News

Staff and fieldwork update

April 2010
In February, Stephane Bodin left Manchester and moved to Bochum University in Germany to begin a lectureship position. We wish Stephane the best of luck in his new position where he will impart knowledge to students as well as researching alongside Professor Immenhauser. Stephane will continue to work with NARG on some projects including the Cretaceous study with Jonathan Wood.

 

As always we have had several people in the field already this year. Alvarro and Jonathan Wood are currenty in Tunisia where they are working on Triassic and Eocene sections for source rock analysis, and also on Cretaceous sections to act as a complement for the Libyan cretaceous study. Guy Spence has also been in Egypt with the LiDAR, where the high resolution scans will act as a way of extracting true fracture statistics directly from the Eocene Thebes Formation. The next field season will begin later in the year once temperatures have begum to decline in North Africa.

 

Nubian Sandstone workshop

January 2010
The Cretaceous Nubian sandstone workshop has just finished and was a big success. The 2 day event was held at the University of Manchester with over 40 participants. Attendees came from both academia and the Oil industry to discuss the sedimentology, structural controls and definitions of the Nubian sandstone from North Africa and the Middle East. A Keynote talk was given by Dr Eberhard Klitzsch, a pioneer of North African geology and the Cretaceous in particular. In the evening the conference dinner was held in the spectacular Geology hall of the University museum with the tables set around the T-Rex skeleton (see below). View the abstract volume here (pdf).

 

 

 

October update

October 2009
A busy time for NARG sees researchers working in Egypt, Tunisia and Sicily. Guy Spence is currently reconnoitering a new field area in the Sinai of Egypt as a contribution to his study on fracture patterns in platform carbonate systems of North Africa. The work will involve novel use of out LiDAR system (LIght Detection And Ranging) in a bid to map outcrop fracture patterns in 3D which can then be related directly to petrophysical and sedimentological properties using conventional fieldwork techniques. The trip will involve the expertise of the TRAP group (The Rift Analogue Project) based in Manchester, who have much experitise working in the Sinai. Alvarro Jimenez Berrocoso will also shortly begin his field campaign in Tunisia with Stephane Bodin. Alvarro will work on the Palaeocene of central Tunisia as he explores potential new source rock through North Africa. Slightly closer to home, Myron Thomas has completed his last fieldtrip to Sicily working on the Cenozoic Numidan Flysch. An underexplored petroleum system in Tunisia and Algeria, superb outcrops of Sicily have allowed good characterisation of the Numidian system. Work focussed in central Sicily this time where previously unknown outcrops were detailed.

 

NARG publications

September 2009

We are pleased to announce three NARG papers currently inpress or recently published;

• Sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic analysis of Carboniferous deposits in western Libya: Recording the sedimentary response of the northern Gondwana margin to climate and sea-level changes. Frohlich et al,. in press (available online 9th October 2009)
• Mixed siliciclastic-carbonate shelf sedimentation--Lower Devonian sequences of the SW Anti-Atlas, Morocco. Lubeseder et al,. 2009. Sedimentary Geology, 215(1-4): 13-32
• Structural style and evolution of an Upper Triassic rift basin in the Central High Atlas, Morocco: controls on sediment deposition. Baudon, C., Fabuel-Perez, I. & Redfern, J,. in press. Geological Journal Special Issue Vol 44 / 5

 

A switch of postdocs

June 2009
Catherine Baudon has finished her time at NARG and has left in order to complete the trip of a lifetime, a years tour of the globe. While envious, we wish Cat the best of luck trying the best weather, food and landscapes that earth has to offer. Dr Alvaro Jimenez Berrocoso, who started at NARG in May will takes Cats place. He will work on a project locating novel source rock intervals in North Africa, and we welcome him to the group.

 

Ivan Fabuel-Perez hands in PhD thesis

February 2009
Ivan has handed his PhD thesis in to the University of Manchester, and also submitted several papers to international journals. His viva will take place in Manchester in February and we wish him the best of luck.

 

New postdocs

January 2009
We interviewed for two new postdoctoral researchers at the beginning of the year. Doctor Guy Spence will replace Dr Sebastian Frohlich at the end of January and a second postdoc will arrive later in the year. Dr Spence has been working on neoproterozoic carbonate platforms of Namibia to characterise depositional history using stable isotopes and sequence stratigraphy, in order to challenge the snowball earth theory. We welcome his arrival to Manchester and the techniques he brings.

 

Fieldwork early 2009

February - March 2009

A large field trip will be made to Libya to continue the Carboniferous and Cretaceous projects around the Murzuk basin. The support of BG is gratefully recieved in field trip logistics. Visits will be made to the Messak and Marar formations.

 

Early year fieldwork 2008

January and February 2008
For the first 2 months of the year NARG has already run 2 fieldtrips. 4 of the group visited the Libyan desert for one month investigating the Carboniferous. Conditions in the desert were good for work, despite ice coating the tents on several mornings! A trip was also run to Sicily to look at the Numidian Flysch. Here the weather was slightly tempramental but the trip was non the less successful. Stephane Bodin (postdoc), recently back from Libya will also fly onwards to Tunisia, continuing a Cretaceous north-south transect, which may also reach southern Libya by the end of the year.

 

Field work season 2007

October 2007
NARG has been exceptionally busy in the field this year. As well as 4 PhD field seasons, 3 postdoctoral research field campaigns and the NARG North African Petroleum System Field Course (run in Morocco), there was also a research away weekend to visit the marine to continental succesions in Ainsa, Spain.The list of fieldwork is as follows;

• Tunisia
  - Lower Cretaceous Carbonate Study
  - Oligocene/Miocene Numidian Flysch Study
• Libya
  - Woodside sponsored Carboniferous Mrar and Assedjefar fms study
  - 2nd trip to Mrar, and Nubian equivalents to be run in November 2007
• Morocco
  - NARG North African Petroleum System Field Course
  
• Sicily
  - Oligocene/Miocene Numidian Flysch Study
• Spain
  - Ainsa overview trip, Marine to continental transect.
  

Laboratory opening

July 2006

The Basin Studies and Petroleum Geoscience Group (incorporating NARG) opened its new computing/seismic laboratory at Manchester. The dedicated research laboratory contains a secure Linux server, and 20 workstations running both Windows and Linux 64 bit.

A new 3D visualisation geowall was installed in November 2007 using passive 3D visualisation with the use of glasses. The lab runs industry standard software including Schlumbergers Geoframe and Petrel, RiScan Pro, Polyworks and ArcGIS. This is belived to be the largest dedicated computing research suite in the UK. In addition the school opened a 30 seat dual workstation laboratory dedicated to MSc training in 2006.

Saharan conference completed

April 2006

A conference entitled "The Petroleum systems of Saharan Africa", co convened by NARG and the Geological Society Petroleum Group was held from the 19th to 20th April 2006.

The event was a great sucess with attendees from academia, consultancy and the oil industry. Follow this link to read more and see photographs from the event. More..