Pete Rowley
Specialisms:
Rock mechanics
Experimental modelling
3D architectural analysis
Density current modelling
Experimental design and analysis
Managing large datasets
Fieldwork
Multidisciplinary research to solve complex problems
Teaching and lecturing
My research interests are broadly focussed on the development of complex basin architectures through deposition from geophysical flows. For example, the numerical forward and inverse modelling of turbidite deposition to assess the potential to act as hydrocarbon reservoirs.
More recently I was awarded a Fellowship at the Universite Blaise Pascal to develop the first methodology to investigate the behaviour of sustained and continuously gas-fluidised pyroclastic density currents. This work, based at the Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, involved a large suite of experimental studies including design and development of the equipment and methodology.
Work during my PhD investigated the internal architecture of deposits formed by granular fluids (analagous to debris flow, dense pyroclastic and avalanche systems in the field), and particularly the morphologies created by reworking between fluid-substrate systems. Using analogue modelling techniques adapted from sedimentary sand-box modelling methods, a method was developed to preserve and visualise three-dimensional structures within deposits. In addition, by running sequential charges architectural evolution is built up in deposits, granting insights into the poorly understood internal dynamics (e.g. particle segregation, sorting and grading, sidewall interactions, granular temperature conduction, shear zone evolution) during deposition within granular flows.
As well as my laboratory and numerical modelling work, I am keen to perform validation of observations and interpretations through field work. In this respect I have been particularly concentrated in the Bandas del Sur pyroclastic successions in Tenerife, and the 1975 flows on the North West flank of Ngauruhoe, New Zealand. Turbidite modelling case studies have focussed in depocentres offshore of Nice (France), Morocco, Canada and in the North Sea, volcaniclastic deposits offshore of Montserrat, as well as numerous reconstructed palaeo-basins from 3D seismic volumes around the world.
Outreach
I offer a wide range of outreach activities which can be tailored to suit a variety of audiences. Many of these are particularly well suited to KS 3 4 and 5 students of geography and science, and activities can be tied into specific sections of the curricula where appropriate. Activities may be presented as lectures, seminars, tutorials, practicals or a combination of the above, and can in most cases be provided as anything between 45 minute to full day activities.
Example topics might include:
Volcanoes: How they form, where they occur, what risks are associated with different types, how to mitigate those risks, case studies
Earthquakes: What causes them, what are the risks, risk mitigation, case studies.
Earth structure: Plate tectonics, how the earth formed, what it's made up of, how we know what we know, geophysics, application to other planets.
An introduction to geological time: Understanding how the earth has developed, getting your head around how old is old, what may happen in the future.
Rocks: What a rock is, how rocks form, identifiying sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Erosion, transport and deposition processes. Case studies.
Flow behaviour and deposition: Rather more specialised talks dealing with the behaviour of pyroclastic flows, submarine turbidity currents, landslides, lahaars and debris flows, with case studies
Rock mechanics
Experimental modelling
3D architectural analysis
Density current modelling
Experimental design and analysis
Managing large datasets
Fieldwork
Multidisciplinary research to solve complex problems
Teaching and lecturing
My research interests are broadly focussed on the development of complex basin architectures through deposition from geophysical flows. For example, the numerical forward and inverse modelling of turbidite deposition to assess the potential to act as hydrocarbon reservoirs.
More recently I was awarded a Fellowship at the Universite Blaise Pascal to develop the first methodology to investigate the behaviour of sustained and continuously gas-fluidised pyroclastic density currents. This work, based at the Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, involved a large suite of experimental studies including design and development of the equipment and methodology.
Work during my PhD investigated the internal architecture of deposits formed by granular fluids (analagous to debris flow, dense pyroclastic and avalanche systems in the field), and particularly the morphologies created by reworking between fluid-substrate systems. Using analogue modelling techniques adapted from sedimentary sand-box modelling methods, a method was developed to preserve and visualise three-dimensional structures within deposits. In addition, by running sequential charges architectural evolution is built up in deposits, granting insights into the poorly understood internal dynamics (e.g. particle segregation, sorting and grading, sidewall interactions, granular temperature conduction, shear zone evolution) during deposition within granular flows.
As well as my laboratory and numerical modelling work, I am keen to perform validation of observations and interpretations through field work. In this respect I have been particularly concentrated in the Bandas del Sur pyroclastic successions in Tenerife, and the 1975 flows on the North West flank of Ngauruhoe, New Zealand. Turbidite modelling case studies have focussed in depocentres offshore of Nice (France), Morocco, Canada and in the North Sea, volcaniclastic deposits offshore of Montserrat, as well as numerous reconstructed palaeo-basins from 3D seismic volumes around the world.
Outreach
I offer a wide range of outreach activities which can be tailored to suit a variety of audiences. Many of these are particularly well suited to KS 3 4 and 5 students of geography and science, and activities can be tied into specific sections of the curricula where appropriate. Activities may be presented as lectures, seminars, tutorials, practicals or a combination of the above, and can in most cases be provided as anything between 45 minute to full day activities.
Example topics might include:
Volcanoes: How they form, where they occur, what risks are associated with different types, how to mitigate those risks, case studies
Earthquakes: What causes them, what are the risks, risk mitigation, case studies.
Earth structure: Plate tectonics, how the earth formed, what it's made up of, how we know what we know, geophysics, application to other planets.
An introduction to geological time: Understanding how the earth has developed, getting your head around how old is old, what may happen in the future.
Rocks: What a rock is, how rocks form, identifiying sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Erosion, transport and deposition processes. Case studies.
Flow behaviour and deposition: Rather more specialised talks dealing with the behaviour of pyroclastic flows, submarine turbidity currents, landslides, lahaars and debris flows, with case studies
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