Posts by Richard Jones

Oh, we’re looking forward to running another Zechstein field excursion together with the irrepressible Maurice Tucker in a couple of weeks. The Durham coast really is pretty spectacular, and the ubiquitous Zechstein outcrops are fascinating and enigmatic in equal measure. As part of our prep for the upcoming trip, this week we’ve been back to…

We’re very much looking forward to next week’s conference on Legacies of Mineral Extraction and Sustainability Opportunities, organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3), and to be held at the home of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in Newcastle. In a joint paper presented by Jon Gluyas,…

Coming soon to a saline aquifer or depleted gas field close (but not too close) to you … We’ve spent a busy summer with sister spin-out company GeoEnergy Durham working alongside WSP and Crondall, providing technical advice on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) in support of BEIS and the UK government’s drive towards carbon…

Fractured carbonates … tick. Large-scale thrust nappes … tick. Fieldwork … tick. Montenegro … yes please!

Text book (left) vs. reality (right). Zechstein carbonates, Co. Durham. “There’s no difference between theory and practice … in theory!”  

Lessons learned this month: Gathering detailed outcrop data in confined underground settings can be rather challenging (but very useful)! Given the vast geothermal potential in abandoned coal mines to provide a carbon-neutral way to generate domestic and commercial heating, we’ve been keen to take a closer look at outcrop properties of coal for some time.…

Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) is coming soon to the UK, and we’ve got a very busy Summer ahead. Watch this space!

For many years ArcMap has been our ‘go-to’ software for everyday GIS work, though we also use ER Mapper, GDAL, GMT, GRASS, QGIS, and a host of other software tools. We have always had a love-hate relationship with ArcMap –it’s overpriced, inconsistent, lacks backwards compatibility, for many years was terminally unstable (now, thankfully improved), and…

This month we’re very much looking forward to the upcoming Transition to NET-ZERO in the North of England conference, an open forum organised jointly by the Durham Energy Institute and the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. The meeting is chaired by our long-time co-worker Jon Gluyas (Director of the Durham Energy…

As we look ahead to the important role that geoscience continues to play in the global energy transition, it’s been fantastic to put together a virtual fieldtrip that also emphasises the influence of geology on the rapid industrialisation that started in the UK in the 18th century. The five-day fieldtrip, developed with Durham University colleagues…