Scholarship for oil rock research
university-of-waikato
Fri Jan 30 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Scholarship for oil rock research
Friday, 30 January 2009, 9:55 am
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
January 29, 2009
Scholarship for oil rock research
When you find yourself comparing rock strata with cookies and cream icecream while you’re meant to be relaxing on a Coromandel beach holiday, you know you’re seriously hooked on geology.
But for University of Waikato Earth Sciences student Melissa Troup, her fascination with rocks has paid off big time – she’s one of 48 recipients of a $12,000 University Masters research scholarship.
The former Kerikeri High School student is in the second year of her Masters research project which aims to provide some insights into the offshore petroleum system in New Zealand’s East Coast basin between Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.
“Oil seeps and gas seeps have been found all around this area, but we need more information on how this stuff is getting to the surface, how much is down there, and of what value it might be,” says Troup, who’s part of a group of Waikato and Auckland researchers studying the area. “This scholarship will be a real boost to my work in this field.”
Troup’s research looks at the carbonate deposits created by long-defunct cold seeps – undersea vents releasing methane from oil or natural gas systems deep under the seabed. “The deposits I’m looking at are between 18 and 22 million years old, but that’s a relatively short time in a geological timescale,” she says.
They’re in the form of limestone outcrops dotted around the southern Hawke’s Bay area, but Troup says these deposits are no ordinary limestone.
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“They look tremendously different as they are comprised of a carbonate mud, and typically contain loads of fossils, ranging from corals, gastropods and worm tubes, to bivalves the size of my hand.”
It’s these fossils that provide the clue to the origins of the deposits. “These beasties are really special in that they can survive in the toxic methane environment of the cold seep.”
Usually found in deep ocean environments, cold seeps were only discovered in the 1980s, and are less well-known than their hot vent cousins. But they tend to be populated by the same sorts of organisms which rely on chemosynthesis – using methane -- rather than photosynthesis – using energy from the sun -- for their survival.
Troup’s research will help fill in the gaps in our knowledge of these phenomena, says academic supervisor Professor Cam Nelson. “Her findings will contribute to our understanding of the evolution and migration of hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins, which in turn could aid oil and gas prospectors in pinpointing the location of potential deposits.”
When she’s finished her Masters, Troup plans to look for a job as a geologist with an oil exploration or mining company. “Another researcher in our group, Sarah Ewen, was one of only two Kiwis to win a place on Chevron’s highly-competitive graduate programme in Australia. So I’ll certainly apply for that when it comes up again this year.”
Waikato University has more scholarships per student than any other university in New Zealand. Another 17 Masters scholarships will be awarded later this year.
ENDS
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