Geological history of Middle-Earth

I have heard many times about Tolkien fans using their time in learning inexistent languages such as Elvish, but I never heard ever before about geological maps of inexistent lands...

Here and now... The geological history of Middle Earth, by Ben Hilton:

http://hiltongeology.com/downloads/GEOL352_Middle%20Earth%20FINAL%20draft.pdf

That's dedication and love for an author... And it is good fun to read it if you have 20 minutes.

Geological map of Middle East and Arabia

One of the areas in the world where I work the most doing geological maps from satellite images or constructing balanced cross sections from our own maps or from seismic lines, wells, etc, is the Middle East (chiefly in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, in Iran, in the whole of Turkey, Syria, Yemen...).

This morning, looking for a nice map to put up of my wall in the office, I found this link, which surely will be very useful to anyone looking for a small scale* geological map of Arabia and the Middle East.

Commission for the geological map of the Middle East: http://www.cgmme.com/

The link includes jpeg and pdf versions of tectonic, geological and seismic maps of the Middle East and Arabia.

I hope this is useful for you.

*Remember! 1:1.000.000 is a smaller scale than 1:25.000!

Uncertainty and risk analysis in geology

Many times we do geological models and we trust in them blindly, forgetting that a model is just a conceptual simplified version of what we think can be the real stuff. As the paper I link today, quoting Loizou (2002), "Even in highly explored areas such as the North Atlantic margin of the UK, only one in five wells is successful".

"Structural models: optimising risk analysis by understanding conceptual uncertainty", published in First Break in June 2008 (volume 26) by Clare Bond, Zoe Shipton, Alan Gibbs and Serena Jones reviews the fundament of geology as an interpretation based science, how dependant it is on uncertainty and what does it mean in terms of risk analysis.

http://www.mve.com/assets/pdf/bondetalfirstbreak2008.pdf

Very worthy to take a look and stop to think... "How confident I am with my model"?

Midland Valley student structure prize

Alan Gibbs from of Midland Valley (MVE) has just posted that in the Geo-Tectonics mailing list, about their annual "Student structure prize".  Perhaps that fits to you?

"Hi everyone,

It’s that time of year again when we are starting to get entries for the Annual Midland Valley Student Structure Prize starting to roll in. I’m looking forward to reading this year’s batch and finding out what everyone is doing.

If you haven’t already done so can you please remind all your students that the Prize competition is open for entries until 12th December 2010.

The Prize seeks to reward outstanding pieces of structural geology by students with cash prizes of up to USD$2000.  The criteria is broad to cover the whole field of structure and there are three entry categories - Postgraduate (1st and 2nd places), Undergraduate (1st and 2nd places) and Overall Best use Of Move (1 prize).

Further information, including the rules for entry, can be found on the Midland Valley website http://www.mve.com/Academic/2010-prize.html or by emailing prize@mve.com.

Hope you all had a good summer (Northern Hemisphere) or winter for the rest!

Alan"

Thrust tectonics, edited by McClay. How to buy it?

I am trying to get a copy of the classic book edited by Ken McClay "Thrust tectonics", published by Chapman & Hall in 1991. We have a copy in our office, but I'd like to have in my private collection.

Anyone willing to sell his/hers? Do you know where I can buy it? In Amazon is currently unavailable (and I guess that won't change...).  Just comment in this post and I will get in contact with you.

DRT 2011 in Oviedo, Spain.

This is a message sent to the Geo-tectonics list by Sergio Llana Fúnez on behalf of the organising committee of the DRT 2011. Having done my degree in the University of Oviedo, it always catches my eye when they organise an international event (like the YORSGET in 2008, on young researchers in structural geology).

This is an early announcement for the next Deformation mechanisms, Rheology and Tectonics (DRT) meeting that will be hosted here at 

Oviedo University from the 31st of August to the 2nd of September 2011. We already have a website

http://www.geol.uniovi.es/drt2011

where you can find preliminary information about the meeting. It will be updated in the coming months as we approach the meeting.

The DRT meetings are hosted every two years by different European Universities, the tradition was started by Prof. HJ Zwart, who 

organised the first meeting in Leiden in 1976. Spanish geology benefitted substantially from the geological mapping the group of 

Leiden did in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula (Galicia, Cantabrian Mountains, Pyrenees) and partly for that reason in the last 

meeting in Liverpool we proposed to bring DRT to Oviedo. The range of topics and the focus of the meeting towards deformation processes, 

regardless of the scale (micro to orogenic), will remain in Oviedo in 2011.

Oviedo is quite conveniently located to study the geology of orogenic belts (see geological map in the website), for that reason there is a 

plan to run a fieldtrip across the Variscan Orogen. It is likely that the field trip will be split into two separating the internal parts 

from the external parts of the orogen, before and after the conference.

Later on in the year we will send the first circular with more details about the conference.

Please, for any suggestions, sponsors, do not hesitate to contact us. We hope to see you all here in a year.

Best regards,

Sergio Llana-Funez

Marco A. López

Francisco J. Fernández

Miguel Gutiérrez-Medina

Departamento de Geología

Universidad de Oviedo

http://www.geol.uniovi.es/drt2011

drt2011@geol.uniovi.es

Strong earthquake hits New Zealand

A 7.0 earthquake has shaken New Zealand today, two hours ago. More information at BBC.

From the USGS.gov website:

New Zealand earthquake occurred as a result of strike-slip faulting within the crust of the Pacific plate, near the eastern foothills of the Southern Alps at the western edge of the Canterbury Plains. The earthquake struck approximately 50 km to the west-northwest of Christchurch, the largest population center in the region, and about 80-90 km to the south and east of the current expression of the Australia:Pacific plate boundary through the island (the Alpine and Hope Faults). The earthquake, though removed from the plate boundary itself, likely reflects right-lateral motion on one of a number of regional faults related to the overall relative motion of these plates and may be related to the overall southern propagation of the Marlborough fault system in recent geologic time.
Today's earthquake occurred approximately 50 km to the southeast of a M7.1, surface-rupturing event in Authur's Pass, on March 9th, 1929, which caused 17 fatalities. More recently, two earthquakes of M6.7 and M5.9 occurred in June 1994 approximately 40 km to the northwest of today's event, but did not cause any known fatalities or significant damage.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010atbj/

BGS image bank

When I need an image for illustrating a report with a generic example, I usually go to Flickr and look for images without copyright (or with a copyright that allows me to use it). You can actually look for the same at  http://www.creativecommons.com

But perhaps the best option is to look directly for images tagged and classified by geologist! The British Geological Survey (BGS) has an awesome collection of images available online. This images are free to use for education, teaching, preparation and examination purposes, and surely will be welcome by many of you.

http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome

Good search!

GIS map interface of The Geological Society

As a membe of The Geological Society of London I use regularly the library map loan service. Any member can visit the GIS interface and search map in their area of interest. Then, email to the library and they will send by post the map.

There are many maps at many different scales from virtually everywhere. It is relatively fast (the time that takes to receive the maps with the mail), and if you can scan it, then you can georeference it in any GIS software (TNT, ArcGIS), or some geological software (Move, Kingdom Suite, etc).

In these days, we forget sometimes that there is a vast amount of data in printed shape in libraries and geological societies and clubs. This data is not available in many cases in a digital format, and most of people just ignore its existence.

But if you are managing a project, you want to get as much data as you can, cheap, and easy to use...

So don't forget to check the old paper maps for your next project!

Paper models for structural geology

Monday, Monday...

Bored in the office?

Holidays with hyperactive kids that you would like to convert into geologists?

Want to decorate your desk with geeky paper models of faults, unconformities and other geometrical relationships that your geophysicist colleagues don't visualise?

Then, why not printing some of Martin Schöpfer's paper models and spend some times building them up?

http://www.fault-analysis-group.ucd.ie/papermodels/papermodels.htm

Hours and hours of fun!

(More educational material here: http://www.fault-analysis-group.ucd.ie/ )

BP spill won't trigger an earthquake

We all know that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a natural and economical catastrophe. We have seen the images of the well leaking barrels and barrels of oil. Birds, fishes and turtles oil-covered all along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Many people have been now educated about how a well is drilled, how production has evolved in the last decades reaching deeper and deeper fields.

But, what happens when somebody mixes reality with fiction? Oh, then we get a growing trend of people believing that BP's oils spill may trigger an earthquake... as far as in the New Madrid Fault Zone!!!

I really find funny this part of the article:

"Could this "oil volcano" cause an earthquake along the New Madrid fault line that is so powerful that it could bring about "the end of the world as we know it" for those living in the area?"

Of course. The planet will colapse over itself, forming a new variety of a black hole. Black, because it will be full of oil.

But, what really disturbs me (not really), is not knowing if the following is a real comment, or just an ironic joke...:

"wells there's a good chance that the planet needed the oil where it was to lubricate the planets tectonic plates..... so yes. or any fault line idk.."

[/ironic mode=]So that was all the secret! We are extracting the oil that should be in fault planes, hence causing earthquakes!![/ironic mode=off]

Seriously, anyone not properly formed in geology may believe this rubbish. And I don't think it is the fault of the "street person", which may read that in a bad newspaper or an ill-informed blog. The problem is people writing this stuff. It appears constantly, every time that an earthquake happens somewhere. "We are damaging the Earth, it is paying us back now...", "This earthquake was caused by a tectonic weapon"...

Tectonic weapons... uhm, material for another article. Thanks, Tesla...

Burn the scientists!

Published on Bad Science on Saturday 19th of June 20010.

On the case of the Italian seismologists who failed to predict an earthquake:

http://www.badscience.net/2010/06/burn-the-scientists/

Open letter in support of Italian seismologists

Please, circulate the following letter and sign it. Apparently, earth scientist are supposed now to have paranormal powers and to be able to see the unknown. Or, at least, that is what prosecutors and politicians in Italy believe....

http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/index.php

Open letter to the President of the Republic of Italy

Two weeks ago in Italy, the L’Aquila Prosecutor’s office indicted scientists, some of them members of the “Commissione Grandi Rischi” (Commission for High Risks), and civil protection officials for manslaughter. The basis for the indictment is that these people did not provide a short-term alarm to the population after a meeting of the Commission held in L’Aquila six days before the Mw 6.3 earthquake that struck that city and the surrounding area.

The allegations against the scientists are completely unfounded. Years of research worldwide have shown that there is currently no scientifically accepted method for short-term earthquake prediction that can reliably be used by Civil Protection authorities for rapid and effective emergency actions.

The international seismological community has long recognized that the best approach to defending populations from catastrophic earthquakes is not through earthquake prediction, but through risk mitigation and the application of appropriate safety measures to prevent buildings from collapsing. In this regard, the development of seismic hazard maps, which provide estimates of the probability of occurrence of predefined values of peak ground motion in a given time period, provide the specifications required by building codes to avoid collapse of buildings and the resulting fatalities

Italy is an earthquake-prone country. An improved seismic hazard map that summarizes decades of research on earthquake occurrence and effects was completed in 2004 (see http://zonesismiche.mi.ingv.it/). It is the result of the work of many scientists, it is considered to be one of the best seismic hazard maps in Europe, and it has been used as a basis for the Italian building code beginning in 2008 (“Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni”, GU n.29 del 04/02/2008). It should be viewed as the primary  contribution of the Italian earthquake scientists to their Country.

Seismic hazard maps must also be used for conveying to the population the basic concepts of earthquake hazard, awareness, preparedness, and response. Increased consciousness of the earthquake hazard and associated risk should also foster further prevention actions by national and local authorities. Overall, earthquake preparedness and damage prevention in the form of retrofitting are not only possible but mandatory in a country affected for the most by moderate size earthquakes that often result in catastrophes for the society because of the large percentage of seismically unreinforced buildings.

Education, awareness, preparedness and retrofitting are the best tools for mitigating the impact of the catastrophic earthquakes that will inevitably affect Italy in the future.

The scientific community involved in earthquake science urges the Italian government, local authorities and decision makers in general, to be proactive in establishing and carrying out local and national programs to support earthquake preparedness and risk mitigation rather than prosecuting scientists for failing to do something they cannot do yet - predict earthquakes.

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Link of the month: Patrice Rey's website

In the past weeks I haven't had any time to look for new and attractive websites to present them here, so my selection of "website of the month" is a bit delayed.

But never is to late, as they say, and I have in my bookmarks a very interesting link that you may find useful for yourself or your students, if that is the case: the website of Dr. Patrice Rey, from the School of Geosciences of the University of Sidney.

I guess the website is not very updated, at least in some sections, and I haven't found the way to access the following sections from his homepage, but nevermind, as here you have the direct link to them. He has two teaching modules, organised in the style of an online presentation, with very clear explanations and beautiful graphics:



"Module 1" focusses on thermo-mechanics of lithospheric deformation, with the following sections: Course Outlines, Driving Forces, Isostasy & Gravitational Forces, Heat and Temperature, Continental Geotherms, Thermal Consequences of Lithospheric Deformation, Rheology and Lithospheric Strength y References.

"Module 2" focusses on tectonics, with the following chapters: Course Outlines, Introduction, Finite Strain Analysis, Convergence & Shortening, Divergence & Extension, Gravity Driven Deformation, Transcurrent Tectonics, Finite Strain Field Interferences and References.

So, run to visit the website, and write Patrice if you like it. Surely he likes to see that his online work is not only useful for his students!




_

Orogenic volcanic and plutonic rocks in island arcs

So, here it goes the first Small Geological Fact: Volcanic and plutonic activity in a island arc.

What is the point of this article? I am working right now on a project in western Java. I find the geology in there very complex and obscure, and I realise that understanding more about the type of volcanic and plutonic materials, would help me to understand more the evolution of the volcanic arc. This article won't deal with Java itself, but with a generic volcanic arc.

The main source of information is a nice, affordable and simple (but very useful!) book by Kearey and Vine: Global Tectonics. So, if you want to know more, just read it (full reference at the bottom)

An island arc is created by plutonic and volcanic activity at ca. 150-200 km from the trench axis when the subducting lithosphere reaches a depth of 80 km. The majority of aisland arcs are found in the Pacific Ocean, and some in the Atlantic.

Young arcs are relatively simple to understand, and they are underlain by a crust no thicker than 20 km (i.e. Tonga-Kermadec, New Hebrides, Aleutians and Lesser Antilles). Older and mature island arcs are far more complex, usually build upon previous generations of subducting plate margins. Generally, they are underlain by thicker crust, 20 to 35 km, and they occur in Japan and Indonesia.

Baker(1982) identified three series of volcanic rocks in island arcs:

1. The low potassium tholeiitic series, dominated by basaltic lavasand lesser volumes or Fe-rich basaltic andesites and andesites.
2. The calc-alkaline series, dominated by andesites, more enriched in potassium other incompatible elements and rare earth elements than the andesites mentioned above(in an Andean-type belt, dacites and rhyolites are more abundant).
3. The alkaline series, including subgroups of alkaline basalts and shoshonitic lavas.

Now, how is that related with the evolution, structure and zonation of an island arc? How is that relevant for this blog?

The tholeiitic series are found in young arcs, as the are due to magmas formed at 80-120 km depth. The calc-alkali and alkaline series are formed in more mature arcs, because their originating magmas are formed at a deeper depth. In some mature arcs there seem to be a compsitional trend, from the trench, where a tholeiite - calc-alkaline - alkaline volcanis suite developes, representing magmas from progressive deeper levels.

In mature island arcs, plutonic rocks are exposed, which represent the residua of magma chambers which have crystallised at depth. They are generally granodiorites and related igneous rocks and exhibit similar variations to the volcanic rocks.



Sources:

- Philip Keary and Frederick Vine, Global Tectonics, Blackwell Science, 1996.pp 161-163
- Baker, P.E. (1982) Evolution and classification of orogenic volcanic rocks. in Thorpe, R.S. (ed.) Andesites, pp. 11-23, Wiley, New York.





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SGF: New tag for the blog

In my daily activity as geologist I find many small facts that I have learnt in the past (i.e. during my degree or even before, in secondary school) but, after many years not using them, they simply vanish in the caves of memory.

So, why not a type of entries in the blog, "Small Geological Facts", about things I know are useful in my job at the moment or will be in the future?

Doing a blog requires time. I have many ideas, but not time enough. The result is that no matter how enthusiastic you are, if writing the entries you like takes longer that you expected, finally you will have big time gaps where no articles are created.

Small Geological Facts, that is the answer!

So, soon (very soon!) the first one... Thanks for your understanding!

Free papers on Chile and Haiti provided by The Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London has made freely available two sets of papers at their website, related with the earthquakes ocurred in Haiti and Chile in the past weeks and months. Together with these papers, you can also download a series of publications related with the bicentenary of Charles Darwin:

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/publications/lyellcollection/page7188.html

These papers will be available for free until the end of March (Darwin and Haiti topics) and until the end of April, in the case of Chile.

¡Arriba Chile!

More than 700 casualties have been counted so far due to the earthquake of last Saturday. Now is the moment to contribute with any help you can give: Remember that any amount of money is useful. "A beach is made of grains of sand".

If you want to help contributing online, use the Google Crisis Response site dedicated to this earthquake:

http://www.google.com/relief/chileearthquake/

You can also visit your local/national Red Cross organisation:

http://www.icrc.org/

Please, help and forward this message to your contacts and friends.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html
AP Photo/Roberto Candia

Link of the month: Ron Schott's blog

I have decided to create a series of monthly posts/awards (...) in this blog where I will comment on blogs, websites and Twitters that I find both interesting and useful. I actually think I can find once a month a really good site. If I don't, or I just forget about it... well... Just let me know candidates!

So, here it goes the winner of February'10:

Ron Schott's website

Do you want to keep informed about what is going on in geology?
Do you want several updates a day?
Would you like to find interesting links about our favourite science?

If you have answer YES to at least one of the previous three questions, then you are interested in the blog and TWITTER of Ron Schott. Ron won last week (in an impressive couple of hours period) the "Where on (Google) Earth #187" that Dan suggested here, in StructuralGeology.org (Dan was sooo dissapointed... but his next image will be hard to find...)

If you don't know Ron, he is Assistant Professor of Geology at Fort Hays State University. Well, you better visit his personal website and you can find out more about him:

http://ron.outcrop.org/

His blog is great, by the way.

http://ron.outcrop.org/blog/

And, if you use twitter, you will just love his feeds:

http://twitter.com/RonsGeoPicks

By the way, Ron is an active user of the game "What on Google Earth". The "Schott rule", as you can imagine, is named after him. No wonder why... grrrr. And his last WOGE, number 188, is still waiting for your answer!!

Earthquake in Chile, 8.8 Mw

Chile has been shaken this night by a 8,8 Mw earthquake, as reported by www.usgs.gov (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010tfan/#details). There is not much information so far. Bachelet, president of Chile, has reported 6 casualties already. USGS informs of potential several structural damages in central and southern Chile.

The epicenter has been located at 35 km offshore Concepción, and Santiago de Chile, at more than 300 km, has been left in a blackout. In Valparaiso, the quake has been felt, but apparently no major damages have been reported.

Chile has been always, and will be, one of the most seismologically active areas in the world. In 1960 a 9.5 Mw earthquake devastated the region of Valdivia, killing 1655 people.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010tfan/#scitech

Where on (Google) Earth? No. 187.

Having won the last round of Where on (Google) Earth it is my turn to suggest a location for others to find. The image below has an eye altitude of roughly 23km, and that’s all the help you lovely people get I’m afraid.

As with previous episodes, what we need to know is the Longitude and Latitude of the image, a general locality name and an explanation of the geological feature(s) shown. Also as with previous episodes, the first person with the correct answer gets to host the next edition.

Good Luck!

Podcasts in Geology

I like podcasts. They are a good companion at work, in the car or doing sports. But being a geologist, there is not much choice about what we can listen if we want something relating with our field of expertise.

Some years ago I discovered the “Corecast” of the USGS, but to be honest, it is quite light and … disappointing. The program is well done, is good, but only if you don’t know much of geology. Its target audience is the general public. Obviously that is fine because that is the task of the USGS: to educate general public about our work.  

From time to time, in programs like “Radio 4 Choice”, of the BBC, they include content related with geology and this is great. But that doesn’t happen very often.

So, what do we have?  Well, thanks to The Geological Society we have a few episodes of a geology podcast. Few means three so far! But their quality is quite good.

Sarah Day, the Earth Scientist Communicator of GSL, conducts the program where she interviews the speaker of the popular Shell Lectures, which are carried out on a monthly basis (montly…ish).

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/podcasts

So far, the episodes are (description take from the GSL website):

Episode  3: The Present is the Key to the Past

• Listen to the podcast - 'The Present is the Key to the Past' (.mp3 11894 Kb)

Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology was published between 1830-1833, and introduced the famous maxim, ‘the present is the key to the past’. Bruce Levell, Chief Geologist at Shell, explains the relevance of this principle to the oil and gas industry today, and why it might be hindering, rather than helping the search for energy resources.

One of the biggest consequences of our use of fossil fuels is its effect on sea level, which is continuing to rise. Is sea level rise natural, or are humans playing a part? And how can geologists help protect our coastlines? Lynne Frostick, Professor of Geography at the University of Hull and Geological Society President, explains what rising tides mean for our future, and how an understanding of our geological past can help us prepare for the future.

Episode 2: Spider Webs and Seamounts

• Listen to the podcast - 'Spider Webs and Seamounts' (.mp3 10927 Kb)

Sarah visits Professor Martin Brasier at the University of Oxford, who made the news last month when he published reports of the world’s oldest fossilized spider webs. Preserved in amber dating back to the early Cretaceous, the webs are 135 – 140 million years old, and capture a crucial period in spider evolution.

November’s Shell London Lecturer, Professor Tony Watts, explains the importance of his research into sea mounts – mountains under the sea. Potential causes of geological hazards, they are also focal points of biological diversity. Earth Scientists remain divided as to their cause, with some critical of the increasingly prevalent ‘hotspot’ theory. 

Episode 1: Climate on Earth and Mars

• Listen to the podcast - 'Climate on Earth and Mars' (.mp3 10655 Kb)

In our very first podcast, Dr Matt Balme explains how he uses his knowledge of Earth to understand the Martian climate. And Dr Rosalind Rickaby tells of a tiny marine organism that’s facing a big climate challenge.

The ocean’s ability to absorb co2 is vital to reducing the impact of carbon emissions on climate. Approximately one quarter of Co2 emissions caused by human activity are absorbed by the ocean, which is becoming increasingly acidic as a result. By carrying out photosynthesis, marine phytoplankton such as the coccolithophore are an important part of this process, but can struggle to build their shells and skeletal structure as waters become more acidic.

Whilst the ‘paradigm view’ is that the ocean acidification will make it harder for the coccolithophore to build its calcium carbonate shell, recent research suggests they are in fact responding by calcifying even more. Understanding how these tiny marine organisms will respond to rising levels of atmospheric co2 is crucial to predicting how climate will evolve in the future

Besides, the GeolSoc.org.uk website also includes the links to the podcast of NERC Earth science, the Planet Earth series: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/site/GSL/lang/en/page6262.html

A whole list of Planet Earth podcasts is available at: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/multimedia/index.aspx

Enjoy the podcasting!

Microtectonics course in Mainz

If you are interested in microtectonics, then you know Passchier and Trouw and their classic textbook on that topic. Now you have the opportunity to enrol in a course in Mainz (where a large collection of microstructures is hosted) conducted by C. Passchier and D. Koehn.

Topics covered in the course are deformation mechanisms, veins and strain fringes, mylonitic fabrics and porphyroblasts. Participants are encouraged to bring their own thin-sections for discussions, in addition to the large collection available in the University of Mainz

Course fees are 280 euro, and will take place from Monday 29^th of March to Thursday 1^st of April of 2010. For further information, contact Sabine Fohrmann [fohrmann (at) uni-mainz (dot) de]. Appclations should be submitted before 1^st of March of 2010.

(Information adapted from an email sent by Daniel Koehn to the Geo-tectonics mailing list)

Institut für Geowissenschaften Tektonophysik: http://www.tekphys.geo.uni-mainz.de/

Haiti quake relief

Posted in the Geo-tectonics list by Shan Sathar:

 

Dear colleagues,

As we all know, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on the 12^th of January. Thousands are dead and many are seriously injured. Please do whatever you can do today to help thousands of people in desperate need.

I am posting the link for the British Red Cross to make things easy..

https://www.redcross.org.uk/emergencysite/campaign.aspx?id=88917

 

If you are not a fan of Red Cross, a simple Google search will list many other charities worldwide.

Many of us might have already donated for this cause.

 

My apologies if you are not interested.

 

Best regards,

 

Shan

Please, help and contribute.

 

J.

 

Structural geology techniques (I)

There is a few websites about structural geology that I visit once a week or more often. I would like to start a series of articles for briefly presenting them.

The first of this sites is "Structural Geology Techniques", in charge of Steven Dutch, professor of the University of Wisconsin. (http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/structge/labman.htm).

In the website of Dutch, a neat and organised page, you can find many examples and diagrams explaining a good range of geometric problems related with structural geology. There are from basic level problems (e.g., calculatina fold axis given the limbs of the structure) to not so fundamental problems (e.g., how to construct a down-plunge cross section).

As Dutch explaines in his homepage (http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/index.html), he does not like fancy graphics, and his website is an example of efficient diagrams, which isn't always the same as beautiful. However, they are clear and functional.

Visit the place if you didn't know it yet. You will be surprise with how many things you have forgotten of structural geology and geometry :-).

TSG meeting programme 2010

Carl Stevenson has released the programme for the TSG meeting in Birmingham this week. If you are attending, we’ll meet up there. If you aren’t… well, that is what you are missing!

Tuesday 5^th January

18 30 onwards Wine reception in the Lapworth Museum

Registration desk open in Lapworth Museum

Poster hanging

Wednesday 6^th January

08 00 – 09 15 Registration desk open in Lapworth Museum (until lunch)

Arrival tea, coffee and refreshments

09 15 Welcome – Professor Tim Reston

09 30 Technical programme day 1 – talks and posters

Session 1: Reducing uncertainty and risk
09 30 – 09 45	The Freyja project: uncertainty analysis of geological interpretations	*Euan Macrae, Clare Bond, Zoe Shipton
09 45 – 10 00	The influence of Structural and Stratigraphic uncertainties on fault seal analysis and reservoir compartmentalisation of deep water fan systems	Wood, A., Paton, D, Cook, A.
10 00 – 10 15	‘De-risking the prospect’ Incorporating structural uncertainty in petroleum systems modelling: A case study from the Judd Basin, U.K.	S. M. Clarke, H. Johnson & J. Rodriguez
10 15 – 10 30	Test-driving the Virtual Seismic Atlas – finding analogues and authoring content	Rob Butler and Taija Torvela
10 30 – 10 45	The number of km-scale impact craters yet to be found on Earth is c. 800	Stewart, S. A.
10 45 – 11 00	Discussion period

Chair: Nicola De Paulo

11 00 – 11 30 Break with tea, coffee and refreshments

Session 2: Neotectonics and active basins
11 30 – 11 45	Afterslip on the L’Aquila earthquake (M6.3) surface rupture captured in 4D using a Terrestrial laser scanner (TLS)	*Wilkinson M., McCaffrey K.J.W., Roberts G., Cowie P.A., Phillips R.J. & Michetti, A.
11 45 – 12 00	High resolution monitoring of creep of the Mam Tor landslip, Derbyshire	Ernest Rutter and Sam Green
12 00 – 12 15	Fault Lubrication and Earthquake Propagation in Thermally Unstable Rocks	N. De Paola,T. Hirose, T. Mitchell, G. Di Toro, C. Viti and T. Shimamoto
12 15 – 12 30	Late Cenozoic reactivation of polydeformed basement in the Chinese Beishan region north of Tibet	Cunningham Dickson and Jin Zhang
12 30 – 12 45	Normal-Fault Architecture and Deformation Processes in Poorly Consolidated Sediments within an Actively Extending Basin, Gulf of Corinth, Greece	*Sian Loveless, Victor Bense and Jenni Turner
12 45 – 13 00	Discussion period

Chair: Steve Jones

13 00 – 14 30 Lunch and posters

Session 3: Palaeostress and brittle tectonics
14 30 – 14 45	Combination of paleostress and paleomagnetic data: case studies from the Pannonian Basin	Fodor, L.I., Márton, E
14 45 – 15 00	Seismites reveal long-term earthquake behavior of the Dead Sea Fault	Shmuel Marco
15 00 – 15 15	The stress state of the brittle upper crust during early Variscan tectonic inversion and its influence on high-pressure compartments	Van Noten, K., Muchez, P. & Sintubin, M.
15 15 – 15 30	Characterising brittle reactivation in basement: an example from the Lewisian Gneiss Complex, NW Scotland	*J. C. Martin, R. E. Holdsworth, K. W. J. McCaffrey, A. Conway & M. Krabbendam
15 30 – 15 45	Palaeostress reconstruction in the Lufilian Arc and the Kundulungu foreland (Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo): in search of evidence of incipient active rifting	*Kipata, M.L., Delvaux, D., Sebagenzi, M.N., Cailteux, J.-J. & Sintubin, M.
15 45 – 16 00	Discussion period

Chair: Steve Rippington

16 00 – 16 30 Break with tea, coffee and refreshments

Session 4: Posters

16 30 – 17 30

Thursday 7^th January

08 00 – 09 15 Registration desk open in Lapworth Museum (until lunch)

Arrival tea, coffee and refreshments

09 15 Technical programme day 2 – talks and posters

Session 5: Mapping and remote sensing
09 15 – 09 30	The origin and evolution of the Cretaceous northwest Sirt Basin, Libya, based on remote sensing interpretation and well data analysis	*Khalifa M. Abdunaser, Ken J.W. McCaffrey
09 30 – 09 45	InSAR mapping of an active Iranian salt extrusion	Ian Alsop, Pedram Aftabi, Mahasa Roustaie, Christopher J. Talbot
09 45 – 10 00	Geology of the Ordovician Tyrone Igneous Complex, Northern Ireland	Cooper, M. R., Crowley, Q. G., Hollis, S. P., Noble, S. R., Roberts, S., Chew, D., Earls, G, & Herrington, R..
10 00 – 10 15	Polyphase deformation in the Lake Hazen region, at 82o north on Ellesmere Island: implications for the tectonic evolution of the High Arctic	Stephen Rippington, Robert Scott, Helen Smyth, Simon Kelly
10 15 – 10 30	A ruck, a ramp and imbricate stack, but no culmination – the Dundonnell sector of the Caledonian Moine Thrust Belt, Northwest Highlands of Scotland.	Leslie, A.G., Goodenough, K.M.& Krabbendam, M.
10 30 – 10 45	Discussion period

Chair: Sam Spendlove

10 45 – 11 15 Break with tea, coffee and refreshments

Session 6: Margins
11 15 – 11 30	Evidence for Quaternary convergence between the North American and South American plates, east of the Lesser Antilles	Patriat M., Pichot T., Westbrook G.K., Umber M., Deville E., Bénard F., Roest W., Loubrieu B. and the ANTIPLAC cruise party
11 30 – 11 45	Thermal weakening localizes intraplate deformation along the southern Australian continental margin	Simon P. Holford, Richard R. Hillis, Martin Hand, Mike Sandiford
11 45 – 12 00	Structural Controls on the Evolution of the Southeastern Brazilian Continental Margin	*Ashby, D.E., McCaffrey, K.J.W., Holdsworth, R.E., Almeida, J.C.H., Oliver, J.
13 00 – 12 15	Detachment faults during continental breakup and beyond	Tim Reston
12 15 – 12 30	Cenozoic history of Britain and Ireland: Implications of modern dynamic support for the Paleocene underplating idea, and quantification of plate boundary drivers of Cenozoic structural inversion	Stephen M Jones
12 30 – 12 45	Discussion period

Chair: Ken McDermott

12 45 – 14 15 Lunch and posters

Session 7: Novel approaches and applications I
14 15 – 14 30	Calculated petrophysical properties of rocks from CPO analysis by EBSD in a section across the Moho in Cabo Ortegal (N Spain)	Sergio Llana-Fúnez, Dennis Brown, Ramón Carbonell, Joaquina Álvarez-Marrón, David Martí, Matthew Salisbury
14 30 – 14 45	Linking sill morphology to emplacement mechanisms	*Nick Schofield, Carl Stevenson, Tim Reston
14 45 – 15 00	Cone sheet emplacement in sub-volcanic systems: a case study from Ardnamurchan, NW Scotland	*Craig Magee, Carl Stevenson and Brian O’Driscoll2
15 00 – 15 15	Contrasting magnetic susceptibility fabrics on opposite fold limbs: cause and implications	Debacker, T.N.., Seynaeve, N., Sintubin, M. & Robion, P.
15 15 – 15 30	Characterising the role of basin margin structure on finite strain patterns across a ‘cleavage’ front from the Variscides of southern Ireland	*Parker, C., Meere, P., Stevenson, C., Mulchrone, K.
15 30 – 15 45	Discussion period

Chair: Carl Stevenson

15 45 – 16 15 Break with tea, coffee and refreshments

Session 8: Posters

16 15 – 17 30

17 30 – 18 00 AGM Chaired by Professor John Wheeler

18 00 – 18 30 Wine and posters

19 00 TSG conference dinner, Noble Room, 2^nd floor, Staff House

Friday 8^th January

08 00 – 09 30 Registration desk open in Lapworth Museum (until lunch)

Arrival tea, coffee and refreshments

09 15 Technical programme day 3 – talks and posters

Session 9: Novel approaches and applications II
09 15 – 09 30	Fault stepping and drainage evolution in the Corinth basin rift, Greece	Turner, J.A., Leeder, M.R. and Finch E.
09 30 – 09 45	A geological investigation into fault weakening mechanisms revealed in deep drill core from the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD)	Bob Holdsworth, Esther van Digglen, Hans De Bresser, Steve Smith
09 45 – 10 00	K-white mica thermo-barometry, conodont colour alteration index and vitrinite reflection: methods to distinguish nappes in a complex diagenetic to low-grade metamorphic nappe pile	Kövér, S. & Fodor, L. I.
10 00 – 10 15	3D Pulsating flow and possible strain pattern in general shear zones	David Iacopini, Rodolfo Carosi, Paris Xypolias
10 15 – 10 30	Fault and fracture patterns in low porosity chalk	David Sagi, Nicola De Paola, K.J.W. McCaffrey & R.E. Holdsworth
10 30 – 10 45	Discussion period

Chair: Tim Reston

10 45 – 11 15 Break with tea, coffee and refreshments

Session 10: Modelling and strain analysis
11 15 – 11 30	Spatial analysis, structural geology and mineral exploration	Julian Vearncombe and Susan Vearncombe
11 30 – 11 45	Reconciliation of contrasting theories for joint spacing in layered sequences	Schöpfer, M.P.J., Arslan, A., Walsh, J.J., & Childs, C.
11 45 – 12 00	3D numerical modelling of the evolution of fault zone internal structure	Schöpfer, M., Childs, C. & Walsh, J.J.
12 00 – 12 15	Structural modelling of possible contaminant pathways below nuclear installations	*Richard Haslam, Stuart Clarke, Peter Styles & Clive Auton
12 15 – 12 30	Strain analysis from point fabric patterns: A new objective method	Lisle, Richard J
12 30 – 12 45	Discussion period

Chair: John Wheeler

12 45 – 14 15 Lunch and posters

Session 11: Seismic analysis, interpretation and integration
14 15 – 14 30	Length-throw relationships in an evaporite-detached extensional fault array: The Bremstein Fault Complex, offshore mid-Norway	Wilson, P.., Elliott, G. M., Gawthorpe, R. L.., Jackson, C. A-L. & Hansen, S.
14 30 – 14 45	Geological and structural evolution of the Rosaria Mare intraplatform Basin and its tectonic implications (Adria/Apulia plate boundary, SE Italy)	Felici, F., Turco, E., Pierantoni, P. P., & Milia A.
14 45 – 15 00	Linking fault geometry with wall-rock deformation: 3-D seismic investigation deepwater Niger Delta	*Jibrin, B., Turner, J.P., Westbrook G.K., Bretan, P.
15 00 – 15 15	Different interpretations of thrust trajectories and strain distribution in a fold-and-thrust belt	­Torvela, T., Butler, R. W. H. & Bond, C.
15 15 – 15 30	Discussion period

Chair: Nick Schofield

15 30 – 16 00 close

16 00 – 16 30 Departing tea, coffee and refreshments

Saturday 9^th January

Post meeting workshop: Move2010 for teaching and research

In collaboration with Midland Valley Exploration Ltd.

Midland Valley Exploration’s Academic Initiative’s began three years ago and now, between the Field Mapping Initiative and the Academic Software Initiative, nearly 200 academic geosciences departments worldwide are using Move.

This workshop aims to introduce Move2010 to academic users and to highlight a few potential uses in teaching and research. We will go through some hands-on exercises from the Move2010 tutorials and discuss some current uses in academic teaching and research including field mapping.

Contact Carl Stevenson: c.t.stevenson@bham.ac.uk

Midland Valley will be represented by Dr Ruth Wightman

Workshop itinerary:

09.00 - 09.20 Introduction to Move and the rationale behind the ASI

09.20 - 11.00 Move2010 hands-on exercise - 2DMove

11.00 - 11.30 Refreshment break

11.30 - 12.30 Move2010 hands-on exercise - 3DMove

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch (Lapworth Museum)

13.30 - 14.00 Introduction to structural analysis - 4DMove

14.00 - 15.00 Examples of using Move in teaching and research

15.00 - 16.00 Examples of using Move in field mapping

16.00 - 16.30 Refreshment break

16.30 - 17.30 Participant Examples / Q&A

Cost - £7.50 (on arrival)

Places are limited to 30

Posters

The Origin and Nature of Cenozoic Faulting in North East Ireland

*Anderson, H., Walsh, J.J. & Cooper, M.R

The impact of strain, bedding plane friction and overburden pressure on joint spacing

Arslan, A., Schöpfer, M. P. J., Walsh, J. J., Childs, C.

Influence of deep transverse fault zones on the prospectivity, geometry and spatial arrangement on some hydrocarbon-related structures, Zagros fold and thrust belt, northern Iraq

Banks, G.J.

Analysis of structural lineaments and their relationship with paleotension fields responsable for the formation of cenozoic brittle structures, Espirito Santo State (SE Brazil)

*Bricalli, L.L., Cianfarra, P., Salvini,F. & Mello,C.L.

3D modelling of ore deposits geometry in the Variscan basement of SE Sardinia (Italy).

Cristina Buttau, Antonio Funedda, Andrea Dini, Stefano Naitza.

Incorporating structural uncertainty into petroleum systems modelling to reduce exploration risk

S. M. Clarke, M. Littler, H. Johnson, M. Quinn, J. Rodriguez, S. Stoker & P. Ware

The Fluid Flow Evolution During the Seismic Cycle Within Overpressured Fault Zones in Evaporitic Sequences

N. De Paola, C. Collettini, D.R. Faulkner

The Cantabrian Thrust Belt: basin history of the North Gondwana passive margin - rifting, glaciation? more rifting then collision.

*Helen Doherty, Tim Ferriday, Michael Kelly, Michael Montenari, Steven Rogers & Graham Williams

Structural evolution and fluid flow in the Wealden and Hampshire basins, southern England, U.K.

*Salah Eldin M. Elgarmadi, Graham Potts, and Richard Worden

A geometrical relationship between imbricate thrust structures and their generated topography of mass-transport deposits (MTD’s); implications for the accommodation of sediment laden gravity-driven flows.

*Fairweather, L. I. D. & Kneller, B. C.

A layer cake model as a stratigraphic classification of mass-transport deposits (MTDs); from palaeo-flow directions and macro-scale structures, Paganzo basins, Argentina.

*Fairweather, L. I. D., Kneller, B.C., Dykstra, M. & Milana, J.P.

Characterising fracture systems within upfaulted basement highs in the Hebridean Islands: an onshore analogue for the Clair Field

*Franklin,B. S. G., 2^nd Holdsworth R. E., McCaffrey K.J. W., Krabbendam M., Conway A. & Jones R

Modelling continental margin extension using combined rigid/deformable plate tectonic reconstructions

Munoz, A.A., Glover, C.T., Harris, J.P., Goodrich, M., Hudson, L. & Ady, B.

Laccolithic emplacement of the Northern Arran Granite, Scotland: a new model based on Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility

*Grove, C and Stevenson, C. T

Consequences of Anisotropic Poroelasticity due to Fluid-Saturated Damage

Healy, D.

Structural analysis of fold and thrust structures from deepwater west Niger Delta.

Iacopini D., Grimaud J-L., Butler R.W.H.

Application of dip-related seismic curvature attributes to map surface fault geometry: Examples from deepwater Niger Delta

*Jibrin, B., Turner, J.P., Westbrook G.K., Huck, A., & Hemstra, N.

Magma plumbing in the Judd Basin, North Atlantic, from opacity rendered 3D seismic data

*Adam Linnell, Carl Stevenson, Nick Schofield

Fault-related fracturing in carbonate damage zones: field analysis and modeling from Central Apennines (Italy)

*Mannino I., Salvini F., Cianfarra P.

How to Form a Rifted Margin – Fault, Fault and Fault Some More

*Ken McDermott , Tim Reston & Jonathon Turner

Examining the low-angle normal fault system of north-west Kea based on a new geological map

Müller, M.., Grasemann, B. & Iglseder, C.

Interactions between strike-slip faults, Westward Ho!: domino vs conjugate

*Casey W. Nixon, David J. Sanderson, Jonathan M. Bull and Stephen Dee

Quantification of Curvature and Fracture Distributions in Outcrop-Scale Periclines

Pearce, M.A., Jones, R.R., Smith, S.A.F. & McCaffrey, K.J.W.

The Sardic Phase.

Puddu C.

The interpretation of major fault zone properties using three integrative approaches

Taylor, R.L., Rutter, E. H. & Faulkner, D.R.

The effects of crystallographic anisotropy on fracture development and acoustic emission in quartz

Timms, N.E., Healy, D., Reyes Montes, J.M., Collins, D., Prior, D.J., & Young, R.P.

The Virtual Seismic Atlas – utilising web-based material in Earth science research.

Torvela, T. & Butler, R. W. H.

Visualising and understanding structural geology from the field to the lab: using Move as an aid in teaching and research.

Wightman, R.H., Bond, C.E., Scherrenberg, A., Similox-Tohon, D.

(*student presentation)