Chris Ballentine

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Dr. Chris Ballentine is the chair of geochemistry and head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. He uses properties of the noble gases to understand the origin and evolution of Earth's atmosphere and mantle.

Contents

Career

Ballentine earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1992. He went on to hold research positions at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland, the University of Michigan, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland. From 2001 to 2013, he held positions at the University of Manchester before joining the faculty at the University of Oxford.

Ballentine has held the vice president, president, and past president positions with the European Association of Geochemistry. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Oxford Museum of Natural History and the American Geophysical Union, as well as a former scientific steering committee member for the Deep Carbon Observatory. In 2008, he won the Geological Society of London Bigsby medal for significant contributions to geology. [1] The AGU chose Ballentine as a Fellow in 2013, [2] and in 2016, he won the Eni Award, given to researchers who make advanced scientific breakthroughs in the field of energy, for "New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons". [3]

Research initiatives

Ballentine has shown that by measuring noble gas isotopes, he can identify and quantify the processes controlling the origin, migration, and interaction of subsurface water, hydrocarbons, and fluids. [4]

He has applied noble gas tools and principles to understand how natural gas fields form inside Earth, the role of groundwater in forming hydrocarbon reservoirs, and the origins of different gases on the planet. Ballentine also has developed quantitative techniques to understand how carbon dioxide behaves in the subsurface, including its role in the crustal carbon cycle, and how carbon-rich fluids have supported subsurface life over geological timescales. [5]

Related Research Articles

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Petroleum engineering is a field of engineering concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Exploration and production are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. Exploration, by earth scientists, and petroleum engineering are the oil and gas industry's two main subsurface disciplines, which focus on maximizing economic recovery of hydrocarbons from subsurface reservoirs. Petroleum geology and geophysics focus on provision of a static description of the hydrocarbon reservoir rock, while petroleum engineering focuses on estimation of the recoverable volume of this resource using a detailed understanding of the physical behavior of oil, water and gas within porous rock at very high pressure.

Petroleum geology is the study of origin, occurrence, movement, accumulation, and exploration of hydrocarbon fuels. It refers to the specific set of geological disciplines that are applied to the search for hydrocarbons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerogen</span> Solid organic matter in sedimentary rocks

Kerogen is solid, insoluble organic matter in sedimentary rocks. It consists of a variety of organic materials, including dead plants, algae, and other microorganisms, that have been compressed and heated by geological processes. All the kerogen on earth is estimated to contain 1016 tons of carbon. This makes it the most abundant source of organic compounds on earth, exceeding the total organic content of living matter 10,000-fold.

Organic geochemistry is the study of the impacts and processes that organisms have had on the Earth. It is mainly concerned with the composition and mode of origin of organic matter in rocks and in bodies of water. The study of organic geochemistry is traced to the work of Alfred E. Treibs, "the father of organic geochemistry." Treibs first isolated metalloporphyrins from petroleum. This discovery established the biological origin of petroleum, which was previously poorly understood. Metalloporphyrins in general are highly stable organic compounds, and the detailed structures of the extracted derivatives made clear that they originated from chlorophyll.

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Isotope geochemistry is an aspect of geology based upon the study of natural variations in the relative abundances of isotopes of various elements. Variations in isotopic abundance are measured by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, and can reveal information about the ages and origins of rock, air or water bodies, or processes of mixing between them.

The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program is a multinational program to further and fund geosciences in the field of continental scientific drilling. Scientific drilling is a critical tool in understanding of Earth processes and structure. It provides direct insight into Earth processes and critically tests geological models. Results obtained from drilling projects at critical sites can be applied to other areas worldwide. It is, therefore, believed that international cooperation in continental scientific drilling is an essential component for a responsible management strategy for the Earth's natural resources and environment.

Petrophysics is the study of physical and chemical rock properties and their interactions with fluids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Meissner</span> American geologist and engineer

Fred F. Meissner was an American geologist and engineer who contributed to the fields of geology, geophysics, engineering, petroleum engineering, geochemistry, mineralogy, physics, mining, economic geology, and fishing.

The Eni Award is a prize awarded by the Italian oil and gas company Eni with the aim of encouraging better use of energy sources and increased environmental research. The strict award guidelines and the notable names on the selection committee make Eni a coveted award. List of Eni award winners include Nobel laureates like Harold W. Kroto and Alan Heeger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Halliday</span> British geochemist and academic (born 1952)

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Katrina Jane Edwards was a pioneering geomicrobiologist known for her studies of organisms living below the ocean floor, specifically exploring the interactions between the microbes and their geological surroundings, and how global processes were influenced by these interactions. She spearheaded the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigation (C-DEBI) project at the University of Southern California, which is ongoing. Edwards also helped organize the deep biosphere research community by heading the Fe-Oxidizing Microbial Observatory Project on Loihi Seamount, and serving on several program steering committees involving ocean drilling. Edwards taught at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and later became a professor at the University of Southern California.[1][2]

Stephen (Steve) R. Larter is a Canadian Emeritus Professor of geochemistry at the University of Calgary. Dr. Larter was appointed as associate vice-president (AVPR-I), effective Feb. 25, 2019 at the University of Calgary.

Craig E. Manning is a professor of geology and geochemistry in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he served as department chair between 2009 and 2012. Manning's research interests include water chemistry, thermodynamics, gas chemistry, geochemistry, igneous petrology, and metamorphic petrology.

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Christopher R. Glein is an American geochemist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. He studies planetary science, astrobiology, and organic geochemistry. Glein was the first to describe how Saturn's moon Enceladus is the only known body, besides Earth, that has all of the requirements necessary for life. Glein has been involved in multiple spacecraft missions, leading to significant findings about Pluto, Enceladus, and Titan. In 2017, he was recognized for Outstanding Contributions to the ESA Rosetta Mission by the European Space Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fault zone hydrogeology</span>

Fault zone hydrogeology is the study of how brittlely deformed rocks alter fluid flows in different lithological settings, such as clastic, igneous and carbonate rocks. Fluid movements, that can be quantified as permeability, can be facilitated or impeded due to the existence of a fault zone. This is because different mechanisms that deform rocks can alter porosity and permeability within a fault zone. Fluids involved in a fault system generally are groundwater and hydrocarbons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter H. Barry</span> American geochemist

Peter H. Barry is an American geochemist who is an associate scientist in the marine chemistry and geochemistry department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He uses noble gases and stable isotopes to understand the volatile history and chemical evolution of Earth, including the dynamic processes of subduction, mantle convection and surface volcanism, which control the redistribution of chemical constituents between the crust and mantle reservoirs. Barry’s main research focus has been on high-temperature geochemistry, crust-mantle interactions and the behavior of volatile fluids in the lithosphere. He also studies crustal systems, the origin of high helium deposits, including hydrocarbon formation and transport mechanisms.

References

  1. "ENI AWARD 2016 New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Christopher Ballentine Biography" (PDF). eni.com. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  2. "Ballentine - Honors Program". Honors Program. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  3. "Eni Award 2016 | Eni". www.eni.com. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  4. "ENI AWARD 2016 New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons" (PDF). eni.com. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  5. "Department of Earth Sciences » Chris Ballentine". www.earth.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-29.