4^th International Conference on Geology and Geoscience April 27-28, 2017 Dubai, UAE

Biography:

Qu Jili has his expertise in Engineering Geology and Geotechnique, as well as environmental protection. His prestigious research on soil modification of earth surface and detailed prediction of soil water content based on organic content and clay content creates a new pathway for improving the downsizing of remote sensing materials. He has been involved in this aspect of research for many years, being rich in experiences. The research foundation is based on the field investigation, related historic materials and compound statistic techniques. The results of his research have been used in effective land arrangement, soil modification, accurate interpretation of remote sensing data from satellites etc.

Abstract:

Statement of the Problem: Many remote sensing data from satellites can provide frequent globe coverage of soil water content (SWC) over a large area of earth surface, but they are almost all at a relatively course resolution (>9 km).  There are numerous efforts to further downscale these products from the generally coarse resolution of (9×9 km) to field scale (~0.5 km) based on the characterization of vegetation, soil, land surface, topography and rainfall that influence the variability of SWC at the field scale. This intensive soil water content (SWC) data will enable strides in weather and climate prediction, agricultural management and improve our understanding of hydrological processes and land-surface interactions. 

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: This field investigation offered key information about SWC and soil physical constitution from 52 agricultural lands to evaluate the impact of soil organic carbon (SOC) and other physical properties such as soil textural class on soil water content over a 12 week period. Cropland averaging SWC over the period of the investigation was projected in an optimum way by integration of soil texture class and SOC in every field moisture status. 

Findings: In spite of that both %Clay and SOC explained approximately 80% of variance in SWC over all cropland, respectively, soil organic carbon explained larger variation in soil water content than its other physical properties in desiccation situation. 

Conclusion: The strong association of SWC with SOC shows soil organic carbon may be a good parameter in downscaling the estimate of SWC from satellite data in particular where SWC information are unavailable or unreliable.

Biography:

Bashar Tarawneh holds a PhD degree and is a Licensed Professional Engineer (PE), who has more than 15 years of experience in Civil Engineering. He has experience in the fields of soil investigation, geotechnical engineering management, shallow and deep foundations, ground improvement, earth retaining structures, liquefaction evaluation and mitigation, project management and business development. Currently, he is the Civil Engineering Department Chair and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. He has been teaching courses and conducting research in the area of Civil and Geotechnical Engineering. His research interests include analytical aspects of soil-pipe interactions, inspection and risk assessment of structures, field performance and geotechnical analysis of shallow and deep foundations, settlements of shallow foundation on cohesionless soils, correlation of Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and Cone Penetration Tests (CPT), design and performance of Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Wall, application of artificial neural networks in civil engineering, resilient modulus prediction from FWD results, and ground improvement using dynamic compaction.

Abstract:

Ground improvement techniques have been used on many construction sites to improve soil properties, increase bearing capacity, and reduce potential settlements of problematic soils. Problematic soils are usually identified during the geotechnical exploration and treated prior to construction to avoid any future damage to structures. Dynamic compaction, dynamic replacement, rapid impact compaction, vibro compaction, and stone columns are considered the most popular ground improvement techniques in the Arabian Gulf region. A decision tree for the selection of appropriate ground improvement technique is developed. Percent of fine content, depth of required improvement, distance to existing nearby structures, and water table level were used in the decision tree. 

Biography:

Osman Abdelghany completed his BSc in Geology with honors and MSc in Stratigraphy and Micropaleontology from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt respectively. He obtained his PhD in 1996 from Vienna University, Austria. He is currently Associate Professor of Stratigraphy and Micropaleontology at United Arab Emirates University. He is a member of many societies and the affiliations include the ESG, GSA, GSE, ESP and ENHG. He is particularly interested in Cretaceous/Tertiary stratigraphy and microfossils and published many papers in national and international magazines.

Abstract:

The lower Tertiary limestones of United Arab Emirates of Eocene to Lower Oligocene rocks are exposed on the limbs of the Jabal Hafit anticline. The Rus, Dammam and Asmari formations of this interval cover most of the foundational bedrock of Al Ain city, located in the southeastern part of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The mechanical and the diagenesis processes of these limestones showed that the diagenetic processes include dissolution, dolomitization, compaction and cementation that partially control the mechanical behavior of the rocks. Three types of limestones recognized as chalky limestone (wackestone facies) are soft limestone consisting of the planktonic foraminifera such as (Cribrohantkenina inflata and Hantkenina longispina), deposited in deeper water environment. It was characterized by hard texture with dusty feel, with high porosity and relatively low dry density and can hold large amounts of water. The accumulations of large foraminifera of shoal energetic environment such as Asterocyclina pentagonalis, Discocyclina sp. and Nummulites sp. in dolomitic limestone (packstone/grainstone facies) as intermediate give variable sizes of pores which reach up to a few cm in diameter were observed and provide strong possibility for high permeability conditions. The third type is hard limestone with chert nodules and bands (mudstone/wackestone facies) that were deposited in a relatively deeper environment.

Biography:

Hasan Arman is a Professor at United Arab Emirates University, College of Science, Geology department since 2008. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Hacettepe University, Turkey in 1984 and PhD degree from University of Arizona, USA in 1992. He worked as a Postdoc at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA from 1992 to 1993. He was a Faculty Member at Sakarya University, Civil Engineering department, Turkey between 1993 and 2008. He has been teaching several different courses in undergraduate and graduate levels related to Engineering, Environment, Geology and Energy. His research interests include soil and rock mechanics, environmental geology, environmental degradation, water resources, global warming, climate change, renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Abstract:

The ophiolite sequences of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a northern part of Semail Oman ophiolite. The ophiolite sequences consists of layered series, which is divided into tectonized Peridotite that is older and the massive Peridotite that is younger is an ultramafic igneous rock. Estimating strength properties of a rock through in-situ and laboratory measurement are crucial tasks for geological, civil and mining engineering applications such as design of structures inside rock, usage of rocks as a construction material, slope instability and others. Rock strength measurement in either in-situ or laboratory environment is costly, time consuming and requires considerable efforts for rock sampling, preparation and laboratory tests. There are different suggested testing methods available and used to interpret rock strength properties. In this study, approximately fifty peridotite rock block samples, at least 0.30 x 0.30 x 0.30 m in size, were collected from the field. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS), Brazilian strength (BRS), point load strength index (PLSI) and Schmidt hammer hardness tests were carried out either on the selected rock block samples or core samples based on the suggested standards. The aim of this study is to estimate and report the strength properties of the Peridotite rocks from Masfout - Hatta area, UAE, through in-situ and laboratory studies and discuss their probable influences as design of structures inside rock, usage of rocks as a construction material, slope instability and others.

Biography:

Muhamed Fakhri Omer is a Lecturer at the department of geology, Salahaddin University in Erbil, Iraq since 2004. He has done M.Sc. in 2000 and Ph.D. in 2012 from Baghdad University, Iraq. In 15h January 2017 promoted to Assistant Professor at the same University. His Major filed of interests is sedimentology and sedimentary petrology with particular reference on Paleozoic formations exposed in northern Iraq. He is Expert in cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy that was obtained through three months training course at Aarhus University in Denmark in 2011. He got Postdoctoral scholarships for one year at Warsaw University –Poland in 2014. He has published many papers in the Journal of African Earth Science in 2014 and 2015 and paper in the Arabian Journal of Geosciences in 2016. He has awarded Certificate of Reviewing on August 2016 from Journal of African Earth Sciences (ELSEVIER). In January 1st of 2017 became a member of the new project IGCP 635 the Onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification.

Abstract:

The Khabour formation is the oldest exposed rock unit in Iraq (Ordovician) and was studied in two sections at Chalky Nasara and Ora localities Northern Iraq. It is comprised of 806 thick sandstone-shale cyclic alternations. The formation sediment in type locality Chalky Nasara section can be divided into three main units A, B and C, depending on the kinds of sediments, vertical changes and the sedimentary structures. These three units also can be divided into numbers of main facies. Combined lithofacies/ichnofacies analysis of the Khabour formation allows recognition of 8 facies associations from type locality and subdivided into 23 facies. The prodelta deposits are mainly characterized by heterolithic strata (wavy and lenticular bedded), the trace fossils assemblages is dominated by deposits-feeder burrows skolithos Thalassinoids isp, Planolites isp, and Macaronichnus. isp. The delta front deposits consists of (planar cross-bedded, thick-bedded, very large scale and tabular cross-bedded) sandstone facies. Wave and storm dominated deposits are found in Khabour formation, including sands deposited by storm-generated, wind driven currents, by low to high intensity oscillatory flows, and by storm-initiated density flows, which deposits upper, middle and lower shoreface. Changing of sea level during (TST) coupled with upwelling currents created starved settings which was favorable for the deposition of thin to medium bedded of phosphatic sandstone associated with a black shale pristine phosphorite in Chalky Nasara section.  Lowering of wave base during relative sea-level fall reworked pristine facies into granular deposits and produce phosphatic large-scale planar cross-bedded sandstone in Ora section. The age of the formation is determined according to recognize three ichnotaxa of cruziana including Goldfussi, Furcifera and Rugosa Isp. This reflects upper tremadocian stages of lower ordovician for the formation.

Biography:

Sayyad Zahid Qamar is currently associated with the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. He has worked both as a University Academician and a Researcher, and as a Field Engineer (mechanical), during his twenty-five years of professional service. His main research areas are applied materials and manufacturing; applied mechanics and design; reliability engineering; and engineering education. He has worked on different funded projects in excess of 4 million US dollars. He is the author of one research monograph (book), two book chapters, over 120 publications in refereed international journals and conferences and 31 technical reports. He has also edited two technical book volumes and is serving on the Editorial Boards of various well-known research journals. He has conducted experimental, numerical, analytical and stochastic studies in the areas of swelling and inert elastomers; solid expandable tubulars; metal forming process, product, and tooling.

Abstract:

Swelling elastomers are fit-to-purpose advanced polymers that undergo an increase in volume upon interaction with water or oil. They have been successfully used in the field of oil and gas drilling and development, for varied applications targeted at production from difficult-to-access, damaged, and previously abandoned wells. Swell packers make it possible to isolate water-producing and other unwanted zones, replace or reduce cementing operations in well completion, and slim down wells for significant reduction in material and energy footprint. For effective design and development of these applications, it is necessary to evaluate the amount of swelling and its effect on material response of the elastomer under actual field conditions. Various studies have been carried out over the last ten years at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat for performance assessment and characterization of material behavior of swelling elastomers in petroleum applications. These investigations have been carried out through experimental work, analytical modeling, and numerical (FEM) modeling and simulation. The current paper presents some results from experimental investigation of some water-swelling and oil-swelling elastomers. Test procedures either followed standards laid down by ASTM and ISO, or were developed in-house for new types of tests in close collaboration with field engineers and rubber developers. Specialized jigs and fixtures, and dedicated test facilities were designed and constructed wherever necessary. Test parameters such as salt water concentration, type of crude oil, and applicable temperature were carefully selected to emulate actual well conditions in the region. Reported results include amount of volume and thickness swelling, hardness, and tensile properties of elastomer samples before swelling, and at various swelling stages.

Biography:

Mahmoud Abu Saima has completed his PhD from the Geology department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. He is Instructor of the Department of Geology at the United Arab Emirates University. He is particularly interested in Micropaleontology. He has published numerous papers on the Triassic and Jurassic palynomorphs and Cretaceous/Tertiary foraminifera in international journals.

Abstract:

Biostratigraphic correlation was conducted on Muthaymimah Formation in the western flank of the Northern Oman Mountains of United Arab Emirates and Atbasi Formation, northwest Turkey. Based on abundance and diversity of foraminiferal assemblages (such as Morozovella spp.) with the lithological characters, the two formations of the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene were deposited under tectonic movements with rapid sea level rise that caused the deposition of mudstone/wackstone facies in open marine environment. Both study areas also share a similar shallow-marine packstone/grainstone facies, rich in benthonic foraminifera (such as Bolivinoides curtus, Neoflabellina jarvisi and Somalina sp., and Nummulites spp.) and skeletal shell remains (molluscs, bryozoa and echinoids), accompanied by thin calcarenite and iron oxides. In both areas, sedimentation occurred during extensive rifting and rapid subsidence, in an environment of seafloor oxidation.

Biography:

Tong Jing is an engineer in Geophysics and a doctoral student in China University of Geosciences. Her research interests are in aeromagnetic and airborne gravity data processing and geological interpretation in China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Land and Resources (AGRS).

Abstract:

The South Yellow Sea is commonly assumed to be located in the northeast lower Yangtze block of the South China plate, and is bounded to the west by the Tanlu Fault, and to the north by the Sujiao–Qianliyan–Linjin orogenic belt, which is a large superposed basin composed of Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine sedimentary basin and Mesozoic-Cenozoic terringenous sedimentary basin developed on the crystalline basement of pre-Sinian age. The Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine sedimentary strata formed and evolved starting from Jinning movement and ending with Yindosinian and Yanshanian movements, among which, Sinian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic strata have been developed. Over more than 50 years oil-gas investigation of SYSB, it is much clearer to know about the feature of terringenous sedimentary basin, but the recognition on the thickness of Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine strata has not yet reached agreement for the lack of drilling data in Paleozoic age, which limits the progress of prospecting and investigation of oil-gas resources of the South Yellow Sea.

The Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine strata of the South Yellow Sea had attracted increasing attention of scholars because of the effective seismic reflection of Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine strata. Extensive geological and geophysical investigations and research has been carried out recently. Currently, seismic prospecting is the main exploration tool. However, even sophisticated seismic data analysis, has failed to identify the distribution of complete marine strata of whole region, and more importantly, has been unable to clarify different aspects of its tectonic evolution stage. Many others studied marine sedimentary basin based on gravity and magnetic data, however, they mainly focused on the basement of basin but less for the marine strata distribution, and no one has systematically discussed the feature of Paleozoic-Mesozoic marine strata using aeromagnetic and aero gravity data. The study calculated the depth of upper and lower marine stratigraphic interface using the tangent method based on the latest acquired high precision aeromagnetic and airborne gravity data with constrain of drilling data covering the latitude of 31°to 37°and longitude of 120°to124°. It is indicated that the Mesozoic-Paleozoic marine strata mainly existed in the Central and Wunansha uplift region with the maximum thickness up to 10 km (fig1), which has been proved to be the most prospective oil-gas area of the Southern Yellow Sea.

Biography:

Vishavjeet Singh Goraya is a student at the University Of Petroleum & Energy Studies , Dehradun, India  . I have presented many papers in various national level events conducted by Society of petroleum engineers at various colleges across India . I have a very keen interest in the GEOLOGY & GEOSCIENCES . My hobbies include travelling , reading novels and to spend time in nature .

Abstract:

The future of geosciences will be radically different than it was 100, 50, or even 5 years ago. We are on the cusp of new discoveries, techniques and ideas. Geoscientists are becoming well respected in the science and public communities as new challenges face us. The future of geosciences will involve research into renewable energy and the depleted water resources. The water crisis will also increase the need for medical geology research and will perhaps open up a new industry for this specific title. Geoscientists will be called to help find water on other planets or decipher the historical geology of a planet to see if it is habitable. These planetary geologists will also be used to set up lunar bases or develop local resources. Geoscientists will be educated in many disciplines to fully understand everything they are studying. As much as theory is important, classes in the geosciences will be aimed toward applicability and practical use. Dating techniques will improve so we can understand how fast one animal evolved, or how fast climate change can realistically take place. Geoscientists will be the experts and therefore must be more responsible with scientific evidence and the differences between truth and imagination. Finally, geosciences will depend on all encompassing ethical codes, meticulous documentation in the field and a better way to present confidence of a given topic.

Biography:

Abdul Wahid is presently doing MS from Xian Shiyou University, China. He is a researcher to evaluate the geochemistry of rocks and is able to give authentic predictions about characteristics of reservoirs on the basis of geochemistry. He did his bachelor’s degree in Geology from University of Sargodha, Pakistan. He gave expert opinions and predictions about depositional environment and some tectonic setting of the study area. His approach to determine the depositional environment, based on paleoredox indices, paleosalinity and enrichment of REE, is applicable widely and is a revolutionary step for the petroleum companies.

Abstract:

The Triassic Yanchang Formation (Chang 7) oil shale is widely distributed in Ordos Basin, while Tongchuan is one of the typical outcrop areas of distribution. The objective of this study was to determine the depositional environment and some tectonic setting in which the oil shale of the study area is deposited. Sixteen selected samples were analyzed using ICP-MS at the northwest institute for non-ferrous metal research for the abundances of some trace element contents such as V, Ni, Cr, Ba, Sr, U and Th and Rare Earth Elements (REE) contents like La, Yb, Eu and Ce. Paleo-redox indices such as Th/U, V/(V+Ni), V/Cr and δU indicate that the depositional environment of Yanchang formation is reducing. Molybdenum (Mo) is the diagnostic element for reducing environment under sea water, the enrichment of Mo as compared to other trace elements also supports the reducing environment of study area. Paleosalinity is determined on the basis of Boron (B), Illite, Montmorillonite and kaolinite contents and the results show that the study area belongs from brackish to semi saline water sedimentary environment. The negative values of Ce anomaly and Eu anomaly indicates that the study area belongs to hydrothermal sedimentary environment in redox situation. All the values of Th/U are less than 1; it means the deposition of the study area occurred under hot water. La/Yb-REE and La/Yb-Ce/Yb graphs show that mostly samples fall into basalt and other into overlapping areas. So in the expansion period, the basement fracture activities are responsible for hot fluids at the basement of the lake. In the study area, sedimentary period of Chang 7, hydrothermal activities in the lake bottom exist and played a key role in accelerating the extensive development of oil shale.

Biography:

Topan Ramadhan is a Geological Engineering Student at the Faculty of Mineral Technology, Institute of Science & Technology AKPRIND Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is the Chairman of Indonesian Association of Geologists Student Chapter at the Institute of Science & Technology AKPRIND. He actively researches on geological science topics such as geology on oil and gas, sedimentology, geological environment and disaster mitigation and volcanology. He has previously done many researches on stratigraphy analysis for oil and gas implication, geological structure for a petroleum implication.

Abstract:

The volcano eruption is one of the events that frequently occurs in Indonesia, particularly in Java Island with the island arc, while the material is in the form of glowing clouds of hot, lava flow, lahar and avalanches of volcanic and much more. Merapi is a most active volcano in the world. This research focuses on the deposition of lahar, which is located in the district of Sleman, Magelang Regency and surrounding areas, with the object of research Krasak river, the Putih river and the Blongkeng river tipped in Mount Merapi as an analogy at the Southwestern part modern sedimentology especially on the river at the foot of volcanoes. The study covers analysis of field observations such as lithology, stratigraphy and direction measurement, lahar deposition, as well as more detailed observations in the laboratory by analyzing the grain structure by morphometric methods and the correlation of stratigraphic and abundance of lahar sediment at the foot of Mount Merapi. Three units of obtained Lahar (SSL) include, the SSL 1: More lava is deposited on the river Krasak Blongkeng with a thickness of 4 to 7.5 meters; the lahar flows more in the ancient current directions N214^oE Blongkeng River and River Krasak N 187^oE; SSL 2: Many on Krasak River and SSL 3: The Putih River has a thickness of 4-10 meters, as well as current directions are: N190^oE Krasak River and the Putih River N 205^oE. The data show the displacement of sediment input variations of lahar from Southwest to the South. Data shows the influenced displacement of the craters morphology as a supporting factor for the lahar flow channels. This study explains material volume and Merapi volcano eruption deposition process and expected as a mitigation disaster and finds out lahar flow deposition area for the next volcanic eruption.