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Subsurface Geoscience Research at Edinburgh
School of GeoSciences
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© 2006 The University of Edinburgh (all rights reserved)Printed on recycled paper: Crusade 150gsmDesigned and produced by Medical Illustration, Learning Technology Section, The University of Edinburgh
School of GeoSciences
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Subsurface Geoscience Research Group
The Subsurface Geoscience group studies the physical and chemical properties, origin and history of the Earth, and encompasses the major disciplines of Geology, Geochemistry, Geodynamics and Geophysics. Within the group the Earth’s subsurface is imaged directly at various scales, its constituent minerals, rocks, pore fluids and magmas are analysed, and their interactions are simulated.
Formed in 2003, following the merger of the former departments of Geology and Geophysics, Geography, Ecology and Resource Management and Meteorology, the Group is particularly dynamic with recent appointments in Exploration Seismology, Earth Materials and Volcanology.
www.geos.ed.ac.uk
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0131 650 8516
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News 4
Optimising Hydrocarbon Production by Well Correlation 6
Seismic Imaging & Modelling of the Earth’s Subsurface 8
Seismic and Sequence Stratigraphy 10
CO2 Geological Storage 12
Earthquake Prediction 14
Electromagnetic Imaging within the Earth 16
Active Tectonics 18
Igneous and Metamorphic Geology and Geochemistry 20
The Hottest Crust 22
Planetary Geology - Life on Mars? 24
contents
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News
Edinburgh Research Partnership
The Edinburgh Collaboration in Subsurface Science and Engineering (ECOSSE) was launched in 2005, as part of the Edinburgh Research Partnership (ERP) in Mathematics and Engineering to promote research at the geoscience/engineering interface. The University of Edinburgh is partnering with the Institute of Petroleum Engineering (located at Heriot Watt University), the British Geological Survey and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. The Scottish Funding Council and OST invested over £1.8 Million in the partnership, creating six new posts.
www.erp.ac.uk/ecosse
Scotland’s biggest company spin out
A company founded by a team from the School of GeoSciences launched following investment of £7.4 Million to commercialise subsurface electromagnetic imaging technology. MTEM Ltd (multi-transient electromagnetic technology) developed the leading edge technique to determine whether deep underground reservoirs contain hydrocarbons before drilling and to potentially find hidden oil in mature fields. In the UK sector of the North Sea alone, it is estimated more than a billion barrels of additional oil could be located using this technology.
www.mtem.com
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Image courtesy of B
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Professor Ian MainEmail: [email protected]
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/imain
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Optimising Hydrocarbon Production by Well Correlation
The COFFERS project is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, VIPS Ltd, Reservoir Dynamics Ltd and Earth Decision Sciences Ltd and is funded by eight global oil and gas companies (with support from the DTI and through the Aberdeen-based technology broker, ITF). The initiative responds to the commercial demands of oil producers to reduce production costs whilst optimising overall recovery.
The approach addresses the major research challenge in understanding the way the subsurface responds to engineering decisions in complex hydrocarbon reservoirs. COFFERS has two distinct arms: The first is the physical modelling of fluid flow in complex reservoirs
to plan the position of injector wells for optimal recovery; and the second is to establish a purely statistical model which quantifies the response of the reservoir to changes in injection or production strategy.
A principal component analysis by Reservoir Dynamics Ltd has indicated that hydraulically-reactive parts of the reservoir are strongly correlated with the location and orientation of mapped faults and fractures.
Image courtesy of B
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Industrial Imaging & Modelling of the Earth’s Subsurface
University of Edinburgh scientists develop new ways to create clearer seismic images of the Earth’s subsurface. Mathematics and Physics are key disciplines used to optimise the design of surveys, and to simulate and analyse recorded wavefields in order to extract subsurface information. Using interferometry, we also use background ‘noise’ in the Earth to image the subsurface. Knowledge of geology and rock physics then guides the construction of static models of current subsurface geology, and dynamic models of its geological evolution.
We develop and test new methods in our state-of-the-art seismic processing lab. Results from joint industrial projects are transferred directly to partners’ R&D under tried and tested modes of collaboration. These include sponsored research projects, Ph.D. studentships, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, and industry scientists may pursue research under the Industrial Hosting Program.
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/research/subsurface/SeismicHost/
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Seismic and Sequence Stratigraphy
By integrating subsurface (seismic and well) data with primary field and core observations Edinburgh scientists can determine controls on the structural and stratigraphic evolution of prospective sedimentary basins. State-of-the-art seismic interpretation facilities are used to analyse complex 3D Seismic data sets.
Recent research studies have used the North Sea and other UK basins as natural laboratories to further our understanding of fault growth during the development of rift systems, to investigate the role that salt mobility had in promoting structural feedback in evaporite-bearing provinces and to determine the suite of structures that characterise those basins that have experienced tectonic inversion.
Seismic Line and corresponding geological cross-section from the Southern North Sea demonstrating the important role that the mobility of Upper Permian, Zechstein Group evaporites have had in controlling structural styles in its overburden.
Field Photograph of the Moab Fault from the Paradox Basin in Utah: an example of an extensional structure associated with salt mobility.
Image courtesy of A
erofi lms ltd11 | Subsurface at Edinburgh
Professor Stuart HaszeldineEmail: [email protected]
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/rsh
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CO2 Storage
The UK government is committed to reducing CO2 emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2010, and to 40% by 2050. During the transition to a low carbon economy, with a more diverse energy mix, fossil fuels will continue to be the world’s primary energy resource for the next 30 to 40 years.
Power stations and heavy industry release most of the world’s industrial CO2, so there is tremendous scope to capture emissions at the point of source. Once captured, a suitable storage repository is required and the well-explored geological formations of the UK North Sea provide obvious candidates.
With the UK’s largest expert multidisciplinary team in subsurface science and engineering, Edinburgh is pivotal in the UK’s investigation of geological storage of CO2. Research aims include: site selection and baseline assessment, prediction of injection volumes and addressing issues of regulation such as the verification and monitoring of safe long-term geological storage.
www.Co2storage.org.uk
Image courtesy of N
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“Strange as it may seem, we understand the distribution of matter in the interior of the sun far better than we understand the interior of the earth” (Richard Feynman 1985)
Professor Stuart CrampinEmail: [email protected]
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/scrampin
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Earthquake Prediction
Recent investigations are transforming our understanding of in situ fluid-rock interaction. Shear-wave splitting (seismic birefringence) shows that almost all in situ rocks are pervaded by fluid-saturated stress-aligned micro cracks. These are so compliant that, for example, the accumulation of stress before earthquakes changes micro crack geometry, and can be monitored by observations of shear-waves. Signals from small earthquakes have successfully forecast one M5 earthquake in a narrow time-magnitude-window.
Routine forecasting requires borehole testing and given enough resources, earthquake prediction is possible. Transmission between 500m-deep bore-holes in Iceland has shown that shear-wave splitting is extremely sensitive
to remote seismic disturbances. This is because the micro cracks are so closely spaced they are critical-systems with all the butterfly-wing’s sensitivity (and calculability) that that implies. Appropriate seismic cross-hole measurements would be able to forecast earthquakes and help us to address Richard Feynman’s paradox.
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Professor Kathy WhalerEmail: [email protected]
xweb.geos.ed.ac.uk/~whaler
Imaging within the Earth by Magnetotelluric (MT) Survey
Magnetotelluric surveys measure the variations of the natural electromagnetic field on the Earth’s surface. The induced part of the electromagnetic field provides information on the distribution of the electrical resistivity to a depth of a few kilometres. The method is passive and capable of revealing previously hidden structures that are invisible to traditional seismic techniques. MT surveys have successfully been used to image beneath basalt deposits on the Isle of Skye and Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
The Tana basin is covered with extensive Eocene-Oligocene continental flood basalts which mask underlying formations. The MT survey confirmed the existence of a Mesozoic sedimentary basin between lava flows and the Precambrian basement. The MT data assists exploration companies target activity more precisely at potential hydro carbon deposits, minimising risk and significantly reducing project costs.
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Active Tectonics
In south central Turkey scientists are investigating a rift basin located along the northern continental margin of the Arabian plate that evolved during the late Cenozoic period (last 35 million years). This study is part of the Edinburgh University Tethyan Research project, currently active in Turkey, Syria, Greece, Cyprus and former Yugoslavia. The work exemplifies field-based research, which utilises a range of multidisciplinary skills including sedimentology, structural geology, geochemistry and geomorphology.
Results show that this area was affected by the progressive and irregular collision of the Arabian plate with the Eurasian plate about 35-25 million years ago. The collision took place in two stages. Initially, normal faulting took place in a foreland basin related to overthrusting of the Tauride mountain belt to the north. Then, during the last 5 million years the present topography developed in response to the formation of a large graben controlled by strike-slip faulting. This two-phase model of sedimentary basin formation has implications for other regions that have experienced continental collision, including the Himalayas more than 40 million years ago.
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Professor Ben HarteEmail: [email protected]
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/bharte
Igneous and Metamorphic Geology and Geochemistry
The Subsurface Group hosts some of the most sensitive instruments for the analysis of minerals in the UK. Imaging of microscopic chemical changes in minerals reveals windows into recent volcanic eruptions and ancient plate tectonic processes. Fieldwork involving the mapping of metamorphic rocks in western Greenland is providing clues as to the generation of continental crust dating back to 3.5 billion years.
It is currently an exciting time in the development of theories for the deeper earth: Controversies over the behaviour of mantle plumes are being resolved by researchers in the northern Atlantic; the precise chemistry of rocks that harbour diamond underneath the continents is being determined which will refine prospecting techniques and studies of the degassing of magma in Iceland may provide clues as to how to predict the timing and magnitude of volcanic eruptions.
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The Hottest Crust
Even today few Earth Scientists appreciate that the continents, in different places and at different times in Earth history, have experienced extreme metamorphism at temperatures of over 1000oC and yet have survived the thermal shock. The resulting Ultrahigh temperature (UHT) metamorphic belts provide vital clues as to how the deep continental crust of the Earth forms and evolves in response to tectonics.
Using a combination of field, experimental and microanalytical approaches, Edinburgh geoscientists are world leaders in research into UHT and its causes. We aim to define not only the physical conditions, ages and timescales of UHT but also the complex interplay of chemical and physical processes that dictate how the hottest deep crust behaves when continents collide.
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Ultimate UHT: 1120oC sapphirine-pyroxene-quartz rock, Antarctica.
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Professor Colin GrahamEmail: [email protected]
Image courtesy of N
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The Ion Microprobe facility at the University of Edinburgh
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Planetary Geology - Life on Mars?
Edinburgh geochemists used the Ion Microprobe Facility to study the carbonate globules, each no bigger than a pinpoint, in a tiny sample of the 4 billion year old Martian Meteorite ALH8001 collected by NASA geologists on the Antarctic icecap. These globules host the proposed nano-bacteria structures thought to provide evidence for primitive life on Mars early in the history of the Solar System.
The results showed that the carbonates formed at sufficiently low temperatures for life as we know it to form, but whether the structures actually are fossil nano-bacteria from a wet early Mars remains controversial.
Image courtesy of N
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Image, courtesy of NASA, of fossilised nanobacteria structures in carbonate globules in ALH84001
www.geos.ed.ac.uk/facilities/
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Post Graduate Opportunities Collaborating with Industry Links with Government & Society
PhD Opportunitieswww.geos.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate
Sponsored research Knowledge resources and transfer
MSc Geoscience for Subsurface Exploration, Appraisal & Development (GeoSEAD)
Consultancy Sponsored research
MSc by Research in GeoSciences Seismic industry hosting programme
Consultancy
MSc Geo Information Science Training and Continuing Professional Development
Policy and Science
MSc Geoinformatics Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Expert opinion
MSc Remote Sensing and Image Processing
Materials and Micro-Analysis Industry networks
MSc Environmental Protection and Management
Joint ventures Key technology assets
MSc Global Environmental Change Licensing Media Links
MSc Management of Natural Resources
Insurance/Risk Management
School of GeoSciences
Contact:Mr Stuart SimmonsBusiness Development
School of GeoSciencesThe University of EdinburghPhone: +44 (0)131 650 8516Email: [email protected]
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In the School of GeoSciences, we explore the factors and forces that shape our world and environments in which we live. As a leading interdisciplinary group, we aim to understand the interaction between the Earth’s geology, atmosphere, oceans, biosphere and human responses and roles in this complex interplay. With over 100 academic specialists and some of the best scientific infrastructure in the UK, we deliver new insights into the dynamics of the Earth system and its relationship with society. This interdisciplinarity enhances our ability to model and predict global responses to environmental change, and to serve the needs of society, government and industry through meaningful knowledge transfer.
Five integrated and interdependent research groups:
• Subsurface Geoscience Research Group
• Global Change Research Group
• Edinburgh Earth Observatory
• Human Geography Research Group
• (CECS) Centre for the study of Environmental Change and Sustainability
Further information on MSc & PhD opportunities found at: www.geos.ed.ac.uk
