The Manchester Team wins AAPG IBA Contest in Prague, firmly putting Manchester on the map as a leading university for Petroleum Geoscience!
About the IBA Competition
AAPG's IBA Award is an annual competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world. University teams compete to win scholarship funds for their geoscience department and the international recognition that comes from competing or winning in the competition. The program is rigorous and contributes to AAPG's mission of promoting petroleum geoscience training and advancing the careers of geoscience students.
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 local competition. Each team delivers their results in a 25 minute presentation to a panel of industry experts. Students have the chance to use state of the art technology on a real dataset, receive feedback from an industry panel, impress potential employers in the audience, and win cash awards for their school. The judges, all from leading international oil companies who sponsor the event (such as ExxonMobil, BG Group, Shell, Maersk etc), select the winning team on the basis of the technical quality, clarity and originality of presentation.
Special congratulations to: Martin Kennedy, Rhiannon Jones, Papi Ogban and Heather Wilson who represented Manchester.
This is a highly prized and competetive contest, that pitches the best students from all the leading Universities in Europe. Our win firmly places Manchester on the map as a leading university for Petroleum Geoscience. All eyes are now on our team as the enter the world finals in Pitsburg, and we hope they can bring the prize home for Europe from the USA in May.
SEAES Seminar and AAPG Distinguished Lecturer Rod Graham Comes to Manchester!
Tuesday 20th November in G.03 Williamson Building, we have a double header of talks! First up is our very own Professor Steve Flint talking Turbidites and Continental Margins - beyond the old paradigms" followed by the AAPG Distinguished Lecturer Dr Rod Graham giving his talk "The French Alps - Classic geology reinterpreted in the light of passive margin geology and allocthonous salt tectonics"
Starts 4.15pm Proceeded by Coffee and followed by wine reception!
Steve Flint Abstract
Textbooks still emphasise that the generation of turbidity currents and their depositional product....turbidites.....is related to episodic events such as earthquakes and slope failures. Recent studies have shown how much greater volumes of turbidites are related to more constant delivery of sand over the shelf edge by rivers during times of lowered global sea level or via canyons that connect river mouths to the deep ocean floor. Turbidite successions record regular changes in sediment supply to the oceans and play an inportant part in building continental margins. This seminar presents the results of mapping a completely exposed ancient submarine delivery system from upper continental slope to basin floor and discusses how such studies can help to reconstruct the geometry and palaeogeography of ancient basin margins.
Rod Graham Abstract
Just as an understanding of structural geometry in the field is essential in the interpretation of seismic data, so sometimes seismic data and the new ideas that stem from it enable us to see classic field geology in a completely new light, even though the data may come from a completely different geological setting or a totally different part of the world. This lecture describes how, a few years ago, our understanding of the geological evolution of one of the worlds classic mountain belts was transformed by reference to data obtained from the Atlantic passive margin, and how at the present time, our increased understanding of salt tectonics might be bringing about a similar shift in thinking.
The understanding of salt tectonics has been transformed in recent years by the seismic imagery in places like Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, augmented by inspirational physical modelling. I will try to apply this new knowledge to geology 'on the ground' in the sub-Alpine chains of Haut Provence in the south western Alps. In this part of the world, a very well exposed Mesozoic sequence showing rapid thickness and facies changes associated with Jurassic and Cretaceous extension on the margin of the Ligurian Tethys, has been deformed by a series of 'Alpine' compressional events which occurred from the Late Cretaceous to the Pliocene. Although the geology has been very well known for decades, aspects of the structure remained enigmatic and could not be explained by either Mesozoic extension or Alpine shortening alone. This talk will make the case that they resulted from salt tectonics which occurred not in the developing Alpine mountain chain, but on the sea bed of a Late Jurassic continental slope, analogous, perhaps, to the Gulf of Mexico today.
A completely overturned , highly condensed Jurassic section is interpreted as the elevated roof of a salt body in a deep marine setting which overturned as a 'flap' in the Middle Jurassic as allochthonous salt broke out at the sea floor Later, Alpine compression exploited the weakness of the salt sheet as a major thrust but though the 'flap' is in the footwall of the thrust, evidence of soft-sediment deformation and other anomalous structures within the flap suggest that it cannot have originated as an overturned footwall syncline.
The ideas are prompted by seismic, the conclusions rely heavily on conventional field evidence. We geologists should never lose sight of our field-based roots.
Starts 4.15pm Proceeded by Coffee and followed by wine reception!
Steve Flint Abstract
Textbooks still emphasise that the generation of turbidity currents and their depositional product....turbidites.....is related to episodic events such as earthquakes and slope failures. Recent studies have shown how much greater volumes of turbidites are related to more constant delivery of sand over the shelf edge by rivers during times of lowered global sea level or via canyons that connect river mouths to the deep ocean floor. Turbidite successions record regular changes in sediment supply to the oceans and play an inportant part in building continental margins. This seminar presents the results of mapping a completely exposed ancient submarine delivery system from upper continental slope to basin floor and discusses how such studies can help to reconstruct the geometry and palaeogeography of ancient basin margins.
Rod Graham Abstract
Just as an understanding of structural geometry in the field is essential in the interpretation of seismic data, so sometimes seismic data and the new ideas that stem from it enable us to see classic field geology in a completely new light, even though the data may come from a completely different geological setting or a totally different part of the world. This lecture describes how, a few years ago, our understanding of the geological evolution of one of the worlds classic mountain belts was transformed by reference to data obtained from the Atlantic passive margin, and how at the present time, our increased understanding of salt tectonics might be bringing about a similar shift in thinking.
The understanding of salt tectonics has been transformed in recent years by the seismic imagery in places like Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, augmented by inspirational physical modelling. I will try to apply this new knowledge to geology 'on the ground' in the sub-Alpine chains of Haut Provence in the south western Alps. In this part of the world, a very well exposed Mesozoic sequence showing rapid thickness and facies changes associated with Jurassic and Cretaceous extension on the margin of the Ligurian Tethys, has been deformed by a series of 'Alpine' compressional events which occurred from the Late Cretaceous to the Pliocene. Although the geology has been very well known for decades, aspects of the structure remained enigmatic and could not be explained by either Mesozoic extension or Alpine shortening alone. This talk will make the case that they resulted from salt tectonics which occurred not in the developing Alpine mountain chain, but on the sea bed of a Late Jurassic continental slope, analogous, perhaps, to the Gulf of Mexico today.
A completely overturned , highly condensed Jurassic section is interpreted as the elevated roof of a salt body in a deep marine setting which overturned as a 'flap' in the Middle Jurassic as allochthonous salt broke out at the sea floor Later, Alpine compression exploited the weakness of the salt sheet as a major thrust but though the 'flap' is in the footwall of the thrust, evidence of soft-sediment deformation and other anomalous structures within the flap suggest that it cannot have originated as an overturned footwall syncline.
The ideas are prompted by seismic, the conclusions rely heavily on conventional field evidence. We geologists should never lose sight of our field-based roots.
New AAPG Committee for 2012/2013
We have appointed a new committee for the coming year, the old committee, Richard Newport, Jesal Hirani and Aisha Al Hajri wish the new committee all the best and will be staying on as advisers for the rest of the year.
President: Brian Burnham (Brian.Burnham@manchester.ac.uk )
Vice President: Richard Mcallister (Richard.mcallister@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk )
Secretary/Seminar Series: Tracey Vaitekaitis (Tracey.Vaitekaitis@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk )
Treasurer: Nick Cope (Nicholas.Cope@student.manchester.ac.uk )
Social Sec: Joshua Graham and George Purvis (Joshua.graham@student.manchester.ac.uk; George.Purvis@student.manchester.ac.uk)
Communications: Angus Doyne-Ditmas (Angus.Doyne-Ditmas@student.manchester.ac.uk)
Recruitment/Membership: Isabelle Pouncey (Isabelle.Pouncey@student.manchester.ac.uk)
AAPG STUDENT CHAPTER FIELD TRIP TO NORTH YORKSHIRE - WET YET VERY ENJOYABLE!
Cleveland Ironstone Formation and Grey Shale.
The AAPG student chapter at Manchester ran a field trip in collaboration with the University of Leicester to North Yorkshire. The trip, ran over 2 days, looked at analogues for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Day 1 was led by Dr. Dave Hodgetts looking at the Jurassic Staithes Sandstone and will consider the implications of this as a conventional oil and gas reservoir.
Day 2 involved looking at the the Lower Jurassic Cleveland Ironstone Formation, the Grey Shale Member and the Jet Rock. The trip was led by Prof. Kevin Taylor and considered implications for source rock, shale gas and light oil reservoirs.
Despite the atrocious weather (as can be seen in the photos!) the field trip was a success and a big thanks goes out to Dr Dave Hodgetts, Prof. Kevin Taylor and for all the attendees who braved the rain.
Day 1 was led by Dr. Dave Hodgetts looking at the Jurassic Staithes Sandstone and will consider the implications of this as a conventional oil and gas reservoir.
Day 2 involved looking at the the Lower Jurassic Cleveland Ironstone Formation, the Grey Shale Member and the Jet Rock. The trip was led by Prof. Kevin Taylor and considered implications for source rock, shale gas and light oil reservoirs.
Despite the atrocious weather (as can be seen in the photos!) the field trip was a success and a big thanks goes out to Dr Dave Hodgetts, Prof. Kevin Taylor and for all the attendees who braved the rain.
AAPG ACE 2012
The University of Manchester Student Chapter had a strong showing at the AAPG ACE 2012 in Long Beach in April, for photos click on the Gallery tab, for who was presenting please go to the conference calender tab at the top of the page. A write up of their experiences will follow soon.
AAPG L. Austin Weeks Grant awarded.
Congratulations to Alexandra Griffiths who won the L. Austin Weeks grant for undegraduates! She receives $500 towards her mapping project, and the AAPG SC also receive $500 to put towards upcoming events! WELL DONE ALEXANDRA!
L Austin Weeks Grant Winner Alexandra (left) with Student Chapter President Richard Newport
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More Good News! AAPG Grants in Aid SchemeFantastic news for two of our PhD students in the Basin Studies Group:
"Thank you to the AAPG for awarding me the Merill W. Haas Memorial Grant. This award is greatly appreciated; as the funds will be used to finance field research of the Mayaro outcrops and the Columbus Basin in Trinidad W.I. as part of my PhD study.
Once again, THANK YOU!" AAPG short course titled "“The petroleum industry in the next decade: an overview to the science, technology and AAPG” by Prof. Paul Weimer, president of the AAPG.
The president of the AAPG will be gave a short course at Imperial College, London on 9th March. For those of you that missed the talk or were unable to attend, the videos of the presentation are now available on our videos page.
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