A famous North Sea unconformity in outcrop
The most important gas fields in the Southern North Sea region are reservoired in Upper Permian Rotliegend aeolian and fluvial sandstones. Thousands of wells have been drilled to test this…
Geology
Who’s Andy? And what did he know about faults?
Anderson’s theory classified faults based on the orientation and magnitude of the principle stresses. The magnitudes are defined by S1 (maximum stress), S2 (intermediate stress) and S3 (minimum stress). The…
The further from shore the more sand
Looking at this cross-section from the Norwegian Sea, showing Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments, a surprising thing seems to happen. The amount of sand increases going westwards, away from the…
Middle East as an analogue
The Seram fold and thrust belt in Eastern Indonesia is an underexplored area. Yet, it shares many characteristics with fold and thrust belts with proven hydrocarbon potential in the Middle…
The source rock for Venus
Duncan Macgregor and his colleague Colin Reeves are working on a project that will result in the creation of a series of paleotectonic and paleogeographic maps of the African continent.…
Is there an equivalent of the Orinoco heavy oil belt in Colombia?
Many geologists in Colombia, at some point during their career, had a pressing question in mind: “Is there an equivalent of the Orinoco Heavy Oil as present in Venezuela in…
Can we get more comfortable with uncertainty?
Unfortunately, diligent and scientific handling of subsurface uncertainty is rarely undertaken. Hesitance to embrace uncertainty often derives from time, data and budget constraints, limited interdisciplinary understanding, accompanied by claims of…
The northern Perth Basin in a nutshell
Although it is not formally classified as a sub-basin of the West Australian Perth Basin, the northern Perth Basin forms a large, north-south trending rift basin, extending approximately 150 km…
Textbook geology
This panoramic photo shows the El Gordo Anticline plunging in the subsurface towards the right of the image where, unseen, the El Gordo Diapir crops out. The El Gordo Anticline…
An analogue for carbon storage reservoirs
The German Eifel hosts some great outcrops of the Lower Triassic ‘Buntsandstein’, such as this one featured here near the village of Bitburg. These sandstones were deposited in an arid…
The love of reducing complexity
Displayed in a corridor near the reception at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in Stavanger is a five meter long glass print of a Late Devonian core from the Embla field.…
Leslie Kimberlite core
The history of diamond exploration in the Northwest Territories began in 1981 with Charles Fipke and Stewart Blusson sampling the Mountain Diatreme in the Mackenzie Mountains. While this prospect did…