Roberto Rizzo, University of Aberdeen, AGU, California
I was awarded a TSG travel bursary to support my attendance at the December 2015 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
The things I learnt at AGU and the conversations I had will influence the future of my research in a number of ways. The conference is very large and attracts a global audience, and so I was able to learn about new and updated research topics. I had opportunity to speak and discuss with experts in the fields of structural geology, geomechanics, and rock physics – building a wider network with scientists and researchers. I also received precious discussion and feedback about my research when I presented my poster “Predicting bulk permeability using outcrop fracture attributes: The benefits of a Maximum Likelihood Estimator” on the second to last day of the conference. Meeting other PhD students during the conference was both fun and encouraging, and I could exchange ideas with people researching on subjects closely related to mine
So to say it briefly, thanks a lot to TSG, I had a great and very constructive experience 🙂
Simon Oldfield, University of Leeds, AAPG Conference and Exhibit, Colorado
Thanks to the TSG student travel bursary, I was able to attend the AAPG’s Annual Conference and Exhibit in Denver, Colorado. Additionally, this enabled me to lengthen my trip and complete fieldwork supporting my research.
Presenting a poster on my research at the event provided an invaluable opportunity to discuss technical application and challenges in my field of work with academic and industry-based practitioners from a broad range of disciplines.
The poster, titled; “Reducing uncertainty in the geological interpretation of complex structural geometries through seismic forward modelling: Application to frontal ranges of the Llanos Basin, Colombia”, authored by Douglas Paton, Andres Mora, Juan-Carlos Alzate and I, reviewed the findings of the first year of my PhD.
Applying seismic forward modelling to interpreted geometries provides a method to compare likely seismic response to the original data, providing spatial constraint on structural interpretation uncertainty.
AAPG ACE was a great place to find practitioners in all of these fields, discussions varied from some fascinating structures to alternate processing methodologies. Perhaps less expected, were insights from software developers, discussing implementations and limitations of commonly applied structural and reservoir modelling algorithms.
It was a great honour and a pleasure to mingle with some excellent presenters while co-chairing an oral session on “Structure and Tectonics of Unconventionals” and a poster session on “Geomechanics of Unconventionals”. Since the conference, my co-authors and I were also informed that we have been given an Award of Excellence for the poster as one of the top ten presented during the conference.
As a former Field Geologist, this funding also provided an excellent opportunity to stretch the budget, and escape the office, to conduct fieldwork in the northeast Frontal Range, Colorado. An area of inversion tectonics, with excellent exposure of structures in ‘basement’ and active economic plays. I hope to use this work to investigate the influence of strength heterogeneities on geomechanical development and seismic detectability.
Since my first presentation at TSG’s AGM in 2013, the group have provided a friendly and supportive environment for young professionals and researchers to benefit from the honesty of our senior fellows and shared experiences of our peers. It was great to see a number of familiar faces from TSG at AAPG and I look forward to seeing you again in the future.
Simon Oldfield, Basin Structure Group, University of Leeds
Daniel Myhill, UEA, EGU, Austria
As part of my integrated MSci in Environmental Earth Science I have been undertaking research with Paul Dennis at the University of East Anglia. Our aim was to demonstrate how clumped isotopes, a relatively new technique, could be applied to problems in structural geology. For example, the technique can provide information about the temperature and composition of mineralising fluids. This can help to understand mineralisation processes, which are often complex and difficult to unravel, and yet have several economically important applications. To this end, for my fourth year Master’s research project I used clumped isotopes to understand mineralisation temperatures and paleo-fluid compositions of vein carbonates in the fluorite-rich Mississippi Valley-Type ore deposit of the South Pennine Orefield, UK.
I was keen to tell the geological community about the interesting research that we have been doing, particularly following the positive experience at the TSG annual conference in Edinburgh (January, 2015). The European Geosciences Union (EGU) symposium provides a great opportunity for disseminating research to the international geoscience community. I was accepted to give a talk in session TS1.3/EMRP4.7/ERE5.5: “The role of fluids and fracturing in carbonates and other upper crustal rocks”, and so, excited and nervous, I travelled to Vienna to my first EGU with the assistance of the TSG Conference and Travel Bursary grant.
I had an amazing time. Although I was nervous giving my talk, I received fantastic feedback from people in the session. I am very grateful to the session convenors for giving me the opportunity to present my research to this audience. Similar to the TSG annual conference, there is a strong Early Career Scientist community at EGU. I found that the Early Career events made the EGU conference very accessible and really enhanced my experience, particularly given the huge scale of the conference and the fact that I was attending alone. I was able to network and make great new contacts, as well as catch up with people I met at the TSG in January over a few well-earned drinks.
Looking forwards, I am getting to grips with writing my first paper on my work ready for submission to Tectonophysics this autumn, as well as starting new ventures having graduated from UEA with a 1st Class honours. In fact, I will be giving a talk at the ‘Geology of Geomechanics’ conference at the end of October, which TSG are co-organisers, and so I may see some of you there! Meanwhile, I hope to find a suitable PhD in the near future, to allow me to pursue a career in the academic realm.
@Dan_Myhill | LinkedIn | EGU Presentation | Dennis et al Abstract Submission
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