Casey William Nixon

IODP Expedition 381 – Corinth Active Rift Development

The Corinth Active Rift Development Expedition is planned and conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling Science Operator (ECORD-ESO) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP). The project aims to address key scientific questions related to continental rifting through drilling the offshore syn-depositonal sedimentary sequence of the offshore Corinth Rift, Greece. The Corinth Rift has been forming over the last 5 million years and is a rare example of continental rifting in its initial stages of development. The main active rift today (1.5-2.5 million years old) has a closed drainage system, high sedimentation rates and high extension rates.  This makes it an ideal natural laboratory to examine early rift development and how the landscape responds to tectonic and climate forcing factors. Furthermore, with high rates of extension and sedimentation, it may be possible to gain an insight into the rifting process with unprecedented resolution in both space (1-10’s kms) and time (20-50 thousands of years). The key scientific questions revolve around the following themes:

• Structural Evolution - how does the rift actually evolve and grow and over what timescale and at what rate? How does the activity on faults change with time?
• Surface Processes – how does the development of the rift and movement on the faults modify the movement of sediments into the rift? How does the landscape respond to the rift tectonic changes and regional and global climatic changes?
• Natural Hazards – as one of the most seismically active areas in Europe, what are the implications for earthquake activity in this and other developing rift?
• Paleoclimate reconstruction – what was the climate in the Eastern Mediterranean like in the past? Can we reconstruct high-resolution records for past environments and climates from the sediments deposited within the rift?

Topology of normal fault networks in rift basins

This is a VISTA project, led by myself, funded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in association with Statoil. The project aims to investigate and characterise normal fault networks in different rift basins at a range of scales, using novel topological concepts, and to examine the geological factors that control the evolution and spatial variation in network topology. The research will greatly improve topological analyses and understanding of fault network growth, development and connectivity, hence, greatly improving our knowledge of brittle deformation in the Earth's Crust. This research is directly applicable to hydrocarbon exploration and production as it relates to the geometry and size of structural traps and trap compartmentalisation, and it also relates to fault connectivity and structural controls on fluid flow at both geological and production time-scales. The projects specific objectives are:

• Characterising the temporal and spatial development of topology at a range of scales;
• Understanding the impact of fault segment growth, interaction and linkage within a normal fault network on the evolution of network topology and connectivity;
• Investigating the controlling influence of strain rate and pre-existing structure on the spatial variability of topology, focusing on the comparison of single-phase vs multiphase rifting;
• Establishing a classification system based on topology of different fault networks;
• Developing 3-dimensional topology as a tool for analysing normal fault networks and assessing fault connectivity, clustering and compartmentalisation within networks.

ANIGMA Project – An integrated geological and mathematical framework for the characterization, modelling and simulation of fractured geothermal reservoirs

The ANIGMA project is focussed on developing and integrating analysis of fault and fracture networks into fluid flow models and simulations with particular reference to fractured geothermal reservoirs. We are working closely with applied mathematicians to produce much improved fluid flow models and realistic reservoir models using field-based analogues.  An important aspect of this geological-mathematical approach is the integration of topology and other fracture network properties that characterise and assess connectivity within networks.

VIST