|
|
 Techlog licence agreement
Andrew Aplin
28.3.08
We are delighted that Techsia (www.techsia.com), a leading provider of petrophysical and geophysical software to the international petroleum industry, has agreed to provide us with licences for Techlog, their state of the art software for the interpretation of log data and for reservoir characterisation. We are one of the few non-commercial organisations to enter into such an agreement with Techsia, and will be using Techlog as a platform for interpreting the petrophysical properties of fine grained sediments in the context of our Joint Industry Projects on Caprocks and Shale Gas, and for teaching.
|
 scientists uncover the source of an almost two billion year delay in animal evolution
Simon Poulton
27.3.08
A deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly two billion years.
Dr Simon Poulton, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, was part of an international team of biogeochemists who took part in the University of California-led study.
The study’s results are published in today’s edition of Nature.
‘For decades it was assumed that the ocean became oxygenated shortly after an initial rise in atmospheric oxygen about 2.4 billion years ago,’ said Dr Poulton. ‘This study provides independent confirmation that there was a major delay in the oxygenation of the ocean, and furthermore, it now appears that the availability of molybdenum may have played a crucial role in animal evolution. At last, a coherent picture of the environmental conditions that led to the evolution of animal life is emerging.’
The researchers arrived at their conclusion after tracking molybdenum in black shales, a kind of sedimentary rock rich in organic matter found in the ocean. Molybdenum is a key micronutrient for the life-forms that control the production of oceanic and atmospheric oxygen.
Following the initial rise of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago, oxygen was transferred to the surface ocean to support oxygen-demanding micro-organisms. However, the diversity of these single-celled life forms remained low, and their multi-cellular ancestors (animals) did not appear until about 600 million years ago.
Suspecting that deficiencies in oxygen and molybdenum might explain this evolutionary lag, the team measured the abundance of molybdenum in ancient marine sediments over time to estimate how much of the metal had been dissolved in the seawater in which the sediments formed.
The researchers found significant, firsthand evidence for a molybdenum-depleted ocean compared to the high levels measured in today’s oxygen-rich seawater.
‘These molybdenum depletions may have retarded the development of complex life such as animals for almost two billion years of Earth’s history,’ said project leader Professor Timothy Lyons, at the University of California’s Department of Earth Sciences. ‘The amount of molybdenum in the ocean probably played a major role in the development of early life. As in the case of iron today, molybdenum can be thought of as a life-affirming micro-nutrient that regulates the biological cycling of nitrogen in the ocean. At the same time, molybdenum’s low abundance in the early ocean highlights the global extent of oxygen-poor seawater and implies that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere was still low.’
‘Knowing the amount of oxygen in the early ocean is important for many reasons, including a refined understanding of how and when appreciable oxygen first began to accumulate in the atmosphere. These steps in oxygenation are what ultimately gave rise to the first animals almost 600 million years ago – just the last tenth or so of Earth’s history.’
For animal life to commence, survive and eventually expand on Earth, a threshold amount of oxygen – estimated to be on the order of 1 to 10 percent of present atmospheric levels of oxygen – was needed.
Past research has shown that Earth’s oxygenation occurred in two major steps: The first step, around 2.4 billion years ago, took place as the ocean transformed to a state where only the surface ocean was oxygenated by photosynthesizing bacteria, while the deep ocean was relatively oxygen-free.
The second step, around 600 million years ago, marked the point when the entire ocean became fully oxygenated through a process not yet fully understood. The purpose of this research was to find out the state of the ocean between the two steps.
By tracking molybdenum in shales rich in organic matter, researchers found the deep ocean remained oxygen and molybdenum-deficient after the first step. This condition may have had a negative impact on the evolution of early eukaryotes, our single-celled ancestors. The molybdenum record also shows that the deep ocean only became fully oxygenated by around 550 million years ago.
According to this research, the timing of the oxygenation steps suggests that significant events in Earth’s history are related. Scientists have long speculated that the evolution of the first animals was somehow linked to the so-called Snowball Earth hypothesis, where the Earth was covered from pole to pole in a thick sheet of ice for millions of years. Oxygenation of the oceans and the evolution of animal life occurred shortly after the last of Earth’s global glaciations.
notes to newsdesks:
i) For a copy of the full paper and more information, contact Newcastle University press office on 0191 222 7850 or press.office@ncl.ac.uk.
ii) Other universities involved in this research were: the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC; the University of Quebec, Montreal; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; and Arizona State University, Tempe, USA. The media contact for the lead researcher at the University of California is Iqbal Pittalwala via iqbal@ucr.edu or (951) 827-6050 or (951) 827-6397.
iii) The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Dr Poulton is a research fellow at Newcastle University, supported by funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). For more information about NERC visit www.nerc.ac.uk.
|
 recent CeG graduate wins ICE competition
Peter Gosling
20.3.08
Lynsey Marley, a recent CeG graduate now working for Arup, was awarded first place in the Short Papers Competition run by The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East Graduates and Students Committee.
Lynsey's paper was entitled 'Cutting Pattern Determination for Fabric Structures'.
The annual competition is held to promote and reward excellence in the communication of civil engineering issues and ideas. The competition encourages graduate and student members to submit papers on any topic of interest to civil engineers.
|
 geomatics students return from study tour
Henny Mills, David Fairbairn, Martin Robertson, Tom Bramald
19.3.08
The final year geomatics students have returned from the inaugural three-day study tour looking at Aspects of Applied Geomatics. The trip comprised two site visits, one exhibition and a company visit.
On Wednesday 12 March, the students visited the 2012 Olympics site in East London. In addition to a bus trip around the site to see the enabling works, the group received a talk from Ordnance Survey (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk) and CML about the "Olympic Grid" coordinate system and the use of GIS on the site respectively.
Thursday 13 March saw the students head to Docklands for the Oceanology International exhibition. Students were tasked with visiting several companies and vessels to explore the use of geomatics in the marine environment. From there, the group headed to Maltby Surveys in Sussex where river, internal building and laser scan surveys were all discussed. The day finished with a visit to Herstmonceux and the NERC Space Geodesy Facility.
Friday 14 March was taken up with a visit to Ordnance Survey for a combination of talks and tours covering OS Net, cartography, print services and photogrammetry. |
 ask-it UK: technologies for independent living
Simon Edwards
14.3.08
Tuesday 11 March 11 saw the ASK-IT UK Centre of Excellence First Showcase, Technologies for Independent Living, take place at Dance City and the Discovery Museum. The focus was the use of innovative technologies to improve independence and quality of life for disabled people.
The morning session provided an opportunity for delegates to listen to several guest speakers. These were: Professor Brian Collins, the Chief Scientist of the Department for Transport; Dr Evangelos Bekiaris, Co-ordinator of the ASK-IT project; John Gill, the RNIB’s Chief Scientist; and Graham Worsley of the Technology Strategy Board.
After lunch, the speakers participated in a question and answer discussion with the audience. This produced a lively debate of several emotive issues relating to technology and disability. Summing up was given by Steve Hudson of Gateshead Access Panel.
The last part of the day involved a demonstration of wireless technology in the Discovery Museum. The wireless network was constructed by researchers in TORG and demonstrated positioning, route guidance and information delivery to mobile devices.
Over 50 people attended the event, including disabled members of the public, and representatives from academia, local authorities and consultancies. The event included delegates from across the UK, Greece and Belgium.
Sponsors: Mouchel, Department for Transport and One North East
|
 BERR welcomed to caprocks JIP
Andrew Aplin
14.3.08
We are delighted that BERR (previously the UK DTI) recently became the 11th sponsor of Caprocks Phase 2. They join Anadarko, BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ENI, Petrobras, Shell, Statoil and Total, bringing the Phase 2 sponsorship to £1.1 million pounds. Led by Newcastle in collaboration with Cardiff and Heriot Watt Universities, the Caprocks project focuses on seal risk in petroleum systems. In addition to its impact on petroleum exploration, one spinoff from the project is to help understand the risks of leakage of CO2 from potential underground storage sites related to Carbon Capture and Storage.
|
 engineers rugby team runners-up in Birmingham tournament
James Barber and Jack Payne
11.3.08
Newcastle University Engineers Rugby Club recently travelled to Birmingham to compete in a tournament arranged by Birmingham University Engineers Rugby Club. The competition was in aid of the Matt Hampson Trust and was attended by several teams from the midlands area, making the Newcastle Engineers the most exotic and far away team involved.
The tournament took place on Saturday 8th March with Newcastle Engineers playing Birmingham Engineers in the showpiece opening match. Newcastle won the game and hence the Engineers' bragging rights, and then went on to become the unbeaten winners of their group. Newcastle Engineers then went on to reach the final of the competition, narrowly losing to Birmingham University Freshers 1st XV.
The team were proud to represent the University and in particular the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, who kindly paid for the team's travelling expenses.
The trip was the first time the engineers have played outside Newcastle and proved a huge success. Hopefully with the continuing support of the school and participation of Engineering students, similar trips will be possible in the future.
We're always looking for new players and anyone interested in playing for the Engineers RFC (not exclusive to Engineers) can contact us on j.e.barber@ncl.ac.uk or j.w.payne@ncl.ac.uk
|
 gifted and talented school students spend day at CeG
Tom Bramald
11.3.08
On Saturday 8 March 40 school students from across the North East completed a Gifted and Talented Masterclass with the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.
Half the students completed a geomatics project that included fieldwork with engineering and satellite surveying equipment. Their data were then processed to generate a Digital Terrain Model that was rendered in the popular software package, Google Earth.
The other group of students looked at climate change. They spent time in CEGs hydraulic laboratory looking at rainfall, runoff and flood defence and then prepared presentations about some of the hazards a changing climate might present to society.
Feedback from both sessions is very positive indeed.
For more information about CeGs work with schools, visit www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/schools
|
 transport repeat success at IHT papers evening
Neil Thorpe
6.3.08
For the second year in a row, TORG supplied the winner of the Annual IHT Papers Evening held last night at the Gibside Arms Hotel in Whickham. Following on from last year's success of George Nicholson (MSc), Simon Heslop (PhD student) scooped top prize for his presentation on psychological aspects of driver behaviour. Supported by a strong team of TORG members, our two other entrants, Graham Grant and Ross Jackson (both MSc), were also rewarded for their excellent presentations on telecommuting and the use of public open spaces respectively with runners-up prizes. Simon will now go forward to the national event where he will represent the North East region. Well done to all three!! Simon is seen here collecting his prize from Dave Wafer, chairman of the NE Branch of the IHT.
The two other runners-up on the night, Peter Weller and Phil Freestone, also have strong TORG connections. Peter completed his Civil Engineering undergraduate degree and MSC in Transport here in the mid-1990s and now heads up the transport arm of the new Atkins office in Newcastle. Phil completed his MSc here two years ago and now works in the local office of Faber Maunsell along with many other of our Transport graduates!
|
 transport ITS team demonstrates localisation system in Greece
Phil Blythe
2.3.08
Transport ITS team has recently demonstrated an indoor localisation system in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece. The system was set up as part of a review of the EU funded project ASK-IT in Thessaloniki and in Athens International Airport on behalf of the airport authority.
The indoor localisation system uses a network of several wireless Zigbee Motes to determine the position of a user carrying a similar device within space and return this position to the user via a position on a map using a smartphone or PDA.
The ASK-IT project uses ambient intelligence technology to provide functions and services for older and disabled people in various environments, including home, work, leisure and transport and more information can be found at www.ask-it.org
The ASK-IT project UK centre of excellence will be hosting a free event at Dance City and the Discovery Museum on Tuesday 11th March 2008 allowing attendees to better understand the ASK-IT project and see demonstrations of indoor localisation. Registration is free.
|
 three newcastle academics appointed advisors to the Commission for Integrated Transport
Phil Blythe
18.2.08
The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) have appointed 3 academics from the Transport Operations Research Group as external advisors to the Commission. Dr Corinne Mulley, who has already served in this role for the past two years, is now joined by her colleagues Professor Phil Blythe and Margaret Bell who were appointed in January 2008.
The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) is an independent body advising the Government on integrated transport policy. CfIT takes a broad view of integrated transport policy and its interface with wider Government objectives for economic prosperity, environmental protection, health and social inclusion. Physical integration - the principle of ensuring transport modes operate in conjunction with one another, is just one vital element of the bigger transport picture. The Commission provides expert advice supported by independent research.
The appointments reflect the high impact and wide-ranging research that the group undertakes across a range of transport disciplines particularly in the areas of economics, ITS, policy, environment and traffic management.
|
 climate’s future hangs in the balance
Jim Hall
17.1.08
The Earth’s climate could reach its ‘tipping point’ within just a few hundred years, according to new research published this week.
Results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal show that human-induced climate change may affect us more quickly than we imagined.
Professor Jim Hall, Earth Systems Engineering, was among the scientists warning that a number of systems influencing the Earth’s weather patterns could suddenly collapse due to even a slight increase in global temperatures.
Among the top ‘tipping elements’ identified is the collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (about 100 years); dieback of the Amazon rainforest (about 50 years); and the decay of the Greenland ice sheet (about 300 years). Another crucial ecological system indicator is the end of the Indian summer monsoon, which could be as little as a year away.
Professor Hall, who is based in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, worked alongside academics from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Their part in the international study involved conducting in-depth investigations with 52 experts in the field to ascertain which tipping elements they believed would have the most effect on the climate and how likely they thought this would happen.
“There’s still some diversity of opinion among experts, but following this study we are able to show which elements are universally considered to be most sensitive to climate change,’ said Professor Hall.
The study, which was led by the University of East Anglia, suggests that, in principle, early warning systems of significant climatic change could be set up using real-time monitoring and modelling.
|
 watershed management consultancy in Africa
Geoff Parkin
17.1.08
Geoff Parkin was invited by Concern Worldwide (international development charity working with highly impoverished communities) to visit Rwanda in Dec 2007 to advise on the development of community based watershed management approaches as part of their Livelihood Security Capacity Building Project in the Gakenke District. Rwanda has suffered from intensive agricultural development particularly since the 1994 genocide, leading to severe problems with erosion and water access, and has some of the world’s poorest rural communities. During the reconnaissance visit a potential pilot watershed was identified, and contacts were established at all levels including peasant farmer’s associations, academics, local Rwandan and UK government DfID representatives, and a national climate change project, helping to support Concern’s activities and as a basis for developing possible future funding opportunities.
A faculty seminar “Is sustainable development relevant in cases of extreme poverty? Perspectives from Haiti and Rwanda” will be given by Geoff Parkin on 29 January 2008 at 1:10pm, Research Beehive Room 2.20
|
 ITS UK publish a white paper on road user charging
17.1.08
ITS UK has published a white paper on their members views of road user charging. This focuses on the technical and operational challenges of road user charging as well as the options for the forms of road pricing that could be introduced in cities, regions or even nationally in the UK. The paper sets out a clear series of steps and challenges that must be addressed to ensure road user charging is considered as a possible viable option as a means of tacking traffic congestion in the UK. Newcastle University provided signifcant expertise to the paper as well as key background material to the authoring team.
The paper was launched at the ITS UK's annual conference on road user charging, held on the 11th December 2007, in London.
Further details
|
 evidence of glaciation in 'super greenhouse' world
Thomas Wagner
11.1.08
Science paper
Large ice-sheets existed on Earth about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods since life began, an international team of scientists reports this week.
The findings, published in the journal 'Science' on January 11, challenges the popular assumption that large glaciers could not have existed in the 'super greenhouse' climate of the Cretaceous period, when tropical surface ocean temperatures reached as high as 35-37C (95-98.6F).
Scientists from the USA, UK, Germany and Netherlands found evidence of an approximate 200,000 year period of widespread glaciation during the Turonian "super-greenhouse" period of the Cretaceous, with ice sheets about 60 per cent the size of the modern Antarctic ice cap.
The team obtained their evidence from detailed geochemical and isotopic analyses of organic carbon-rich sediments that were deposited in the western Equatorial Atlantic at Demerara Rise off Surinam at that time. The sediments were recovered during the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 207 and contained glassy carbonate shells of tiny sea creatures, foraminifera, that lived in the Cretaceous seas. These shells'captured' chemicals that were present at the time, providing clues about the temperature, composition and salinity of the seawater.
The fossil shells consist of pristine carbonate, which contain oxygen and other elements. By analysing the different types of oxygen atoms (isotopes) in these shells scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the USA were able to reconstruct sea temperature, both at the surface and at depth.
Meanwhile, a European team at the Universities of Newcastle and Cologne in the UK and Germany, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) in the Netherlands studied the composition of organic molecules of membrane lipids from archea in exactly the same sediments, providing an independent temperature record of surface waters for the Cretaceous western tropical Atlantic.
Because the growth of continental ice enriches seawater in the isotope 18O, the d18O chemistry, when constrained by biomarker temperature estimates, was used to estimate the size of continental ice sheets. By combining these two lines of data, the team was able to show that differences in the records of the tropical oceans were consistent with periods of glacial formation.
Professor Thomas Wagner, of the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability at Newcastle University, said: 'Speculation about whether large ice caps could have formed during short periods of the Earth's warmest interval has a long history in Geology and climate research, but there has never been final conclusive evidence. This uncertainty remained as there is very little direct evidence from high latitude rocks supporting or disproving the concept; also computer simulations have difficulties to accurately model climate conditions at polar latitudes during past greenhouse conditions'.
'Our research from tropical marine sediments provides strong evidence that large ice sheets indeed did exist for short periods of the Cretaceous, despite the fact that the world was a much hotter place than it is today, or is likely to be in the near future', Professor Jaap S. Damste from the Royal NIOZ adds.
The results are consistent with independent evidence from Russia and the USA that sea level fell by about 25-40 metres at this time. Sea level is known to fall as water is removed from the oceans to build continental ice-sheets and to rise as ice melts and returns to the sea. Today, the Antarctic ice cap stores enough water to raise sea level by about 60 metres if the whole mass melted and flowed back into the ocean.
Dr Andre Bornmann, who led the research at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, together with Professor Richard Norris, and who has since moved to Leipzig University in Germany, said it was not clear where such a large mass of ice could have existed in the Cretaceous period or how ice growth could have started.
'This study demonstrates that even the super-warm climates of the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum were not warm enough to always prevent ice growth. Certainly, ice sheets were much less common during the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum than they are during more recent "Icehouse" climates, allowing tropical plants and animals like breadfruit trees and alligators to frequent the high arctic. However, paradoxically past greenhouse climates may actually have aided ice growth by increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and creating more winter snowfall at high elevations and high latitudes,' he said.
The findings of this study provide compelling support for another related study published by Fletcher and co-authors from The University of Sheffield and Yale in the January 2008 issue of the journal, Nature Geoscience. In their study Fletcher and co-authors reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations for the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic below the simulated threshold for the initiation of widespread glaciation on several occasions and speculated on the repetitive occurrence of cold intervals in a general greenhouse world.
contact:
Professor Thomas Wagner
Newcastle University, UK; phone: +44-191-246-4880;
email: thomas.wagner@ncl.ac.uk
D. André Bornemann
University of Leipzig, Germany; phone: +49-341-9732903;
email: a.bornemann@uni-leipzig.de
|
 caprocks project milestone
Andrew Aplin
7.1.08
BHP Billiton recently became the 10th sponsor of Caprocks Phase 2, joining Anadarko, BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ENI, Petrobras, Shell, Statoil and Total. This brings the Phase 2 sponsorship to £1 million pounds and £1.6 million for Phases 1 plus 2. Led by Newcastle in collaboration with Cardiff and Heriot Watt Universities, the Caprocks project focuses on seal risk in petroleum systems. In addition to its impact on petroleum exploration, one spinoff from the project is to help understand the risks of leakage of CO2 from potential underground storage sites related to Carbon Capture and Storage.
|
 ceg to offer cpd courses for teachers
Tom Bramald
7.1.08
The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences has successfully tendered to develop a new suite of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses for teachers. Funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), the suite will comprise five one day courses that look at how geomatics can be used to support teaching and learning in Maths, Physics, Geography, Engineering and Construction & Built Environment. These start-up courses should be delivered in March and April 2008 with a view to then expanding the frequency and range of CPD courses CeG offers to teachers.
For more information contact Tom Bramald.
|
|
