Salt is not simply for fish 'n' chips or icy roads. It is a unique and perhaps underappreciated rock type, living in the shadows of its more glamorous carbonate and clastic neighbours. For example, not only is salt one of the economically most important rock types on Earth, forming the seals to super-giant hydrocarbon accumulations, but it is also responsible for forming some of the most complex geological structures observed on the Earth. In this talk I will celebrate salt, highlighting its unique physical properties, it's role in the generation of complex geological structures, and it's importance in terms of hydrocarbon exploration.
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Speaker
Chris Jackson (Imperial College)
Unlike many other geologists, as a child I did not have a long-held love of the outdoors or find a particularly spectacular fossil whilst on a family holiday. I did, however, toy with idea of becoming a computer programmer or doing professional sport of some kind; however, I had no talent in either, so I went fossil hunting instead…
I completed a BSc in Geology at Manchester University in 1998, and then stayed on at the same institution to undertake a PhD with Professor Rob Gawthorpe (now at the University of Bergen). My PhD, which I completed in 2002, focused on the tectono-stratigraphic development of the Suez Rift, and it involved traditional field mapping and logging techniques. My first real exposure to the power of subsurface data analysis in general, and 3D seismic reflection in particular, came whilst I was working in the Research Centre at Norsk Hydro (now Statoil) in Bergen, Norway, between 2002 and 2004. By integrating these data with, for example, wireline log, core and pressure data, I began to realise that a subsurface approach, if coupled with detailed outcrop-based analysis, was able to provide me with a true, three-dimensional understanding of complex geological structures and stratigraphic bodies. Upon leaving Norsk Hydro in 2004, to pursue an academic career at Imperial College, I continued and continue to enjoy combining field and subsurface data. My key research interest lies in the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of rift basins, although my exposure to 3D seismic has allowed me to investigate topics as diverse as soft-sediment remobilisation, the development of intrusive and extrusive igneous complexes, and the development of mass transport complexes (MTCs).
I enjoy running and, at the time of writing, basking in the warm glow of Derby County topping the Championship and, most importantly, Nottingham Forest, not.