School of Environment
Dr Lorna Strachan
Job title: Lecturer
Phone: 64 9 373 7599 ext 83522
Office: Building 301 Rm 1007, Science Centre 23 Symonds Street, Auckland
Postal: School of Environment, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland.
Email: l.strachan@auckland.ac.nz
BSc (Hons) Geological Sciences, Leeds, UK.
PhD Geometry to genesis: A comparative field study of submarine slump deposits and their modes of formation, Cardiff and Imperial College, UK.
Lorna joined the school in July, 2007 as a lecturer in sedimentology. Her interest in deep marine process sedimentology began at the University of Leeds where she completed a BSc (Hons) in Geological Sciences. She then moved to Imperial College to undertake a PhD investigating the process of submarine slumping, moving again to Cardiff University with her supervisor Professor Joe Cartwright to complete her studies. Lorna worked in science administration for a year at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as the Earth Science Programmes Officer. In 2004 Lorna returned to the University of Leeds as a postdoctoral research associate, working with Professors Bill McCaffrey (Leeds) and Ben Kneller (Aberdeen) on the problem of elucidating the link between turbidites and climate. In 2005, Lorna moved to Manchester University to work with Professor Rob Gawthorpe and his group on a range of deep marine process problems including a 3D seismic investigation of a turbidite channel complex.
Research Interests
My research focuses on deep marine sedimentary processes on submarine slopes and involves a combined approach, using field and seismic data together with some experimental modelling. In particular, I am interested in how gravity flows on slopes move, be it via slumping, sliding, debris flow, turbidity current or other flow type.
Current and ongoing submarine slope research is divided into 4 themes. Click on themes 1 to 4 below to find out more.
Theme 1: Slump flow processes.
Theme 2: Coarse-grained flow processes.
Theme 3: Fine-grained flow processes.
Theme 4: External controls on turbidite systems.
Research Keywords: Submarine slopes, slumps, debrites, turbidites, mass transport complexes, deep-marine processes, field-based sedimentology, experimental sedimentology and seismic interpretation.
Teaching
Sedimentology is a dynamic and widely applied science concerned with understanding physical and chemical processes acting upon the surface of the earth in complex and diverse environments. It is an interdisciplinary subject incorporating many Earth Science disciplines including palaeontology, geomorphology, structural geology, geochemistry, geophysics and petrology, not to mention elements of physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering.
Geology 754 fieldtrip, September, 2009.
I am passionate about sedimentology and I hope that this transfers through my teaching. I teach sedimentology on the following course:
GEOL 754 Sedimentary Processes
GEOL 301 Advanced Field Geology
GEOL 202 Earth History
GEOL 104 Principles of Earth Science
MARINE 202 Principles of Marine Science
I also teach basin analysis in:
GEOL 305 Tectonics and Crustal Evolution
If you take sedimentology from stages 2 upwards expect there to be a strong field and research component. It is my belief that fieldwork is the most important place to teach many of the concepts we learn in the classroom.
Below is a selection of images from the Geology 301 fieldtrip, which ran in February, 2010.
Industrial consortia links
As a postdoctoral researcher I worked for the following industrial consortia. You can find out more information about them here:
Associate member of the Turbidite Research Group (TRG) |
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Active member of The Rift Analogue Project (TRAP) |
Affiliations
International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS)
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Geological Society of New Zealand (GSNZ)
Other
I am the Auckland Branch representative of the Geoscisnce Society of NZ.
I am a member of the New Zealand Integrated Ocean Drilling Program committee.
P.M. Barnes, H. Bostock, H. Neil, M. Gosling, L. Strachan, and G. Wilson (in prep) Late Holocene (<3000 years) paleoearthquakes of the southern Alpine Fault and Fiordland subduction zone, New Zealand, based on marine sediment cores
Fildes, C., Strachan, L.J., McCaffrey, B., Haughton, P. and Butler, R. (in prep) Flow Heterogeneity within the Paleocene Megabed of the Central North Sea, UK.
Debacker,T., Dumon, M., Belmans, M., Jacques, J. & Strachan, L.J. (in prep) Sedimentologically controlled thickness variations within Silurian distal turbidite deposits and their effects on cleavage fanning (Anglo-Brabant Deformation Belt, Belgium)
Strachan, L.J., Rarity. F., Gawthorpe, R., Wilson, P. and Sharp, I. (in review) Marine sedimentary response to continental breakup at a rift-margin: Miocene Suez Rift, Egypt.
Strachan, L.J., and Pyles, D.R., (accepted) Evolving depocentre and slope: The Gull Island Formation. In: P. Wignall and J. Best, eds., Field Guidebook to the Carboniferous Shannon Basin, western Ireland, Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists
Pyles, D.R. and Strachan, L.J. (accepted) Initial infill of the Shannon Basin, Ross Sandstone and Clare Shale (Ireland): Turbidites and mass failure deposits in a structurally confined basin. In: P. Wignall and J. Best, eds., Field Guidebook to the Carboniferous Shannon Basin, western Ireland, Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists.
King, P.R., Ilg, B.R., Arnot, M., Browne, G.H., Strachan, L.J., Crundwell, M. and Helle, C. (2011) Outcrop and seismic examples of Mass Transport Deposits from a Late Miocene deep-water succession, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand. SEPM Special Publication No. 96: MTD's, edited by Weimer, Shipp & Posamentier. ISBN 978-1-56576-287-9, p. 311–348.
Shane, P., L. J. Strachan, and I. Smith (2010), Redefining the Waitemata Basin, New Zealand: A new tectonic, magmatic, and basin evolution model at a subduction terminus in the SW Pacific, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 11, Q04008, doi:10.1029/2009GC002705.
Strachan, L.J. (2008) From Slump to Turbidite: a case study of Flow Transformation from the Waitemata Basin, New Zealand. Sedimentology, 55, 1311-1332.
Strachan, L.J. (2007) Book Review: Introduction to the Petroleum Geology of Deepwater Settings. A.A.P.G. Bulletin, 91, 1732-1733.
Strachan, L.J. and Alsop, G.I. (2006) Slump folds as estimators of palaeoslope: A case study from the Fisherstreet Slump of County Clare, Ireland. Basin Research, 18, 451-470.
Baas, J.H. and Strachan, L. (2005) Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences, by Locat, J. & Mienert, J. (Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research 19, Springer, 552 pp). In: http://spot.colorado.edu/~jsedr.
Strachan, L.J. (2002) Slump-initiated and controlled syndepositional sandstone remobilization: an example from the Namurian of County Clare, Ireland. Sedimentology, 49, 25-41.
In the field with my students
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Tim Debacker (2010-2011), visiting fellow from University of Ghent) Collaborating on a number of projects including: Early features and magnetic fabrics in poorly deformed fine-grained siliciclastic rocks
Current PhD students
Christine Fildes (2009-2012) Miocene megaturbidites of New Zealand: emplacement mechanics, hinterland characterisation and chronostratigraphic significance. A Turbidite Research Group funded project, jointly supervised with Bill McCaffrey, Rob Butler, Phil Shane and Peter Haughton .
Summer scholarship Students
Sean Crossen (2012) Characterizing basal Waitemata Basin strata: a sedimentological study.
Intern
Michelle Hulewicz (2012) Working on a range of sedimentlogical problems.
Matthew Gosling (2010) "A detailed sedimentological study of submarine turbidites from the Fiordland Margin to elucidate evidence of palaeoseismic events". In collaboration with NIWA. Jointly supervised with Helen Bostock, Phil Barnes (NIWA) and Mark Dickson.
Sophie Milloy (2010) "Turbidite lobe development on an aggrading basin floor: an experimental and field investigation of Waitemata Basin clay rich turbidites". Jointly supervised with Heide Friedrich.
Theo Sangster (2010) "The effect of confinement on the depositional evolution of laboratory turbidity currents". Jointly supervised with Heide Friedrich.
Scott Nagel (2009) "An integrated outcrop, modeling and seismic investigation of Mass Transport Complexes from the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand" . In collaboration with GNS. Jointly supervised with Peter King (GNS) and John Cassidy.
Christina Gilderdale (2008) Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the East Coast Bays Formation: a case study from Auckland's North Shore. Completed in Feb 2009.
Stephen Johnston (2008) Seismic stratigraphy of the Northland Basin, New Zealand: Late Oligocene to recent . Jointly supervised with John Cassidy. Completed in Feb 2009.
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