Supervisor

Project

Ed Jarvis

Palynology and palynofacies of the Booley Bay Formation of Co.Wexford.  This project will focus on the palynofacies, palynogy, sedimentology and Palaeoenvironments of the Cambrian Booley Bay Formation in Co. Wexford.    Nearshore/offshore trends will be determined using quantitative palynofacies analysis, this will greatly aid the understanding of the Palaeoenvironments that the Edicarian biota were present in. This is the youngest record of the Edicarian biota worldwide, this palaeoenvironmental analysis would greatly increase our understanding of the Edicarians last refuge.

Ed Jarvis

Palaeoenvironments recorded in the Lias of Northern Ireland.  This project will involve sedimentological, palynofacies, microfossils and macrofossil analysis of the Lias sections in Northern Ireland in order to determine the palaeoenvironmental trends in the sequence. Two principle section, Waterlooville and White Park Bay will be logged and sampled for detailed investigation in the lab. This study will establish the nature of the Lias environments recorded including near shore/offshore trends and patterns of sea floor redox levels.

Maria McNamara

Taphonomy of insects in the Daohuguo Konservat-Lagerstätte (Jurassic, Inner Mongolia).  The Daohuguo biota is a major source of information on the diversity of insects during the Mesozoic, but its taphonomy has not been investigated. As a result, the fidelity of the biological information preserved by the biota – e.g. on palaeodiversity, faunal changes through time, preservation of key features e.g. colour patterning, etc. – is unknown. This project involves characterising the sedimentological setting of the biota by the analysis of thin sections using light- and scanning electron microscopy, the construction of sedimentary logs and the analysis of hundreds of sedimentological and fossiliferous hand specimens of sediments from the Lagerstätte. The quality of preservation of numerous fossil specimens will be assessed and analysed using statistical methods.

Pat Meere

Characterising deformation in unconsolidated sediments.  (Pat Meere and Kieran Mulchrone, School of Maths)  Techniques and criteria to recognise and measure deformation in unconsolidated sediments are still rather limited and primarily concerned with clast fabric analysis.  Existing techniques assume that clasts behave like rigid objects immersed in a viscous fluid (Jeffery, 1922).  Preliminary experimental studies on natural glacial tills have indicated that clasts tend not to follow true Jeffery behaviour and tend not to orbit through the shear plane.  It is our view that using a 3D Jeffery model with a varying component of pure sheart across the shear plane will best approximate sub-glacial deformation conditions in diamict tills.     

Objective 1: Apply existing numerical modelling software to identifying a series of diagnostic parameters for Jeffery-type deformation in object populations.              

Objective 2: Carry out physical analogue modelling to simulate deformation of unconsolidated sediments.                                                                                              

Objective 3: Use criteria validated from the first two objectives to identify sub-glacial deformation at sites where existing evidence for such deformation is not conclusive.

Pat Meere

Early tectonic fabric development in sedimentary rocks.   This project will consist of a combined microstructural/petrological study on the initial development of penetrative tectonic fabrics in clastic sedimentary rocks.  The study will primarily focus on fabric development in the Irish Variscan foreland.

John Reavy

Petrological and structural mapping of the Fanad Lineament, Co. Donegal.  Detailed petrographic and structural mapping will investigate the role this structure played in siting, ascent and emplacement of the Fanad granite. Fieldwork will involve granitoid facies mapping, microstructural analysis and kinematic evaluation.