Is it time to rethink our approach to natural resources in Yorkshire? What contribution to the energy transition is possible?
A YPS evening lecture at the Yorkshire Museum
Nick Shaw, (University of Leeds)
18th May, 19:00
It’s over 200 years since William Smith and his nephew John Phillips started to document the lay of the land and publish geological maps. However, before that the Romans and later the monks, miners, canal builders or railway entrepreneurs used their knowledge and experience to develop the natural resources. In addition to this tacit understanding – gentleman geologists, university academics and industrial scientists have built-up and documented our knowledge often accelerated at times of war.
The Yorkshire Geological Society published the classic “The geology and mineral resources of Yorkshire” edited by Rayner and Hemingway in 1974. Since then, our coal mining industry has closed-down and onshore hydrocarbon exploration and production has had a limited success and even less social acceptance. In the intervening period many new insights and understandings have been developed in geoscience – how the earth works – from inside the subsurface and how human activity has influenced the planet’s climate, including recognition of the Anthropocene and impacts of the Industrial Revolution.
The geological history of Yorkshire is punctuated by three major unconformities and record major development phases. Despite the relatively gentle stratal dips generally to the East or South-East there are underlying tectonic fabrics which control the basin development and sediment provenance, focus of heat flow and thermal maturity, ore mineralization and fluid movements. Recent studies have indicated that the opening of the Atlantic and associated igneous doming and dykes was significant in shaping the outcrop pattern including offshore.
Coal, iron, lead, zinc, salt and hydrocarbon deposits have long been developed as extractive industries perhaps now some of these legacy industrial assets might be repurposed to become managed natural resources. They might therefore contribute to the energy transition as sources of geothermal heat and/or storage, seasonal gas storage or sequestration of CO2 or nuclear waste repositories.
About the speaker
In 2016, on retiring after a 37 year career with Royal Dutch Shell, Nick Shaw re-joined the University of Leeds (1970-74), in the School of Earth and Environment, now as Senior Visiting Lecturer in Applied Geology. He contributes to projects, teaching and field classes. He has been involved in Geosolutions@Leeds since its inception focusing on geothermal, storage, play fairways analysis and structural geology
This event will be held in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum at 7pm, doors open 6.30pm. Everyone Welcome.