Congratulations to Ben Kilhams who
is this year's, 2007, NEGS Prize winner!
Ben writes: The project was based on
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and the basic premise was to
consider the two carbonate sequences that exist there to discover
(via. microfacies analysis (i.e. biota and lithologies)) whether or
not any changes could be related to the northward drift of the
Australian Plate in the last 55myrs.
As for what I am doing next, well I graduated with a 1st in my Msci
from Durham, I am over here in Copenhagen working for Maersk Oil and
Gas until Mid-September and then from October I head to UEA in
Norwich to do a PhD in High Resolution Carbonate Geochemistry and its
application to palaeoclimate problems.
Ben Kilhams
Maersk Olie og Gas A/S
Exploration and New Business
Esplanaden 50
DK-1263 Copehagen K
Denmark
Here is a full abstract of his project:
Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) consists of two separate carbonate
sequences deposited in the Eocene and Oligo-Miocene respectively.
According to plate tectonic reconstructions the depositional
environments of these deposits should be considerably different
(especially in terms of temperature) thanks to northward movement of
the Australian plate.
Changes in depositional style demonstrated an increase in warm
temperature components (both biotic and diagenetic) between the
Eocene and the Oligo-Miocene sequences. Variations in platform
structure and geochemistry are also evident although the latter is
severely affected by widespread meteoric diagenesis. These changes
are most likely to be due to the movement of Christmas Island from
~30°S to its present position at ~10°S.
|
|
Limestones on Christmas Island (from Gray 1995) |
|
|
The diagram on the left shows
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
