James Hendry (Adjunct Professor at UCD) : “Hot, Salty and Faulty Dolomites: Records of Basin-Scale Fluid Flow on the Isle of Man and North Dublin Coast”

Carboniferous platform limestones exposed on the Isle of Man and in the coastal outcrops of the NE Dublin Basin display striking examples of dolomite formation as a result of fault and fracture formation, locally associated with base-metal mineralisation and silicification. The dolomites are proxies for large-scale circulation of salty, metal-enriched fluids, but the details and timing of these fluids can be difficult to constrain. This talk will review 1) field, petrographic and geochemical data from NE Dublin and the Isle of Man and discuss whether these areas are discrete cases of dolomite formation or part of a regionally extensive “plumbing system”; 2) whether these dolomite-rich rocks might host recoverable ore deposits, or even hydrocarbons.

First degree: Natural Sciences (Cambridge)

PhD: Carbonate sedimentary petrology and geochemistry (Liverpool)

 Postdocs: (1) Royal Society European Fellowship using coral reef diagenesis to record fluid flow history in a foreland basin

                  (2) Elf UK Research Fellowships studying controls on North Sea oil reservoir quality

 Academic: (1) Queen’s University Belfast – lecturer

                    (2) University of Portsmouth UK – senior / principal lecturer

 Industry: (1) BG Group UK – senior reservoir geologist coordinating first “western” evaluation of a giant field in the former Soviet Union.

                 (2) Shell Global Solutions International (Netherlands) – senior carbonate geologist mostly working on a giant Arabian Gulf gas field.

                 (3) Tullow Oil Limited – lead / principal exploration geoscientist involved in new ventures (S. America, Africa, Europe) plus working exploration licences offshore Jamaica and Peru.

Other: About 30 research papers published, editor of Geological Society Special Publication 509 on Seismic Characterisation of Carbonate Platforms and Reservoirs, associate editor for “Sedimentology”.

I left Tullow in 2020, since then set up my own consultancy, was also appointed Adjunct Professor at UCD and Professional Member of the IGI.

Am currently part time Executive Officer for the International Association of Sedimentologists and looking for / conducting technical consultancy the rest of the time.

Interests: Sedimentology, petrography, diagenesis, regional geology and exploration play definition, plus particular focus on carbonate geology and geochemistry.