Earth Sciences undergraduate publishes ‘Crater formation during the onset of mud volcanism’ from 2nd year internship.
Evan Pryce was a 2nd undergraduate who was keen to gain some research experience so he took a shot in the dark and contacted Prof. Joe Cartwright asking if he had any work he could do. Joe and his post doc Chris Kirkham had an idea that was perfect for such a project and 2 years later the results were published in Geology this week ‘Crater formation during the onset of mud volcanism’.
In this study Evan used 3D seismic imaging of a suite of mud volcanoes, offshore Egypt. The imaging revealed early formed craters at the basal surface of the mud volcanoes which although infilled soon after still shows that the initial eruption is characterised by highly vigorous venting of overpressured fluids. This primary phase of mud volcanism is rarely observed, and the findings presented here have significant implications for interpretations of the dynamism of this fundamental stage of mud volcano genesis.
Evan said of the experience ‘I had no real experience of seismic interpretation or using Petrel software so the learning curve was steep but rewarding. I gathered results over the summer, and by the end we were in a position to start writing the paper. This experience then taught me a huge amount about how to write scientifically, and the subsequent peer reviews (the first of which was unsuccessful) made clear the importance of adaptability and resilience, while showing more fundamentally how to argue a point.
Evan is currently in the 4th year of his degree and he says ‘I intend to use the skills I learned and enthusiasm I developed for understanding basin fluid processes to go on into the field of carbon capture and storage (CCS) after my degree.’
The paper is published in Geology: https://doi.org/10.1130/G50713.1
