October 2014 ESE Newsletter

Nanoparticles and Half Marathons

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Awards
Research Grants
Research Activity
Workshops and Courses
Impact and Media
Outreach
Fieldwork
PhD vivas
Royal Parks Half Marathon

Publications

Almeida, T.P, Kasama, T., Muxworthy, A.R., Williams, W., Nagy, L., Hansen, T.W., Brown, P.D., and Dunin-Borkowski, R.E. (2014) Visualized effect of oxidation on magnetic recording fidelity in pseudo-single-domain magnetite particles. Nature Communications. DOI:10.1038/ncomms6154

Blumenfeld, R. and Edwards, S. F., (2014). Granular statistical mechanics - a personal perspective. European Physical Journal, 223, 2189-2204. DOI: 10.1140/epjst/e2014-02258-y

Corbeau, J., Rolandone, F., Leroy, S., Al-Lazki, A., Stork, A. L., Keir, D., Stuart, G., Hammond, J. O. S., Doubre, C., Vergne, J., Ahmed, A. and Khanbari, K. (2014). Uppermost mantle velocity from Pn tomography in the Gulf of Aden. Geosphere, 10. DOI: 10.1130/GES01052.1

De la Porte, J.J., and Kossack, C.A. (2014) A liquid phase viscosity–temperature model for long-chain n-alkanes up to C₆₄H₁₃₀ based on the Free Volume Theory. Fuel, 136, 156-164. DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2014.07.016

Guo, L., Latham, J.-P. and Xiang, J. (2015). Numerical simulation of breakages of concrete armour units using a three-dimensional fracture model in the context of the combined finite-discrete element method. Computers & Structures, 146, 117-142.

Hampson, G.J., Duller, R.A., Petter, A.L., Robinson, R.A.J. and Allen, P.A. (2014). Mass-balance constraints on stratigraphic interpretation of linked alluvial-coastal-shelfal deposits: example from Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, Utah and Colorado, USA. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 84, 935-960. DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2014.78

Jacobs, C.T., Avdis, A., Gorman, G.J., and Piggott, M.D. (2014). PyRDM: A Python-based library for automating the management and online publication of scientific software and data.  Journal of Open Research Software, 2(1):e28. DOI: 10.5334/jors.bj

Mannie, A.S., Jackson, C.A-L. and Hampson, G.J. (2014) Shallow marine reservoir development in extensional diapir collapse minibasins: an integrated subsurface case study from the Upper Jurassic of the Cod Terrace, Norwegian North Sea. AAPG Bulletin, 98, 2019-2055.

Prélat A., Hodgson, D.M., Hall, M., Jackson, C.A-L., Baunack, C. and Tveiten B. (2014) Constraining sub-seismic deep-water stratal elements with electrofacies analysis; A case study from the Upper Cretaceous of the Måløy Slope, offshore Norway. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 59, 268-285.

Steart D.C., Spencer, A.R.T., Garwood, R.J., Hilton, J., Munt, M.C., Needham, J., and Kenrick P. (2014) X-ray Synchrotron Microtomography of a silicified Jurassic Cheirolepidiaceae (Conifer) cone: histology and morphology of Pararaucaria collinsonae sp. nov. PeerJ, 2:e624.

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

Jamie Wilkinson and Simon Kocher from the LODE group attended the Society of Economic Geologists' biennial conference "Building Exploration Capability for the 21st Century", 27-30 September, in Keystone, Colorado. Jamie gave a presentation on new discoveries allowing companies to use mineral chemistry for porphyry Cu-Mo-Au exploration. This work has been recognised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, with the project team - involving collaborators from the University of Tasmania - being selected as finalists for the institution's annual awards in the "Measurement in Action" category. Simon presented a poster on his PhD work entitled "Textures and cathodoluminescence properties of molybdenite-bearing quartz veins at the Bingham Canyon Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposit, Utah".

Adam Booth gave a lecture in Swansea University's School of History and Classics, 21 October, entitled, "Long walks around small fields: Geophysics in Archaeology".

Rebecca Bell gave a Keynote talk at the Seis-Mix meeting in Barcelona, 13-17 October, on “Characterising the seismic behaviour of subduction zones using active source seismic methods”.

David Cronan delivered an invited research seminar on 30 October at the University of Leicester entitled, “Factors affecting the variability of manganese nodules in the equatorial central Pacific Ocean”.

PhD student Saba Manzoor was invited to give a talk at the 12th International Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT) conference at Austin, Texas, United States, 07 October, entitled, “Atmospheric chemistry modelling of amine emissions from post combustion CO₂ capture technology”.

Philipp Lang gave a Special Plenary Session at the International Discrete Fracture Network Engineering Conference (DFNE 2014), 19-22 October, Vancouver, Canada, to present his paper (co-authored by Adriana Paluszny and Robert Zimmerman), "Relationship between Isotropic Fracture Network Permeability Calculated in 2D and 3D".

Adriana Paluszny gave an invited talk at the Departmental Seminar of the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, University of Durham, entitled, "Numerical modelling of fracture propagation and fragmentation".

Chris Jackson gave invited talks at University College Dublin (7 October), University of Manchester (9 October) and University of Leeds (13 October). His talk, given at all three institutions, and entitled, “Geology of the 5/22-1 exploration well, Rockall Trough, offshore NW Ireland: the role of break-up magmatism on trap development and reservoir quality”, presented preliminary results arising from Craig Magee’s and Chris’ work on seismic reflection and borehole data from offshore Ireland. Nick Schofield is also thanked for his input.

Awards

John Hudson has been voted the next recipient of the Mueller Award of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), which will be conferred next year. The Award is made once every four years at the ISRM Congress in recognition of distinguished contributions to the profession of rock mechanics and rock engineering.

PhD student Renato Santos (supervisor Zita Martins) has received a 300 Euro student award from the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA).  Renato presented a poster at the 14^th European Astrobiology Conference held in Edinburgh, 13-16 October 2014.

Adam Booth was awarded £1495 through the Arthur Holmes Centenary Research Fund, to attend December's AGU meeting in San Francisco.  Adam has an invited talk and a poster presentation, and is a session convenor within the Cryosphere Sciences division.

Adam Booth was admitted to the Geophysics 'Special Interest Group' of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain.

Adriana Paluszny was awarded first prize in the Climate Change Challenge Codess Hackathon, 11 October, Skype HQ London, as the leader of a team of six women, including software engineers from Thomson Reuters, UCL, and Morningstar.

Research Grants

Zita Martins is a Collaborator (PI Michael Mumma, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA) on a five-year $8 million grant awarded by NASA. NASA has selected seven American research teams to join the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), and study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

Research Activity

Phil Mannion visited the Paris Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 19-25 October, to work on a description of a new French sauropod dinosaur. The new specimen is known from a large amount of the skeleton and will help our understanding of the early evolution of the group titanosauriforms. The visit was fully funded by a European Commission SYNTHESYS grant.

Chris Jackson, Ann Muggeridge and Jan Cilliers, along with Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez and Dimitris Sarantaridis from Corporate Partnerships, hosted members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters’ VISTA board (14 October). VISTA is a basic research programme, fully funded by Statoil, conducted in close collaboration with The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Workshops and Courses

David Wilson attended the iPODS-OC3 meeting on “Deglacial Deep Ocean Circulation and Biogeochemical Cycling” held at the University of Bern, where he gave a talk entitled “Dynamic mid-depth circulation in the deglacial North Atlantic: a radiocarbon and neodymium isotope perspective”. His presentation drew on a recent paper, co-authored with Tina van de Flierdt, which provides new evidence for centennial timescale ocean variability during the deglaciation using isotope tracers in deep-sea corals.

Impact and Media

PhD student Mitch D’arcy wrote the feature article for the October edition of the Geological Society's Geoscientist magazine, about his research looking at the effects of climate change on debris flows in the Sierra Nevada, California.

Trevor Almeida and Adrian Muxworthy had their work on magnetic nanoparticles (Nature Communications) featured as an IC News item.

Emma Passmore and Mike Ala have created a new display outside G.35 called “The Royal School of Mines: stories from the archives”, using photographs, written documents and objects from the departmental archives. Many thanks to Mark Sutton and Julian Martin for their input.

Outreach

Matthias van Ginneken gave a talk to the public and undergraduate students about impact cratering on Earth. He explained how craters formed and how to find them, using the Kamil crater in Egypt as a case study.

Tom Davison gave a talk to an assembly of 230 primary school children (years 3-6) entitled, “Impact Earth!”, which covered the planets, asteroids and impact craters.

Fieldwork

Chris Jackson attended and co-led the LOBE 2 sponsors’ fieldtrip to the Neuquén Basin, Argentina (18-25 October). The trip was organised and co-led by consortium leaders from the universities of Manchester (Prof. Stephen Flint) and Leeds (Prof. David Hodgson), in addition to researchers from La Plata (Dr Ernesto Schwarz). The fieldtrip focused on the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Lower Jurassic, early post-rift deep-water deposits and was attended by 20 participants representing 11 major oil companies.

PhD vivas

Liwei Guo passed his PhD viva on 7 October. His thesis, entitled ‘Development of a three-dimensional fracture model for the combined finite-discrete element method’ was supervised by John-Paul Latham, Bassam Izzuddin (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and Jiansheng (Jason) Xiang.

Royal Parks Half Marathon

On Sunday 12 November, the ESE Rockrunners took to the streets of London to take part in the Royal Parks Half Marathon, placing 17^th out of 184 corporate teams. It was a superb effort with at least two of the team running a half marathon for the first time. Special mention should go to the speediest six runners whose time our team position was based on – Alex Perrin, Fraser Wigley, Chris Jackson, Rob Sievwright, Sarah Dodd and Mike Streule.

In total, charity donations totalled £748 for Rockwatch, £3000 for the Royal Parks Foundation, and a few hundred for a string of other charities including Mind, Wateraid, RNLI, Stroke Association, British Heart DFoundation, Arthritis UK and Medicines sans Frontieres. Thanks to everyone that took part and supported us. If you would still like to donate then please go to the justgiving page for Rockwatch.