. way. It clearly indicates that our College provides top- build up our confidence in public speaking. The adrena- We are now currently busy preparing our individual MSc notch teaching and tutoring in geology and petroleum line rush of presenting live in front of 100 students and 8 theses, which we need to submit in early August in or- geoscience. Given the fact that IBA competition is com- judges does make a huge difference and really helped in der for us to graduate in September. The $20,000 prize monly dominated by US universities, the success of our preparing us for the world finals in Denver. By the time we got from AAPG will most likely be used to improve team in Denver is even more notable – after five long we presented in Prague we were proud of everything the MSc course facilities for future Masters students. years the IBA trophy has returned to Europe! The victo- we had achieved and had confidence in our conclusions Some of the money will go towards our end-of-course ry also crowns the 30th anniversary year of the MSc Pe- and, regardless of the outcome, we were convinced we barbeque celebration and some drinks may follow at troleum Geoscience Programme that will be celebrated had completed the work to a high standard. We had the end of the year with our fellow coursemates! in our Department during the first week of September. Again, well done Ching, Kim, Stuart, Ben and Arran, it definitely put a lot into the project, and had learnt an We would like to thank Nicola Scarselli, Bernie Vining is going to be a very hard task to find students as smart incredible amount in the process. and Leigh Trulove for their expert advice, and to eve- and hard working as you for next year’s competition! “ Being announced as the Global Champions of the Impe- ryone else at Royal Holloway who challenged us and rial Barrel Award was an incredible feeling. We had seen helped us throughout the process. We are also very some of the other presentations and were amazed at grateful to the AAPG and sponsors who enabled us to the standard of work done by the other teams. Walking take part in the competition and hosted such a great on to the stage to collect the prize still feels surreal! It event. Back

15 How Serpentinization during the Photos by Kev Bending of Tectonic Plates Plays a shrinks the volume by the same amount and the plate Key Role in Earth’s Carbon Cycle used to pictures of subducting slabs bending at a trench straightens. It’s a nice idea and one backed up by con- and then diving straight into the deep mantle. It looks siderable evidence (e.g. sharp drops in seismic velocity Inaugural Lecture by Professor Jason obvious that plates are elastically bent during colli- associated with serpentinization and clear evidence of Morgan sion and then elastically straighten once they’re below the required fluid-conducting faults near to trenches). the obstacle. However, as Jason explained; it simply Tuesday 27th January I feel there’s a slight chicken and egg problem regarding can’t work that way. The driving forces (principally the the relationship between the faults and the bending but Windsor Building Auditorium weight of the cold, subducting slab) are simply not large that’s probably just because I missed something in the In this time of climate change linked to increas- enough to bend the plate. Something else is doing the flow of interesting, new ideas. Amongst these ideas, ing carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, it is increas- job. Even more remarkably, if the bending is not elastic the one that took my breath away was that, if correct, ingly important to understand how carbon is out- then, after subduction, the plate should stay bent and this process massively increases the flux of water (and gassed from and regassed into Earth’s interior. Jason ocean trenches should be underlain by a curled up plate dissolved CO which comes along for the ride) between Morgan presented an important recently discovered 2 looking like some gigantic buried gastropod on our to- the ocean and the lithosphere. This would change player in this cycle, namely the carbonation that hap- mographic sections. Volcanism would then be on the our view of the water and carbon cycles completely. pens when tectonic plates bend before they sink into subducting-plate side and there’d be no Benioff zone. Time scales would fall drastically (e.g. the time taken the Earth beneath the “Ring of Fire” volcanic arcs. “Why does subducting lithosphere bend (and unbend)?” to cycle one complete atmosphere’s worth of carbon Serpentine is not only a beautiful building stone is therefore one of those deceptively simple questions would drop from millions of years to 10s of thousands and industrial material, it may also help us solve the that forces genuinely new thinking. Jasons’s own solu- of years). These changes would, in turn, undermine our problem of ridding our atmosphere of excess man- tion is that the bending is in large part caused by vol- current understanding of processes from plate-tecton- made carbon dioxide. ume increase during serpentinization. The reaction of ics to climate feedback. As Euan Nisbet said, in his vote Report by David Waltham olivine and seawater to produce serpentine increases of thanks, Jason is asking fundamental questions about After Jason’s fascinating lecture, Andrew Scott ap- volume in the upper part of the plate and this natu- how the Earth works and showing that subduction, in proached me and said, “it just shows how misleading rally bends the plate downwards. The reverse reaction particular, may be even more interesting and important a simple cartoon can be”. This was spot on. We’re all at depth, where serpentine is no longer stable, then than we believed.

16 science and engineering there are still few women role models in senior positions, particularly in universities and industry. So why are women not attracted to some subjects? Why do they not rise to the top of their pro- fessions? What can we do to change things? And indeed why does it matter?

Report by Derek Blundell On 26th February, Lynne Frostick gave a superb, thought-provoking lecture on “Why do we need female scientists and engineers?” As a lecturer here when the Department began in 1985, she established the teaching of clastic sedimentology In many ways, therefore, this was a perfect inaugural and researched on fluvial processes in rift environments lecture; one full of provocative ideas to explore over a (involving the complete dynamic environment). This Lynne Frostick with the Principal and Derek Blundell glass of wine in the Windsor Building foyer afterwards. was a key element in our new MSc course. She Initiated tion they deserved. Nowadays there are no limits to But, as Paul Hogg explained in his introduction, this and led our flagship field course in the Southern- Pyr their involvement in STEM subjects but their num- was actually a very unusual inaugural. Jason was first enees, which features strongly to the present day. bers do not match their male counterparts: far fewer awarded a chair, 23 years ago, by the Scripps Institution Since moving to Hull in 1990 her career has taken off. in engineering but far more in medicine. The rea- of Oceanography. Fortunately, since Scripps don’t do She is currently Professor of Physical Geography at the sons for this disparity are unclear, with various pos- inaugural lectures, their loss was our gain. University of Hull, having stepped down as Hull’s Pro- sible causes: poor careers advice at sixth form level, Vice Chancellor for Research so that she can “get back social attitudes and aspirations amongst teenagers and Why do we need women to the lab”. On the way she was awarded many distinc- a lack of appropriate role models. Lynne pointed to a scientists and engineers? tions, including: President of the Geological Society in little-known statistic that women get better paid in 2008, a pinnacle of attainment in the academic world; jobs based on STEM subjects than in other areas, which Women in Science Lecture by Outstanding Women of Achievement Award from the might encourage more recruits if more widely known. Professor Lynne Frostick UK Resource Centre in 2008; Honorary Doctorate of She pointed to the reduction in the proportion of women In the century since Marie Curie did her pioneering Science at the degree ceremony at Royal Holloway in to men with increasing seniority, the reasons for which work in physics many things have changed for women July 2014. are also unclear. It may be a historical leftover from in tertiary education. Women can now go to any Uni- She chairs the Government’s expert group for when they graduated 30 years or so ago, but apparently versity and read any available subject, including the Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer- a number of women decide to stop work in mid career, whole range of sciences and engineering. In some sub- ing and Mathematics) subjects and her experience though not for family reasons. Perhaps it is a lifestyle jects which were the preserve of men throughout the there formed the basis for her lecture. She began choice. Lynne ended by making a strong case for the 20th century, such as medicine, women now make up by explaining that women have worked in science need to do something about the present situation, be- more than half the undergraduate population. Yet this for thousands of years but their numbers were cause of the shortages of well-trained engineers – and has not meant that women are rising to fill more than few. Starting in the 19th Century (remember Mary geophysicists! – that can only be filled by recruiting half the senior positions in this area. In some subjects Anning and the fossils of the Jurassic coast), women more women. numbers of female undergraduates are still pitifully low contributed increasingly to scientific research, even As a fine role model herself, she is clearly – notably computer science and engineering. Across though they may not have received the recogni- determined to do something about it!

17 Lyell Geoscience Society Activities The event featured invited guests: Niall Mullins (Hon Secretary) Helayna Wade (Alumna) - Bam Ritchies Lyell Lecture Series Pierrick Rouillard - Novas Consulting Sean Pearce (Alumnus) - Atkins Peter Styles, Professor of Applied and Environmental Graham Mayhew - Spectrum Geophysics at Keele University, presented the fourth Bernie Vining & Chris Burns (Alumni) - Baker Hughes lecture in the Lyell Geoscience Society’s Lecture Series on Thursday 4th December. Peter’s presentation was Lyell Day Symposium, 27th February Annual Lyell Dinner Dance 2015 ‘Shale Gas... What the frack is that all about?’ The talk Speakers was extremely enjoyed by all. Picture Gallery Dr Dave Alderton - Royal Holloway University of Lon- 27th February Professor David Siveter, an expert on Cambrian inver- don: “Introductory lecture on Geology and the British tebrates and emeritus professor at the University of Economy” Leicester, travelled to RHUL to give a talk on ‘Cambrian Dr Richard Shaw - BGS: “Nuclear Energy, Radioactive fossils of the Chengjiang Lagerstatte, China: the flow- waste disposal and effects on economy” ering of early animal life’. He talked about his travels Dr Anna Korre - Imperial College London: through China and the discovery of the UNESCO world “Real Options Analysis and Multi-period optimisation heritage site. The lecture was directly related to the un- of the evolution of integrated carbon dioxide capture, dergraduate palaeontology courses, particularly the ar- transport and storage infrastructure in the UK” eas of exceptional preservation. Professor Roger Falconer - Cardiff University: “Marine Christmas Cake Sale Renewable Energy: Challenges and Opportunities” On Thursday 4th December the Lyell Geoscience So- Dr Philip Richards - BGS: “How much oil is left, how ciety held a ‘Christmas Jumper Social’ and a cake sale do we get it, and what will be the effect on the British raising £140 for the Cameron Grant Fund, which helps economy?” to support young people who are fighting to overcome Dr Gawen Jenkin - University of Leicester: poor mental health, and also to support other causes and interests dear to Cameron. “Gold in Scotland” Lyell Careers Event The first academic event of the New Year hosted by the Lyell Geoscience Society was a ‘Lyell Careers Event’ held on Thursday 15th January in the Queen’s Lecture Theatre. This is the first careers event to be organized by the Lyell Geoscience Society. The company talks involved guidance on future jobs, advice for undergraduate students and sharing general experience. There was also a networking session with the speakers before and after the event to allow students to have one-to-one advice on their careers.

18 Industry Mentor Scheme and the Linkedin Group Howard Falcon-Lang We launched a new Linkedin Group in January (‘Royal Holloway Geologists’) to help us keep in touch with students and staff since the beginning of the Department in 1985. Currently, membership stands at 560, and continues to steadily grow. We have also been using the Linkedin Group to launch an innovative mentoring scheme through which our existing undergraduate students are paired with our industry alumni. The aim of the mentor programme is to help What’s in your tap water? students grow in their professional outlook and make Dave Alderton the transition to the world of work. As part of the redesigned undergraduate applicant visit supply in the west, north-west and north of the country This year, about 50 students signed up for the chance to days, potential students were invited to bring a sample is mostly sourced from surface waters (reservoirs, riv- be paired with alumni mentors in careers ranging from of their own tap water for chemical analysis. ers) as these older lithologies do not have the required petroleum geology to media and teaching. The scheme Fifty individuals did so and whilst I introduced them to porosity and permeability to make good aquifers. Such uses a “Dragon’s Den” format with our students tweak- the topic of hydrogeology and the importance of geo- waters have not been able to react so much with the ing their Linkedin profiles to vie for the attention of po- scientists in producing clean water, Nathalie and Sue underlying rocks and in any case such rocks will be tential industry mentors. Current mentors include: were hard at work in the labs undertaking the analysis. dominated by relatively insoluble silicate minerals; thus These analyses were not always available on the day the dissolved solid content tends to be lower. The at- Clare Barker-White, Reservoir Serv- but the visitors always received the results of their anal- tached plot shows a clear distinction on the basis of cal- ices at Geotrace Technologies Inc. yses with a commentary within a few days, and (hope- cium content and electrical conductivity (as a measure fully) were suitable impressed. (Two samples were ac- of total ion content) with an arbitrary line from Devon Richard Fairbairn, tually brought from Zimbabwe – not sure how they got to South Yorkshire dividing the waters into two distinct Petrophysicist and through airline security!). groups (SE representing the region to the south-east of Director of this line and NW representing the region to the north- Petrophysical The composition of the waters was, as would be expect- Consulting ed, dominated by calcium with subordinate amounts of west). Reassuringly all the waters had very low concen- potassium, magnesium and sodium; this reflects the trations of potentially harmful elements such as iron, Laure Bourguignon, Geoscientist control on water chemistry by dissolution of calcite, manganese, copper and arsenic. at Dana Petroleum plc as most UK aquifers are made up of limestone (Chalk, As part of the water ‘experience’, applicants were also Carboniferous limestone, etc.). As these lithologies invited to sample some bottled waters. All were able to are more prevalent in the south-east, south and east distinguish the more salty (and more expensive) types of the UK, the tap water in these areas would be ex- (in this case Badoit), but interestingly the majority Daniel Slidel, Plays, Fields, leads, pected to contain higher concentrations of dissolved could not correctly distinguish between spring water Geoscientist salts (and calcium in particular). In contrast, the water and Egham tap water.

19 International agreements aiming to curb human per- politicians at the time, Democratic senator Robert Byrd UN Climate Confer- turbation of atmospheric processes are not new. At said in 1997, “it lets the developing world off the hook the 1992 Rio Earth Summit a treaty was signed by 165 scot-free”. In addition, a second commitment period ence 2015: hope for nations in a pledge to “stabilize greenhouse gas con- (2013-2020) was proposed at the UNCCC 2012, known civilisation or a lot centrations” [6]. In December 2015, representatives of as the Doha Amendment. However, 144 ratifications of hot air? the 193 members of the United Nations will meet for were needed to bring it into effect; currently ratifica- the twenty-first time since that agreement at the UN tions only number 23, and of the top ten carbon emit- Neil F. Adams Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Paris. The UN- ters, include only China and Indonesia. The top-down

CCC 2015 will also be the eleventh meeting since the approach of creating a global CO2 market, allowing na- Friday 16th January 2015 was an extraordinary day for 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an extension of the Earth Summit tions to buy and sell emissions allowances is what made climate change science and policy. It was the day that treaty with binding, national reduction targets for emis- the Kyoto Protocol “the wrong tool for the nature of studies by NASA and NOAA revealed 2014 had been sions, which came into force in February 2005 and end- the job” [13], and failed to deal with the root causes of the warmest year since records began, and that nine ed its first commitment period in 2012. Since reduction carbon consumption. These failures beg the question: of the ten warmest years in recorded history have oc- targets were agreed eighteen years ago, it would seem will a new agreement at the UNCCC this year find so- curred since 2000 [1]; Janos Pasztor was appointed the reasonable to imagine that global emissions might have lutions to past problems, or will new and unaddressed first ever UN Assistant Secretary-General on Climate started to decrease. Wrong. Global CO2 emissions have past flaws once again lead to an inexorable escalation Change [2]; the World Economic Forum released their more than doubled since 1990 (an increase of 61%) [7], in global emissions, a lot of hot air, and inevitable envi- 2015 Global Risk Report [3], ranking ‘failure to adapt to increasing at a steady rate of 2 to 3 parts per million ronmental and humanitarian crises? climate change’ in the top five global problems likely to (ppm) per year. Despite proponents claiming the Kyoto An optimistic report published last year by leading non- be encountered in the next ten years; and research in Protocol was “a breakthrough in international climate governmental organisations (including Christian Aid, science suggested that human activity has caused the policy” [8] and a “first step towards an eventual solu- the Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the RSPB and WWF) Earth to cross four of its ‘planetary boundaries’ (climate tion” [9], it has been criticised on many fronts, and is argued, “The 2015 agreement will be different from change, loss of biodiversity, nutrient pollution and de- alleged to have had no noticeable impact on emissions those that came before. In the early years of climate forestation), resulting in a transition to a more hostile [10]. Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at the Uni- negotiations, the focus was on setting ‘top-down’ tar- Earth system state [4]. Less than a week later, the Bul- versity of Oxford, suggests that the protocol was inef- gets… Today, the emphasis has shifted. Individual coun- letin of Atomic Scientists announced that the hands of fective because “it was based on carbon production, not tries are being asked to come forward with their own the hypothetical Doomsday Clock had been moved to carbon consumption… it had a mainly European focus… ambitions and plans for carbon reduction” [14]. The 11:57pm, two minutes closer to midnight (when civilisa- [and] it had few enforcement mechanisms” [11]. The UNCCC 2014, where discussions were largely a prelude tion would be destroyed by dangerous technologies of Kyoto Protocol also only imposed emissions targets to the 2015 meeting, resulted in the ‘Lima Call for Cli- our own making) [5], highlighting “unchecked climate on rich developed countries, because, it was argued, mate Action’ [15] and an agreement to submit Intended change” alongside nuclear weapon modernisation as they were cumulatively responsible for the current high Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) by March key threats to civilisation. The appointment of new UN levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leav- 2015, forming the foundation for a bottom-up system personnel, solely to deal with the ever-evolving probing the emissions of developing countries unchecked. of emissions reductions. INDCs will be relevant to the lems of climate change, and new research pointing to This decision allowed developing China, now the larg- unique circumstances of each nation, independently the possible collapse of civilisation paint a bleak picture est global emitter (29% of global carbon emissions in reviewed and legally binding for all signatory states, at the beginning of 2015. Can anything realistically be 2013 [12]), to avoid reduction targets provoking the US solving the problem of countries getting off “scot-free”. done to abate our unsustainable thirst for development (15% of global emissions) to refuse ratification of the An international agreement involving all of the major and consumption of the Earth’s natural resources, or Kyoto Protocol, thus also escaping binding reduction economies is therefore much more likely. An additional have we already condemned ourselves, and many other targets. Succinctly summarising the views of American strength of the Paris agreement, suggested by many innocent species, to eventual extinction?

20 parties, could be its dynamic and evolving nature, with has failed. Nature, 491, 663-665. a possible ‘ratcheting mechanism’ boosting ambition of [12] Olivier, J.G.J., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Muntean, contributions with time: regular evaluation of existing M. and Peters, J.A.H.W. 2014. Trends in global CO2 commitments could lead to new rounds of contribution emissions; 2014 Report. The Hague: PBL Netherlands offers in a continuous positive feedback cycle, with a Environmental Assessment Agency; Ispra: European Commission, Joint Research Centre. “progressively stronger, collective effort” [16]. [13] Prins, G. & Rayner, S. 2007. Time to ditch Kyoto. Much of the groundwork for a global agreement on Nature, 449, 973-975. climate change at UNCCC 2015 has already been laid, [14] Willis, R. 2014. Paris 2015: getting a global agree- unlike for past agreements, where there was little ment on climate change. A report by Christian Aid, preparation and rushed, last minute negotiation. The Green Alliance, Greenpeace, RSPB, and WWF. London: impending announcements in the coming months of Green Alliance. new bottom-up approaches with tailored contributions [15] http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/lima_dec_2014/ from every participating nation will ensure internation- application/pdf/auv_cop20_lima_call_for_climate_ac- tion.pdf al cooperation and, through independent evaluations, [16] Diringer, E. 2013. Climate change: A patchwork of will hopefully be ambitious enough to start weaning hu- emissions cuts. Nature, 501, 307-309. Andrew receiving a photo of Founders from Peter Burgess manity off fossil fuel consumption. Rather than being, a growing team that included Margaret Collinson, John and leading to, a lot of hot air, the UNCCC 2015 looks Andrew Scott’s Retirement Party Wright, research assistants Susan Pattison, then Steve set to fundamentally redesign international climate Derek Blundell and Margaret Collinson Brindley, and research student Kate Bartram, together change policy and start the serious task of making hu- Andrew Scott’s retirement party on 24th June be- with Jean Galtier and Brigitte Meyer Berthaud from man civilisation sustainable. gan with a presentation to Andrew by Head of De- Montpellier. In 1981, Margaret Collinson was appoint- References partment Peter Burgess of a beautiful photograph ed Honorary Research Assistant to work with him, and [1] http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20150116 of Founders Building taken by Kev surrounded by did some of his teaching when he was away. Later, she [2] http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sga1538.doc.htm the signatures of a host of well-wishers. This was fol- rejoined him when she brought her Royal Society Fel- [3] http://newsroom.unfccc.int/action-to-adapt/ lowed by a gift from current and former students lowship to Royal Holloway in 1991. The move to Royal wef-2015-report-puts-climate-in-top-global-risks and staff and a book containing expressions of Holloway in 1985 had been thoroughly disruptive, when [4] http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/scientists-warn-four- Andrew had to spend the first year in a portacabin until planetary-boundaries-crossed/277216 good wishes from those unable to attend the party. the Queen’s Building had been completed, sharing an [5] http://thebulletin.org/press-release/press-release- Organized by Margaret Collinson, the party included a it-now-3-minutes-midnight7950 splendid array of snacks and drinks to consume during office with Ted Rose. Andrew recognized early on that [6] http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng. the talks. much of the land vegetation during the Carbonifer- pdf These began with a tribute by Derek Blundell and his ous was preserved in the form of charcoal, providing [7] http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudg- reminiscences of Andrew’s career, particularly the early evidence of significant and extensive wildfires. Indeed, et/14/hl-compact.htm days at Chelsea College, following his arrival in 1978. In wildfire played an important role in shaping the envi- [8] Böhringer, C. 2003. The Kyoto Protocol: A Review those days the Geology Department was housed in an ronment over time. It also played an important role in and Perspectives. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, shaping the direction of his research at Royal Holloway, 19, 451-466. old warehouse in Ravenscourt Park, the most remote of all the annexes. Andrew must have wondered what he going global in scope and culminating in the publication [9] http://www.nature.com/news/legacy-of-a-climate- in 2014 of “Fire on Earth: an Introduction”. Noting An- treaty-after-kyoto-1.11880 might be letting himself in for. When he arrived, Andrew drew’s outstanding list of research publications, Derek [10] Schiermeier, Q. 2012. The Kyoto Protocol: Hot air. was already working on Carboniferous flora in Scotland Nature, 491, 656-658. but he soon ventured further afield, first to USA and offered him and his wife Anne his very best wishes for their future retirement, anticipating that Andrew should [11] Helm, D. 2012. Climate policy: The Kyoto approach then to Indonesia. His research was burgeoning, with

21 Ted Rose saying “good bye” – Margaret Collinson Margaret, Bill Chaloner and Andrew enjoyiing the party Andrew greeting guests Fran Taylor and Gary King (former taking note years later, with Margaret Collinson, another of Bill’s students from Chelsea College) and former Head of Depart- emulate the Department’s star emeritus researcher Ted research students. Ted retired in 2003 and again said ment Martin Menzies then recounted his interactions with specific people Rose who has already published some 70 research pa- “good bye” to Andrew. Ted attended a retirement din- who had strongly influenced his ideas at critical times. pers since he retired. ner for Andrew in 2012 which followed a symposium He remembered the overseas adventures that he and This was the cue for Ted to speak up. He began by em- for Andrew from palaeobotanical research collabora- Anne had had over the years, including one in China at phasising just two words – “good bye”. Ted had first met tors organized by Margaret Collinson. This marked the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre when Andrew when he was a young schoolboy at a summer the time when Andrew finished his teaching duties to they had been amongst the crowds in Beijing, not real- camp that Ted was helping to run. Ted learned that An- concentrate on research. At the end of that dinner Ted izing the seriousness of the situation. He also recalled drew was keen on Geology and helped him along with once again said “good bye” to Andrew. Now, at last, An- his time at Yale University, his close friendship with Pro- the subject. He first said “good bye” to Andrew at the drew’s retirement is final so should Ted try to say a final fessor Karl Turekian and his involvement with a wide conclusion of the camp although Andrew, following his “good bye”? He thought not but had two final words range of interesting people concerned about wildfires, enthusiasm, kept in touch. When Andrew came to uni- to emphasize – “thank you”; for a lifetime’s friendship, particularly in California, that led in due course to the versity, he chose to study at Bedford College, where Ted both personal and professional, and for all the shared publication of “Fire on Earth: an Introduction”. He con- was a lecturer in palaeontology. Naturally, Andrew de- experiences they had enjoyed together for fifty years. cluded by thanking everyone who had influenced his cided to study palaeontology, in particular. On gradua- In response, Andrew expressed his indebtedness to the life over the years, especially his wife Anne and his fam- tion, Ted said “good bye” to Andrew who moved across four people who had been most influential in his career: ily, and all those present for coming to his party, par- London to study for a PhD in palaeobotany at Birkbeck Ted Rose, Bill Chaloner, Margaret Collinson and Derek ticularly Margaret Collinson for all her efforts in organ- College, supervised by Bill Chaloner. Three years later, Blundell. He then embarked on a wide ranging review izing such an enjoyable event. He felt he had been very he moved to become a postdoc at Trinity College Dub- of the history of the Department and his involvement in fortunate in life. lin, when Ted again said “good bye” to him. On return- it, treating his time at Chelsea as the forerunner to Roy- Margaret thanks Gerry Ingram and Tony Brain (ex-Chelsea), ing to London in 1978, Ted welcomed him back but still al Holloway. He began by recognizing the importance Annabel Valentine (RHUL archivist) and Julie Brown for pro- said “good bye” as he was going to Chelsea on the other of friendships gained throughout his career, starting viding memorabilia items; Kev d’Souza for organizing the side of London. Finally, they were reunited in 1985 at with a number of his school friends who had advanced print of the photograph and Sharon Gibbons and Brittany Royal Holloway, together with Bill Chaloner and a few to eminent positions across a range of activities, and Robson for helping with refreshments.

22 Earth Sciences’ Team Sappho win their division in the “Round the Team Sappho back in port with their trophy going well it off neatly and resumed our race with little ground lost. room to too many of our competitors. Luckily our skip- Island Race” We rounded the Needles a little wide but were glad we pers had a cunning plan, dropping behind and then to Marianne Brett had, as we saw several boats hit the rocks by cutting windward of the other boats, allowing us a beautiful Team Sappho, comprised of skippers: Dave Mattey too close to the lighthouse! The Earth Scientists got rounding and a great start to the penultimate leg up to (RHUL) and Richard Coppin (Birkbeck), bowman: Max- momentarily distracted looking at the amazing geol- the Sea View Exclusion Zone. This was the most beauti- im Lamare (RHUL), trimmer: Marianne Brett (RHUL) ogy of the Isle of Wight coastline. The bedding is very ful scene of the day, when we looked behind we could and official photographer: Roger Walsh, competed in well exposed there and worth a visit if you have a boat see the horizon covered with sails, including many dif- the Round the Island Race 2015 on Saturday 27th June. handy! We got the spinnaker up and headed inshore to ferent coloured spinnakers; and to the front we could get the best tide and avoid the wind disturbance from see a line of yachts stretching up the Solent towards the This is an annual race around the Isle of Wight, off the the other boats. Fortunately we had very experienced finish. It was a stunning spectacle, and also showed us South Coast of the UK with over 1500 boats and some skippers on board, who maintained a good course even that we had overtaken a large proportion of the fleet! of the world’s best sailors competing. So many boats after having raced for several hours by this point. Dave compete that start times are staggered by boat speed, By now, we had been racing for nearly 7 hours, and fa- even went below and came back with hot pizza, cooked which is calculated beforehand, with the fastest multi- tigue was setting in, but we were motivated to concen- in Sappho’s gas oven, on the move, what a hero! At hulls leaving at 7am. Sappho was in the 0840 “purple” trate by our strategic planning, requiring us to sail as this point the boat was rolling from the swell outside start, executed perfectly by Richard helming and a close as possible to the dangerously shallow water over the Isle of Wight, causing seasickness to hit the ship’s cool Dave Mattey navigating, allowing the team to get Ryde Sands. Skipper Mattey, armed with a GPS, navi- trimmer, who nevertheless had, heroically, to keep the ahead of the other “purple fleet” boats off the line. Mak- gated us expertly, calling the tacks in the nick of time spinnaker flying to maintain downwind speed! We saw ing the most of the favourable tide, we tacked upwind to avoid the mud banks where we could see other boats several boats get into distress, with one ending up on towards the Needles and found ourselves catching up marooned. This strategy allowed us to stay in the weak- the rocks after a man overboard, and we could see the with the boats that had started up to half an hour be- est part of the foul tide, gaining ground on our competi- coastguard helicopter up ahead airlifting a head injury fore us. Chaos ensued, with hundreds of boats trying to tors who had longer keels or weaker nerves. It also al- casualty from a competing boat. get to the Needles: we had to keep a careful eye out for lowed us to wave to Roger’s family who were lined up “starboard” boats who have right of way. We had one As we approached Bembridge Ledge buoy, our course on Ryde Pier cheering us on! miscalculation so we had to execute a 360 degree turn was converging with many other boats and we were Finally we spotted the finish line up ahead, with hun- as a penalty for infringing another boat, but we carried concerned about losing places by having to give sea dreds of boats trying to get across and all shouting for

23 Spinnaker’s up – it gets exciting! priority. We looked around for our close rivals and found only two other “purple fleet” boats nearby so we were determined to finish before them. We dug up our last Back vestiges of energy and raced for the finish, crossing at 8 hours, 12 minutes, and ahead of our rivals. We made our official declaration, and celebrated with a few beers while we headed for harbour. Then a text arrived from Marianne’s father who had been GPS track- ing Sappho throughout the race, saying “It looks like you won!” We couldn’t believe it, but we had indeed won Division 8B, so we had to stay on the mooring an extra night and sail back across to the Isle of Wight the next day to collect a shiny engraved plate at prize giving! In the end, our corrected race time was 7 hours 42 minutes, which put us 1st out of 41 in Division 8B, 9th out of 174 in Group 8, ‘Purple Fleet’, and 35th out of the 695 yachts using the Island Sailing Club rating. All round we had an amazing time, with perfect weather and some silverware at the end!

24 Three MSc Symposia Derek Blundell

MSc Petroleum Geoscience Symposium On 2nd September, 38 students gave 15-minute oral presentations, supported by poster displays, to audi- ences largely drawn from industry crowded into the Queen’s Lecture Theatre and the study room opposite. Parallel sessions were needed all day to cope with the number of presentations, the scope of which spanned major hydrocarbon provinces around the world and a great variety of topics. These encompassed sedimentary basins around the North and South Atlantic and surrounding countries, including both onshore and offshore UK, the Americas, Central and South- east Asia, Australasia and New Zealand. The tectonos- lunch and coffee breaks are vital to the discussions as well as Alex Harper modelled fracture patterns observed at Kilve in tratigraphic evolution of basins featured, along with providing a moment to relax Somerset to bridge the gap between core sample and studies of depositional environments, source rocks, seismic scales migration pathways and hydrocarbon prospectivity. A lot of clever modelling had gone into a number of projects. The standard of the presentations was exceptional throughout, everyone being word perfect, with no notes, for maximum impact. The scientific quality of the presentations was particularly high, and the time keeping was immaculate. The only problem I had was the impossibility of being in two places at once to hear every presentation, but that could be relieved by looking at the poster displays and talking to the students during the lunch and coffee breaks. I have attended just about every symposium for the past 30 years and they improve each year. This one was the best ever!

25 Having started it all, I then told the story of how the De- partment came into being. The final decision by the Uni- versity of London that the geology departments from Bedford, Chelsea and King’s should merge and move to Egham was only made in February 1984, leaving precious little time before we amalgamated on the site at Royal Holloway in August 1985. Professor Alec Smith was appointed Head of the new Department and I was tasked with postgraduate studies, research and external relations. To underpin our research I decided to start a brand new MSc course straight away that would have a synergy with the oil industry – we would discover how sedimentary basins work and industry would discover the oil and gas within them. Alina Haidula has mapped the extent of Aptian source rocks Sophie Broun (L) discusses her project on the in the Walvis Basin off Namibia and used seismic facies I devised the course with Alan Gibbs, a structural ge- evolution of the Exmouth Plateau, offshore analysis to determine depositional environments ologist who had recently moved from Bedford to the NW Australia with Victoria Dharmarajah national oil company BNOC, whilst I had experiece with seismic interpretation. We aimed for a new style 30th Anniversary MSc Symposium of MSc course with an Integrated approach to sur- On 3rd September we celebrated our 30th birthday with face and sub-surface geology. Elements of the course a symposium that covered all 30 years of the course. would be taught in sequence, intensively, followed by Peter Burgess discussed the importance of the course group projects and then individual projects based on in- to the Department as a whole, emphasising its value in dustry data. Field trips would include world-class sites bringing research and teaching together. in southern England and the southern Pyrenees. The course would culminate with a symposium when each student would present an oral report on their project in front of an invited audience from industry plus the Ex- ternal Examiner. We arrived on site in August 1985 and began the MSc course a month later with five brave souls taking it. In February 1986 we were joined by clastic sedimentolo- Scott Campbell explains hydrocarbon prospectivity offshore gist Lynne Frostick, who led our first ever field trip to Uraguay the Pyrenees, and In April, by structural geologist Ken MClay and carbonate sedimentologist Dan Bosence, who completed our team, supplemented by colleagues from industry. In May 1986 we were able to move into Queen’s Building, just in time for its official opening by the Queen. Bernie Vining and Peter Burgess opened the symposium

26 He pointed out that 644 MSc students have graduated over the past 30 years, of whom we are in touch with at least 450. 37 nationalities are represented, from all round the world, of whom a third come from EU countries and the rest from beyond the EU. The great majority have followed careers in the petroleum industry, with around 60% working for operators and 30% who are involved in consultancies and the service sector. Most opportunities occur with small companies. Companies with the longest retention of staff are Exxon-Mobil and Paradigm. Thinking of the future, he reminded the audience that hydrocarbons remain the major enrgy resource, sub- Ken McClay underlined the vital importance of field- stantially above renewables of all forms, and will remain Amrit Madhoo, a more recent graduate from 2011, who work in giving substance and credibility to the intrepre- so despite the recent fall in oil prices. His clear advice works for Schlumberger, talked about the problems tations and models that are produced to explain basin was to remain optimistic. of communication, not just with other geologists and evolution. He showed how the world-class locations engineers, but with the general public. He gave a fasci- used by the course, at Watchet where the high tidal nating account of his experience with explaining about range allowed the geology to be seen in 3 dimensions, “fracking” to people who were worried at the prospect in the southern Pyrenees and the Sinai Peninsula that and strongly opposed to it because of their lack of tech- gave unique insights into the most spectacular struc- nical understanding, together with the misinformation tures, all providing a deep understanding of how geol- in general circulation. He reckoned that the companies ogy works. invloved had to take a much more sensitive approach to reassure people who had genuine fears.

Amongst former MSc students, Erica Smart, who graduated in 1988, explained how it gave her a good ground- ing for her career with BG Group in Reading, where she is now Vice President for Exploration and Growth and Brazil Studies Manager. The area offshore Brazil is one of the company’s major assets and her work involves both geological and financial decisions on a grand scale. Current Course Director Jürgen Adam, Ian Watkinson Chris Elders, Course Director from 1993 to 2013, and Nicola Scarselli brought us all up to date. presented some statistics about the course.

27 MSc student recruitment has risen over the 30 years from less that 50 to almost 600 a year, so the course is much in demand. In a Panel Dicussion on “the past is the key to the future” it was agreed that the format of the course had held up well, allowing much evolution and development. Our close links with industry give us an advantage during a period of uncertainty when the oil price is low but this has happened several times during our history and we can feel confident of pulling through again.

MSc Environmental Diagnosis and Management Symposium After all the hard work of the past few days some of the The third of our MSc symposia took place on 7th Sep- 2015 MSc students relaxed at the celebration dinner tember, with a lively audience enjoying the presenta- following the 30th Anniversary symposium. They had tions from 9 of our students. Dr Kevin (Clem) Clemitshaw earned it! opened the proceedings by reminding the audience of the outstanding record of student employment that the course has gained and the strength of its links with industry. He is particularly pround of the number of industry placements that our students have each year for their research projects.

We were held spellbound by the highlly articulate and pro- fessionally delivered reprise of their prize-winning presentation at the finals of the AAPG Imperial Barrel Com- petition held in Denver, Colorado at the end of May, by our 2015 MSc team of Ben Said, Stuart Munro, Kimberley Dunn, Low Wan Ching and Arran Waterman, tutored by Nicola Scarselli. They beat the other 11 regional winners from over 100 teams. They presented the results of their basin evaluation and analysis of petroleum prospects for the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. It was Some 67 people enjoyed the celebration dinner held in a monumental undertaking for our team, who had to the Picture Gallery, with good food and a high level of work part-time on it whilst continuing with their normal conversation – there was a lot of catching up to do. Ian work for the MSc course. Cloke, Sean Smith and Stuart Monroe are in the fore- Augustus Awoyomi spoke about his air monitoring of a The presentation was outstanding and totally convinc- ground landfill site near Thorpe to measure the possible escape ing. No wonder they are the World Champions! of landfill gas in recent years. Thankfully there was no significant problem.

28 The Atkins Prize for the best research project by an MSc student in 2014 The prize was shared

Benedict Clarke described how he had established pro- Bethiah Humphrey presenting her research project tocols for the transport and disposal of very low level (VLL) radioactive waste for decommissioning the Old- bury nuclear power plant. The waste was contained in The Arup Prize for the best performance overall Pile Cap hole storage plugs, each weighing 265 kg. He Charles Bruinvels receives a share of the Atkins Prize from Mathew Warboys (Associate Director, Atkins) demonstrated that VLL waste could be safely disposed by an MSc student in 2014 on site with appropriiate safeguards, but LL waste needed to be transported by lorry to a depository at Sellafield, Cumbria. He had worked out how the lorries should be loaded and lashed down to meet stringent safety requirements, which were approved by the au- thorities. He emphasized the extreme care being taken during decommissioning with even low levels of radio- activity. His work could provide a template for future decommissioning. Bethiah Humphrey was concerned with the treatment of nuclear waste effluents in the form of sludge for which the zeolite clinoptilolite could be used to moni- tor the possible removal of cations from their crystal matrix. She had been using laser ablation ICP-MS techniques to provide a suitable calibration for the ion ex- Charles Bruinvels receives the Arup Prize from Tim Morgan Benjamin Clarke receives a share of the Atkins Prize from Clem change processes involved. (Associate, Arup) Clemitshaw, with Mathew Warboys in the background

29 Rocks and the Art of Geology Valedictory Lecture by Martin Menzies ([email protected]) Geology is a science that covers physics, chemistry, geography and biology allowing us to understand planet Earth in 4D. Rocks are the “vocabulary” and are fundamental to learning the “language” and planning experiments, acquiring high quality data and testing ideas. My scientific career in geochemistry was triggered by a father who was a chemist and a geography teacher with a rock collection. Research has mainly focused on Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s interior but the last 40 years were not a carefully crafted plan: many life changing opportunities arose when least expected; paper (Menzies & Allen, 1974) caused a stir before it was cratonic mantle below South Africa, working with the post-doc decade was productive but precarious; published. A leading geologist Dale Jackson USGS had Rama Murphy at the Space Science Centre, Univ Minne- research funding was a mixed economy and often previously predicted that the rocks (i.e., lherzolites) sota. These were exciting times as the isotope system serendipitous; field research was fun and frequently described by Martin could not exist in Greece. After a was being applied across the board in Earth sciences dangerous but only occasionally life threatening, and field visit with Eldridge Moores (Univ Calif Davis) and and thankfully at that time Nature was keen to publish a “back-burner” project in China delivered beyond Henry Green, Dale gracious accepted that Martin was papers on mantle geochemistry! In 1979 with Calvin Al- expectation. right. This meeting laid the foundations for post-doc- exander he helped lead a University of Minnesota UG Report by Derek Blundell toral opportunity in the USA and following his PhD, “raft trip through time” from the Triassic to the Precam- Martin’s lecture signalled his retirement in 2014–15, Martin gained an ESU Lindeman Scholarship tenable brian from Lee’s Ferry through the Grand Canyon. The after 30 years with the Department since the day it came anywhere in the USA. Initially this funded research Art of Geology was especially well illustrated by Mar- into being. Actually, he was with the United States Geo- at the University of California, Davis on Sierran “gold tin’s photos of this particular event. logical Survey (USGS) mapping volcanic rocks in Alaska rush” ophiolites with Moores and at UC Santa Barbara In 1981 Martin moved to the Open University supported that very day, having been appointed to a lectureship on Franciscan “minute man” ophiolites with Cliff Hob- by chairman Ian Gass and Chris Hawkesworth. There by Principal Dorothy Wedderburn and Head of Depart- son (UC Santa Barbara). Although the plan was for a he met Norman Gowar (Pro VC) for the first time, and ment Prof Alec Smith earlier in 1985. one year post-doc, such was his success with additional was reunited with him as Principal of Royal Holloway Lindemann and NSF funding that Martin and Lesley re- After a first class degree from Aberdeen (where else?) in 1990. At the OU he had a very productive four years mained in “the lower forty eight” for seven years based he moved to Cambridge in 1971 to take up a PhD project with research collaborations with Bill Leeman (Rice), in California, Texas and Minnesota. Martin found himself on ultramafic (peridotites) rocks in Greece, supervised Mike Dungan (SMU) and Pam Kempton (SMU), in Italy the only geologist at the NASA-Johnson Space Centre by Stuart Agrell (Min & Pet) and by Alan Smith (Sedg- with Mauro Rosi (Pisa), and Australia with Sue O’Reilly NOT working on lunar Apollo rocks during two research wick) in the field. At Cambridge the plate tectonic revo- (MacQuarie NSW). Research included a joint NSF/ visits to the Lunar Planetary Institute in 1976 and 1977! lution was blossoming and he joined up with fellow re- NERC project investigating volcanism in Yellowstone, Collaboration with NASA colleagues continued for the search students Euan Nisbet, Andrew Hynes, and others the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and Range of the west- next ten years. to research ophiolitic rocks in central Greece. His drive ern USA and another project on volcanism in the east- to Greece to reach his field area took 6 days over eight A move to Minneapolis in 1977 allowed Martin to pio- ern Australian outback with Tony Ewart (Brisbane) and border crossings. Midway through his thesis his second neer the investigation of neodymium isotopes in the Tony Irving (Seattle), with memorable fieldwork with

30 northern Niger involved Martin, Sally Gibson (Cam- bridge) and Adrian Jones (UCL) and several Tuareq drivers. Another to Malaita in the South Pacific was a search for diamonds with Pete Nixon (Leeds), Ben Harte (Edinburgh) and Dave Mattey (RHUL). Although diamonds were not forthcoming, valuable research materials underpinned several doctoral projects at RHUL and Cambridge in the following years. A Royal Society initiative in China began in 1990 and International Lithosphere Conference 1987, a successful lasted to the present day. As an invited prof at CNRS meeting with a field trip to the Canary Islands. Montpellier in 1992 Martin demonstrated for the first time how the North China Craton had experienced dra- Italian colleagues (Rosi (Pisa); Civetta and Orsi (Naples), matic thinning in the last few 100 million years due to 1979 A raft trip through time, rafts for scale right of centre Coltelli (Catania) and more recently Giordano (Rome) loss of a 120 km thick keel. To this day this remains his has flourished over the last three decades. Roberta Rudnick, Bill McDonough, Tony Irving and most cited work - the benefits of sabbaticals! This trig- Malcolm McCulloch. In 1985 he took on a new challenge of building re- gered interest in China and throughout the 1990s Chi- Martin was invited to run a short course in geochemistry search in Geochemistry from scratch in a brand new nese Postgrad and Postdoc researchers, supported by at the Univ. Naples, conveniently interrupted by a major department at Royal Holloway. He was joined by Mat- the Royal Society/KC Wong/ORS funding, studied at eruption of Mount Etna. With Luigi Beccaluva (Naples) thew Thirlwall (Bedford), Dave Mattey (OU) and Nick RHUL and these researchers are now directors of Chi- and Renato Cristofolini (INGV Catania) he climbed Etna Walsh (King’s), with a number of technical staff. The nese Academy Institutes (Profs. Weiming Fan, Beijing; at night giving Martin another opportunity to illustrate immediate priorities were to establish laboratories, Yigang Xu, Guangzhou and Hongfu Zhang, Xi’an and the Art of Geology with his spectacular photos of lava recruit graduate students and to publicize the ana- Beijing). lytical capabilities. Hosting an International Lithos- cascades, lava tubes and flows and sampling molten In the 1990s Martin, Ken, Dan and Ian Davidson estab- lava at 1300°C. His fruitful research collaboration with phere conference on-campus in 1987 allowed colleagues from around the world to see the facilities at Royal Holloway and to collaborate on various research programmes. The meeting initiated a series of international conferences now in their 28th year organized by Univ Montpellier, Royal Holloway and other host universities. In addition the conference marked the launch of a successful graduate text with Chris Hawkesworth on “Mantle Metasomatism” followed by an OUP Monograph on the Continental Mantle. The conference culminated with a group photo in front of the statue of Queen Victoria, with Martin hoisted upon it. However, like Queen Victoria, “the Principal was not amused”. In the early years at RHUL, a Royal Society/UL expe- Royal Society Expedition to Yemen 1990s: L-R Menzies, 1982 Too close for Health & Safety – studying a 1300 degree dition seeking mantle xenoliths in the Sahel region of Nichols, Al’Subbary (PhD), Dart (PhD), Al’Kadasi (PhD), lava flow, Etna McClay, Davidson, Bosence and Baker (ACU PhD)

31 lished links with the University of Sana’a Yemen and two Yemeni research students (Abdulkarim Al’Subbary and Mohammed Al’Kadasi) completed their PhDs at Royal Holloway. The British Council provided the seed money and the Yemen-Ethiopia project was very successful, lasting until 2007. NERC/ARC/Danish Government funding to Martin ensured several successful PhD students, e.g. Joel Baker (Auckland), Ingrid Ukstins (Iowa) and Julia Shaw (Wellington), and PDRAs. With Martin their research was directed at understanding the link between extension, uplift and magmatism during the opening of the Red Sea volcanic rifted margins. Between 1997 and 2002 Martin accepted Principal Nor- man Gowar’s invitation to act as Head of Geology and to undertake a vital restructuring of the Department to ensure future survival under the new RAE/REF rules. During this time he continued to run a major part of the NERC Consortium on Vesuvius 2012 Yemen project with three PhD students and in 2000 at RHUL and his unique LA-ICPMS design allowed us he organized the first Geol Soc America Penrose Con- to build on this application. This formed the basis for ference in the UK. The conference on “Volcanic Rifted the NERC tephra consortium formulated in 2006 and Margins” involved field visits to the Deccan in India and funded from 2008 to 2014. Martin was a work package the British Tertiary in Mull. The proceedings were pub- leader on this multi-university, multi-disciplinary NERC lished as a GSA monograph in collaboration with Simon RESET Consortium led by John Lowe (Geography). The Klemperer (Stanford), Joel Baker (Auckland) and Cindy project focussed on European volcanism with collabo- Ebinger (Rochester USA). Sadly, instability in Yemen rators in Reykjavik, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Catania, and precluded further research in Yemen but the conjugate the UK. The aim was to determine the ages of tephra margin in Ethiopia remained a target between 2000 layers more to define an accurate chronology for the and 2008. past 80,000 years. After his Headship Martin undertook a sabbatical lec- More recently Martin took charge of REF 2014 for Earth ture tour in China funded by CAS and this consolidated Sciences and our collective staff productivity secured links with Chinese colleagues at institutes in Beijing, our “top ten” position. The award of a Distinguished Xi’an, Guilin, Changsha, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003–04 he expanded his research interests in volcan- 2014 funded a sabbatical in China to finalise the joint re- ology with a focus on tephrochronology and he taught search program with co-supervised supervised doctoral a final year volcanology course linked to field visits to students. This programme was launched in 2014 with On the edge of Changbaishan caldera, China-N Korea 2014, Tenerife. two PhD students working on Changbaishan Volcano with PhD student Xuanyu Chen and Yigang Xu (GIG-CAS Tephra research in Yemen/Indian Ocean had revealed (Xuanyu Chen) and the North China Craton (Leon Liu). Director) the viability of in-situ glass analysis using the LA-ICPMS in Copenhagen. The arrival of Wolfgang Muller (ANU)

32 In conclusion, Martin thanked everyone who had contributed towards making the last thirty years so fruitful and enjoyable, especially all the PhD and Postdoc students he had worked with. Many of these now hold pro- fessorial posts in New Zealand, China, USA, France and the UK and visits by Martin and Lesley are planned over the next few years. In particular, he wanted to thank his wife Lesley for the wonderful experiences they had shared together with their children Ralph and Marin, in their travels around the world. Martin understandably concluded by thanking everyone around him but it is actually all of us who must thank Martin who has given his heart and soul to the Teaching final year volcanology 3km above sea level on Teide Department for the past 30 years in everything that he volcano Tenerife 2010 has done.

The BBQ that followed was a nice informal finale. It was an elite gathering that included all six Heads of Department since 1992.

33 Department of Earth Sciences Field Trips

CONTENTS 35. South Devon Fieldtrip – Howard Falcon-Lang 35. Cyprus Field class 2014 – Adam Creaser 37. Almería Field Trip – Ben Jost

Home Conferences Events Fieldwork People Research

34 Cyprus Field class 2014 Adam Creaser On 13th December, 29 students and 3 staff members gathered in the very early hours of the morning to fly to Larnaca, to conduct a week-long fieldclass across SW Cyprus. After leaving a very cold Gatwick at 6 am, the thought of a bit of sun in December kept people highly optimistic about the trip, though we were greeted by torrential rain and drenched suitcases on arrival. De- spite the mediocre welcome, the storms quickly passed and continued to remain absent for the rest of the trip, leading to several sunburnt faces and necks by the time we returned! Fieldwork was spread over 6 days, focusing on a variety of volcanic, metamorphic and sedimentary ter- ranes, across a variety of structural and environmental settings. The first few days were spent looking at the Our amazing undergraduates outside Coleshayes Field Centre ultramafic basement and volcanics of the Troodos com- Matthew?). The high point of the trip for our leader, Pete plex. On the first day, we were welcomed into the Troo- South Devon Fieldtrip Burgess, was a small pit near Burrator Reservoir where dos by a thick shroud of fog as students completed a Howard Falcon-Lang granite bedrock was in the process of being weathered woodland transect near the Troodos hotel (with many Early in October, our new intake of undergraduates into an immature arkosic sand – a tangible example of weird looks from the locals out shooting). Through the embarked on their first field trip to South Devon. As sedimentology in action. The high point for Christina afternoon, as we drove down and out of the mountains, usual we stayed in the elegant surroundings of Cole- Manning was Burrator Quarry where an aureole of spot- the fog soon cleared, showing the lovely views across shayes House on Dartmoor, a slightly dilapidated coun- ted slate, intruded by granite veins, was clearly visible Amiandos and the surrounding valley, where students try house that now functions as a field centre. With the – a tangible example of metamorphism in action. The came across tectonised/altered serpentinites, showing owner unexpectedly indisposed, Howard Falcon-Lang high point for Howard Falcon-Lang was Burrator Dam the famous ‘snake-skin’ textures. The theme of igne- got his first experience of running the hotel bar. Making where an ice-cream van was parked. ous and metamorphic petrology continued for the next up prices on the spot, he managed to turn a tidy profit, In closing, sincere thanks must go to our amazing duo few days, visiting various sites including Malounda, Ap- and is now considering his options in the industry. In the of postgraduate demonstrators – Camilla and David – liki and Palekhori, as well as the abandoned Agrokipia field, we enjoyed some brilliant weather and saw some who worked tirelessly, and of course, to our brilliant and Mathiatis mines, where the weather continued to amazing rocks including the Devonian–Carboniferous undergraduate students who showed a high degree improve and students saw fantastic examples of lavas, sediments of Portishead, the Devonian/Permian uncon- of professionalism and commitment, and even at this dykes and umbers. formity exposed at Goodrington Sands, and of course early stage, are proving to be a great credit to this De- The second part of the trip focused on the changing plenty of Dartmoor granite (or should I say, granitoid, partment. sedimentary styles of the eastern Mediterranean during the uplift of the Troodos Ophiolite. One day focused on melanges, and deep-marine sedimentation across Petra tou Romiou, including a transect along the beach, while the afternoon was spent studying the meta-

35 Chalks and cherts along the beach at Petra tou Romiou

Students drawing a roadside sketch of a gabbro Students studying dunite outcrops, in the foggy Troodos intrusion in the Troodos. sediments of Ayia Varvara. The final day focused on Miocene sediments, observing the shallowing trends of sedimentation as the Troodos ophiolite continued to be obducted. While the geology students focused on the changing sedimentary facies across turbidite (Amath- us), chalk (Governors beach) and evaporitic sequences (Maroni), petroleum geologists used these examples as outcrop analogues for an offshore oil exploration project. On the 20th December, we left the hotel at 10am, with several of the students looking a little worse for wear, after experiencing the delights of the ‘limassol strip’ and local liquor (including chilli vodka!). After a smooth Pillow lavas at Petra tou Romiou (and half empty flight), we landed back at a cold and wet Gatwick airport, before people made their own way home for Christmas. All-in-all a very enjoyable trip!

Dave and Christina popping open the “Disney (alcohol free) champagne” at the last outcrop

36 Almería Field Trip Ben Jost In the wee morning hours of Monday, March 16th, our second year geology and joint geography-geology students congregated at the bus stop next to Founder’s Building to leave for a two-week field trip to Almería, southern Spain. The group was led by Javier Hernán- dez-Molina, Robert Hall and Lloyd White with help from Amy Gough and a few postgrads. A total of ~70 people (and some luggage) then squeezed into a coach that was unable to fit all our bags in its trunk. Forty minutes later, however, we were set free of the coach at Gatwick Airport and able to breathe again. The remainder of the Robert Hall giving a lecture about river deposits and flow Javier Hernández-Molina explaining swaley cross-stratifica- journey (2.5 hours flight to Alicante and 3.5 hours coach direction indicators. tion along the cliff in Los Frailes. drive to Carboneras) was covered without incident and in relative quiescence, as most of the party was fast asleep. Cloud and windy weather awaited us at 3 pm, when we arrived in Carboneras. The field course started the next day, when Rob- ert and Javier introduced the students to recent and sub-recent sedimentary processes taking place in rivers, on beaches, and in alluvial fans. Then for the next five days, the students were divided into two groups, which visited different geological features in turn. These included the volcanic and volcaniclas- tic rocks of the Los Frailes Caldera, where the students were also introduced to the art of geological mapping; the Nijar Basin with porites, limestones, Cordierite and garnet xenocrysts in Messinian dacite in the Zoe Matthews searching for fossil fragments in a Nijar Basin. debrite deposit near the stratigraphic base of the stromatolites, as well as cordierite and garnet xenoc- Tabernas Basin. ryst-bearing dacite. The students later returned to this and strong winds. According to Robert, it was the worst ning, and Paola Vannucchi came to reinforce the staff region to record a detailed sedimentary log, before he had ever encountered on this field trip in the last 20 for this week, whilst Robert returned home. This second checking out the stratigraphy of the Sorbas Basin with years. Which is rather unfair, since this was the last time week saw much better weather, long and sunny days its thick gypsum deposits and fossilised impressions Robert intends to lead the Almería field trip. with temperatures reaching almost 30° C. On the first of bird feet, and the Tabernas Basin with an impres- During the second week, the students were intro- day of independent mapping, a few students encoun- sive slump fold and a massive seismite deposit lovingly duced to their mapping areas and after some time, tered problems with the hot weather and the sun and called ‘El Gordo’ (the fat one). During this week, the were largely left to themselves to independently map had to abort the fieldwork for that day; from the sec- weather proved to be more British than Spanish, clam- the area in preparation for their independent mapping ond day on, even the most subversive of students had my and foul mornings giving way to cold downpours projects later this year. Pete Burgess, Christina Man- enough water and a headdress with them. Most of the

37 Carboneras

students were motivated to produce a fine geological map and invested a lot of time in their work. But, as always with fieldtrips, they go by much too Slump fold in turbidite sequence caused by the Matthew Gillespie measuring the orientation of flute casts on quickly and on Monday, March 30th, the whole party deposition of the massive ‘El Gordo’ seismite on top (not vis- the underside of an inclined bed in the boarded two comfortable coaches that brought us from ible). Tabernas Basin. Tabernas Basin. Carboneras back to Alicante, where a plane was waiting to take us back to Gatwick. The long journey home was rather uneventful, with the exception of one student who accidently threw his passport away with his lunch rubbish at the airport, another whose passport apparently went swimming in a plastic bag with a broken bot- tle of duty-free red wine, followed by another who for- got his passport on the plane, making the whole group wait an hour for him to pass through UK immigration. Clearly we were lucky that such collective misfortune occurred in the last hours of the fieldtrip.

Goodbye for Robert Hall; this was the last time he led this Group picture: happy geologists just before their field trip to Almería. L to R: Ben Jost, Lloyd White, Robert Hall, way home. Christof Liebermann, Amy Gough, Adam Creaser, Max Webb, Elena Ros, Albert de Montserrat Navarro, Javier Hernández- Molina.

38 Department of Earth Sciences Fieldwork

CONTENTS

40. The Down Under(ground) Tour 2014 – Dave Mattey 43. Antarctic Research Cruise JR298 – Javier Hernández-Molina 46. The Costa Rican Experience – Alex Clarke 47. There’s Gas in the Desert but not as we know it – Giulia Zacceri and Dave Lowry

Home Conferences Events Field Trips People Research

39 The Down Under(ground) Tour 2014 cific, stronger monsoons and drought in the Americas. Dave Mattey The 2009 a La Niña event resulted in catastrophic flood- A 5 week trip to Fiji, Australia and Cook Islands is now ing in Fiji but extreme weather is not simply a local sadly very much over but what a trip it has been, albeit issue as it is widely accepted that the influence of mostly spent underground clambering about in the ENSO, the most important and powerful climate sys- dark. Honest. The tour began with a stopover in Fiji tem on the globe, propagates to higher latitudes via a to collect data from one of my cave sites that we have network of poorly understood ‘teleconnections’. The been monitoring since 2009. Voli Voli cave, located on effects of ENSO on the ‘edge of the playing field’ (i.e. the south coast of Viti Levu doesn’t rank very high on monsoons in Indo-China and the Americas) are well the beauty scale compared with what we were to see in known, but the equatorial eastward return flow of the Australia, but here we have a unique record of the state trade winds in the upper atmosphere (the Walker cir- of El-Nino – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the activ- culation) interacts with the jet streams that encircle ity of the SW Pacific convergence zone from around the globe. The more extreme ENSO phases alter the 0 AD to about 1600 AD, i.e. the transition into the Little paths of high altitude airflow which drive or block the Ice Age. We can show from precisely dated speleothem passage of Atlantic depressions delivering rainfall to just to locate us that ocean–atmosphere coupling changed quite dra- Europe. ENSO prediction remains difficult and there matically around 1300 AD, resulting in increased rainfall are considerable uncertainties regarding how the tropi- and a higher frequency of catastrophic flooding in the cal Pacific and ENSO might respond to global warming. SW pacific. This coincides with independent evidence We have almost no idea, for example, of how ENSO of shifts in settlement patterns, trade and increased behaved prior to the rise of GHG’s and concomitant conflict for which archaeologists still have no concen- global warming, or whether ENSO drove or responded sus as to the cause. I think we can say that climate to the known climate transitions through the last inter- might have something to do with it…. glacial. At the moment it is only possible to speculate from the output of computer models. The instrumen- For some reason fieldwork in tropical Pacific engen- tal record of sea surface temperature in the equatorial ders deep skepticism regarding motive, even from Pacific stretches back only a handful of decades and Grant Award Panels… Hopefully after this trip this there are still no continuous precisely dated millennial might change with the pilot data from Fiji and our lat- scale proxy records for ENSO in the Pacific basin. In fact est discoveries (see below), and part of the trick is ex- there are actually very few proxy records of any kind in plaining why Pacific climate should even matter to us the Pacific region compared with the Atlantic-centric in the northern hemisphere. As everyone knows ENSO northern hemisphere… What are needed are records shoreline of Atiu with cliffs of uplifted reef carbonates describes the closely coupled relationship between the of precipitation or sea surface temperature that are The Makatea of Atiu is covered in thick rainforest, some- strength of easterly trade winds and the Pacific Ocean continuous over thousands of years. Records that can times open, sometimes impenetrable, but its claim to surface. Periodically the trade winds weaken (an El be precisely dated by U-Th series techniques. Records ‘most evil’ status is due to the hidden network of razor Niño event) and a warm pool of surface water spreads that contain multiple internal and independently acting sharp blocks, pinnacles and deep clefts that have been back east, changing the distribution of rainfall such that climate proxies… monsoons to the west weaken and rains increase in the etched into the karstified limestone. If you were unfortu- Americas. Sometimes the trade winds strengthen (A Clue: stalagmites….! nate enough to fall, the experience would be very unfor- La Niña event), increasing sea surface temperature to Our Fiji work shows how precisely dated tropical spe- giving. the west and generating intense rain in the western Pa- lethem archives, backed by a proper understanding of

40 Makatea of the less evil kind… the climate capture process obtained through monitoring, provide a vital opportunity to measure ENSO periodicity and amplitude back in time. Caves like Voli Voli that are situated by the coast on a small tropical island, are right in the middle of the ENSO action Entering a cave from a skylight often required where the climate-proxies relations are at their sim- Makatea of the most evil kind… mixed tactics… plest. Ocean island cave sites provide a crucial link coral reef limestones are abundant, speleothem caves that allows the measurement of ENSO properties and are rarely found in ocean island environments except precise correlation with other climate archives and this where local tectonics have uplifted reef carbonates to is a new way forward to improve understanding of tel- allow karstification. We have identified potential loca- econnection pathways and future change in response tions that conveniently form an E-W transect at 18°S to GHG and solar forcing. The problem is that while through the warm pool and a key objective of the Down Under(ground) Tour was to explore a new and extremely beautiful new island location in the Cook Islands where speleothem-bearing caves are reported to exist… Atiu (pronounced atchoo!) is a small island in the southern Cooks reached by a 10 seater plane from Rarotonga. The low forested island has a population of around 400 people which is served by 5 churches (one seats 900), Some caves were easier to walk into from the forest. 9 tennis courts, three ‘pubs’ (another story) and two of the nearby islands such that Atiu was lifted as a wave rugby pitches. Atiu was a volcanic island forming part cut volcanic platform attached to its fringing reef. The of the Austral-Cook chain that originally never grew ring of reef, 1–2 km wide, is now about 30–40 m asl and large enough to emerge above sea level but developed heavily karstified to form a terrane known as Makatea. a coral reef and lagoon. The construction of the young- Makatea conceals a honeycomb of caves but is possibly er Rarotonga volcano around 3 My ago resulted in uplift A typical skylight into a cave chamber… the most evil terrane known to mankind.

41 Local inhabitants… coconut crabs and cave spiders…

Collecting dripwater for analysis…

Drilling cores from stalagmites to bring home…

And another, Marianne exiting the crawl into Vai Tupuranga cave!

The temporary chemistry lab outside the cave…

Beautiful skylight chamber in Pua Atea cave

Where possible we drilled cores into stalagmites that looked Surveying Pua Atea cave, but the more we surveyed, the promising… more new passages we found…

42 Team Atiu 2014 L to R Tim Atkinson (UCL) Dan Sinclair (U Antarctic Research Cruise JR298 Wellington, NZ) Marianne Brett (RHUL), John Cunningham Depositional patterns and records in sedi- (Birkbeck), Andrea Borsato and Silvia Frisia (U Newcastle, ment drifts off the Antarctic Peninsula and Australia), me. West Antarctica Javier Hernández-Molina There is intense interest in the response of the Antarc- tic Peninsula and West Antarctica to global warming because recent observations suggest this region is un- dergoing rapid changes including warming, ice-shelf disintegration and ice-sheet thinning and retreat. These changes can be considered in a longer geological per- spective by studying ice-cores and marine sediment cores to decode the paleoceanographic and climatic changes, as well as evaluate the past history and stabil- Site locations from IODP proposal 732. ity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and Antarctic for drilling. Co-proponents of this IODP proposal are: Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS). The International Ocean Dis- J.E.T. Channell (U. Florida, USA), R. D. Larter (BAS, UK), covery Program (IODP) proposal 732-Full2, “Sediment C.D. Hillenbrand (BAS, UK), M. Vautravers (BAS, UK), drifts off the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica” D.A. Hodell (U. Florida, USA), F.J. Hernández Molina An afternote. There are not many breaks in the cliffs proposes a series of drilling sites on sediment drifts (RHUL, UK), K. Gohl (AWI, Germany) and M. Rebesco around Atiu but there are a few small beaches. Two (contourites) located on the continental rise west of the (OGS, Italy). Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica (see map). The crew from Captain Cook’s ship landed here in 1777 and From the end of January to the beginning of March 2015 proposed sites contain continuous sections with high were promptly captured and prepared for the pot. Last the Antarctic cruise JR298 took place led by the British sedimentation rates that can be dated using relative minute negotiations resulted in an exchange of captives Antarctic Survey (BAS) on board the RRS James Clark (geomagnetic) paleointensity and, at shallow-water for the ship’s dog. Cook never came back to Atiu. Ross. The Principal Scientist was Dr. Rob Larter from sites, oxygen isotope stratigraphy. This IODP proposal BAS. The main purpose of cruise JR298 was to collect was approved and is currently at OTF pending ship time

43 Acquisition of multichannel seismic reflection profiles

RRS James Clark Ross at Rothera (March 2015) Approaching Rothera Research Station on the Pacific margin of marine geological and geophysical samples and data to the Antarctic Peninsula at the end of cruise JR298. support the IODP proposal 732. Ship time was allocated for this purpose on the basis of a Site Survey Investiga- tion grant from the NERC UK-IODP Programme (NE/ J006548/1 “Depositional patterns and records in sediment drifts off the Antarctic Peninsula and West- Ant arctica.” Sediment sampling with Piston core During the cruise geophysical data with monobeam and multibeam echosounders, high resolution seismic (TOPAS), multichannel seismic reflection profiles, together with magnetic and gravity data were gathered. Sediment samples were taken with piston cores and box cores and oceanographic data were collected with CTD, XBT and ADCP.

The data and samples collected will also be used in two seal on an ice floe near Rothera Collaborative Gearing Scheme projects (Department scheduled last call of the season at Halley by RRS Er- of Earth Sciences, Univ. Cambridge and Department Sediment sampling with Box core nest Shackleton. This resulted in a two-day delay to our of Geography, Durham University), an Antarctic Sci- arrival at Punta Arenas at the end of the cruise, in addi- ence Bursary project, a University of Cambridge PhD a malfunctioning sea glider. tion to a two-day extension already agreed as a result of studentship and within the National Capability remit of Towards the end of the cruise, RRS James Clark Ross the departure from Punta Arenas having been delayed the BAS Science Teams in “Geology and Geophysics” was diverted to Rothera to pick up 16 personnel who by slow refuelling. At the Rothera research station we and “Palaeoenvironments and Climate Change”. The had been flown across from Halley in two ALCI Basler could enjoy some fantastic scenary and wild fauna so cruise also provided support for physical oceanogra- aircraft because the sea ice situation in the Weddell our time wasn’t wasted. phy projects by deploying six Argo floats and rescuing Sea was considered to pose a significant risk to the

44 Javier Hernández-Molina at Rothera Adverse weather conditions, particularly during the first half of the cruise, resulted in more downtime than the amount of contingency time that had been allowed in the proposal. As a result, one less piston core and about 20% fewer line-km of seismic data were collected than had been planned. Nevertheless, the key objectives were achieved and the cores and data that were collected are of very good quality. The data and cores col- The research team involved in Antarctic cruise lected on cruise JR298, combined with existing data and JR298 cores, should satisfy all of the requirements of the Site 19 researchers from UK were involved on the cruise Characterisation Panel and the Environmental Protec- (BAS; Univ. of Exeter; Univ. of Southampton; Univ. of tion and Safety Panel of IODP. They will also provide a Cambridge; Univ. of Durham; Royal Holloway Univ. good basis for addressing the science objectives set out London; and Exploration Electronics Ltd). Also rep- in the UK-IODP Site Survey Investigation proposal and resented were USA (Univ. of Florida); Germany (AWI; those other projects listed above. Spain (Univ. of Granada); and Italy (OGS Trieste). Javier Hernández-Molina (RHUL) participated in the cruise and he is involved in the study of the onset and evolution of the contourite drifts.

Elephant seal at Rothera

45 Geological map of the Osa Peninsula, SW Costa Rica, showing our two study areas near Drake Bay and Cabo Matapalo (Modified from Vannucchi et al., 2006) The Costa Rican Experience Typical beaches on Osa Peninsula, overlooking Pacific Ocean. The dominant lithology in the Osa Mélange. Blocks of Caño Island is in the distance. fractured basalt in a matrix of comminuted basalt Alex Clarke In the Osa Mélange, the blocks and matrix are In late February, Paola Vannucchi and I headed off locally defined: there is not a single matrix surround- to the Osa Peninsula, southern Costa Rica for the ing all blocks and the processes of dismemberment first field trip of my Ph.D. project, funded bythe operate at a range of scales in a variety of Department’s research committee and a University of lithologies. London study grant. We were there to study the Osa Mélange — a heavily deformed rock unit consisting of In many places, the dark coloured matrix is ostensibly blocks of basalt and carbonate in a fine-grained matrix clastic – and defined by Buchs, et al., 2009 as sandstone — and collect samples that will form the basis of my – however the gradation from increasingly fractured Ph.D. project. basalt to ‘clastic’ matrix has led us to wonder whether this is due to tectonic disaggregation at depth rather Tropical fieldwork was a new experience for me. than surface erosion and deposition. This will certainly Until then, the hottest place I had worked was Almeria need to be investigated further. on my undergraduate field trip. I expected, but was not prepared for, the heat and humidity of the Costa Rican I was also tasked with trying to find evidence sug- rain forest. gestive of seismicity recorded in the mélange. I found several thin, dark seams which may be The Osa Mélange – contrary to how I described it in Implosion breccia in a dilational jog pseudotachylites and one implosion breccia in a my Postgraduate Seminar presentation – is far from a dilational jog (see figure right). typical mélange. I was expecting something akin to the will be to conduct detailed thin section analysis of these Gwna Mélange on Anglesey (the type locality for the The samples I collected will form the basis of my Ph.D. samples. A lot more work will be needed to understand term) which I studied during my masters. In the Gwna, research and will complement samples Paola has al- this mélange. ready collected, including material recovered from large blocks of carbonate, quartzite and basalt are sus- While, on the whole, this field trip was a success, it was IODP drilling expeditions. The map that I constructed pended in a matrix of pelite; imagine, if you will, what a not without it’s minor disasters including but not lim- will provide some indication of the relative proportions conglomerate might look like to an ant. ited to: our car not being sufficient to tackle of the materials present in the mélange. My next steps

46 Mall in Kuwait city – biggest in the Gulf area and growing

Irregular contact between carbonate block within There were friggin’ monkeys outside my window!

comminuted basalt matrix There’s Gas in the Desert but not as we know it A survey of Methane Emission Plumes in Kuwait Giulia Zacceri and Dave Lowry The foci of research student Aalia al-Shalaan’s project Picarro Mobile set-up in Aalia’s car are the sources and emissions of methane in Kuwait. A significant part of this is based around a mobile survey of the plumes in Kuwait using our laser spectrometer and plume sampling for carbon isotopic analysis to fin- gerprint the sources. The trip was planned for the first week of May before it became unbearably hot. Aalia arrived in advance of Giulia and Dave to deal with Telephone not included, and for the record, I still couldn’t get the customs officialdom and the threat that she would reception here. have to pay a large sum in cash to get the equipment the roads, parking in a storm drain, leaving my pass- released. She stubbornly confronted them and after 7 port at one of the hotels, falling in a river along with hours of persistence, got the equipment released and my phone and maps, problems with hotel bookings, the deposit waived. delayed flights and damaged luggage. None of this, The equipment was set up in a Kuwait University lab- however, is enough to stop me from hoping for a return oratory and tested for 24-hours to measure ambient A highlly reflective Aalia on top of a landfill trip.

47 Landfill site: steaming and dusty but surpringly not too smelly

mobile survey route map of Kuwait Camels crossing

CH4 and CO2 and to give us time to meet our host, and It is conceived as a people-friendly city; outside there is former supervisor of Aalia, Prof. Mohammad al-Sarawi, the desert, there are refineries, but indoors there is a who spent some time as a visiting scientist at RHUL in comforting oasis. the 1990s. Then followed 6 days of surveying with very few hitch- On the second afternoon it was time to set up the in- es. We headed north toward the Iraqi border, south to- strument in the back of Aalia’s Lexus 4x4 . The tempera- ward the Saudi Arabian border and drove the military ture was already soaring into the high 30s as we toiled road missing from the maps, built to move troops and with the inlet and an instrument that kept turning itself equipment quickly northward during the Gulf conflict. Underground gas leak in the British town – methane vents to off. We moved base to Aalia’s house and some of Dave’s A very detailed street-by-street survey of the city had atmosphere through the chimneys knowledge of the problems from the 2014 Australia been planned beforehand but a couple of major factors Landfill sites, sewage works, oil refineries, cows, camels campaign finally paid off. With a new fuse and- tight made us adjust these: and sheep were the main methane sources we explored. ened connections the instrument stayed on at about 1) Kuwait has no rail or metro network and public The main city cemetary was an unexpected source. the 17th time of asking. We managed 3 hours of mo- transport is not so good and used only by the migrant Waste products in Kuwait are disposed exclusively on bile measurement in air-conditioned comfort and ap- workforce. This coupled with a very ambitious high- landfill sites and there is no recycling. The landfills orig- proached the rest day finally in the knowledge that we way building plan, including one across the bay to the inally filled holes and now rise above the surrounding had overcome the main hurdles. as-yet-to-be-built Silk City, meant that traffic was very desert, with lobes of waste being added and looking In Kuwait, Friday is the day off work, and many people bad, particularly during extended rush hour periods and much like alluvial fans when seen from satellite, blend- go shopping in one of the many covered malls, which in the numerous roadworks. ing in with the surrounding desert. All the active sites offer air conditioning, nice walks with trees, music and 2) The country has no residential gas supply net- were contributing significant methane to the atmos- lights, whose intensity changes during the day to mim- work, so the common gas pipe leaks of most old Euro- phere with plumes detected downwind on the main ic the sunlight. We visited the largest one in the gulf pean and American cities were not present and most highways. Unfortunately KOC (Kuwait Oil Company) area, being dropped at the Prestige entrance amid the major methane sources are peripheral to the city. Only owns much of the land in the country and many of the valet parking of Ferraris and Bentleys. The mall protects one of the peripheral towns, built by the British in the roads outside of the city, so there was no access to the you from the heat and reassures people with sparkling 50s at the start of petroleum exploration has a gas pipe main drilling areas, but the few wells we got close to Rolex and Celine bags, inciting compulsive shopping. network, and it leaks! seemed to be tight for methane and we didn’t get close

48 Kuwait Towers - Red

Aalia, Giulia and Dave enjoying the traditional tea Prof al-Sarawi and Giulia tuck into a pigeon dinner to any flares. There was no refinery access either but a Kuwait Towers - Blue and Red nice sea breeze blew plumes from these across to the main coastal highway south of Kuwait City where we surveyed them. Environmental concerns are not nec- essarily at the forefront of thinking when the water costs more than the petrol and western consumerism is firmly rooted in a large proportion of the population. The characteristic Kuwaiti towers (above right) were for many years a top location for parties, until it was discovered that the ceiling was made of asbestos that was gradually deteriorating. The restaurant on top of the tower is now not accessible. The large beach houses, boats and shopping malls seem Süphan Dağ Volcano Lake Van, Turkey to have made a lot of people forget the flares and smok- ing chimney stacks until health issues arise. However, A fitting ending to an interesting trip. What will be our there is new environmental awareness and, often un- underlying memory of it? Not the exotic scenario pro- der the guidance of Professor Al-Sarawi, new advanced vided by the shining towers, skyscrapers and luxurious technologies are being implemented for waste water hotels between sea and desert, but the real beauty of and oil field industrial effluent treatment, and landfill the country lies in the hospitality and the extreme gen- remediation. erosity of Kuwaiti people. The current troubles in Iraq mean that the flights are routed over the Zagros mountains of Iran and the volcanoes of Turkey before reaching the Black Sea and there were some splendid views on our return to Heathrow. One of the many oil pipelines that emerge from under the desert road

49 Department of Earth Sciences People

CONTENTS

51. PhD Successes 51. John Wright Memorial Prize 52. Congratulations to . . . 55. Welcome to . . . 56. Sad News

Home Conferences Events Field Trips Fieldwork Research

50 PhD Successes tion”, supervised by Wolfgang Müller. David now holds a passed the viva examination on his PhD thesis entitled postdoc position at Yale University. David’s thesis is the “Provenance, stratigraphy and tectonic history of Mes- Sarah Brown, who successfully defended her PhD the- first one in the new ‘alternative’ format – where publi- ozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of West and Cen- sis on “The role of fire in dinosaur-dominated ecosys- cations are allowed to be submitted as thesis or a mix tral Sarawak, Malaysia”. He is now continuing on as a tems: examples from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta“ at of chapters and mansucripts etc... David’s included four postdoc with the SE Asia Research Group. her viva on 5th November, 2014. (!) published papers (Paleoceanography, JAAS, EPSL, Sam Bennett, who on 21st November successfully GCA), one submitted and one written and almost ready. came through his viva to complete his PhD thesis on “An Marie Busfield, who on 19th May successfully defend- investigation into ichthyosaur ontogeny, sexual dimor- ed her PhD thesis by publication on “Sedimentology of phism and body size evolution”. the Sturtian icehouse: perspectives from Namibia, Aus- Zoe Barnett, who passed her viva on 28th November tralia and western USA”. Marie is now busy applying for based on her PhD thesis on “Emplacement and evolu- postdoc positions and lectureships. tion of sills into shallow magma chambers and hydro- Damiano Della Lunga, who at his viva on 15th June carbon reservoirs”. successfully defended his PhD project on “Development Oris Rodriguez who on 4th December successfully, and Application of Cryo-Cell-UV-Laser Ablation Mass defended her PhD thesis on “Miocene woods from Spectrometry (UV-LA-ICPMS) to Greenland Ice Cores: Panama: systematics and palaeoenvironmental im- Implications for Abrupt Climate Change and Ice Phys- Pete Burgess, with the Borrowdale Trophy in front of him, plications”. Bill Chaloner came “out of retirement” to ics.” He will now continue here with Wolfgang Müller as hands out the awards examine her thesis as there are precious few experts on a postdoc (1yr guaranteed, 2nd yr possibly funded) on fossil wood left in the world. Her other examiner was an ASI-funded project in further developing and apply- Jon Wright Memorial Prize Jakub Sakala from Charles University Prague. Oris is ing their cryo-cell LA methodology to ice cores. On Monday, 3rd November 2014, we were reminded of returning to Panama to work at the Smithsonian Tropi- Stephanie Jones, who successfully completed her the life of a former student, Jon Wright, who died sud- cal Research Institute. We wish her well. viva on “studies of thin film on atmospheric aerosol”. denly in November 1995 in his final year, commemo- rated annually by the award of the Jon Wright Memo- Gerd Winterleitner, who on 9th December success- She did her thesis by the alternative format with three rial Prize. This had been set up by his parents, with his fully completed the viva for his PhD project on “Neopro- published papers and three ready to be submitted. She fellow students and the staff all contributing. The tan- terozoic source rocks and analogue microbial reservoir is going on to do postdoc research at the university gible expression of the Prize is the Borrowdale Trophy, characterisation: from outcrop to dynamic reservoir of Victoria in Canada, continuing to trap microscopic a specimen of green tuff from the Borrowdale Volcanic simulation”. He will follow his wife to French Guiana particles. Series where he mapped, exhibited in the showcase later in January for 3 months where she is working with Chris Ball, who on 6th August successfully com- in the Geology Foyer. His parents wanted the Trophy indigenous people on health issues. After that he will pleted his PhD viva on “Bidirectional Reflectance of to go to the students judged to have shown the most start a Post-Doc project in Rio de Janeiro in collabora- Snow and Sea Ice: Field, Laboratory and Modeling progress and achievement in geology through field- tion with RHUL to continue his research on microbial Studies”. He has already published two papers, with work in their second year. They also wanted the prize carbonates. a third on the way. His PhD was a collaboration with winners to use the funds in whatever way they chose, to Dr David Evans, who on 25th March 2015 suc- the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. enjoy their third year as undergraduates. He is now working for Risk Management Solutions, cessfully completed the viva for his PhD thesis on Our congratulations go to Max Coussens and Sam “Spatially-resolved trace element records in cultured using remote sensing to help inform the insurance in- Head who were jointly awarded the 2014 Prize by Head and fossil foraminifera: Cenozoic ocean chemistry, pal- dustry. of Department Prof Peter Burgess for their outstanding aeoseasonality and tropical temperature reconstruc- Tim Breitfeld, who on 1st September successfully achievements in fieldwork during their second year.

51 Congratulations to . . . University of Almeria is joining the Department in Feb- ruary to study the source and dispersal of CO2 and CH4 Pete Rowley, who has recently been appointed as in European cave systems. Caves absorb and emit large Senior Research Officer in the School of Earth and En- fluxes of these greenhouse gases and the aim of this vironmental Sciences,University of Portsmouth. Pete project is to improve understanding of the drivers and was a student here, graduating MSci in 2001, con- pathways of gas exchange between karst and the at- tinuing in research as a PhD student, then as a Teach- mosphere. Angel has developed specialist monitoring ing Assistant, gaining his PhD in 2010, moving on as a systems to measure the isotopic composition of soil Post-Doctoral Research Assistant 2011–2012. His wife, and cave air in real-time and we plan to deploy these Hollie, continues to work here at Royal Holloway. His systems in caves in Gibraltar, France and Spain. research interests are in in sedimentology and volcan- Dave Mattey, again, on the award of a major NERC ology, particularly in submarine turbidity currents and Research Grant, together with Wolfgang Müller and Tim pyroclastic density currents. Atkinson (UCL), for a project on “The Gibraltar Archive: Euan Nisbet and Dave Lowry, who have been a half million year reference record of rainfall isotopes awarded a substantial grant from NERC for a project on in the western Mediterranean”. “Methane at the edge: jointly developing state-of-the- This award is the final part of the Gibraltar tril- art high-precision methods to understand atmospheric ogy, a project we started 10 years ago, which all be- methane emissions”. gan with a casual enquiry to Ted Rose “any caves Robert Hall, who has been awarded major funding in Gibraltar, Ted?”… At that time we were part of through the addition of ENI as a member of the con- a NERC consortium project “ASCRIBE” a wonder- sortium of companies that support the Southeast Asia fully contrived acronym (Atlantic Seaboard Climatic Research Group SEARG. Responses Including Bounding Errors) for a project Lloyd White, who has recently posted a ‘blog’ for the which attempted to identify controlling factors on “Traveling Geologist” website. For those of you who Holocene palaeoclimates using speleothem prox- are interested (or that missed Ben Jost and Max Webb’s ies sampled along the Atlantic seaboard. Gibraltar is recent PGR seminars) this explains a little bit of what the most southerly location in Europe and turned out The Big Idea, – Organization of palaeoclimatic data into SEARG have been getting up to in New Guinea over the to have three key assets for palaeoclimate research: a 3-D space of latitude-longitude-time to reveal changes past two years. 1) a perfect natural laboratory to test and cali- in rainfall isotope gradients across Europe. A network of Saswata Hier-Majumder, who has been awarded a brate climate capture by speleothem proxies, speleothem proxy records provide partial records across major grant for a Marie Curie postdoc post to develop 2) a dedicated and energetic group of cavers (now short time intervals but reference records such as NGRIP computational models of the structure and composi- evolved into the Gibraltar Cave Science Unit) who ran and Soreq are continuous through the last glacial cycle. tion of UltraLow Velocity Zones (ULVZs) at the core– our monitoring systems, overseen by The Gibraltar record will be continuous beyond 500 ka+ mantle boundary as a contribution towards the project 3) an alumnus of RHUL (John Cortes) formerly director providing a cornerstone for spatial mapping of proxy DEEPER (Deep Earth Elastic Properties and Effective of the Botanical Gardens, and currently Minister for the records as they become available. – Tim Atkinson Rheology). Environment in the Gibraltar Government. which we pioneered new methods of instrumental cave Dave Mattey, who has been awarded a major grant to The first NERC award said it all in the title “Fidelity of monitoring, which turned out to become the standard support a Marie Curie Fellowship for a project called speleothem climate proxies: an inter-annual calibra- for others to follow, and showed that we could replicate “SMACKS – Sourcing Methane And Carbon dioxide in tion against the instrumental record in Gibraltar and aspects of the instrumental records from a modern spe- Karst Systems”. Dr Angel Fernandez Cortes from the prospects for climate hindcasting” (2005–2009) during leothem proxy record. This led to the next project “A

52 calibrated climate record from Gibraltar speleothem: Margaret Collinson, who has had a fossil named af- the instrumental era, the Holocene and the last inter- ter her, a new species of ovulate cone (Pararaucaria col- glacial” (2009–2013) where we extended our cave linsonae) on the basis of silicified fossils from the Late monitoring network to span a 400m vertical range of Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Group of southern England karst, constructed high resolution records through the (Tithonian Stage: ca. 145 million years). This new spe- Holocene and the last glacial and began collecting species is documented in an article by Steart, D.C., Spencer, leothem and flowstone cores in earnest. With over 200 A.R.T., Garwood, R.J., Hilton, J., Munt, M.C., Needham, pilot U-Th dates we realized that given the resources J.and Kenrick P., 2014. X-ray Synchrotron Microtomog- we could construct a palaeo-rainfall record that could raphy of a silicified Jurassic Cheirolepidiaceae (Conifer) go back >5 glacial cycles, to the limit of the U-Th dat- cone: histology and morphology of Pararaucaria col- ing method. The final part of the trilogy “The Gibraltar linsonae sp. nov. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.624 Archive: a half million year reference record of rainfall Matthew Thirlwall, who has been awarded a ma- isotopes in the western Mediterranean” (2015–2018) jor grant for a project entitled “Seawater records and was successfully funded to construct what we hope to climate change in the Mesozoic”. This grant supports be a ‘reference’ proxy record which can then be used to PDRA Qiong Li, who is working with Matthew Thirlwall, explore rainfall isotope gradients N–S between Green- John McArthur and Wolfgang Müller, to constrain the land and southern Europe and E–W between Southern evolution of the ocean-climate system in the Meso- Europe and the Middle East on Milankovitch times- zoic. The project will document the Ca and stable Sr Pararaucaria collinsonae (A–B) Uncompressed cone NHMUK V 68524; (C–D) Compressed cales. What is unique about this project is that after 10 isotope evolution of the Mesozoic ocean using well- cone NHMUK V 68525. years of cave monitoring we know a great deal about preserved belemnite calcite, and with clumped isotope how changing environmental boundary conditions (A) Side view of cone; (B) Cone apex; constraints on temperature will investigate the interac- (C) Base of compressed cone showing lobed such as seasonality, mean air temperature and chang- tions between continental weathering, carbonate pre- ovuliferous scale; es in sea level could bias the climate capture process, cipitation and dissolution and atmospheric CO2 levels (D) Detail of ovuliferous scale, showing so we can bracket or even eliminate some of the as- to assess the controls on Mesozoic climate. three lobes (L1 to L3) and bract (br). sumptions that otherwise haunt palaeoclimate recon- Wolfgang Müller, who has been awarded a major Scale bars for (A–C) = 1 cm, for (D) = 0.5 cm. structions. We hope this will provide insight into the grant from NERC for a project entitled “2014 NERC Stra- Greenland and Antarctic ice cores: Cryo-cell-UV-LA- impact of rapid climate change associated with Bond tegic Environmental Science Capital Call”. The award is ICPMS analysis of abrupt climate change events”. and Dansgaard-Oescher events and into the mysteri- to fund new equipment: Pioneering triple-quadrupole ous teleconnections that are clearly visible between the David Lowry, who has been awarded a grant from the ICPMS for complete interference control and highest Kuwait Foundation for the advancement of Science for polar ice records and the Asian monsoon systems. The sensitivity in laser-ablation (LA) ICPMS, with multiple research team includes Tim Atkinson (UCL), Ian Fairch- a project entitled “Methane Emissions in Kuwait and applications including in-situ sulphur in ice cores and their isotopic signature.” ild (Birmingham), Dirk Hoffman (Bristol/MPI Leipzig) speleothems. This will revolutionize microanalysis of and Matt Fischer (ANSTO, Australia) with huge con- speleothems, ice cores etc. by laser-based mass spec- John Browning, who is delighted that one tributions from Nathalie, Rebecca and Dave, the MSci trometry to achieve the highest time-resolution in of the students he taught at the Brilliant Club projects of John Dredge, Stephanie Dutton, Alex Stal- (see Graduates Newsletter 2014 p 25) has had Palaeoclimatology. ley, Jamie Knapman, Cameron Johnston and, of course, his work published in the journal “The Scholar” Wolfgang Müller, who has also been granted the Gibraltar Cave Science Unit. We will shortly appoint Peter Burgess, who, together with his co-editors a substantial award by Australian Scientific In- a PDRA to carry the project forward, which we hope will David Smith, Robin Bailey and Alastair Fraser, has struments Pty Ltd for a 2 year study on “Sub- result in a new iconic climate record for Europe. produced Geological Society Special Publications annually-resolved dust and volcanic aerosols in

53 404 “Strata and time: probing the gaps in our un- tional funding from COMPASS, Petrobras and Chevron derstanding”, a major work based on the 2012 Wil- USA Inc for the project on “Continental Margin process liam Smith meeting, which they had convened. analysis, structures and stratigraphy”. This funding will Neil Adams, 3rd year geography/geologuy BSc, employ more PhD students to work on the COMPASS who has been awarded the Mary MacPherson project, as well as paying for other research costs. Essay Prize by the College for his article on the 2015 UN Rebecca Fisher, who gave birth to her son, Climate Conference. The text of his essay is on page 18. Alexander John Caulfield, on 6th November 2104. Javier Hernandez-Molina, who has been awarded a substantial grant from BG International Group for a project entitled: “Turbidite–Contourite Interactions on the Uruguayan Margin: Implications for the sedimentary stacking pattern of continental margins and implications for hydrocarbon exploration.”

Five new Honorary Fellows of the College inducted on 14th May: front row L to R Prof Philip Beeseley (former Professor of Neuroscience and Dean of Science), Professor Bernie Vining (ex Exxon, Visiting Professor of Petroleum Geoscience), Professor Mary Fowler (former Head of Earth Sci- Susan Bardet, GIS specialist in SEARG, who recently ences and Dean of Science, now Master of Darwin Col- gave birth to a lovely baby girl, Sophia Mathilde Bardet. lege, Cambridge), Mr Leon Ellison (former Electronics Engineer, Physics Department, Professor Peter Bram- ley (former Head of School of Biological Sciences) Standing behind them are the Orators who supported them with declarations of their achievements: L to R: L to R: Helpers Amy Tuck-Martin and Camilla Imarisio with Prof Vincent Janson, Prof Peter Burgess, Prof Jane potential customer Rebecca Brownlow Broadbent, Prof Brian Cowan, Prof Alan Gage. At the Marie Busfield and her team at Keef’s Kafe on Tues- back are Prof Paul Layzell (Principal) and Mr Stephen day 11th November, who created and presented lots Cox (Chairman of Council) of yummy cakes, fresh coffee and hot chocolate, sold Saswata Hier-Majumder, who has been awarded a to raise £620 for MacMillan Cancer Support. Special major grant from the EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie fund thanks go to Dan, Amy, Camilla, Diane, Keith, Lucia and for a project on “Deep Earth Elastic Properties and Ef- Sue for their help. fective Rheology.”

Lucia Perez-Diaz and Diane Serpant, who Jürgen Adam, Peter Burgess, Graeme Dan Parsonage and Nora Lecoeur, on the birth of their organized and ran Keef’s Kaff on 10th March, Eagles, Dan Le Heron, Marta Pérez-Gussinyé and son, Maxime Luis James Lecoeur Parsonage, a baby raising £300 for Comic Relief. With thanks to Jerry, Jason Morgan, who have been a major award in addi- brother to Oscar. Lynne, Amy and Camilla for all their help during the day

54 Welcome to . . . Angel Fernandez-Cortes, who has been awarded a 2-year IEF Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to work Dr Amy Gough, who joined us for a three-year with Dave Mattey on a project “Sourcing Methane position as a postdoctoral researcher in clastic And Carbon dioxide in Karst Systems (SMACKS)”. The sedimentology, working with the Southeast Asia project is a partnership between the Stable Isotope Research Group SEARG. She has recently completed her group at RHUL, led by Dave Mattey, and the research PhD at Keele University, the research of which focused group: “Geology–Geochemistry–Microclimate of sub- upon spatial and temporal controls on sediment archi- terranean environments” in Madrid, coordinated by Dr. tecture and deposition in arid continental basin margin Sanchez-Moral (Dept. Geology at National Museum of systems. Her research looked at the identification and Natural Sciences, MNCN-CSIC). interpretation of climatic variations within clastic sediments using outcrop data from the Paradox Basin, Utah The overall aim of the SMACKS project is to use novel to formulate a cyclostratigraphical model for continen- real-time monitoring techniques to understand the tal basin margin deposits. This model has been used specific constraints imposed by subterranean atmos- to aid in the prediction of subsurface fluid flow within pheres (caves), located in the upper vadose zone of karst terrains, for incorporating CO and CH dynamics similar, but poorly exposed, basins. This concept was 2 4 tested through the application of the model to subsur- into carbon-cycle models. To accomplish this objec- face data from the Brockram Facies, northern England tive the project combines continuous multi-parameter to highlight how these systems can affect potential nu- monitoring of the cave–soil–atmosphere system at clear waste repositories. She is really looking forward to selected sites (mainly climatic data and gas composi- her time at Royal Holloway, and to meeting everyone in tion) with geochemical tracing using the stable carbon isotopic (δ13C) of both CO and CH . The project will be the Department. 2 4 deployed in a wide range of underground sites along a Hoffman Environmental Research Institute (Western south–north transect across Europe, including Gibral- Kentucky University, 2005/06). From 2006 to 2009 he tar, Spain, France and UK. The analytical work will be worked at the Applied Petrology Laboratory (Environ- conducted in RHUL and MNCN-CSIC (Madrid). Both re- ment and Earth Sciences Dept., University of Alicante). search centres have a comprehensive suite of analytical From 2009 to 2013 he was a Fellow of the Geology De- instrumentation and measurement methods coupled partment, National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC). with world-class expertise that fulfils some analyti- His postdoc activity has been mainly focused on the as- cal and service requirements of the project, including sessment of climate-driven exchanges of gases (includ- continuous flow gas chromatography and isotope ratio ing greenhouse gases) between subsurface, soil and mass spectrometry, and new optical techniques using atmosphere. During this time he has published nearly off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy or cavity 60 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, 22 invited ring down spectroscopy. book chapters, 3 books and a host of papers in confer- Starting with a PhD in Environmental Sciences in the ence proceedings. He has taught on a Masters degree Hydrogeology Department, University of Almeria- and PhD courses on water resources in semi-arid areas UAL, 2004, Angel Fernandez-Cortes was successively for the Universities of Almeria and Granada and has su- granted research support by UAL and then a Post-Doc pervised 3 PhD theses, all of them concerning microcli- Fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Education and mate and hydrogeochemical aspects of subterranean Science (MEC) to develop postdoctoral work at the environments.

55 Sad News University of Surrey. It was there that the NERC ICP- We were all devastated by the dreadful news that Cam- MS unit was started. In 1989 it was decided that Alan’s group should move to Royal Holloway to link up with eron Grant died suddenly on the 14th November 2014. Nick Walsh’s NERC-funded ICP group. Cameron was a hugely energetic and enthusiastic student and we will all miss him intensely. Peter Burgess Alan Gray was born in London in 1923. After war service and Ian Watkinson, along with many of his friends from in the RAF, he returned to King’s College London where Year 3, attended Cameron’s memorial service in Hamp- he graduated in Physics in 1948. After this he joined ton in Arden on Friday 28th November and joined his the Plessey Company to work on solid state materials family in a full-to-bursting Church to celebrate and at the Caswell Research Laboratory. 1956 he moved, remember his life. on attachment, to the Atomic Energy Authority at Har- well, where he specialized in radiation detector devel- It seems only a short time ago that we were mourning opment. the loss of Kayleigh Sugar who was tragically killed in the early hours of 3rd March 2012 after being struck by a In 1968, Alan joined the UK branch of Applied Research car whilst crossing the A30 outside the College. Kayleigh Laboratories as Chief Engineer, later becoming Head of was a popular and talented student who was also Lyell Research. Recognizing the value of mass spectrometry Society President in 2010–11. as an analytical technique and its potential for elemental analysis, it was his idea to couple mass spectrometry Many of us will also miss Martin Brasier, Professor to a plasma source. This unique approach became the of Palaeobiology at Oxford, who died in a car accident technique of choice in elemental analysis. It has made near Oxford on 16th December, 2014. A former under- a particular impact in the study of geological matrices graduate at Chelsea College in the 1960s, Martin was on moved to Kingston University. A highlight for Alan was and the protection of the environment. In 1979 he ob- the staff of the Geology Department at Hull University the Queen’s Award for technological innovation that tained EEC funding with the Institute of Geological Sci- through much of the 1970s and 1980s until his appoint- he was given in 1990 and we celebrated at Royal Hollo- ences to follow up this idea using inductively coupled ment to Oxford in 1988. Over recent decades he became way. Working with Alan at Royal Holloway were Dr. Kim plasma. a leading international authority on the emergence and Jarvis, Dr. J. Williams, Dr. A Ince, J.D.Willis, B. Gibson With the late Alan Date as his research associate, Dr. development of life in the Precambrian and through to and P.Hill. the “Cambrian explosion”. Earlier in 2014 the Geologi- Gray developed the technique at the University of Sur- Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP- cal Society of London awarded him the Lyell Medal in rey. The first commercial ICP-MS instrument was mar- MS) was developed as a commercial analytical tech- recognition of his outstanding work on the Precambrian keted under his guidance by VG Elemental Ltd in 1982, nique in the early 1980’s and has since been applied to and early Cambrian faunas and environments. establishing for the UK a world lead in this area of in- the determination of trace, minor and major elements strumentation. He was awarded his PhD by the Uni- Alan Lyle Gray BSc, PhD, DSc 1923–2015 in almost every analytical field. versity of Surrey in 1983 and an honorary DSc by the Andrew Scott Working at the Applied Research Laboratories in Luton, University of Plymouth in 1998. He was a Fellow of the I am sad to report the death of a former member of our UK, Alan conducted much of the early research work Institute of Physics and was awarded by the Royal Soci- staff, Dr. Alan Gray, on 10th August 2015. I had known that led to the commercial development of ICP-MS ety of Chemistry the 18th Society for Analytical Chem- Alan for many years as we both attended the same instrumentation. (Gray, A. L., 1975, Analyst, 100, 289– istry Gold Medal in 1987. Baptist Church in Farnham. Alan moved to Royal Hol- 299). This was followed by further ground-breaking He lived in Farnham with his wife who pre-deceased loway in 1989 bringing his NERC supported ICP-MS research (Houk, R. S., Fassel, V. A., Flesch, G. D., Svec, him in 2006. He is survived by two sons and two daugh- unit with him. His group remained at Royal Holloway H. J., Gray, A. L and Taylor, C. E., 1980, Anal. Chem., ters. until Alan’s retirement in November 1993 and the Unit 52, 2283–2289) and Alan moved to continue this at the

56 Department of Earth Sciences Research

58. The Inner Kew – Lloyd White CONTENTS What’s in a name – Dave Alderton 59. How many Earth scientists does it take to change a light bulb? – Dave Waltham Giant Clam (Tridacna) Culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel – Viola Warter Lyell Scholarship Project Reports: 61. Quantifying the Faint Young Sun Paradox – Candice Bedford 62. The Cross Rail Project – Andrew Dawes 63. Sandy deposits from the Gulf of Cadiz – Sedimentological, Palaeoceanographic and Economic Implications – Claudia Jones Mining emeralds in Zambia – Adam Bush Dating the intrusion of the Ross of Mull granite – Isra Ezard 64. Insights into the geodynamic regime of Neogene Spain from large volume dacitic eruptions – Niall Mullins New PhD Research Projects: 64. Structural modelling of hydrocarbon potential fold belts formed around the margin of allochthonous salt nappes – Heraclio Gutierrez-Moreno 66. Interaction between shallow magma plumbing systems beneath closely related volcanic centres – Camilla Imarisio 67. Mélange and Megathrust Earthquakes – Alex Clarke Tephrochronology of Changbaishan Tianchi volcano, China – Xuanyu Chen 69. Metamorphic Basement of the Bird’s Head Peninsula, NW Papua, Indonesia – Ben Jost 70. Halokinetic Sequence Stratigraphy – Vicky Mianaekere 71. Geodynamics of the North China Craton – Leon Liu 72. Methane sources in Kuwait – Aalia Al-Shaalan 73. Hydraulic fracturing of shales – Nathaniel Forbes Inskip 74. Turbidite–Contourite interactions on continental margins – Adam Creaser (Contourites Group) 75. Optimizing Geothermal Resources and decreasing Risks and Hazards – Mohsen Bazargan

Home Conferences Events Field Trips Fieldwork People

57 The inner Kew What’s in a Name? Lloyd White David Alderton For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to develop clos- Congratulations to Margaret Collinson in having a fossil er ties with biologists who, like me, are focusing their named after her (see page 53). And Margaret tells me research on western New Guinea (Papua/West Papua). that this is her third, so she now is on an equal footing Whilst my interests mainly lie in developing a better un- with David Attenborough, who also has three (although derstanding of the timing of tectonic events and basin ‘his’ species are still alive). formation, their interests lie more in characterizing the It seems quite appropriate for distinguished scientists high biodiversity of plants and insects, particularly be- to have their names used for new species of plants fore large regions of land are cleared, usually for large and animals, along with minerals, comets and the like. palm oil plantations. The chance to combine geologi- However, because of the exceedingly large number of cal and biological studies of West Papua also allows us species of living and fossil organisms constantly being to use everyone’s favourite corporate buzzword; that’s discovered, biologists and palaeontologists presum- right, synergy. Together we benefit, as I’m able to in- ably have to be ever more resourceful and imaginative corporate information that the biologists find about in their naming. And it seems as though they do have a changes in particular species over time, and they gain sense of humour. As someone unfamiliar with the nam- a better understanding of changes in tectonic plate ing protocol for organisms, I was intrigued and amused movement that might explain the divergence of partic- by some of the names I came across: ular species over time due to periods of uplift or rifting From show business and film: leading to plate separation. This synergy is also quite beneficial for simple, yet practical things like fieldwork Avahi cleesei (John Cleese lemur); Agra Katewinsletae logistics, like swapping GPS tracks, learning the loca- (Kate Winslet beetle); Agra schwarzeneggeri (Arnold Schwarzenegger beetle); Aptostichus angelinajolieae tion of a road or guesthouse, or obtaining the contact One of the many, multi-floor rooms that makes up Kew’s details of a good reliable driver. Herbarium (apologies for the poor photo). Each of the white (Angelina Jolie trapdoor spider); Montypythonus (Mon- ty Python snake). In any case, on April 9th, Dr Michael Balke, the cura- lockers contains Kew’s carefully catalogued type specimens tor for Coleoptera (beetles) at the Bavarian State Col- from around the world. The lockers are separated by desks that Or other well-known individuals: overlook greenery. lection of Zoology flew to London to discuss possible Hyloscirtus princecharlesi (Prince Charles frog); Eristalis avenues to seek research funding and to share stories to teach various aspects of science in West Papua. gatesii (Bill Gates flower fly); Aptostichus barackobamai of conducting fieldwork in West Papua. The next day Michael and I were also fortunate to get a tour around (Barack Obama trapdoor spider). we met with various botanists working in the SE Asian Kew Garden’s Herbarium. This is where Kew’s various From the world of music: team at Kew Gardens. Whilst much of our meeting ‘type specimens’ of thousands of plants collected from Gnathia marleyi (Bob Marley parasite); Scaptia be- turned into a venting session to air our frustrations with around the world are housed. It would be a lovely place yonceae (Beyonce horse fly); Heteropoda davidbowie organizing fieldwork in eastern Indonesia, we were able to work – the botanists are able to take their specimens (David Bowie spider); Aegrotocatellus jaggeri (a trilo- to formulate a rough plan for future collaborative work to microscope-equipped desks with large windows that bite named after Mick Jagger); Avalanchurus lennoni, and grant applications. This includes the possibility of overlook the greenery outside. If only we could have a A. starri, A. simoni, A. garfunkeli (more trilobites – no joint supervision of students (e.g. through the London- similar set-up with our petrographic microscopes over- Paul McCartney and George Harrison?); Arcticalymene DTP), projects that might help to protect West Papua’s looking a beach or mountain range. viciousi, A. rotteni, A. jonesi, A. cooki, A. matlocki) (the biodiversity as well as ways in which we might be able Sex Pistols trilobites).

58 And literature: relevant to current needs and, as a consequence, they so we now have a real community of modellers. Many Psephophorus terrypratchetti (Terry Pratchett turtle); are starting to bring in substantial research funds too. academic staff also have great expertise in modifying Arthurdactylus conan-doylensis – a pterodactyl named Research groups, old and new, also played a major role off-the-shelf simulation software (Agust and Martin for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote The Lost World, in our recent REF submission with their influence on our King come to mind). This modelling has been concen- a book about a hidden plateau in South America where “research environment” being particularly held up as trated in the sub-fields of geodynamics, structural geol- dinosaurs still lived. Dracorex hogwarsia (Hogwarts – excellent. But, apart from that… ogy and sedimentology but other areas have been cov- Harry Potter, dinosaur); Mimatuta morgoth, Alletodon I’ve focused above on the petroleum-related groups, as ered, too, such as geochemistry, climate science and mellon, Mithrandir sp., Oxyprimus galadrielae, Pro- these are the ones I’m most familiar with, but similar even orbital mechanics. tungulatum gorgun The palaeontologist who named benefits occur across the Department. What research We therefore have a unique concentration of modellers these prehistoric mammals must have liked Tolkien’s groups do for us is to provide an environment in which here and we should be selling ourselves as a centre of The Lord of the Rings series a lot. Apparently these are focused research flourishes, where our work gains in- excellence. We should be the go-to place for numeri- all elvish words used in his novels; Ichabodcraniosau- ternational recognition and where we can more easily cal modelling in the same way that we are already the rus – This velociraptor-like dinosaur skeleton was found bring in the considerable resources needed to allow us go-to place for analogue modelling of structures. So, I without its head, and named in homage to The Legend to keep our jobs. Why wouldn’t we want more of that? hope you’ll forgive me for adding yet another research of Sleepy Hollow (in the story, the protagonist, Ichabod Well, you can have too much of a good thing. If every group to the Department’s list. Crane, was chased by a Headless Horseman). academic in the Department headed up their own re- Giant Clam (Tridacna) Culture at the Although, not a person, my favourite: how about Ap- search group then we’d have 20+ groups and we’d lose opyllus now for a type of spider………..? that sense of focus, that sense of particular expertise. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, How Many Earth Scientists Does it It would become very hard to send a message to the Israel outside world of “this is what we do and we’re the peo- Take to Change a Light Bulb? ple to come to”. We clearly need to be careful that we Viola Warter Dave Waltham don’t dilute our messages. This is partly why I’m a big Giant clams (family Cardiidae, subfamily Tridacninae, fan of COMPASS; an attempt to break the mould of re- genus Tridacna) are the largest living bivalve molluscs. Do we need LBRG (the Light Bulb Research Group) to search groups dominated by a single individual and to For some of the species shell growth is so high that it find out the answer to the question above? Probably develop truly cooperative research. That’s not meant is possible to distinguish microscopically visible daily not, as we all already know that it takes thousands of as a criticism of any existing research groups; we need growth increments (5–30 µm) within their aragonite Earth Scientists to locate and economically extract the both types. shells. We have most recently used highest resolution natural resources needed to make replacement light fit- LA-ICPMS analysis (laser ablation inductively-coupled- tings. However, I am making a serious point here; does Given these concerns, you might be surprised that I, plasma mass spectrometry) to resolve daily cycles in the Department need a plethora of research groups to too, am adding to the rapidly growing tally of research modern and fossil Miocene Tridacna spp., not only for cover every conceivable scientific activity that we might groups in the Department. But the Numerical and Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca, but also B/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios. involve ourselves in? Mathematical Modelling Group is an umbrella group; To put it another way, what have research groups ever an attempt to create a research theme which encom- Reliable interpretation of these trace element proxy done for us? OK, venerable groups like SEARG and passes the work of many individuals. I’ve been working records (Mg/Ca-temperature, Sr/Ca-temperature/light FDRG have brought in millions of pounds in research in this Department on numerical models for 29 years availability, B/Ca-pH, Ba/Ca-primary productivity) is funds and massively raised our International profile but, with the help of many colleagues. Dan Bosence and however hampered by the complexity in which environ- apart from that, what have research groups ever done Ken McClay particularly stand out but I’ve even worked mental and physiological/biochemical processes (vital for us? Yes, newer groups like COMPASS and Javier’s with arch modelling-sceptic Robert Hall (not a criticism, effects) exert control over shell growth and/or trace fledgling Contourite-group are doing a great job of scepticism is good and necessary). Furthermore, in the elemental incorporation into the shell structure. In or- demonstrating to industry that our research remains last decade we’ve taken on Marta, Pete, Jason and Sash der to interpret daily environmental changes recorded

59 by trace element ratios, the various controls such as temperature and light levels need to be disentangled. Control over these external environmental factors is not given under natural conditions, but within the con- trolled conditions of an aquarium. With this in mind, our idea to culture Tridacna shells was born and we got in contact with Prof Jonathan Erez, the world-leading expert on biomineralization and laboratory culturing, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who fortunately agreed to work with us. I was also very fortunate and grateful to receive the Kirsty Brown Memorial Fund and funding through the University of London Grants for PGR study, Joanthan Erez and I preparing the sample chambers in the which covered the costs for my five-week stay in Je- aquatic lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem rusalem during February and March 2015 and ena- different temperature regimes of 23, 25, 27 and 29 °C bled me to perform the culturing experiments at were created, each organism was exposed to diurnal Tridacna spp. within the coral reef aquarium at the Hebrew the Earth Sciences Department of the Hebrew light cycles of 12 hours light and 12 hours darkness us- University of Jerusalem University. ing metal halogen light sources. The 27 °C regime was shells were cleaned in sodium hypochloride to remove Juvenile Tridacna crocea were purchased from an aquar- chosen to perform additional light experiments. Shad- organic parts and the valves cut in half. ium supplier in Tel Aviv. The original sampling location ing was simulated using dark clothes with one of the At Royal Holloway thin sections of all nine shells were of the organisms cannot be reconstructed; but we got chambers receiving 45% of the light and another one prepared and have been analysed recently via LA- the information that these clams are derived from a receiving only 15% of light compared to the ‘normal’ re- ICPMS. Preliminary results reveal that the labelling with Tridacna culturing site off the coast of Vietnam. Before gime. We also performed short-term experiments over the 135Ba isotopic spike was successful. Detailed evalua- starting the experiment, the juvenile clams were left to a period of three days which included culture under full/ tion of the data still needs to be carried out. permanent light conditions and complete darkness and acclimatize in the coral reef aquarium at the Earth Sci- From the experiment it became clear that Tridacna spp. the labelling of one specimen using Calcein, a fluores- ences Department for several weeks. are ideal culture organisms. They do survive for several cent dye, which is incorporated into the shell structure The initial experiment focused on calibrating the con- weeks without food and can tolerate extreme condi- and visible under fluorescent light. trol of temperature and light over the growth rate. tions (e.g. complete darkness, low pH and solitude). We used an isotopic spike enriched in 135Ba to label the Seawater samples of the reservoir seawater and the For me the trip to Israel was an unforgettable experi- shell parts grown under culture conditions. Each indi- ‘consumed seawater’ were taken each day and the DO, ence, not only because it was exciting to work on living vidual was cultured separately in a 700 ml volume flow- pH and alkalinity were measured. The delta alkalinity animals, but also because Jonathan and his research through chamber. The chambers were airtight sealed (alkalinity of the reservoir seawater minus alkalinity of group made me feel sincerely welcome in their beauti- (via an O-ring) and headspace free, to prevent air ex- the consumed seawater) was assessed from the calcifi- ful country. change between chamber seawater and the surround- cation rate of each organism, and from this it was clear ing atmosphere. A peristaltic pump fed each chamber that there is a positive relation between temperature with the Ba-spiked ‘reservoir seawater’. Each chamber and growth rate and light and growth rate. and thus each organism received the same reservoir All the culture experiments were successful; none of the seawater. The chambers were magnetically stirred and specimens died during the experiment, but all had to be placed into constant (± 0.3 °C) temperature baths. Four sacrificed after termination of the culture period. The

60 Quantifying the Faint Young Sun Paradox Candice Bedford The Faint Young Sun Paradox was a theory proposed by Carl Sagan and George Mullen in 1972 involving the history of the solar system. Back around the time the Earth formed roughly 4.6 Ga, the amount of solar energy output from the Sun would have amounted to 70% of the current value. This meant that the Sun could not have produced enough energy to keep the liquid water on the Earth’s surface liquid for the first few billion years of the Earth’s history. This contra- dicts the geological record that shows water has ex- isted on the Earth in its liquid state since 3.8 Ga with Experimental setup of the culturing experiment with (1) temperature baths which host the air-tight life appearing in the rock record around 3.5 Ga. This sample chambers, summer, I was granted the opportunity to work with (2) the peristaltic pump which feeds each chamber with Dr Dave Waltham on a project relating to modelling three individual sample chambers within the 27 °C bath. (3) the reservoir seawater and the Earth’s Climate History in an attempt to quantify (4) the sample bags in which the consumed seawater the Faint Young Sun paradox. is collected. I began my journey trawling through the literature in an attempt to gather as many palaeotemperature estimates as I could for the Early Earth’s history. This Seven Lyell Scholarships were was by no means an easy feat due to the uncertain- awarded in 2014 to support ties surrounding this data as you moved further back in time. However, I did manage to find a substan- undergraduates in their penultimate tial amount that granted me sufficient information year to undertake projects relating to work from. After adapting the equations used in to research activities in the Depart- the literature to suit the computer model, I created a simple climatic model for the Earth’s History plotting ment. The following interim reports the calculated palaeotemperatures of the Archaean explain how the Scholars were mak- and Proterozoic against time to assess the climatic change the Earth experienced from around the time ing use of their awards. life began. Then I calculated the estimated temperatures from Tridacna crocea within a sample chamber with exposed mantle the Early Earth’s history through oxygen isotope and visible inhalation siphon Back data present in 3.5 Ga Swaziland Cherts (Knauth and Lowe, 2003) and δ30Si isotope data found in Precam- brian ocean basins (Francois and Chaussidon, 2006).

61 Once modelled, an overall cooling trend of ~5°C was our existence as observers” (Brandon Carter). From this evident despite the fact that, since the Archaean, so- simple model, our planet therefore must be a rare ex- lar output had increased by 30%. In order to determine ample in which the geological and biogeochemical con- what the present day temperature should be with the ditions have managed to cancel the increase in solar current solar energy output, I used the equation s.dF = flux over time, maintaining the appropriate climate for (dT) (where dF is the change in mean solar insolation complex, carbon-based life to have evolved. from the palaeotemperature value to present day and This project has granted me invaluable insight in com- dT is the change in temperature with time). Using s for puter modelling as well as the theories surrounding the climate sensitivity I managed to remove the effects of origins of life. The numerical skills gained and insight the feedbacks in the climate system and direct solar into the Earth’s early history will prove useful in my fu- warming (Waltham, 2014) granting me a clearer look ture as I pursue a career in research. Overall this was a into what the actual present day temperature should rewarding and enriching experience that has certainly have been from the initial Archaean temperatures and contributed to my academic development. increase in insolaton. With the climate sensitivity re- Knauth, L.P, and Donald R. Lowe, D.R., 2003. High Archean 2 taining the minimum value of 0.3 Km /W, the estimated climatic temperature inferred from oxygen isotope geo- present day temperature should be at least 20° C above chemistry of cherts in the 3.5 Ga Swaziland Supergroup, what it is now (and at the maximum climate sensitivity South Africa. Geological Society of America Bulletin 115, (5), value Earth should be over 100° C warmer). 566. If we accept the data, the results of this model indicate Robert, F. and Chaussidon, M., 2006. A palaeotemperature that either the climate sensitivity in the distant past curve for the Precambrian oceans based on silicon isotopes was much lower than the present day sensitivity or that in cherts. Nature 443, (7114), 969. there was a significant additional cooling mechanism Lovelock, J.E. and Margulis, L., 1974. Homeostatic tenden- around to counteract the 30% increase in insolation cies of the Earth’s atmosphere. In: Cosmochemical Evolution since the Earth’s history began. This is assuming the and the Origins of Life, 93–103. Springer Netherlands. roles of continental growth, Milankovitch cycles, etc., The Cross Rail Project on the climate are minimal and if the negative feedback Andrew and the TBM from processes such as silica weathering were too weak Andrew Dawes extent of the London Clay. The homogenous London to mask the warming trend. One of the possible cool- I am currently working on Cross Rail with DSJV (Draga- Clay is a relatively good material to tunnel through but ing mechanisms that avoided the runaway greenhouse dos-Sisk Joint Venture) based at Stepney Green. This is the heterogeneous Lambeth group has proved difficult effect from occurring may have been the effects of the where the track divides and separates to the Southeast with a range of properties that make tunnelling, exca- biosphere. So far the Gaia Hypothesis and the Anthropic towards Plumstead, and Northeast towards Pudding vation and groundwater removal complicated. I have Principle both provide possible explanations involving Mill Lane. The whole project will see 42 km of new tun- also seen practical uses of piezometers and well bore- the effects of life on the Early Earth’s climate. The Gaia nels being built under London, connecting new and ex- holes being used to lower the water table in localized Hypothesis, created by Lovelock and Margulis (1974), isting stations together and will cost ~£15 bn in total. I areas during waterproofing within the tunnel caverns. suggests that the Earth is like a self-regulating organ- am working with the Civil and Geotechnical Engineers I have been trained to test sprayed concrete and water- ism with the biota co-evolving with their environment learning the different methods for the rigorous testing proof lining within the caverns for competency using by Darwinian processes in turn influencing the climate. of standards that are required for this to be a success- a series of techniques from the minute it is sprayed to The other suitable theory, The Anthropic Principle, ful project. This has included creating cross-sections for 24 hours later. At the moment, the 1000 tonne, Tunnel states that “what we observe must be consistent with the geotechnical team from borehole data to log the Boring Machine (TBM) as pictured here is stationary,

62 waiting for another contractor to complete works at work has been delayed. Using the electronic sieve shak- as mapping the mine faces and the new push backs. Whitechapel, and should continue in 4–5 months time. er, the samples will be wet sieved to separate the mud/ I learned new mapping techniques and produced a I am also writing a report on what I have been doing silt fraction, the remaining sand fraction will then be dry weekly update report on what I had been doing. in more detail. However, I have left this at work and sieved to determine grain size. I will then examine the Alongside this I shadowed a senior exploration am currently working 7am to 7pm, so I am writing this samples under a microscope to establish the sediment geologist to see how new locations were found, which from home. One thing that I would note is that this is composition (terrigenous, biogenic, clay) and texture involved looking at core samples and helping with the an industry that will be growing in the next 10 years, (grain shape, roundness) of the sandy contourites. This logging at various exploration sites. I observed the 80 m with HS2 possible, more Cross Rail links and a Thames will be combined with the grain size analysis results underground mine and what the challenges were that Water project that is supposedly going to take place as (mean grain size and sorting) to give a full picture of the faced underground mining in comparison with the open well. There is a significant lack of tunnelling engineers sediment characteristics for each sample. pit mine. according to various sources and these skills can be The main aim of the project is to establish the role of cli- applied into mining as well. So whilst it may not im- mate, sea-level and tectonics on sedimentation of the Dating the intrusion of the Ross of mediately strike people as a direct geology route, it def- sandier deposits and occurrence of the hiatus, as well Mull granite initely looks like a path that could help people out in the as the implications these have on palaeocirculation. An Isra Ezard future. I know that when I was looking for work experi- important aspect is the identification of the sedimen- ence I was just setting my sights on Mining Companies, tary facies to differentiate between contourites and tur- My project was to analyse the Ross of Mull intrusion. I so what I’ve learnt from this project is to think a little bit bidites. This is still one of the historic controversial as- was hoping to analyse three to four Moine metamor- out of the box and open up my options a little bit more. pects in sedimentology since the seventies. Contourite phic rocks on a traverse away from the central Ross of There are also many other companies involved with this and turbiditic processes can be vertically and laterally Mull granite. This project focuses on geochronological- project, so looking into those may prove beneficial. linked, the distinction of their products (mixed depos- ly dating muscovite micas using Rb–Sr dating as these its) will represent a challenge for the future. Therefore, have the highest mica closure temperature of about Sandy deposits from the Gulf of this research considers important conceptual aspects, 500°C. With regards to previous research I am expect- Cadiz – Sedimentological, as well as palaeoceanographic and economic implica- ing to see a record of 450 Ma or older increasing with tions. geographical distance away from the pluton, eventually Palaeoceanographic and Economic reducing down to ca. 420 Ma in close proximity to it. Implications Mining emeralds in Zambia The plan is to find whether we can record ages greater than 450 Ma, as it is known garnets in metamorphosed Claudia Jones Adam Bush I participated in a one-month internship with Gem- dykes produce ages of 450 Ma. This work is interesting This small research study, which looks at characterizing as it will aim to show overprinting relationships and de- sandy contourite deposits either side of a hiatus, is part fields PLC at their Kagem mine site located in Zambia’s Northern Kafubu region just south of the Congo border. termine how easily the system was reset during meta- of a larger research project being carried out by the In- morphism, giving a new understanding to the regional tegrated Ocean Drilling Program – expedition 339. The Kagem mine produces high quality emeralds from four open pit mines and one underground mine. metamorphism and its effect on the surrounding coun- Gulf of Cádiz was targeted for drilling as a key location try rock. for the investigation of Mediterranean Outflow Water During my time there I got to see how the mining and I am now halfway through the project. The individual (MOW) through the Strait of Gibraltar, and its influence production was carried out and the various techniques micas and garnets have now been picked ready for on global circulation and climate. involved. This included how the sorting of the stones analyses to be run. The project was pushed back by the I began the project by doing some research on contour- was undertaken and how they were subsequently grad- ed. lack of micas in the first chosen rocks! So we had to start ites and analysis of sediments. In late October/early again. The funds were used for accommodation during My responsibilities in the mine were to help in the pro- November 2014 I attended a training course to use the August and early September to complete this work. mineral separation laboratory. Unfortunately my lab duction of emeralds from the main Chame pit, as well

63 Insights into the geodynamic In October 2014 we again asked our regime of Neogene Spain from large new research students and postdoc volume dacitic eruptions. researchers to introduce themselves Niall Mullins and their new research projects, to The Almeria region in Southern Spain hosts extensive keep the rest of us up to date. Here outcrops of porphyritic dacite, which is part of the Al- are the results: borian volcanic province. There is controversy in the published literature about the origin of the dacite, with Structural modelling of some authors arguing for a crustal contamination model, whilst others suggest that the dacite represents par- hydrocarbon potential fold belts tial melts of the underlying crust. formed around the margin of This project looked at the origin and formation of the allochthonous salt nappes, dacite in the Cerro del Hoyazo region. There were two aims: northwestern Gulf of Mexico 1. To assess the stratigraphic relationship between the Heraclio Gutierrez-Moreno dacite and the Tortonian carbonate, using Sr isotopic I am from San Pedro de las Colonias, a small town lo- compositions. The relationship between the carbonate cated in the northern state of Coahuila, Mexico. I lived and the dacite is not seen in the field, the Sr isotopic and studied in my home town until I got my high school ratios helped determine whether the carbonate inter- diploma. Then, I decided to become a geologist and the acted with the magma when it was emplaced. into the melt during ascent. This could suggest a poten- geology major was not offered in any town of Coahu- 2. To assess the relationship between dacites erupted at tial faulted contact between the carbonate and the dac- ila. Thus, I went to study in the neighbouring state of Cerro Del Hoyazo and those erupted elsewhere in the ite which may be related to regional tectonics. Alborian volcanic province in Almeria, SE Spain. This in- The project developed my understanding of working in volved analysing samples from Cerro del Hoyazo, Los ultra clean environments and the importance of clean- Frailes and the area west of El Llano Del Antonio to gen- liness to prevent cross contamination of samples. The erate a comparative data set, which I am still process- project also helped me gain an insight into whether or ing. not I would be interested in doing research for a fourth Samples were analysed for major and trace elements year project and further. by XRF and for Sr isotope ratios by thermal ionisation I look forward to analysing the XRF data more closely to mass spectrometry (TIMS). understand the magmatic evolution of the dacite and One sample of limestone turned a blue colour after the what effect the emplacement had on the regional tec- XRF process. It is thought that this is down to the lime- tonics. stone having some evaporite in it, which is most likely related to the Messinian salinity crisis. Back Here I am working closely with Dr. Jeffrey Hedenquist, an The dacites show relatively low Sr isotopic composition epithermal systems expert, at the suggesting that the limestone had not been assimilated Orysivo Project’s log shed

64 The Orysivo Project, Chihuahua, Mexico. Visiting Peñoles Mining Company’s Naica Mine with its fabulous giant gypsum crystal caves. exploration team who after 3 years of hard work in one Cave. It was one of the most amazing places I have ever of the most remote places, discovered a high-sulphida- seen in my life. The incredible cave was like a giant gyp- tion epithermal gold disseminated ore body containing sum crystal geode, I do not know if there is any other indicated and inferred resources of 9 million ounces of place like this in the world but for me as a geologist it is gold in a project named Orysivo. Nowadays an explora- one of the greatest natural wonders. tion adit is being developed to assess the construction In August 2010, after working 5 years as a surface explo- of the new Orysivo gold mine. In 2008, Peñoles Min- ration geologist, I decided to make a change in my pro- ing Company changed its name to FresnilloPLC Min- fessional life and chose to work for the Mexican state ing Company and then I was assigned to work on the owned oil company PEMEX. I knew it was going to be a San Julian project where previous silver-gold veins had new challenge to overcome. been discovered and mined since the 1850’s. However, I got a job as a seismic interpreter in the exploration of- my exploration team was lucky enough to discover a fice at Poza Rica, Mexico and was assigned to work on deeper low-sulphidation epithermal disseminated sil- The San Julian Project’s first exploration adit the Mexican Ridges Project in deepwater northwestern ver deposit containing indicated and audited resources Gulf of Mexico. My work consisted of stratigraphic and Texas, where I graduated from the University of Texas of about 200 million ounces of silver. At the present structural interpretation to generate exploratory well at El Paso, USA with a major in Geological Sciences and time, thanks to our discovery, the new San Julian mine proposals for PEMEX. After several well proposals were a minor in Maths in July 2005. complex is under construction in the southwestern part documented and approved, we finally drilled three After graduating from university, I went back to my of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. exploratory wells; the results were one gas discovery country and immediately began to work for Peñoles Just as a plus, during the year 2006, I went to visit the well and two unsuccessful wells. Then in 2012, I was as- Mining Company as a surface exploration geologist Peñoles Mining Company’s Naica Mine located in the signed to work for the Perdido Fold Belt Project where prospecting for base and precious metals throughout southern part of Chihuahua, Mexico. After visiting the I was involved in the structural analysis and restora- Chihuahua, the biggest state of Mexico. In the mining deep mine workings, I was taken to a shallower mine tion of salt tectonics affected traps to be documented company, my duties were geological mapping, rock and level about 200 m below surface where I had a once in as exploratory well proposals. At the end of 2012, our soil sampling, and drill core description. I was part of the a lifetime chance to enter the fabulous Giant Crystals

65 and time of the structural trends formed on a portion of the Mexican Louann Salt Basin. The study area and seismic data is owned by PEMEX and covers approximately 4,200 square kilometres and is located in ultradeep water settings. In particular, I will investigate the characterization of the geometries, kinematic analysis and age of formation of the traps in order to assess their size, preservation and temporaral occurrence with respect to the oth- My PhD project study area er elements of the petroleum system. Furthermore, my research intends to reduce the degree of uncertainty in drilling future wells in the ultradeep water area. Finally, the working methodology will be through the use of Grímsvötn 2011 eruption, Iceland seismic data interpretation, cross-section restoration and scale physical modelling. In conclusion, I expect to finish successfully my PhD degree, which is one of the most important goals that I need to accomplish in order Generic seismic line from the 3D cube in the study area to get a higher level of academic education and professional career development as an exploration geologist. I exploration geoscientists team hit the first deepwater feel lucky enough to do geology and thank God and my oil discovery in the area with the Trion-1 well that con- family for supporting me. tains 3D resources of about 400 million barrels of oil. Since then, we have been drilling exploratory wells and Interaction between shallow magma finding more oil discoveries in the area. Therefore, it plumbing systems beneath closely has been a great satisfaction and rewarding experience for me to work with a highly efficient multidisciplinary related volcanic centres team because we are contributing to increase the oil re- Camilla Imarisio Volcanic Cluster, Kamchatka serves, which are the biggest source of income for the ated close to Barðarbunga Volcano, gradually extend- My enthusiasm for volcanoes and volcanic hazards Mexican government. ing towards the boundary between the East Volcanic began when, during a school trip to Sicily, I watched Zone and the North Volcanic Zone. This threatened After working 4 years as a petroleum geologist, PEMEX Stromboli erupt from the sea. This, and my passion for to intersect the magma system underlying Askja, and Exploration and Production Oil Company gave me a travelling, led me to choose a Geology degree at uni- trigger an eruption, at one of Iceland’s historically most fully sponsored scholarship grant to study for a PhD in versity and in 2010, from a small city in northern Italy, dangerous stratovolcanoes. structural geology. Thus, I chose to study in Europe, in I moved to Royal Holloway where I graduated with a particular at The Royal Holloway University of London, MSci Geoscience degree. My PhD project, supervised by Dr. Christina Manning because of its strong international reputation on Earth and Dr. Dave Waltham, will aim at finding geochemi- Recent seismic and eruptive events at Barðarbunga vol- sciences programmes. cal evidence of magma interaction between erupted cano, Iceland, have again highlighted the potential haz- products from closely related volcanic centres in Ice- My PhD research project, entitled “Structural model- ards related to linked plumbing systems between large land (e.g. Torfajökull and Grímsvötn) as well as trying to ling of hydrocarbon potential fold belts formed around volcanic centres. After the eruption onset in August extend the study to historical dual eruptions of recently the margin of salt nappes, NW Gulf of Mexico”, aims to 2014, a 45-km long dyke was quickly emplaced, It initi- establish a geological model and the evolution in space active volcanoes at different tectonic settings such as

66 volcanoes of Kamchatka and the Rabaul Caldera. formation and augments the conditions responsible for Crystal zones, like tree rings, record the growth history stick-slip or creep behaviour. I am also interested in how of minerals. The variation in composition, size and the changes to the material due to deformation and min- type of boundary between zones all provide important eral reactions within the subduction channel affect it’s information on the petrogenetic history of individual propensity for seismogenesis. crystals. Histories from multiple mineral grains can be Tephrochronology of Changbaishan pieced together to generate a magmatic history for the lava they are now hosted, which in turn can contribute Tianchi volcano, China to our understanding of the dynamics and interactions Xuanyu Chen within a specific magma plumbing system. This project (supervised jointly by Martin Menzies, Earth Sciences, will use in-situ element analysis SEM-EDS and micro Sr and Simon Blockley, Geography) analysis using TIMS alongside detailed textural analysis Hello everyone! My name is Xuanyu Chen and I am de- to understand magmatic processes prior to eruption, lighted to join your Department as a new PhD student. aiming to improve our understanding of volcanic haz- Alex Clarke on the Gwna Mélange at Llanbadrig, The research field of my PhD programme is - tephra ards and eruption forecasting at large volcanic centres. N Anglesey. Lenticular carbonate blocks suspended chronology, which refers to the use of tephra layers as Mélange and Megathrust in a pelitic matrix are seen in cliff section. time-parallel marker horizons for linking, synchroniz- matched the Tertiary large igneous province and there- ing and dating proximal volcanic and distal sequences Earthquakes fore could not be used to constrain the timing of mé- in various sedimentary environments. This method Alex Clarke lange formation. relies on the proximal and distal correlation of tephra I am a new Ph.D. student studying subduction zone I am currently researching the effect of pre-existing fab- layers using multi-elemental fingerprinting of glasses, dynamics under the supervision of Paola Vannucchi. I rics within the Osa Mélange on seismogenesis within in other words tephrastratigraphy. Assuming that we describe myself primarily as a structural geologist and the erosive subduction zone off the coast of Costa Rica. have a statistically valid match of proximal–distal glass I have a particular interest in mélanges and subduction The structurally complex mélange – which outcrops chemistry, we can then transfer relative and absolute processes; however I also have a certain fascination on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica – is thought to form age information from proximal to distal sites and vice with geochemistry and a broad interest in all aspects of the hanging wall of this subduction zone and therefore versa. This has great potential to indirectly date recent geoscience. contributes material into the subduction channel. I will (<20ka) proximal volcanic pyroclastic flow and fall deposits using visible and invisible (crypto-tephra) layers I recently graduated from an MGeol Geology degree study this material on land, both in the field and from in marine, lacustrine cores hundreds to thousands of at the University of Leicester. For my MGeol research collected samples, and from samples collected from miles away from the crater. Once a specific tephra layer project I mapped a region of the Gwna Mélange at Llan- drilling expeditions. of known age and provenance is characterised in dif- badrig, North Anglesey at 1:500 scale and discerned the I plan to visit the Osa Peninsula next year to undertake ferent marine and continental lacustrine archives, sedi- age of several heavily weathered, discontinuous dykes detailed structural mapping and collect samples to be mentary and environmental records can be correlated by geochemically fingerprinting them and comparing analysed and experimentally deformed. This will allow and synchronised with centennial, decadal and, in some them to other igneous suites in the region. The age of me to understand it’s deformation history and char- cases, annual precision. emplacement of these dykes may have provided a key acterise the physical and mechanical properties of the constraint on the timing of mélange formation for this mélange prior to incorporation in the subduction chan- One of my research objectives is the study of Chang- section of the Gwna Group which, unlike other sections, nel. I am particularly interested in how the subduc- baishan Tianchi volcano, a historically active central lacks good upper constraints. However, due to the nation system responds to the incorporation of different stratovolcano on the China/N Korean border. The vol- ture of these dykes, conventional dating techniques and diverse material into the subduction channel and canic field of Changbaishan, located on the northern could not be used. I concluded that they most closely whether the existing mélange fabric localises the de- edge of the Sino-Korean craton, has more than 100

67 Tianchi crater lake Cenozoic volcanic centres. The Tianchi is a crater lake atop Changbaishan with a surface elevation of 2198 m and a total area of 9.8 km2. Due to its spectacular scenery, Tianchi is visited by hundreds of thousands of tour- ists every year. In the study, I aim to unravel the exact timing of several young eruptions of the Tianchi volcano through archives in and around Japan (e.g., marine and lacustrine cores) as its complete eruptive history through the last 25 ka remains uncertain. Together with a group of vol- canologists and students from China, Martin Menzies and I participated in a field trip to Changbaishan in the summer of 2014. The field trip collected a suite of samples for establishing the proximal geochemical data- Sequentially deposited pumice fall units at Tianwen summit base of Changbaishan. We visited several well exposed outcrops including (a) the Tianwen summit with pumice fall units sequentially deposited in the last 4000 years, (b) a pantelleritic clastogenic flow near the summit meteorological station at 2571 m recently dated using 40Ar/39Ar methods, (c) primary pyroclastic flow deposits containing large amounts of charcoal dated using 14C, and (d) reworked pyroclastic deposits (at various distances (20–40 km) from the vent. We were hosted by the Changbaishan Volcano Observatory and visited several tourist attractions on the volcano including the Changbai Waterfall. The pumice samples are highly variable in their colour, size, vesicularity and/or the type of phenocrysts. In Guangzhou the samples were sorted and double- Pantelleritic clastogenic flow

68 Metamorphic Basement of the Bird’s Head Peninsula, NW Papua, Indonesia. Ben Jost Although it seems much longer to me, it has not even been two months since I have started my PhD at Royal Holloway. Before I came here, I was working with the Swiss Geotechnical Commission (SGTK), in a small office at ETH Zurich, the same university where Icom- pleted my MSc in Geology and Geochemistry in 2012. Although not evident from the name, we were concerned with natural resources in Switzerland. The fact that Switzerland is very rich in poor resource deposits explains why the topic is being covered by just 6 to 7 people. For my PhD, which I just embarked upon, I chose to change the focus of my work to metamorphic petrol- Pyroclastic flow deposit containing entrained Reworked pyroclastic flow and fall deposits in a radial ogy and structural geology. I am working with the trees/charcoals. river valley. Southeast Asia Research Group, and Lloyd White and Robert Hall are supervising my project. The project is packed for transport to the UK from China. Now, these concerned with the Bird’s Head, the north-western samples are being prepared for mounting in stubs for peninsula of Papua, Indonesia. The aim of the project EMPA and LA-ICPMS analysis at Oxford (Dr V. Smith) is to gain a better understanding of the metamorphic and Dublin (Dr. E. Tomlinson) respectively. The study basement rocks (the Kemum Formation) in this region will provide a more comprehensive geochemical data- in terms of its age(s), metamorphic grade(s), and struc- base of the proximal eruptive product and proximal– tural and intrusive relationships. The most recent pub- distal correlations will improve our understanding of lished work on the Kemum Formation dates to the late the temporal and spatial evolution of the post-glacial 1980s. Since then, some roads have been constructed ignimbrite flare-up on Tianchi volcano. All in all, I am in Papua, increasing accessibility and the chance to find very happy with our first successful field trip and look an outcrop. forward to visiting other volcanoes around the world Lloyd, Max and I left for the field the day after I had ar- during my PhD. rived in Egham. At the time I had a certain notion of what fieldwork might be like in the tropics (I have never been Back to the tropics before, but I reckoned that they might plot opposite Switzerland on an outcrop-vs.-surface-ar- at the Changbai Waterfall with Profs Martin Menzies ea-graph). This notion was soon disappointed both for and Yigang Xu, my co-supervisors the better and the worse: I was surprised by the number

69 Halokinetic Sequence Stratigraphy Vicky Mianaekere I was born and raised in Nigeria. I obtained my Bach- elor’s degree in Geological Engineering from University of Science and Technology Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana. My interest in geological models and concepts adopted by the Oil and Gas industries in hydrocarbon exploration, stemmed from my graduate one-year internship with ExxonMobil; I was introduced to simplified models like the Peter Vail slug model for sequence stratigraphy analysis of seismic data and then I realised I would like to join in building new models and concepts to be integrated in seismic interpretation. I completed a Masters in Geosciences from University College London (UCL) in Location of study area, showing the Limit of the Zechstein salt 2011. and salt diapirs in the Southern North Sea (SPBA atlas 2010). My MSc thesis focused on surface to subsurface ground sequence stratigraphy models and concepts on basin water and fluid-rock Interaction: this initiated my short- and global scales would be created through: lived detour from hydrocarbon exploration to Envi- 1) Analysis of observed sequences in adjacent and over- ronmental Impact Assessments. To get back on track, lying sediments of salt diapirs. Enjoying a Sunday off in Manokwari, I soon started effective communication with experts in 2) Assessments of interplay of key processes and con- Papua, Indonesia Sequence Stratigraphy analysis from several universi- trols in major evolutionary phases that result in the ties from which I drafted a PhD proposal focused on se- HKSS units. How pre/syn/post kinematic sediments of reasonably good outcrops we could find in the time quence stratigraphy analysis in salt basins (Halokinetic conform to active and reactive rise in extensional and we had, but astounded how fast such an outcrop can Sequence Stratigraphy, HKSS). contractional or simply differential compaction - re weather away in these climates. For instance at one I started my PhD programme with the Department in gimes. locality, Jumiko, an Indonesian geologist showed us September 2014 under the supervision of Dr. Jürgen 3) Analysing the mechanisms of diapir rise in parallel an outcrop where he had taken samples just two years Adam and Prof. Peter Burgess. I am part of the Conti- with mechanisms of formation of genetically related before. Here I wanted to take a sample of what looked nental Margins (COMPASS) group. My project title is mini basin to expand the halo radius of HKSS. like dusty granite, when it just crumbled between my “Halokinetic Sequence Stratigraphic evolution of de- Results from my project could be used as analogues for fingers. I spotted a multitude of outcrops out of the car pocentres and reservoir intervals around multi-stage window when we drove along the river-bed-like road other salt basins around the world and for analysis and diapirs in the Southern North Sea Basin and Southern prediction of reservoir distribution and quality. through my field area, I can only hope they will still be North Sea Central graben”. there when I go back to Papua next summer. Probably, My project kicks off by systematically analysing sedi- I should bring a shovel. ment patterns in depocentres and at salt body flanks Other than that, we saw and did and ate (!) a great many around individual multistage diapirs in the Southern other different things in Papua; refer to Lloyd’s account North Sea basin. I plan to compile resulting halokinetic of our field trip on page 63 of the 2014 Graduates News- sequences patterns and incorporate them in the region- letter for more information and pictures. al stratigraphic model (at basin scale). The halokinetic

70 Geodynamics of the North China Craton Leon Liu 1. North China Craton The North China Craton (NCC) is one of the oldest Ar- chaean cratons in the world. More than 80% of its surface has been reported for the distribution of rocks with Archaean ages (Jahn et al 1987; Liu et al 1992). Zircon U-Pb ages of 3800 Ma from upper crustal rocks and Sm-Nd ages further suggest that the oldest rocks in NCC have an age range between 3.5 and 3.8 Ga (Jahn et al 1987, Liu et al., 1992; Wu et al., 1992; Zheng et al., 2004). However, Proterozoic ages (<2.5 Ga) dominate the age structure of the lithospheric mantle beneath NCC, according to petrological and geochemical studies, especially from the Re–Os isotopic research (Gao et al., 2002). So, in terms of age structure, decoupling may exist between the crust and mantle in the NCC. The presence of relics of Archaean lithospheric mantle under the NCC (M. Menzies et al., 2007) may reveal that in the past the crust was underlain by older pre-existing lithospheric mantle. Important insights into the nature of the lithosphere are forthcoming from high pressure xenoliths entrained in volcanic rocks in the eastern NCC. Ordovician kimberlites erupted in Mengyin and Fuxian entrain xenoliths and xenocrysts that reveal the presence of diamond and garnet facies mantle. This in- Fig.1 Depth to the base of the lithosphere Fig.2 (a) Distribution of surface heat flow (HFU); dicates the presence of thick lithosphere (ca 180–200 (after Ma,1987) (b) Cross section along line A–B in (a) km) comprising garnet and diamond facies rocks. Ther- (W.L. Griffin et al., 1998) mobarometric studies of garnets indicate a “shield” ge- 2. The reactivated craton 1998), which means the density of the lithospheric otherm characterized by low surface heat flow (40 mW/ During the Mesozoic, surface heat flow in the NCC was mantle was greater than that in the Mesozoic. The 2 m ); As far as lithologies are concerned the proportion universally high. Some areas (e.g., Bohai Sea) could be thickness of the lithosphere could be as low as 60–80 2 of harzburgite in the lithospheric mantle is high (Grif- as high as 90 mW/m (Zheng, 2000); Xu et al. (2001) esti- km, showing characteristics of “oceanic” mantle as a fin et al., 1998). Consequently the density of the lithos- mated the thickness of the lithosphere was about 100 km. whole (Xu et al., 2001). At the present-day the ENCC is phere is relative low. At the beginning of the Phanero- During the Cenozoic, the geotherm in eastern NCC was characterized by surface heat flow that has decreased 2 zoic the NCC lithosphere was thick, buoyant, and cold. still high (~80 mW/m ) (Xu et al., 1995; X. Xu et al., 1998; slightly (65 mW/m2, Wang and Wang, 1986). In addi- Shi et al., 2000). The proportion of harzburgite in the tion the thickness of crust and lithosphere varies with mantle xenoliths decreased significantly (Griffin et al., a total lithosphere thickness of 70–80 km (Chen et al.,

71 1991; Gao et al.,1999). The thickness of the lithosphere Methane sources in Kuwait (i.e., seismic lid) constrains the depth to the low velocity zone. As Fig.1 shows, the NCC can be divided by a Aalia Al-Shaalan N–S Gravity Lineament (NSGL) into the eastern NCC I joined the Earth Sciences Department as a new PhD (ENCC) and the western NNC (WNCC). The extent of student in September 2014 under the supervision of lithospheric thinning in the ENCC is larger than in the Prof. Euan Nisbet, Dr. Dave Lowry, Dr. Rebecca Fisher WNCC. The thinnest lithosphere is found in and around and Prof. Mohammad AL-Sarwi. I graduated from the the intra-cratonic Bohai Sea. Lithosphere thickness is Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences inextricably linked to heat flow and Fig.2 reveals that (Geology), at Kuwait University in June 2003. As an surface heat flow is higher in the ENCC and centred in undergraduate, my area of interest focused on En- the Bohai Gulf and central-western Shandong. On this vironmental Assessment (water, soil and air quality) basis Liu (1998) proposed that the ENCC has experi- and Climate Change. I formed my own environmen- enced greater amounts of extension than the surround- tal volunteer campaign under the British Council um- ing areas. brella in 2009 called “Change” that aims to raise the Aalia presenting a plaque to the British Ambassador, Frank awareness of climate change in the Kuwait commu- 3. The purpose of the research topic and its Baker, with her colleagues at the International Climate Change nity in different ways such as giving workshops to the significance Awareness Conference on global students and lectures on the impact of climate change Earth day 10/10/10 ENCC has thinned by 80–140 km since the early Pal- and how we can stop it. We collaborated with differ- rameters (temperature, pH, salinity, total suspended aeozoic. The extent of thinning is rare among Archaean ent organizations around the world such us UNEP and solid and dissolved oxygen) of water; 2) Level of total cratons around the world and was first proposed by 350.org. We formed the first youth international petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), nutrients, trace met- Menzies et al. (1993). The NCC has become the classic climate change conference in Kuwait and hosted dif- als and total suspended solids in water; 3) Level of total example of a reactivated craton and detailed study of ferent climate champions from China, Italy, UK and the petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), total organic carbons the temporal and spatial history of the NCC could help Middle-East. We also celebrated a lot of international (TOC) and trace metals (TM) in sediment. The level of us understand the process. Geodynamical modelling environmental events such as Earth Day and Earth Hour pollution in Kuwait Bay was then compared with previ- can provide valuable insights on the mechanisms re- and we are trying to make the Earth a good place to live. ous records. The study provided several maps delineat- sponsible for reactivation. It is vital to constrain initial In May 2010 I got my Masters degree in Geology from ing the hotspot areas around Kuwait Bay. conditions and boundary value conditions to help simu- the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences My PhD project (Methane Emission in Kuwait) will late the interaction between the mantle and crust within Kuwait University. The title of my thesis was “As- involve many measurements of methane concen- in a well-constrained time period. The timing of change sessment of Water Quality and Sediment in Kuwait tration and carbon isotope content in the Kuwait re- is tightly constrained by geological and geochemical Bay – Case Study to Determine Hotspot”. In this study gion. I began my project with a pilot study by col- evidence. Recently there appears to be a convergence 64 samples were collected from 16 selected sites to lecting at 2-hour intervals over a 24 hour period from of ideas about craton reactivation that primarily in- evaluate the sediments and water quality around Ku- a rooftop site in Kuwait during a period of low wind volves subduction and mantle convection (He, 2014). wait Bay. These samples were collected during two sea- speed to assess isotopic change during inversion de- Such processes can be modelled using computational sons (summer 2007 and winter 2008). The aim was to velopment. The samples were collected by a small geodynamics. evaluate the sediment and water quality around Kuwait diaphragm pump into 3-litre tedlar bags. Mixing ratio 13 Bay, and assess the impact of the sources of pollution and δ C of atmospheric CH4 was measured in all air on the marine environment. We assessed the physical samples in our greenhouse gas laboratory. The pilot and chemical pollution level to determine the hotspot study will be used to identify the most important and areas within Kuwait Bay. This was achieved through most accessible sources for further investigation with many measurements: 1) Oceanographic (physical) pa- the Picarro mobile system. The project will take 2 years

72 Hydraulic fracturing of shales Nathaniel Forbes Inskip Having originally come from an Earth Science background, I have taken a slightly detoured route in eventually coming back to Earth Sciences to embark on my PhD, “New methods in maximising shale permeability and minimising risk during hydraulic fracturing”. I graduated from Durham University in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences, covering Earth Sciences and Geography. Unsure of how I wished to start my career, I then decided to complete an MSc in Renewable Energy at the University of Aberdeen, as I had a strong passion for the energy industry, especially in alternative energy resources. I then secured a job within an Anaerobic Di- gestion (AD) company in Guildford, where ultimately I was heading up the planning department of a fast growing company. During my three years of working in AD I was responsible for the preparation and submission of our planning applications. Some of these proved very contentious among the local community, so then I also had to attend public meetings to discuss our project with different community stakeholders.

Aalia, as Team Leader of the Climate Change Awareness Campaign in Kuwait, giving a speech at the conference of air sampling in Kuwait at fixed locations within the dominant NW wind direction. It will include a survey of Kuwait greenhouse gases during a monitoring campaign using a Picarro G2301 CRDS (Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer). This will aid understanding of methane emissions in Kuwait and the wider influence of methane emission dispersal across the Middle-East and Gulf areas. One of our AD plants in Norfolk Examples of natural fractures within the shale and limestone layers at Kilve, Somerset. Note how the fractures either deflect or arrest at different contacts within the shale layers, but also at the shale/limestone contacts

73 I was also responsible for making sure legal agreements Turbidite–Contourite interactions were in place, and assessing potential sites which included liaising with the electricity and gas grid com- on continental margins panies to assess the viability of our potential projects. Adam Creaser (Contourites Group) Unfortunately I felt that my career was stagnating and After completing my BSc in Geological Sciences (basi- I needed to return to my grass roots, and PhD research. nal sedimentology and petroleum systems) at the Uni- Shale gas is a very hot (and often contentious) topic at versity of Leeds in 2013, I moved to Royal Holloway to the moment, with chemical giants Ineos announcing complete an MScRes in deep-marine sedimentology. recently that they intend to invest £640 million in UK Six months into my research into deep-water turbidite shale gas and oil exploration. Its development in the and contourite systems of the Punta del Este Basin, USA has already caused ramifications on a global scale, Uruguay, BG Group offered to fund the project for an- and as of this year the USA will look to be a net export- other 3 years, enabling me to transfer from an MScRes er of oil for the first time in the last 20 years. Despite to MPhil/PhD. RV Sarmiento de Gamboa the UK being one of the first countries to originally use We currently know more about the surface of Mars than shale oil in the mid 19th Century (an industry that soon we do about the deep ocean, which has proved highly demised following the discovery of North Sea Oil), the problematic when exploring deep-marine petroleum UK Government is hoping that successful shale gas and systems. Working in direct collaboration with BG Group oil industries will be able to provide better energy secu- and ANCAP (Administración Nacional de Combusti- rity and reduce fuel bills. bles, Alcoholes y Portland, a State owned company who One of the main components of the exploration proc- deal with construction, alcohol and hydrocarbon explo- ess is that of hydraulic fracturing the shale in order to ration), my work aims to characterize the nature of in- increase its permeability and allow the extraction of teractions between turbidites and contourites across the hydrocarbons (commonly known as fracking). Cur- a variety of geological time periods and locations. As rently there is a lack of understanding of how the frac- a new style of deep-marine reservoir, these contourite tures propagate during this process, especially when and mixed-system deposits are a fairly alien concept they come into contact with weak elements within the to many oil companies, often hindering hydrocarbon shale layers and other strata with different mechanical exploration in deep and ultra-deep water. Under pref- properties. Another poorly understood impact associ- erential conditions, contourite drifts have the potential ated with hydraulic fracturing is that of induced seis- to produce huge sandy mounds with good net-to-gross micity, especially as a result of the injected fluid com- and porosity values, yet may also be completely mud- Onboard sedimentary lab ing into contact with existing faults. It is now accepted dy, making it highly critical to fully understand the na- that Cuadrilla’s hydraulic fracturing operations in the ture of the regional-scale sedimentary system, prior to and contourites, it was very interesting to recognize Bowland Shale formation induced the minor earth- developing reservoir models. the distinct variances in sedimentology in closely as- quakes felt in Blackpool and surrounding areas in 2011, Working as a geologist onboard the MOWER cruise with sociated deposits, highlighting the importance of iden- as the fluid interacted in some way with an unknown Javier Hernández-Molina across the Gulf of Cadiz and tifying which sediment (whether muddy or sandy) has fault nearby. I aim to explore these two currently poorly offshore Portugal, we collected several 2D seismic lines actually been redistributed, and reworked. understood topics within the shale gas industry, using across the continental shelf and slope, as well as grav- numerical modelling and analytical methods, hoping to ity and piston cores across both muddy and sandy drift provide a sound platform for further exploration. packages. With the often close association of turbidites

74 Optimizing Geothermal Resources and Decreasing Risks and Hazards Mohsen Bazargan Mohsen Bazargan has a background in petroleum engineering, majoring in drilling, fracturing and IOR in oil and gas reservoirs, with a minor in exploration. Since 2009 he has studied material analyses, solid mechanics, fluid dynamics and computational Geomechanics in the case of operational safety and fracturing. During his postgraduate studies he researched fundamental mechanical engineering concepts, from continuum mechanics to fracture mechanics and the implementation of computer codes to utilize knowledge in the solution of physical problems. Mohsen also has experimental experience in the setup and running of tools to simulate physical phenomena. He is currently a PhD research student in the area of Engineered/Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). His PhD topic is on “Numerical Analysis and experimental investigation of optimizing geothermal resources and decreasing risks and hazards”. In his PhD he will conduct research into optimizing fracturing operations and explore novel technologies to make the fracturing process more efficient. He has a background Operating the gravity corer in fossil fuel energy engineering but strongly believes Over the course of my PhD, I aim to synthesize seismic that the future of our energy mix depends on renew- data from the Central South Atlantic (mainly Uruguay able energy technologies such as from geothermal re- and Namibia) to characterize the nature and extent of sources, and it is this belief that has led to him studying turbidite-contourite interactions. Recognizing periods for this PhD. of contourite sedimentation and inferring oceanic circu- In March he contributed a poster (right) to a conference lation patterns will enable new circulation maps to be in Cambridge on developing Geothermal Energy. proposed for the south Atlantic, as well as highlighting Back periods and intervals of reservoir enhancement or dete- rioration. We also aim to study contourites in the field, to enable static geological reservoir models to be constructed to help understand compartmentalization and fluid-flow capabilities of contourite deposits.