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We had an unscheduled talk on Thursday 18th October, from Dr. Farzine Nassari, visiting from Canada. He gave an excellent talk on rock mechanics and the Finnish nuclear waste repository. The talk may be viewed at:
Thursday 20th November, Malcolm Butler from the UK Onshore Geophysical Library will give a talk “2D musings on 3D geology in the Welsh Borderlands”.
Abstract:
Interpretation of a compiled 2D seismic section from Chepstow to the Longmynd is presented to show the strong erosion beneath the Shelveian Unconformity outside basinal areas. This unconformity is overlain by rocks of lower Llandovery age in the area south of Craven Arms but lies immediately below rocks ranging in age from Upper Ordovician to Wenlockian north of the Church Stretton Fault complex.
The interpretation demonstrates the presence of a widespread regional high to the east of the Malvern Hills over which the Llandovery sequence appears to lie immediately on lower Cambrian or Precambrian rocks. This stripping (or non-deposition) of rocks beneath the Shelveian Unconformity appears to also occur beneath the Worcester Graben and the western part of the Oxfordshire Coalfield, although widespread erosion beneath the Variscan Unconformity confuses the situation. Where seismic data are available off the western flanks of the Malvern Hills, the lack of significant thinning in the Silurian and Lower Devonian section may indicate that no separate Malvern High existed at this time.
The talk may be downloaded from:
GWL and one of its Associates, PETTROG, will be exhibiting at the Tidalites conference, being hosted by the University of Liverpool this September.
On Thursday 18th September, 18:00 at the RCA, Dr Tim Astrop, Fossil Forest Coordinator at Stori Brymbo (www.brymboheritagetrust.org) will give a talk entitled ‘The Brymbo Fossil Forest: A new Future for UK Geoheritage’.
This will be a joint talk with the North Wales Geological Association.
We are pleased to announce a trip to Brymbo Fossil Forest (www.BrymboHeritageTrust.org), near Wrexham. This will take place on Tuesday 5th August at 16:00. Brymbo is about a one hour drive from Conwy.
Places are strictly limited so please could we have firm expressions of interest by Wednesday next week. In the event of there being too many people interested, we will give priority in the order that e-mails are received and will create a waiting list. Once we have expressions of interest we will start looking at the organisation of transport and will circulate more details to those involved.
We wish to thank Tom Hughes and Tim Astrop of Brymbo Heritage Trust for arranging this and Lisa Buckley for providing the idea and making the contacts.
Our speaker for June is Steve Corfield, talking on: ‘Geophysical evidence for the deep structure of Anglesey and surrounding areas’, on the usual 3rd Thursday, 19th June, at 18:00 for 18:30, in the RCA, Conwy.
The talk may be downloaded from:
Talk and social, Thursday, 17th April, at the RCA, Conwy, LL31 8AN.
Simon Kendal will give a presentation on his recent work on opportunities associated with geothermal energy – in particular, the enhanced returns to be made from the extraction of Rare Earth elements including Lithium. At the end of his talk Simon will also cover an ongoing effort to bring the world of geothermal energy into the classroom, through Minecraft Education.
Abstract:
Over the last 18 months EPDL has been working with an experienced generation of geologists on opportunities associated with geothermal energy and, in particular, the enhanced returns to be made from the extraction of Rare Earth elements including Lithium.
This original work identified areas of high geothermal coupled with lithium brine potential which could be developed in tandem to generate power and harvest the lithium from the oilfield brines in the USA.
The work recognized 6 major horizons across the continental USA meeting the minimal criteria of temperature and lithium concentration which were taken from the database of 113,000 analyses. As part of the study the validity of temperature measurements as well as the reliability and consistency of Lithium contents were examined and outlier data were screened. This ensured a valid set of conclusions although it is possible that some outliers are valid locations, with further analysis required to either include or exclude these locations.
At the end, this talk will also cover an ongoing effort to bring the world of geothermal energy into the classroom where we are aiming to develop an offering educating children through Minecraft Education.
On Thursday 20th March, 18:00 for 18:30, talk and social at RCA Conwy, LL32 8AN: “Coupled channel-floodplain dynamics and alluvial stratigraphic architecture viewed through a mass-balance lens” presented by Dr. Rob Duller from the University of Liverpool.
The talk may be downloaded from:
Late breaking news: due to indisposition, the speaker Evangelos Mouchos will not be able to travel from Cardiff today. We are however pleased that his colleague and collaborator in the work, Will Savage, will be presenting the talk on the current status of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies in EU and the UK, with particular focus on enhanced weathering of rocks and mine wastes.
All other information remains the same (the venue RCA, behind Plas Mawr in Conwy, will be open from 18:00 for refreshments and chat).
Will Savage graduated as a Chemical Engineer from the University of Swansea in 2023, joining Mine Environment Management Ltd. (MEM) straight after graduating. In the two years since, Will has been heavily involved in the EU C-SINK project, specifically working on the design of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) pre-CEN standards for enhanced weathering, while supporting project partners with pre-CEN standards on six other carbon dioxide removal technologies (including biochar, afforestation and biological fixation).
Will has been working alongside Swedish C-SINK partner BioSteam on MRV development, and the wider MEM team on both lab and field experimentation to quantify carbon dioxide removal efficiencies of mine waste. He has presented work on CO2 and O2 mass flux in mine waste at BC Mend conference in Vancouver; at the International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD) in Nova Scotia; delivered a C-SINK workshop on MRV of enhanced weathering as a carbon dioxide removal technology, in Bruges; and is due to present an update of this work at the Advances in Mining Technology Conference in Birmingham next month.
Thursday 20th February 2025
Evangelos Mouchos will deliver a talk on the current status of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies in EU and the UK, with particular focus on enhanced weathering of rocks and mine wastes.
Evangelos is Senior Research Geoscientist Scientist with Mine Environment Management Ltd. and Senior Research Associate in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Evangelos is currently working on the C-SINK and CO2RE UK/EU greenhouse gas removal interdisciplinary research projects. These focus on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, including enhanced rock weathering. The aim of his research is to add new scientific insights to the collective learning and understanding of natural processes and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on Earth, linking geoscience to decision-making on aspects relevant to sustainable resource management and environmental protection.
He is a geologist by background, having over 10 years’ research experience in the mineralogy and geochemistry of critical raw materials and nutrients, with a particular focus on rock-water interactions and mineral precipitation/dissolution controls in natural or anthropogenically intervened systems. His work typically combines field and macroscopic observations with mineralogical and chemical analyses, and is commonly carried out in collaboration with industry, academia and government agencies.
Evangelos holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Bristol, an MSc by research in Geology from the University of Exeter, and a BSc in Geology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).