Title: Anatomy of early continental rifting: An integrated pedofacies, spectral gamma and palaeomagnetic approach
Researchers: Almahdi Alsawib and Dr Chris Nicholas
Hydrocarbon exploration in offshore ‘Atlantic Ireland’ basins carries significant risk for several reasons and currently remains overly-dependent upon seismic surveys and their interpretation. Finding and documenting high-resolution, onshore analogue examples of early syn-rift sedimentary fill lithofacies architecture and depositional styles will potentially help de-risk exploration of these basins in the future. Petroleum field geology can provide rift analogue models at a much higher resolution and certainty than can be achieved through subsurface seismic modelling. More specifically, the petroleum rift geology of Lake Albert in the Albertine Rift Valley has previously been used by exploration companies as a direct recent analogue for the central North Celtic Sea Basin, as it is of a similar structural size and style, with fluvio-lacustrine fill from Upper Jurassic to mid Cretaceous.