Earth Resources

Offshore basins:

iCRAG's research is focussed on meeting Ireland’s energy transition and addressing the now urgent need to confront and manage national carbon emissions. We are developing and applying novel geophysical and geochemical tools to image and reconstruct offshore sedimentary basins, integrating observations from lithospheric structure down to pore scale, and setting the basins in a wider regional North Atlantic context.

Research activities are focussed on the following areas:

Source to sink for the Irish landmass and offshore
Circum-North Atlantic rift basin architecture and structuration
Deep-time carbon burial and release
Ocean-floor natural gas hydrates

Reservoirs and storage:

ICRAG resseachers are investigating the subsurface storage and trapping of fluids in offshore basins, an issue which is critical to both the formation of hydrocarbon reservoirs and the storage and sequestration of CO2.

Research activities are focussed on the following areas:

Diagenesis, pore systems and reactive fluid flow
CCS sequestration
Geomodelling of reservoirs/storage

Renewable Energy:

iCRAG is providing fundamental geoscience data to support Ireland’s energy transition by investigating the potential for low-enthalpy geothermal resources and through de-risking offshore wind energy by providing season-ahead forecasts of wind variability utilising machine learning with large data sets and geotechnical data from the seafloor.

Research activities are focused on the following areas:

Assessing Ireland's geothermal energy potential
De-risking wind energy through improvements in forecasting
Climate model evaluation for the future wind resource assessment
De-risking offshore wind energy through offshore geological and geotechnical characterization

Mineral Exploration:

Ireland has been a major zinc producer and a top destination for mineral exploration. iCRAG's models are providing a much-improved understanding of structural evolution within basins and how fault geometry controlled fluid flow and ultimately the location of deposits. The models also support more focused mineral exploration in areas of deep cover. iCRAG is utilising the abundance of new seismic and borehole data from our industry partners combined with refined analytical and modelling techniques from our software partners and our Geomodelling and Geodata Platforms to extend and refine our current 3D models, provide better constraints on the physio-chemical conditions of deposit formation and develop geochemical, geophysical and structural vectors for Ireland’s Zn-Pb-(Cu) deposits.

Research activities are focused on the following areas:

Development of Carboniferous correlation tools
3-D and 4-D architectural models of onshore Ireland
The origin and nature of geochemical halos for increased exploration effectiveness
Development of new geophysical techniques to aid Irish Zn-Pb exploration

Critical Materials:

Minerals are central to modern life. Our infrastructure, agriculture, and health depend on mineral products ranging from crushed stone to rare earth elements. Crushed stone is utilized in construction, but it may also help to sequester carbon. Rare earth elements are critical to the manufacturing of cell phones, electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines. Critical raw materials or energy critical elements, are generally produced in relatively small quantities, commonly as by-products, but are crucial for new energy, technology and communications technologies needed for decarbonisation.

Research activities are focused on the following areas:

Critical raw material potential of Ireland
Exploring the potential for mining secondary raw materials from the Irish Zn-Pb sector and other Irish waste streams
Development of phytoindicator approaches for energy critical elements

Building Materials:

It is expected that by 2040 there will be an additional one million people living in Ireland. Two of the key elements to accommodate this growth are the construction of up to half a million new homes, and a safe and sustainable transport infrastructure providing greater access to all regions of the country. Most of the raw materials required by the construction sector are derived from local finite resources. Ensuring optimal utilization requires full understanding of the physical and chemical properties of these raw materials and investigation of potential alternative sources.

Research activities are focused on the following areas:

Geological materials for Irish construction
Safe and Sustainable Materials for Ireland’s Expanding Road Network
Reducing the carbon footprint of Irish concrete, innovations in 3D printing and geopolymers