Lecture Abstract:
Saudi Arabia is a land of contrasts and most people know little about it apart from the stereotypical image of sand dunes, oil wells -- reflecting its geopolitical position as one of the World’s leading oil producers -- and camels. In this lecture I plan to show the diversity in scenery that is related to the geological underpinnings of this fascinating country. It has a long geological history dating back over 2 billion years during which time what is now the Arabian Peninsula drifted back and forth between the tropics and polar regions leaving evidence of these different environments in the rocks. The three basic elements of the geology are the Arabian Shield (older than about 550 million years); the overlying sedimentary rocks of the Arabian Platform with their immense oil and gas riches; and thirdly, the much younger volcanic province bordering the Red Sea that relates to the on-going separation of Arabia from Africa that began about 30 million years ago. I will also touch on climate change and the way that this has affected Saudi Arabia in the recent geological past. Finally I will mention the mineral wealth of the country that is not just oil. As the title suggests, this talk will not be an academic lecture but more of a geological excursion. I hope that it will be interesting and informative.
Speaker Biography: David Grainger
David was awarded a BSc in Geology from Nottingham University in 1962. His first job was with the Geological Survey of Tanganyika (later Tanzania) engaged in regional geological mapping. This was followed by an MSc in Mineral Exploration at Imperial College London, graduating in 1966. He then worked for seven years with the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources in the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea on regional geological mapping surveys and mineral investigations. He was co-compiler of the Mineral Deposits of Papua New Guinea (1973). While with the BMR he took part in two austral summer field seasons with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions engaged in regional geological mapping in the Prince Charles Mountains of East Antarctica. Returning to the UK in 1973, he was employed by the geological consulting company HGG as a Party Leader on mineral exploration and regional mapping surveys in three areas of southern Libya on the borders of Niger and Chad. During his time as a field geologist, David also had short-term assignments in Canada and Iran. From 1975 to late 1977 he was a Senior Lecturer in the Mining Department of Sunderland Polytechnic (now Sunderland University) specialising in mineral exploration and stratigraphy. During this time he was a part-time tutor with the Open University. In 1978 he changed career direction by moving to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to join the Saudi Geological Survey as the Administrative Geologist assisting the Chief Geologist in technical matters. In 1980 he became the Survey’s Senior Geological Editor. In this role he provided technical editing of geological maps and reports to United States Geological Survey standards. In addition, he supervised contract cartography and printing. He was the co-compiler/author of a major review publication, Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia (1994). From 1999 to 2003 he was the Geoscience Editor for Gulf PetroLink in Bahrain editing peer-reviewed articles for GeoArabia, a journal supporting the Middle East Oil and Gas industry. David left the Middle East on retirement in 2003 but continued to work part-time for Gulf PetroLink until 2009. In addition, he completed the writing of The Geologic Evolution of Saudi Arabia that was published by the Saudi Geological Survey in 2007. In addition to the two major books that he has authored/co-authored, he has had geological maps and reports published by the Geological Survey of Tanganyika and the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources. He is a Member of IoM3.
Schedule:
18.00 - Start of Livestream
18.00 - Welcome and Start of Lecture
18.50 - Question and Answer session
19:00 - Summary and end of session
19.30 - End of stream
Note on Q&A session:
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14 фев 2024
