Lecture: Gas, geothermal energy and gold: the Earth’s crust as a percolator
Speaker:
Entry Fee
Members: Free
Visitors: £5.00
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
Assessment of Earth’s finite natural resources becomes an increasingly urgent task as they are depleted, yet demand continues to rise. “Peak resources”, the time at which production starts to decline, may occur within a few decades for some critical metals and oil. New methods of resource evaluation take advantage of the fractal geometry of georesources. Lode gold deposits, geothermal wells and volcanoes, and conventional and unconventional gas wells all have fractal characteristics that can be assessed by these techniques. These seemingly disparate resources are connected, as they form by fluid fluxes through the crust. Their origin can be considered as a consequence of percolation, bringing a further armory of theory to bear on understanding their formation and distribution.