The Department has a programme of research seminars during term time. These are informal accounts of research in progress, cover a wide range of topics in the Earth and EnvironmentalSciences and are intended to stimulate discussion. All seminars are open to all interested parties, from both within and outwith the university.

Dept Seminars are usually held from 12:00 - 13:00 on Tuesdays in Room 118 Meston Building (first floor). If a seminar is to be held in an alternative location or at an alternative time, the details will be listed with the relevant talk title. In Spring 2013 we are running a second seminar series 'Earth and Environment' with seminars from colleagues in Physical Geography as well as Geology and Petroleum Geology. The research presented represents our three research Units (BFU - Basin Fill, TGU - Tectonics and Geophysics, ESU - Earth Surface Processes), these seminars take place on a Monday 13:00-14:00 in Meston 3.

Occasionally extraordinary research seminars, details of which are not listed on the website but disseminated via email, are held in the department. If you would like to be notified of these seminars, please click here.

All offers of talks will be gratefully received. For further information please contact

Spring Term 2013

Geology and Petroleum Geology Seminars

5 February  Mark Cooper, University of Aberdeen.  title: Structure and Geochemistry of Basaltic and Gabbro oil reservoir in the Wichian Buri Basin (Thailand)
12 February  Paris Xypolias  University of Patras. Title: The geology of Greece
19 February   Christian Schiffer  Aarhus University. Title: A fossil subduction zone in the East Greenland Caledonides revealed by a Receiver Function analysis
26 February  Iacopini David: University of Aberdeen. Quantifying kinematic properties in sheared rocks : limits and challenge.
5 March Malcolm Hole University of Aberdeen  . Title: The best thing to do with a pelite, is melt it".
12 March Alfredo  Mazzotti University of Pisa:  Sub-basalt seismic exploration
19 March Rob Daly University of Aberdeen: tba
26 March Paola Vannucchi  Royal Holloway University Uk
2 April  Steve Andrews , University of Aberdeen: tba
9 April ?  tba
18 April    Jakob Skogseid, Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic dynamic uplift and plate kinematics in the NE Atlantic realm.
23 April    Anne Wilkins University of Aberdeen: 'Early Triassic Loessites of the Central North Sea.'
30 April   John Millett, University of Aberdeen: Exploration and development within a volcanic rifted margin: Field to well correlation in the North Atlantic Igneous Province
7 May  Duncan Mcgregor, Surestream Petroleum: ‘An Overview of Rift Plays in East Africa’
14 May  Laura Fielding, Lancaster University: ‘Determining the palaeodrainage of the Nile river’

Earth and Environment Seminars

18 February (BFU): David Jolley : 'Climatic oscillations stall vegetation recovery from K/Pg event devastation'

25 February (BFU) Adrian Hartley: 'Impact of the Highland Boundary Fault on LORS sedimentation?'
4 March (TGU)  Rob Butler  'Messinian evaporites in the Mediterranean– origins of lateral variations and impact on later basin structure'
11 March (BFU)
18 March (ESU) Chris Gibbins: 'Using ecological traits to understand the impact of excessive fine sediment on river invertebrates’.
25 March (TGU)  tbc
1 April (BFU) tbc
15 April (ESU) Bingham
22 April (TGU) tbc
29 April (BFU) Douglas Mair
6 May (ESU) Van bellen
13 May (TGU) tbc
20 May (ESU) Matteo Spagnolo 'Testing the efficacy of the glacial buzzsaw: insights from the Sredinny Mountains, Kamchatka'.
27 May (ESU) Doerthe Tetzlaff, 27th May: 'Hydrological connectivity, storage change and ecohydrology in northern catchments'.
3 June (TGU) Randell  Stephenson
10 June (BFU) tbc

Autumn Term 2012

October 2nd Denghe Hu (University of Aberdeen)Two contrasting sedimentary systems within the SE Asia and their responses to the strengthening East Asian monsoon during the Holocene.

October 9th Liliana Vargas Meleza (University of Aberdeen) Forward modelling as the key to understanding seismic data: examples of salt diapir outcrops

October 11th Bjorn Wrigala (Schlumberger) Special  EAGE Lecture  (room118 ) 9-12. Basin and Petroleum system modelling.

October 16th Rob Butler (University of Aberdeen) Seabed deformation – the structural geology of turbidites

October 23rd Clive Rice (University of Aberdeen). Age and tectono-magmatic setting of orogenic gold deposits in the Caledonides of Northern Britain

October 29th Rod Graham (Cambridge University) AAPG Lecture tour 5pm. The French Alps -classic geology re-interpreted in the light of passive margin geology and allocthonous salt tectonics.

October 30th Alan Gibbs (Midland Valley ) "Connecting geologists to the rocks"

November 6th  Chinotu  George (University of Aberdeen). Planform geometry of modern tidal and wave deposits in the Niger Delta: Implications for reservoir characterization

November 13th David Healy (University of Aberdeen). An Integrated Tensorial Approach to the Characterisation of Fractured Rock.

November 20th   John Brodholt (University College London). D’’ – Between a Rock and a Core. Mineraological Society Seminar

November 27th Matt Hutchison (University of Aberdeen). ‘The utility of spectral gamma ray in outcrop analogue studies for hydrocarbon reservoir characterisation’.

December 4th Daniel Koehn (University of Glasgow). ‘High mountain uplift and compression in the middle of the East African Rift System, Uganda’

December 11th Martin Brasier (Oxford University ) 'Searching for the earliest signs of life on Earth'