When we think about landslides, we usually picture mountain slopes collapsing after heavy rain or earthquakes. Similar phenomena, often much larger, also occur beneath the sea along continental margins and across the deep ocean floor. Geologists refer to the deposits left behind by these collapses as Mass Transport Deposits, commonly abbreviated as MTDs. When several of these deposits form part of ...[Read More]
Algeria is often described as one of the great energy engines of Africa and the Mediterranean, and with good reason. Its proven oil and gas reserves are impressive, but what truly sets the country apart is the extraordinary complexity of its geological history. Over more than two billion years, tectonics, climate shifts and sedimentation created a series of basins that today host some of North Afr ...[Read More]
In recent months, I had the opportunity to work on a project analysing subsurface data from a rock sequence previously interpreted as the product of an estuarine depositional environment. The client sought subsurface maps to characterize the spatial distribution of various geobodies associated with sedimentary deposits typically found in modern estuaries. In other words, the goal was to reconstruc ...[Read More]
While working on the exceptional, but remote outcrops of Baja California, I have encountered an extraordinary quantity of fossilized tree fragments in Cretaceous deposits. These fossils were preserved in both subaerial, fluvial, and marine environments. Does this mean that preservation of tree trunks is easy? How can wood be preserved for more than 70 million years? What kind of information can we ...[Read More]
