What's on

31.1.2020 Funding granted for Floodrisk

We are happy to receive funding from BMBF for our project Floodrisk. Jointly with our colleagues from geodesy, technical petrophysics, the Eifer institute, geophysics at Ruhr-University Bochum, DMT, the Geological Survey NRW, and in collaboration with THF Agricola Bochum and RAG, we will study the geoscientific aspects of mine flooding. 

29.1.2020 Call for abstracts open until 28.6.2020, EAGE's GET2020 conference in Strasbourg

You are invited to contribute to the first EAGE GET2020 Conference - Geoscience & Engineeing in Energy Transition Conference in Strasbourg on 16-18.11.2020. Topics are geothermal energy, energy storage, CO2 storage as well as cross-use and synergies. Chris serves as committee member.

29.01.2020 Nishant's paper out in JGR

Nishant's paper on Quartz Cementation in Polycrystalline Sandstone: Insights from Phase-Field Simulations has been accepted by Journal of Geophysical Research with his coauthors Andres Abad Gonzalez, Michael Selzer, Britta
Nestler, Benjamin Busch, Christoph Hilgers. Another step towards digital rocks.

17.01.2020 KIT division IV strategy workshop 

We worked out the division's strategy in a great, open minded environmentand now have to bring it on paper.

16. & 17.01.2020 DGMK board meeting on Energy and Raw Materials of the Future in Karlsruhe

With a boosting world population with increasing welfare and income, energy and raw materials may become scarce. It is not neccarily the geological scaricity, but the accessability. Thus, the DGMK board discusses aspects on hydrogen, climate and mobility.

15.01.2020 Benni back from research in Sendai, Japan 

Benni had a good and successful time with our colleague Atshusi Okamoto in Sendai, where he cemented porous rocks under hydrothermal conditions.

31.01.2019 Ivy moves to industry

Dr. Ivy Becker leaves KIT by the end of the month, where she did excellent research on tight reservoir rocks and as member of the state's ThinkTank Industrial Resources Strategies. We wish her all the best for her future career with Equinor  .

24.12.2019 Merry christmas and a happy 2020!

Merry christmas and a happy new year to all our partners, friends and alumni, as well as kind season's grettings. Our 3rd year has passed, which kept us busy with the whole team taking part. The refurb of our labs is almost done, some projects and manuscripts were submitted - keep fingers crossed.

15.12.2019 Invitation to the 17th International Workshop on Water Dynamics - Hydrothermal Fluids in Sendai, Japan

Colleague Prof. Tsuchiya invites to the “17th International Workshop on Water Dynamics” from 27.-29.3.2020 at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, with whom we initiated first scientific collaborations.

15.12.2019 Session on GeoEnergy in Dehli, India, planned

We plan a Session on THEME-27.6 Structural Geology: Restoration, Geothermal Energy at the 36th INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS (IGC) in New Delhi from 2-8 March 2020 with our colleagues. Link  Dieses Symposium lädt zu Beiträgen ein, die sich mit der Integration verschiedener Ansätze befassen, die, ausgehend von strukturellen Untersuchungen, die Gesellschaft beeinflussen und das Bewusstsein in der Bevölkerung erhöhen. Beiträge, die sich einem tiefen Verständnis struktureller Erdsystemprozesse sowie deren Nutzung widmen, sind willkommen. Dies kann die strukturelle und petrophysikalische Heterogenität bei der nachhaltigen Nutzung geothermischer Ressourcen (von niedrigen bis hohen Temperaturen), die Exploration von Kohlenwasserstoff- und Mineralressourcen, die Sequestrierung des Untergrundes, die Anwendung der strukturellen Geologie bei der Untersuchung von Naturgefahren wie Erdrutschen sowie die Restaurierung und Erhaltung von Kulturstätten umfassen. Die Leitung der Session: Rosalda Punturo (Italien), Dominico Liotta (Italien), Christoph Hilgers (Deutschland), Susanta Kumar Samanta (Indien), Sandeep Bhatt (Indien)

12.12.2019 Chris attends Sustainable Mining Invest in Berlin

Today Chrs attends the meeting announced by the division of international mining of the Association of RawMaterials and Mining e.V. (VRB) and DERA at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin. Several SMEs take part, preetning their expertise ranging from exploration and investment, plant engineering to software development. BGR's German RawMaterials Agency DERA presents on recent activities.

06.12.2019 Chris invited to seminar talk in Baden-Baden

Chris gives a presentation on "Availability of economic-strategic raw materials" at an industry-body meeting in Baden-Baden. Primary resrouces are still the basis of almost any industrial process.

05.12.2019 Chris invited to seminar talk in Freiburg

Chris meets with his colleagues Prof. Thomas Kenkmann and Dr. Amar Agarwal in Freiburg and presents some of his group's research at the Freiburger seminar on Strutural Diagenesis in Resevoir Rocks

05.12.2019 Treffen mit Thomas Finkbeiner von King Abdullah University KAUST, Saudi Arabia

Chris and Thomas exchange ideas at KIT on mutual research interests and potential collaboration.

04.12.2019 Alex's paper accepted by MPG

Alex's paper about Rock typing of diagenetically induced heterogeneities - a case study from a deeply-buried clastic Rotliegend reservoir of the Northern German Basin (DOI) was accepted for publication in Marine and Petroleum Geology.

27-29.11.2019 Chris presents at German-Russian Raw Materials Conference in Sankt Petersburg

Chris talks on "The supply of sustainable georesources" at the 12. German-Russian Raw Materials Conference in Sankt Petersburg and is a member of a panel discussion headed by Dr. Stroink from the Helmholtz Association with the Russian deputy minister for edcuation and representatives from research and technology on German-Russiaon climate and sustainability research.

19.11.2019 BMVI project funded

We are happy that the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) funds our project on detection of subsurface geohazards detected by drones. Together with our partners from the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IPF) and industry we will evaluate the sensitivity of various detectors.

18.11.2019 MERID meeting at KIT

Today the team from Hochschule Karlsruhe, Geotechnical Engineering RWTH Aachen and us met at KIT to discuss the progress of the project. Digital 2-phase microstructural grain scale modeling is working and matches well with our experiments. We also successfully started to scale up to reservoir scale.

16.11.2019 OGV Board meting Rauenberg

Chris as the deputy president is pleased to meet the core team of the Upper Rhine Geological Association 1871 in Rauenburg, to disucss the progress of the association and the coming event in Freiberg.

14./15.11.2019 SPE Student Technical Conference and Award to Chris

Our KIT students and Chris attended the student technical conference in Aachen. We are happy to organize the SPE STC conference in Karlsruhe next year. On the occasion, Chris also received SPE Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty.

13.11.2019 Earthquakes in Ruhr mining district increase

The state's broadcast WDR writes about an increase of mining induced earthquakes in the Ruhr area. Since hard coal mining ended in December 2018, the M2.3 earthquake is related to the flooding of the subsurface mines.

11.11.2019 ClicKIT Article about the Iceland Excursion

The KIT magazine clicKIT has published an article about this year's excursion to Iceland guided by Dr. Joerg Meixner, Prof. Dr. Agnes Kontny and Prof. Dr. Thomas Kohl.

07.11.2019 Chris to DGMK Hamburg

Chris tried to make it to the annual DMGK general meeting in Hamburg, but due to delays of the train missed almost everything.

04./05.11.2019 Talks on General Geology

We are having invited young researchers with us, who applied for the junior professorship on General Geology.

10.10.2019 Benni's paper accepted by MPG 

Benni's paper on Reservoir quality controls on Rotliegend fluvio-aeolian wells in Germany and the Netherlands, Southern Permian Basin - Impact of grain coatings and cements has been accepted for publication with Marine and Petroleum Geology.

07.10.2019 Flora's successfully defended her PhD 

Today Flora Feotosa Menezes successfully defended her PhD "Experimental Study of progressive structural changes of anisotropic sandstones" at Martin Luther University, Halle. Main supervior is Prof. Dr. Christof Lempp, Co-Referee Chris.

07.-09.10.2018 Diagenesis course with Dr. Marita Felder

As last year, we are holding our applied diagenesis course with Dr. Marita Felder of PanTerra BV at KIT. Diagenesis describes the alteration of the minerals and the change of the pore volume in the rock by means of thin section analysis.

28.09.2019 Boris in Minneapolis for magnetic measurements 

In the coming days Boris will have the opportunity to measure the magnetic properties at low temperatures in Minneapolis, USA. The magnetic minerals, which are exposed to different frequencies, show different deformation structures, which we will publish soon.

23.-25.09.2019 We present at the DGGV Conference in Münster

Lena Merz will give a lecture on her project MudRisk - drone flying of mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan. Alexander Monsees will present on his project MERID - Reservoir Characterization. Boris Reznik will present his results on geomagnetics.

17.09.2019 ThinkTank Industrial resource strategies

At the Strategic Industrial Group of the ThinkTank Industrial Resource Strategies, Chris presents the first results of Dr. Becker on the topic "Global Comparison of Strategies for Securing the Supply of Raw Materials".

16.09.2019 TwinTraining industrial partner

Chris and Tina visit our industrial partners Schlumberger, Dohmen Herzog und Partner and FiW, who are active in the fields of exploration and production of hydrocarbons, deposit planning and management as well as water.

16.09.2019 Project geo risk assessment with drones approved

Initiated by Lena, Ivy and colleagues from the geodesy department at KIT, we are able to determine the potential of drone flights for the early detection of geo risks in cooperation with the State Office for Geology and Mining Rhineland-Palatinate LGB-RLP and a company.

14.09.2019 Prof. Atsushi Okamoto at KIT 

Benni and Chris welcome our colleague Atsushi from Tohoku University Japan to discuss Benni's planned joint research and stay in Japan.

14.-27.09.2019 TwinTraining: Prof. Soussi and Sonia ben Alaya from Tunis at KIT

As part of the TwinTraining project, Tina and Chris welcome our colleagues Mohamed Soussi from the University of El Manar Tunis and Sonia ben Alaya from ETAP Tunis to KIT.

12.09.2019 Chris at Meggen Raw Materials Day 

Chris is invited to the 5th Meggen Raw Materials Day to give a lecture on "Georesources for Germany".

06.08.-06.09.2019 TwinTraining Students in Germany 

For about one month, our Tunisian students from El Manar University, supervised by Prof. Mohamed Soussi, will complete part of their Master's thesis in Germany. A student at Schlumberger is developing a 3D PetroMod model of an offshore area with Panoro Energy London. Another student develops with us a diagenesis and chemical stratigraphy model of drill cores in cooperation with ETAP.  

02.-04.09.2019 DGMK/KIT Reservoir Days 

We are hosting the first KIT Reservoir Days on the topic of Clastic Resevoir Quality at Leinsweiler Hof, an informal platform for companies active in exploration and production in Germany. We would like to thank Thomas Kolb from DGMK Oberrhein for the greetings and Rob Lander, Linda Bonnell and Reinhard Gaupp for the keynote speeches.

26.08.-07.09.2019 Great excursion Iceland

Together with her colleagues from Geothermics, Prof. Dr. Agnes Kontny leads the large excursion to Iceland.

19.08.2019 Retirement Symposium Prof. Hirt (ETH Zürich)

Prof. Dr. Agnes Kontny participated in the Retirement Symposium for Professor Ann Hirt at the ETH Zurich (Earth and Planetary Magnetism Group) on 19.08., where she gave a lecture within the framework of the program.

12.07.2019 Holcim award to Dr. Ivy Becker

Today Dr. Becker’s receives the Holcim prize, in commemoration of Rudolf Rohrbach for excellent research on geological raw materials. The Holcim AG the world’s second largest producer of cement.

10.07.2019 Visiting Ruhrkohle AG in Herne

Today Dr. Becker and Chris visited Ruhrkohle AG together with our partners from the Geological Survey NRW and DMT, in order to present and discuss or positively evaluated BMBF-project.

01.07.2019 TwinTraining Workshop with Doctors from Fez in Munich

During our workshop with eight doctors from the university of Fez Christina Schmidt, Abdel Kassem and Christoph Hilgers developed important aspects for a successful project closure and -outlook. We had excellent discussions to develop a road map for the sustainability of the TwinTraining project. Afterwards, the doctors continued with their one-week shortcourse at the Technical University Hospital Munich Rechts der Isar.

29.06.2019 Mining Forum conference Berlin

The Mining Forum, a meeting of experts in the mining- and raw materials sector, allowed insight on ground control, exploration of natural resources, post mining and risk management. We hope ot contribute with our positively evaluated BMBF-project to a better process-oriented coupling of geodesy, geology, geophysics and geomechanics.

28.06.2019 German-Arab Business Forum by Ghorfa in Berlin

Under the patronage of HE the minister of economic affairs Peter Altmaier the 22. Economic Forum was hosted in Berlin. Topics such as energy, know-how transfer and digitalization were major topics of the conference on German-Arabic economic affairs.

27.06.2019 MERID Status meeting at KIT in Karlsruhe

In today’s status meeting of all our project partners from WintershallDEA, DGMK, RWTH Aachen and Hochschule Karlsruhe we further constrained our joined efforts. The rock characterization using petrophysics, computer tomography and 2-phase flow are almost completed. The reservoir geometry and upscaling process recommended by the industry partner was constrained.

21.-23.06.2019 Field seminar Ardennes

Alex, Ola and Chris are in the field with our students 4. semester BSc Applied Geosciences. Besides a geological cross section across the Stavelot-Venn massif and sedimentary structures, we highlighted the utilization and post-mining using practical examples. This includes lignite mining, hard coal mining, lead zinc mineralization as well as mass-raw materials sand, gravel and limestone.

17.06.2019 Wintershall DEA at KIT

We are happy to welcome Dr. Adelmann. We reported on our joint project and discussed topics on digitalization.

11 & 12.06.2019 DRT conference in Tubingen

Chris, Ivy and Franziska present their research on joint in fractured carbonates (Muschekalk) at the DRT – Deformation.Rheology.Tectonics conference. Chris and colleagues also run a pre-field trip to the black forest on day one, which includes a visit to the city of Staufen. The city was moving upwards by several decimeters due to a false completing of geothermal wells, resulting in massive construction failures in the historical old city. Groundwater migrated upwards from fracture carbonate Muschelkalk into the Gipskeuper, a sandy facies containing anhydrite. Due to the volume increase of the anhydrite-gypsum transformation, the city moved upwards several decimeters. Such failure wouldn’t have been occurred using the technical guidelines well established over decades and thousands of wells penetrating evaporites such as anhydrite. With great delight Chris could give a laudatio on Janos Urai, who was recognized by DRT for his lifetime achievements.

01.06 & 08.06.2019 Visiting an exploration well 

We are happy to visit a deep exploration well in the Rhine graben with our students. As Applied Geosciences@KIT the sustainable utilization of the subsurface and its resources is the major responsibility of our discipline.

20.05.2019 clicKIT article about mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan

Campus magazine clicKIT published an article in German about our research on mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan. There, exciting images on such erupting gas chimneys, and Lena was also successful to map one of them before and after explusion. Mud volcanoes are natural seeps of oil and gas being carried to the surface and air.

29.04.2019 clicKIT article about the field trip to Oman

Campus magazine clicKIT published an article in German about our field trip to Oman in fall 2018. There, exciting insights into the geology, land and culture of this diverse country on the Persian Gulf are provided.

25.04.2019 Dr. Ivy Becker receives Georg-Hunaeus award

Dr. Ivy Becker received the Georg-Hunaeus-Prize at the annual meeting of the DGMK in Celle on 25.4.2019, the highest award in the field of geosciences and engineering sciences in Germany with industrial application for exploration, deep drilling technology, extraction and storage of energy raw materials.

The DGMK awards the DGMK Prize for Young Scientists for outstanding scientific work by young German scientists. The award in the fields of exploration, deep drilling technology, extraction and storage of crude oil and natural gas is supplemented by the "Georg-Hunaeus-Prize". The DGMK e.V. is a network of experts from industry and research. As non-profit association the DGMK offers a neutral platform for the technical-scientific exchange between science and practice.

25./26.04.2019 DGMK/ÖGEW Spring Conference, Celle

Alex presents his results on "Integrating Geology and Petrophysics into Numerical Models - A Step Towards the Digitalization of Rocks", co-authors Benjamin Busch, Amol Subhedar, Britta Nestler and Christoph Hilgers, at the DGMK Celle.

Ivy presents in her Georg-Hunaeus presentation her results on "Structural and Diagenetic Controls on Reservoir Quality of Tight Formations", co-authors Benjamin Busch, Bastian Koehrer and Christoph Hilgers at the DGMK Celle, and also presents "Incorporation of New Technologies for Sustainable and Economical Mining Solutions" (co-authors Jochen Kolb and Christoph Hilgers).

Lena presents her results on "Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in Azerbaijan in Relation to Faulting and Mud
Volcanism", co-authors Ayten Huseynova, Elbay Babayev and Christoph Hilgers, and "Faults and Fracture Networks in Upper Muschelkalk Outcrop Analogues Detected by Photogrammetry, Upper Rhine Graben (URG), Germany", co-authors Uwe Baier and Christoph Hilgers, at the DGMK Celle.

Tina presents her results on "Lateral Heterogeneity of Reservoir Properties in an Homogenous Lower Triassic Sandstone, Southern Germany", co-authors Benjamin Busch and Christoph Hilgers, at the DGMK Celle.

24.04.2019 Chairing EAGE-DGMK Joint Workshop on Underground Storage of Hydrogen

Dr. Christian Buecker, DEA, and Chris chair an international workshop on hydrogen-storage in the subsurface. With an increased amount of renewable energy from wind and PV, and eventually the generation of hydrogen from natural gas, hydrogen may play an important role in the European gas supply. This provides a number of challenges and opportunities to use the gas infrastructure. We ask for contributions on hydrognen infrastructure, storage in the subsurface, storage management, numerical simulations and best practices. We invite scientists, researchers and industry experts to outline the progress and state of the art on subsurface hydrogen storage. The one-day EAGE/DGMK joint workshop on Underground Storage of Hydrogen aims to exchange knowhow, case studies, technologies and work flows on all aspects of subsurface storage of hydrogen. Further information can be obtained here .

23.-27.4.2019 OGV Conference in Koblenz

The 140th conference of the Geological Society Upper Rhine OGV e.V. will be held from 23.-27.5.2019 in Koblenz on the Geology and Raw Material in the Eifel and Westerwald. Many field trips on various topics offer insights to the regional geology. The OGV e.V. is the oldest and largest society focused on regional geology in Germany. It was founded 1871 near Karlsruhe in Rothenfels by Chris predecessor Adolph Knop with colleagues from Heidelberg and Freiburg, and scholars from Achern/Baden and Mannheim. Chris is happy to contribute to OGV’s management board.

7.3.2019 Chris' talk in Oman

Chris plans a talk at the German University of Technology GUtech on "Reservoir quality in siliciclastics and carbonates".

28.2.2019 Alex and Alex in England

Today Alex M. and Alex S. drive to the UK to sample rocks in quarries and mines. The dune sediments are expected to be excellent analogues for the reservoir we are working on in our MERID project with DEA.

27.2.2019 Chris' keynote in Cairo, Egypt

Today Chris presents a keynote on "Effect of structure and diagenesis on reservoir quality in siliciclastics" at the  22ten International Conference on Petroleum Mineral Resources and Development, organized by the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute EPRI. Besides Exploration and Production sessions were delivered on Applied Chemistry, Biotechnology, Renewable Energy, Catalysis, Corrosion, Nanotechnology and Petrochemistry.

15.2.2019 Geotherm fair in Offenburg

We visited known and new companies dealing with exploration and production at the Geotherm fair, and presented our services on reservoir-characterization and odeling at our KIT booth.

14.2.2019 guest Steffen Goebbles

Today we brainstorm with our colleague Prof. Dr. Steffen Goebbels about pattern recognition, AI and other items.

5.2.2019 guest Klaus Reicherter

We are happy to meet our former colleague Prof. Dr. Klaus Reicherter from RWTH Aachen University, with whom we discussed potential joint projects after his talk on Recent Neotectonics in the Karlsruhe area.

22./23.1.2019 Benni and Alex visited DEA

Benni and Alex presented their preliminary results of the MERID project together with partners from RWTH Aachen and HS Karlsruhe to their industrial partner, DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG in Hamburg and Wietze.

11.1.2019 Lena's and Agnes paper published in Tectonophysics

Lena's and Agnes' Paper on Magnetic fabric development in the Lower Seve thrust from the COSC-1 drilling, Swedish Caledonides has been published in Tectonophysics, Vol., 751, 2019, 212-228.

9.1.2019 Ivy's paper on Ca2 fractures successfully passed review 

Our paper on the correlation of fractures from outcrops and horizontal wells successfully passed the review process of Marine & Petroleum Geology. 

7.1.2019 Ivy's paper on Ca2 carbonate corrleation accepted

Ivy's paper is now in print in ZdGG. 

24.12.2018 Merry Christmas

We wish you merry xmas, season's greeting and a happy and peaceful 2019.

10.12.2018 Ivy's PhD printed

Really cool, I got a hard copy of Ivy's PhD thesis, it is #3 at KIT, which you can get here.

4.-8.12.2018 Chris and Lena in Azerbaijan

Chris and Lena are in Baku, Azerbaijan, and studying mud volcanoes and groundwater for our MudRisk project. Lena presented her research at an international SPE conference in Baku with young researchers from Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Kazachstan and others. Besides, we met people at the Azerbaijan ministry, AHK, DAAD, the German Embassy, GIZ, Higher Technology Park, National Academy of Science and the Oil and Gas Institute in Baku. It would be a pleasure to strengthen ties and extent joint research efforts.

2./3.12.2018 BMBF visit to Bonn

Chris, Adel Meguid and Tina have some meetings in Bonn to present and discuss achieviements and potentials of our TwinTraining project with colleagues and industry partners in North Arfrica.

28.-29.11.2018 Benni presents MERID at status meeting in Berlin

Benni presents our first results at the annual status meeting of GeoN in Berlin, together with Amol and Sven. Alex and Chris did the backup work.  It seems we got a better understanding of chemical compaction, and we also successfully tansferred and calibrated digital rocks and natual rocks for two-phase flow in digital rocks.

27.11.2018 Invited talk by Chris at BAM, Berlin

Chris presents first results of "MERID - Microstructural influence on the reservoir integrity" at the Bundesanstalt fuer Materialfporschung und -prüfung in Berlin, in the Cluster Symposium "CO2 and H2 Technologies for the Energy Transition".   

25.11.2018 Benni paper out in Marine and Petroleum Geology

Our paper "Porosity evolution of two Upper Carboniferous tight-gas-fluvial sandstone reservoirs: Impact of fractures and total cement volumes on reservoir quality" on Tight Gas reservoirs is now online in Marine and Petroleum Geology (link doi). The fluvial siliciclastics show different pore cementation in two wells, which can simply be linked to the difference inversion tectonics and associated temperature variations.

22.11.2018 Ivy's PhD thesis is online

Here you get her research covering subsalt tight reservoirs integrating diagenesis, petrophysics and fracturing. 

16.11.2018 TwinTraining Student Iman Mansir at KIT

We welcome Iman from Agadir University at KIT. During her stay she will learn about our analytics and workflows, before she moves on to our partners in Bingen and Aachen.

12.11.2018 Researcher Ayten at KIT 

We welcome Dr. Ayten Khasayeva-Huseynova from the National Academy of Science in Baku, Azerbaijan. Funded by our project MudRisk, she studies the methane degassing and the seepage of orgnics from mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan.

8.11.2018 Workshop Modeling

Today Janos Urai from RWTH Aachen visits KIT to discuss with Britta Nestler and coworkers the modeling of fracture cements. 

5.11.2018 Workshop Digital Oil Fields

Today Chris and Nishant from Britta Nestler's research group participate in the DGMK Workshop in Hannover.

30.10.-2.11.2018 Trip to Cairo

Chris meets our partner Prof. Abdel Kassem and representatives from industry, ministries and academia in the frame of our TwinTraining project.

18.10.2018 Resources efficiency congress, Karlsruhe

Today Dr. Ivy Becker and Chris take part in the frame of the ThinkTank Innovative Resource Strategies.

29.9.-10.10.2018 Excursion Oman

Now we are the beautiful sultanate of Oman together with our KIT students and experts from the service- and oil industry.

24.-28.9.2018 Field methods Geology

Our frist year field methods in the bachelor are held in Germany and France. We focus on rock identification and basic mapping skills with maps and compass.

16-21.9.2018 Field course Reservoir-Geology, S-England

Reservoirs are porous or fractured rock volumes in the subsurface. We study sedimentary and structural heterogeneities of rock bodies along the the coast in S-England, to generate better models of transport of fluids in the subsurface. Geofluids are ground water e.g. drinking- and process water, formation water e.g. deep geothermal brines, storage of oil gas or CO2, and fossil energy- and carbon resources oil and gas as energy dense fluids for transportation and the chemical industry.

14.9.2018 Field course for exploration company

Today Ivy and Chris run a field trip for an exploration company and discuss the benefit of reservoir analogs for subsurface predition.

11-13.9.2018 Diagenesis - course with Dr. Marita Felder

We are happy to run our applied diagenesis course with Dr. Marita Felder from PanTerra BV at KIT, as in the previous years. Diagenesis describes the alteration and of minerals and the change of pore volume in rocks by thin section analysis.

5.9.2018 Chris at workshop Future Energy- and Raw Materials Supply

Chris participates on workshop Future Energy- and Raw Materials Supply: Visions, Chances and Boundary Conditions, organized by the DGMK.

5.9.2018 Lena presents on mud volcanoes in Azeri at DGGV conference Bonn

Lena Merz presents her first results on mud volcanoes in Aserbaijan. We study the mass transport of mud and its effect on ground water in relation to structural geology, in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences in Baku.

4.9.2018 Lena gives a talk on drones and lidar at DGGV conference Bonn

Lena Merz presents her results on drones and terrestrial laser scanning of fractured carbonates. Fractured carbonates host most of the world-wide hydrocarbon resources.

1.9.2018 DAAD scholar Alena Veresovich aus Moskauom Moscow, Gubkin University at KIT

We welcome Alena at KIT, who will carry out the  seismic interpretation of a reservoir.

3.8.2018 Chris visits Gubkin University in Moscow

Today Chris presents recent ouctomes on tight reservoirs in the frame of the one-week shortcourse "Technology for Efficient and Safe Arctic Development" (30.7-3.8.2018). Following we exchanged a MoU with Gubkin's rector Viktor Martynov. The impressive Institute with then presented by the dean of geosciences.

1.8.2018 Ivy Diss defense

August 1st is scheduled for Ivy's diss defense at KIT, reviewed by an examination committee and external reviewers Reinhard Gaupp, Jena, and Stephen Laubach, University of Texas, Austin. Congratulations to Dr. Ivy for her successful defense.

23.7.2018 Agnes in Moscow

Agnes presents her research on rock magentics at a conference in Russia and discusses the application of rock magnetics for oil stained mudstones.

19.7.2018 KIT Talks: Potential of Raw Materials - Why prospection and exploration are indispensable

Today  Prof. Christoph Hilgers and Prof. Jochen Kolb talk on "Potential raw materials - why prospection and exploration are indispensable", starting 18.30h in room 145 bldg 50.41. The presentations start after a welcome by the dean with a talk on "Energy and Mineral Raw Materials: Pores, fractures and cements" by Christoph Hilgers. Followed by a talk of our colleague Jochen Kolb on "Mineral and Metallic Raw Materials: Research and formation processes". After the 45 min talks the two speakers invite the audience for a snack and drink. The two talks are the kick-off of the Walchner lectures at Applied Geosciences KIT. The geologist Friedrich August Walchner was member of the founding team of KIT in 1825 and KITs second president.

19.7.2018 Invited talk by Dr. Sandra Amann

Today Dr. Alexandra Amann-Hildenbrand from RWTH Aachen talks in the Petrotherm Seminar 12h on "Effective gas permeability of tight sandstones & shales at different water saturations and effective stress conditions". Dr. Amann-Hildenbrand is a highly reputed researcher on experimental characterization of fluid migration in rocks. She works in a petrophysical lab which is one of the few labs worldwide able to measure the variation of permeability in tight rocks.

10.7.2018 LookIT Sustainable Resources Managment online

KIT's Special Issue LookKIT 02/2018 on Sustainable Resources Management has been published and covers an article by Chris on Rock as Raw Material, p.28-30. The volume can be downloaded for free here. 

3.7.2018 Chris knocked out

An optimization of air intake was required which in turn optimizes cumbustion to get up the mountains quicker. 

11.-14.6.2018 Presentations by Benni, Ivy and Tina at EAGE Copenhagen

We present at this year's EAGE annual conference in Copenhagen on 

We P4 07 11.20h - Coupling Diagenesis and Petrophysics in Red Bed Siliciclastics to Infer Fluid Flow Anisotropies – Analog Studies From SW Germany - C. Schmidt, B. Busch, C. Hilgers 

We G 09 13.30h - Reservoir Quality Modelling in Deeply-Buried Permian Rotliegendes Sandstones, N-Germany: Impact of Illite Textures - B. Busch, C. Hilgers, D. Adelmann*, *Wintershall Holding GmbH

We G 13 15.30h - Developing an Exploration Strategy for Upper Carboniferous Tight Gas Sandstone Reservoirs - I. Becker, P. Wüstefeld, B. Koehrer*, B. Busch, C. Hilgers, *Wintershall Holding
GmbH

7.6.2018 Invited talk by Chris at Raw Material Day, Eisenberg, Rhineland-Palantina

This afternoon Chris presents the group's research on contact-free quality measurements at the outcrop wall. The state's raw materials is a get together of the mining industry in southwest Germany. Rhineland Palantina produces approximately 35 Mio tons of raw materials per annum.

5.6.2018 Professor Reinhard Gaupp, Jena University gives guest lecture at KIT

Our guest and colleague professor Reinhard Gaupp will give a lecture on Buntsandsone diagenesis in and around the Rhine graben in the Petrotherm Seminar. We will meet at building 50.41, room 007 at 12h.

30.5.2018 SPE Award for KIT student Valentin Goldberg

GSSPE awards Valentin Goldberg with the Chapter / HSG Student Award. Valentin's exceptional committment for the KIT SPE group and his public relations to widen the network between students and industry will be honored during the SPE meeting on June 21st.

25.5.2018 Nishant's paper accepted in Geothermal Energy

Our paper Modeling fracture cementation processes in calcite limestone: A phase-field study by Nishant Prajapati, Michael Selzer, Britta Nestler, Benjamin Busch, Christoph Hilgers will be published in Geothermal Energy.

20.5.2018 Ivy's paper online in Marine and Petroleum Geology

Our paper entitled Comparing fracture statistics from outcrop and reservoir data using conventional manual and t-LiDAR derived scanlines in Ca2 carbonates from the Southern Permian Basin, Germany by Ivy Becker, Bastian Koehrer, Marius Waldvogel, Wolgang Jelinek and Christoph Hilgers is now available online and will be printed in volume 95, pp 228-245.

15.5.2018 Partners and Chris founded RawMaterial Knowledge Society in Berlin

Associations of domestic raw material industries, company representatives and universities are involved in shaping RohstoffWissen.org for some time, and founded today the regisitered society RohstoffWissen (raw materal knowledge) in Berlin. Objective of the society is the comprehensible presentation of raw material chains and the importance of the domestic exploration industry for the industrial site Germany. Christoph Hilgers and his colleague Jochen Kolb support and promote  the establishment of the society.

11.5.2018 Chris' KIT-tour for citizens from Bretten at KIT

Citizens from Diedelsheim and Bretten visited us on the afternoon to get some insight on a applied geosciences. After a short campus south tour by Chris with informations on the progress of KIT, one of the world's oldest universities of technology, Dr. Steeger from the Chair of Engineering Geology at KIT Applied Geosciences presented ongoing research on shallow geothermal energy projects in the lab and on the campus test site. Afterwards, Chris presented the challanges of raw material chains exemplified by a wind power plant. Challenges in raw material scarcity and more importantly raw material trade were demonstrated by sand (for solar panels, glass and fiber optics etc.), cobalt (for steel hardening, lithium batteries etc.) and phosphate (as fertilizer etc.). Finally, the importance of domestic raw material exploration was highlighted by the produced volumes from sedimentary mines.

22.-26.04.2018 TwinTraining with University Tunis El Manar, Tunisia

Christina and Chris jointly with Pr Soussi from UTM and team had their first TwinTraining on Reservoir Sedimentology at UTM. TwinTraining is funded by BMBF. Together with L’Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (ETAP), Sen. Eng. Sonia Benalaya, the practical training covered classroom exercises (half day), lab exercises (half day), field exercises in the Atlas mountains (one day) and two days in the company's core shed. Christina also introduced the machines for field plugging and reservoir analysis under the microscope.

TwinTraining is a concept we developed jointly with our partners in Tunisia and Morocco. Twins from local faculty and Germany, integrating professionals and faculty on campus, provides twin hands-on training to increase the mutual exchange of experience and knowledge and increase employability.

23.-27.04.2018 TwinTraining with University Hospital, Fez, Morocco

The first TwinTraining on Clinical Studies is carried out jointly between PD Dr. Michael Quante and team from University hospital Munich Rechts der Isar in Fez. The module, deisgned and managed by our partner Prof Meguid Kassem from Cairo University also involves industry partners from Roche and SpringerNature. Jointly with our partners Prof Mohammed el Azami el Idrissi, Vice-Dean, Dr. Mohcine Zouk from the International Cancer Research Center and teams

16.-19.04.2018 TwinTraining with University Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco

Georg Meiners, formerly AHU AG, and Marc Dohmen from Dohmen Herzog & Partner GmbH had their first TwinTraining courses in Agadir on water and mining, respectively. Together with colleagues Prof. Dr. Lhoussaine Bouchaou, Dr. Said Boutaleb from hydrogeology and Prof. Moha Ikenne from minerals and mining we had twin courses on hard- and softskills including training on AutoCad based AutoPLAN. TwinTraining covers more than ten companies and six universities and is managed by Christina Schmidt.

18.04.2018 Ivy Becker presents at DGMK conference, Celle

Today Ivy Becker gives a talk at DGMK's annual meeting in Celle on "Outcrop to Well – Transferability of Zechstein Ca2 Carbonates from the Eichsfeld-Altmark Swell to the North German Subsurface", coauthored by Bastian Koehrer*, Wolfgang Jelinek* and Christoph Hilgers (*Wintershall Holding GmbH, Barnstorf)

18.04.2018 Christina Schmidt presents at DGMK conference, Celle

Today Christina presents her results at DGMK Celle on "Sediment Structures Affecting Flow in Eolian Rotliegend Sandstones", coauthored by Benjamin Busch and Christoph Hilgers. She also presents our TwinTraining program "Industry – University Collaboration: TwinTraining of Energy-, Mineral- and Water Resources in the MENA Region" which is sponsored by BMBF.

18.04.2018 Lena Merz presents at DGMK conference, Celle

Lena presents her results on "Automated Fracture Analysis in Middle Triassic Muschelkalk, Upper Rhine Graben" coauthored by Yasar Manss and Christoph Hilgers at DGMK Celle.

09.04.2018 Visit of quarry and production

Today Chris visits a large carbonate quarry and cement factory in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Carbonate rocks are in important raw material for construction, chemical industry and pharmacy, glass industry, food industry and agriculture.

08.04.2018 Presentations accepted for EAGE Kopenhagen, Denmark, 11.-14.6.2018

Our contributions were accepted as requested. We will give two talks on red bed diagenesis and fractured carbonates, and one poster on diagenesis.

04.-07.04.2018 OGV conference in Braunschweig

Again a wonderful and well organized annual meeting of Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereins. Here it is not about better, bigger, faster, but to enjoy the beautiful outcrops of the region, this year around Braunschweig. Above the ground complex Mesozoic geology drien by extension, inversion and salt tectonics in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Belowground in mine Konrad located in the Gifhorner trough, Chris got info about this nuclear waste deposit, and sampled some beautiful, Upper Jurassic iron ore oolite.

27.-28.03.2018 Castle Windeck

Today we met on achievements and new challenges within the KIT Centre for Climate and Environment. KIT's Centers bundle major topics of KIT's faculties and Helmholtz research centers.

19-25.03.2018 Mapping course in Kirn

Agnes and Chris are back to the field with our students again. First at chilly conditions, finally spring came. Again we found beautiful new outcrops and now have a nice set to demonstrate the earth history in the this region.

15.03.2018 Our exploring companies in Baden-Wuerttemberg

Today Chris got some first-hand information visiting representatives of the state's mining sector. 100 million tons of rocks and sediments are mined every year in Baden-Wuerttemberg, driving the state's construction sector, chemical industry and other production. 

14.03.2018 Helmholtz-evaluation

POF3 (project oriented research 3) is being evaluated at KIT the whole week. Today RU5 (research unit 5) presented its excellent results, the team headed by colleague Thomas Kohl.

02.03.2018 Geotherm in Offenburg

Today Chris visited the Geotherm fair nearby. I didn't make it to the presentations but was caught by the numerous exhibitors. Numerous faces but unexpected, whether from Halliburton, Geomecon or Geothermal Engineering, etc. old friends now at MGS Europe and geobit, and many new ones.

20.02.2018 Think Tank kick-off

Today we kick-off the Thnk Tank Innovative Resoures Strategies under auspices of HE the Minister of Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, followed by a reception with industry.

15.02.2018 E&P brainstorm

Today we welcomed guests from E&P companies to discuss the research potential of fractured carbontes. Fractured carbonates are among the largest hydrocarbon reservoirs worldwide. The prediction of fractures and fracture swarms at several kilometers depths remains is a wonderful challenge.

02.02.2018 NAGRA visit

Today we visited NAGRA in Switzerland and discussed the dating of structures in caves, its relation to the Black Forest uplift and the change of the draining system.

01.02.2018 Agnes and Boris visiting Manish at IIT Kharagpur

Today Agnes and Boris are going to visit our friend and Humboldt fellow Professor Manish Mamtani in India. We strive to deepen our collaboration and strengthen the exchange of students and researchers .

01.02.2018 Benni's AAPG Bulletin paper published

Our paper "Reservoir quality and burial model evaluation by kinetic quartz and illite cementation modeling: Case study of Rotliegendes, north Germany" on a novel approach of reservoir quality prediction modeling has been published in the current issue of AAPG Bulletin.

30.01.2018 Our Student Group online

Our SPE Student Group is now online and can be contacted via website and facebook. The objective of the group founded in summer 2016 is to broaden the network with industry and the exchange of information. Activities to date covered tunneling, water, geothermal, oil and gas, raw materials and mining, and subjects such as seismic acquisition, pump technologies and other applied aspects.

18.01.2018 Talk by Siegfried Muessig on "What the frac is going on"

Our KIT alumnus Dr Siegfried Muessig will present an overview of various production enhancement technologies including fracing is given. Al these technologies have been applied world-wide in the oil and gas Industry for many decades. Siegfried is currently Managing Director of MT Oil Consulting GmbH. He holds a Diploma and a PhD in Physics of the University Karlsruhe, Germany. Between 1982 and 2013 he worked for Shell and its affiliates in several technical and management positions in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, USA, Syria and Oman. Siegfried Muessig has published 36 technical papers and 6 patents, is a guest lecturer at the University of Leoben, Austria and an active SPE member. He served twice as Chairman of the German SPE section and was appointed “distinguished lecturer” 2014/15.

10.01.2018 Paper on t-LiDAR fracture statistics accepted by AAPG Bulletin

Our paper on "Evaluation of a workflow to derive t-LiDAR fracture statistics of a tight gas sandstone reservoir analog has been accepted by AAPG Bulletin. The manuscript by Patrick Wuestefeld, Maite de Medeiros and Bastian Koehrer, Dominik Sibbing, Leif Kobbelt and me  outlines our new semi-automated workflow to detect and analyze fracture data from mined quarry walls in tight sandstones.

09.01.2018 Think Tank "Industrial Resources Strategy" agreed by Council of Ministers of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg

The more efficient utilization and consumption of primary and secondary raw material will become an integral part of the industrial hub Germany, considering the decreasing global resources and an exponentially growing world population. Expertise in exploration, production and evaluation of primary raw materials, alternative resources and the usage of waste material will be geological contributions.

Geology as youngest of the four established natural sciences developed during the growing demand of natural resources since Gregor Agricola (1494-1555) towards a self-contained science, in order to better understand the complex processes of the earth and ensure the supply of the society by exploration and production of resources such as water, rocks, metals, mineral-, organic- and energy.

After intensive months of work headed by our vice president Hirth and together with collegues Kolb, Schultmann, Schulze and Stapf we are delighted that the Council of Ministers supports our joint initative with industry.

Press relases (in German) Land, KIT, SWR2 Radio, SWR3 TV

22.12.2017 Merry xmas and a happy new 2018

We wish you a peaceful christmas and a happy new year.

15.12.2017 Grosse Exkursion Oman 2018

Agnes, Benni and Chris offer a field trip to Oman in 2018. Planned start is September 29th 2018, planned return October 10th 2018. We cross the alpine orogen, besides withe beaches and black mantle rocks, Snowball earth, fossil and recent carbonates and salt, sand- and stone deserts won't stop us to set up our camp on the Indian Ocean.

5.12.2017 Talk by Dr. Carsten Reinhold, Managing Director Rheinpetroleum GmbH

Today our SPE Group welcomes our colleague Dr. Carsten Reinhold. Carsten presents for our students and other interested persons insights on the exploration of reservoirs in the Upper Rhine graben and job opportunities for geoscientists. The presentation starts at 19.30h in the AVG building, house 50.41. 

4./5.12.2017 The German University of Technology GUtech 10th anniversary

Chris is invited to the 10th anniversary of GUtech, which he planned and put in operation with a great team from 2005 to 2009. Initially as CEO of a subunit at WZL RWTH Aachen dealing with contracts and project plans, he than moved to Muscat, Oman, to put the LLC in operation with Barbara Steauble and great staff. NOTE: The ceremonies were postponed due to the announcement of the National Day in Oman 

27.11.2017 We are getting a new UAV

Lena will pick up her new tool in Munich, after successfully having passed her drone licence.

24.11.2017 State's ThinkTank industrial resources strategies announced

After several weeks of intense work with colleagues in the ThinkTank, and more to come, Chris is happy that all efforts proved success. The ThinkTank brings together industry, politics and science. Improved technologies for a sustainable provision of primary raw materials and by-products, secondary materials by urban mining, and sophisticated recycling and final storage are part of a process chain building innovative prodcuts for a developing society. 

23.11.2017 DGMK meeting Oberrhein at MIRO, Karlsruhe

Chris went to MIRO Karlsruhe, one of the largest refineries in Europe, and attended talks on process engineering talks under the topic energy change.

20./21.11.2017 MERID kickoff at DEA, Hamburg

Now Benni and me are in Hamburg. After a meeting with DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG and DGMK in the morning on our digital rock project and how to link that to geomechanical reservoir scale, we spent the rest of the day with German scientists presenting their projects with the BMBF funded Geo:N initiative. 

17.11.2017 Short trip to Baku

Today Lena and me met with our colleagues at the National Academy of Science of Azerbaijan in Baku to kick off our BMBF funded MudRisk project locally. We had additional talks at the TechnoPark Baku, and then split up for Lena's first fist to the Azeri mud volcanoes, and me talking about applied research with SOCAR.

9.-10.11.2017 SPE Annual conference

Our KIT students are going to present their work at the annual student technical conference SPE STC in Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The SPE Hochschulgruppe was founded in 2016 by our students and Chris. Our SPE students are proactive: They invite industry covering all relevant fields from petroleum, water, engineering and mining, arrange industry visits and social events.

20.10.2017 LGRB

We thank the LGRB Freiburg (State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining), Prof. Dr. Eckhardt and colleagues, hosting us and sharing knowledge.

13.10.2017 SpringerNature at Frankurt bookfair

Chris had very constructive discussions with colleagues from SpringerNature to join our TwinTraining project.

05.10.2017 Ivy's talk at EAGE

Ivy presents her results at the EAGE workshop on Evaluating and Drilling of Carbonate Reservoirs, session Geomechanics and Rock Properties, entitled "Comparison of open fractures in Ca2 carbonates from outcrop and well, using laser scans, image logs, and 3D stress". 

04.-06.10.2017 Diagenesis short course

We run a diagenesis course with Marita Felder from PanTerra BV, Netherlands. Panterra is a service company for the E&P industry worldwide, and we are happy to have their expertise shared with our students.  

01.10.2017 TwinTraining project funded

We just received a feedback that our TwinTraining program will be funded by BMBF. Together with our partner Prof. Abel Meguid Kassem we set up a project of academic- and industry partners implementing applied teaching modules in North Africa. Our academic partners cover the geology-mining sector and the medical sector and involve the University of Tunis El Manar, the University at Fez and the University at Agadir. We also set up a team of industry representatives AHU AG, ETAP, Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH, GeoThermal Engineering GmbH, Dohmen Herzog & Partner GmbH, FiW e.V., Frimberger GmbH, Karl Storz GmbH & Co KG, Roche AG, Schlumberger GmbH, SpringerNature, and other partners, which are acknowledged to support the project. More national and international partners are welcomed to join the initiative to strengthen the ties between academia and business and make research more applied.

25.09.2017 Rohstoff Wissen initiative, raw materials initiative

We are happy to contribute to the raw material initiative, kicked off by NGOs, universities and companies to share how, why and raw materials drive our economy. More information here

25.-29.09.2017 Field methods lecture, French Rhine graben shoulder

We are in the field again. With our 1st year students we explore Mesozoic rocks around the French Rhine graben shoulder and introduce them to basic geology methods, together with our colleagues from Engineering Geology. 

17-22.09.2017 Field trip Reservoir-Geology, S-England

Our field trip explores the cliffs along the Bristol channels and the Channel, covering the Mesozoic evolution, both sedimentary and structurally, of the most important reservoir rocks of NW-Europe. 

12.09.2017 Geology and Medicine - TwinTeaching meeting in Munich

Today we meet the doctors from Morocco and Tunis at the University Hospital in Munich. It's part of a project we lead to exchange interdisciplinary and intercultural expertise on hands-on teaching at universities. We thought that geology and medicine are quite related, and indeed kidney stones and drilling holes = endoscopy is not much different. And most importantly, all academic partners and industry partners have a push to bring the project to success.

07.-08.9.2017 we are in the field again

Seems we like real rock. Chris joins Nico's trip to the Wutach-Valley, apparently exposing the full Mesozoic sequence around the Rhine Graben. Let's see.

04.09.2017 Agnes, Tina and students hitting rocks in the Pyrenees

Agnes, Tina and students are up on their way to the Pyrenees, Spain. It's not the sunshine driving them, but the stunning geology.

29.08.2017 we are in the field

Yasar and Chris detected some super structures in Muschelkalk carbonates near Karlsruhe. Rocks were extended, than squeezed together, and fractured. It seems the story becomes really cool.

23.08.2017 Presentation on carbonates

Chris and Ivy visited Wintershall where Ivy presented the result of her carbonate work, which improves the understanding of subsurface fractured reservoirs.

22.08.2017 it's deep, it's DEEP

Today we met our friend Baerbel from DEEP Underground Engineering GmbH. Deep is a global expert in subsurface constructions such as caverns.

27.07.2017 Rob and Linda from GeoCosm with us

Today we met our friends and colleagues from the US based company GeoCosm, Rob Lander and Linda Bonnell. Both are experts in reservoir quality prediction modelling and invented the modeling software TouchStone, which they kindly allow us to use for applied research projects on reservoir sandstones.

21.07.2017 Patrick's PhD defense

Today Patrick successfully defended his PhD work at KIT on the diagenesis and structural evolution of tight gas sandstones. Congratulations!

05.07.2017 Ivy's paper accepted in Journal of Petroleum Geology

Ivy's paper on tight gas reservoir analogs is accepted for publication in the Journal of Petroleum Geology.

13.06.2017 Coupled grain-reservoir scale project funded

Our joint BMBF GeoN proposal with Prof. Britta Nestler, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe, and Prof. Peter Ziegler and Martin Feinendegen, RWTH Aachen, in collaboration with DGMK and DEA will be funded by BMBF starting July 2017. The three year research project couples grain to reservoir scale and couples pore scale two-phase flow anisotropies during reservoir depletion.

13.06.017 Humboldt fellow Prof. Mamtami with us

Our guest Prof. Mansih Mamtami from IIT Kharagpur, India, visits us for one month as Humboldt fellow. We are happy to welcome Manish, who will carry out rock magnetic measurements and work on vein microstructures.

12.06.2017 Mudvolcanoe project funded

Our joint proposal with Azerbaijan National Academy of Science on geohazards will be funded by BMBF, starting late summer 2017. We study the geohazards on soil, water and the subsurface induced by mud volcanoes. Using UAV and sophisticated detectors, we aim to map the expulsion of gases along fractures, an tie up with other local partners.

12.-15.6.2017 Talk on carbonate fracs at EAGE

Ivy will present at talk on carbonate fractures from reservoir analogs and well at the 79th EAGE conference in Paris.

11.06.2017 Scotland field course

After one week around Ben Nevis, Glen Coe, Ballachulish, Appin, Kerrera, Glenfinnan and mapping around Kinlochleven, students returned safely home. We studied the metamorphism and deformation of polyphase deformed rock and its overlying Paleozoic and the Z on Z, Z on S and S on Z, the S1,2, 3  issues will not further harm our understanding.

10.06.2017 Another paper accepted in Marine and Petroleum Geology

Our paper on Kilometer-scale fault-related thermal anomalies in tight gas sandstone by Patrick Wuestefeld, Ulrike Hilse, Bastian Koehrer, Dirk Adelmann and Chris has been accepted by the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology. Funding by Wintershall is greatly acknowledged.

07.06.2017 Paper accepted in Marine and Petroleum Geology

Our paper entitled Critical evaluation of an Upper Carbonifersou tight gas sandstone reservoir analog: Diagenesis and petrophysical aspects by Patrick Wuestefeld, Ulrike Hilse, Volker Lueders, Klaus Wemmer, Bastian Koehrer and Chris has been accepted by the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology. Funding by Wintershall is greatly acknowledged.

22.5.2017 Visit GeoData, Garbsen, Hannover

Benni and Chris visited E&P service provider GeoData in Garbsen to get a first-hand insight in the services offered, and the options for collaboration.

5.4.2017 Visit from Socar at KIT

We welcome two representatives from Socar, Azerbaijan's state oil company, to discuss future collaboration.

13.4.2017 Visit Bamberger Natursteinwerke

Tina and Chris visited red bed outcrops in southern Germany and thank Bamberger Natursteinwerke for their support of our ongoing study.

5.-6.4.2017 Carbonate fracs at DGMK

Our results on Fracture Network Relationships in Ca2 Carbonates from Outcrop and Well Data in the Southern Permian Basin, Germany will be presented at the DGMK conference by Ivy Becker*, Patrick Wüstefeld**, Bastian Koehrer***, Wolfgang Jelinek***, Christoph Hilgers*,** *Strukturgeologie & Tektonophysik, KIT Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, **TTE Reservoir-Geologie, KIT KCT Karlsruhe, ***Wintershall Holding GmbH, Barnstorf

27.3.-2.4.2017 Student mapping course

Our students and us are out to map the transition between the Saar-Nahe basin and the Variscan Hunsruck near Kirn. The mapping course trains our 2nd year Bachelor students to identify rocks in the field, produce a geological map and derive models on sedimentary, structural and magmatic models.

21.3.2017 Paper accepted in Journal of the Geological Society London

Our paper on Cementation and structural diagenesis of fluvio-eolian Rotliegend sandstones, North England by Benjamin Busch, Dirk Adelmann and Chris has been accepted by the Journal of the Geological Society for publication. Funding by Wintershall is greatly acknowledged.

14.3.2017 Paper accepted in AAPG Bulletin

Our paper on Diagenesis and TouchStone modeling of fluvio-eolian Rotliegend sandstones by Benjamin Busch, Rob Lander, Linda Bonnell, Dirk Adelmann and Chris has been accepted by AAPG Bulletin for publication. Funding by Wintershall is greatly acknowledged.

12.-16.3.2017 Tunisian partners visit Germany

Our partners from El Manar University Tunis, Etap and EcoResources Ltd visited us in Germany to discuss the set up of a TwinTraining program. The project aims to intensity cooperative training between academia and our industry partners. We thank our partners Dohmen Herzog & Partner GmbH, GeoThermal-Engineering GmbH and Schlumberger for stimulation discussions.

22.3.2017 Red bed rocks from Halle

We thank Professor Lempp, Halle University, to share experimentally deformed red beds with us. Our project idea settled, further details may be shared upon request.

11.2.2017 student visit 3D seismic acquisition

Today our students visited the 3D seismic survey around Landau in the Upper Rhine graben. The nondestructive method allows to look into the deeper earth's subsurface, similar to the doctor's medical ultrasonics. We thank Wintershall for the opportunity.

26.1.2017 presentation at Wintershall

Today Benni presented our results on predictive cementation of reservoirs at the company's opco in Barnstorf.

11.2.2017 student visit 3D seismic acquisition

Today our students visited the 3D seismic survey around Landau in the Upper Rhine graben. The nondestructive method allows to look into the deeper earth's subsurface, similar to the doctor's medical ultrasonics. 

26.1.2017 presentation at Wintershall

Today Benni presented our results on predictive cementation of reservoirs at the company's opco in Barnstorf.

19.1.2017 Prof Bhattacharya visit

Today Prof Ashok Bhattacharya, emeriti from Lucknow University India and Humboldt fellow, visited us and gave a presentation on the geology of the Himalaya mountains.

22.12.2016 Benjamin's and Miriam's PhD defense

Today Benjamin Busch, supervised by Chris, co-supervised by Helge Stanjek, and Miriam Wiegand, supervised by R Greiling, co-supervised by A Kontny, will defend their PhD theses on the impact of grain coats on reservoir quality and the magnetic anisotropy of dykes in W-Africa.

15.12.2016 visting Nagra

Today Chris and Arnfried visited Nagra, Switzerland, to exchange ideas about the changing water table through recent earth history and new analytical techniques to visualize fracture and mineralogical heterogeneities in claystones.

9.12.2016 Dennis is a doctor

Today Dennis Laux, my former MSc student, defended his PhD work on terrestrial laser scanning at TU Darmstadt, his main supervisor being Andreas Henk.

24.-25.11.2016 presentation at Wintershall

We present our research on Upper Carboniferous tight gas and reservoir quality prediction modeling to a broader audience at Wintershall. Patrick's and Benni's research will be discussed in the framework of improved exploration and production outcomes.

17.-21.11.2016 guests from Agadir, Morocco

We are hosting two colleagues from Ibn Zhor University, Agadir, Morocco and meet various SMEs to discuss potential transnational collaboration.

8.11.2016 paper out highlight the strength of SEM microscopy

The paper by Boris and Agnes, B. Reznik, A Kontny, M. Uehara, J. Gattacceca, P. Solheid, M. Jackson entitled Magnetic domains and magnetic stability of cohenite from the Morasko iron meteorite is available online 8 November 2016 in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

7.11.2016 paper out by Boris and Agnes

The paper by Boris and Agnes, B. Reznik, A. Kontny, and J Fritz entitled Effect of moderate shock waves on magnetic susceptibility and microstructure of a magnetite-bearing ore has been pblished in Meteoritics & Plantery Science 1-10 (2016)

4.11.2016 visiting Total in Pau

Chris visited Total in Pau to discuss on some beautiful rocks which need some interpretation.

3.11.2016 attending SPE's Student Technical Conference and visiting DEA
Chris and his KIT students attend the SPE in Wietze and visit DEA for a first insight into E&P. We kindly thank SPE and DEA for their hospitality and looking forward to return next year.

13.10.2016 meeting in Berlin
Chris and Abdel present their results on selected twin training modules enhancing the employability in N-Africa in Berlin at the BMBF project. Results were appreciated and acknowledged by the project sponsors. We hope that funding continues to implement to suggested work program with selected partners in the field of natural resources and medicine.

8.-11.10.2016 Talk in China

Eide will present the paper Economic feasibility of compressed energy under market uncertainty by Eide Hammann, Reinhard Madlener and Chris at the ICAE2016 in Bejing, China.

4.-6.10.2016 interventional skills in Munich

Chris and Abdel visited TU Munich university hospital and associated SMEs to push the BMBF/DLR project on employability in N-Africa. Chris got a first hand intro to geological techniques applied to the human body, such as seismics (ultrasonic), drilling (endoscopy), coring (liver punctuation) and rocks (gall stones).

3.10.2016 AAPG paper accepted

Benni's paper "Reservoir quality and burial model evaluation by kinetic quartz and illite cementation modeling: Case study Rotliegend, N-Germany" by Benjamin Busch, Rob Lander, Christoph Hilgers and Dirk Adelmann was positively reviewed by AAPG and will be published soon.

25.-29.92016 Talk in Austria

Christina will give a talk about her work on bounding surfaces at the GeoTirol2016 in Innsbruck, Austria.

19.9.2016 Presentation on phase-field modeling in France

Nishant will present a poster at the Phase-Field Summer School in Peyresq, France, entitled Phase-field investigation of pore space cementation and permeability in quartz sandstone by Nishant Prajapati, Kumar Ankit, Michael Selzer, Britta Nestler, Christina Schmidt and Christoph Hilgers.

6.9.2016 paper in Tectonophysics online

Miriam's and Agnes' paper on An AMS study of magma transport and emplacement mechanisms in mafic dykes from the Etendeka Province, Namibia, is now available online.

9.8.2016 paper in Energy Procedia accepted
Eide's work entitled "Economic feasability of a Compressed Air Energy Storage system under market uncertainty: a real options approach" co-autored by Reinhard Madlener, FCN at EON-ERC, RWTH Aachen and Chris has been accepted for publication in Energy Procedia. Sotring renewable energy in the subsurface requires high investments, but alternative investment decision tools are required in fluctuating markets.

19.-21.7.2016 Tunisia, twin teaching

Tina and Chris visited our partner Prof Soussi in Tunis and partners at the state oil bureau ETAP to further elaborate the concept of twin teaching, funded by the German ministry of Education and Research. Similar discussions were held on twin teaching topcis headed by Prof Kassem, focusing on medicine. With our partner Dr Brik we discussed further support for applied higher education in the region.

12.7.2016 visit E&P well near KIT

We visited the E&P well at Graben-Neudorf close to KIT with our students aimed at 1800TVD. The Upper Rhine Graben is well known for its hydrocarbon potential, which started to be commercially used since 1735. The Rhine Graben province also marks the foundation of Schlumberger. We kindly thank Rheinpetroleum giving insight on the deeper subsurface.

2.6.2016 paper in Tectonophysics accepted

Miriam's and Agnes' paper was accepted for publication by Tectonophysics. Congratulations!

26.5.2016 Distinguished lecture program at PanTerra

Jointly with Bastian Koehrer's (Wintershall) distinguished EAGE talk on tight gas reservoirs Ivy and Chris (KIT) presented our applied research at PanTerra, The Netherlands. Focus was the diagentically and structurally induced poro-perm variations to reduce exploration risks.

23.5.2016 Engie, Lingen

Having moved to the Rhine Graben fields Chris visits one of the operators Engie, formerly Gaz de France, in Lingen, to exchange ideas about reservoirs in the wider region.

19.5.2016 paper in 3G

Boris' and Agnes' paper on shock-induced deformation phenomena is now in press.

18.5.2016 paper in Nature Scientific Report published

Boris' and Agnes' paper on a high-pressure polymorph at mineral interfaces with Amar Agawal, Stefan Heissler and Frank Schilling is now online at Scientific Reports.

17.5.2016 Gesteinslabor, Heiligenstadt

Today we visit Dr Eberhard Jahn's Geolab to learn about different precision machineries on rock mechanics and poro-perm

13.5.2016 Rheinpetroleum, Heidelberg

Today we visit Rheinpetroleum, Heidelberg, to learn about the stuctural complexity of the Rhine graben area.

4.5.2016 Fels AG, Harz

Chris and Ivy present results of our project on fractured carbonates and we thank Fels AG for granting access to their quarries.

29.3.-2.4.2016 OGV Konferenz in Aachen

Wir freuen uns die 137te Jahrestreffen des Oberrheinischen Gologischen Vereins OGV in Aachen ausrichten zu dürfen.

24.8.-9.4.2015 Island Exkursion

Vom AGW wurde eine Exkursion nach Island mit geothermischen, strukturgeologischen und ingenieurgeologischen Fragestellungen unternommen. Besichtigt wurden u.a. eine Bohranlage, Geothermalfelder und geothermische Kraftwerke, Wasserfälle, eine Lavahöhle und Geysire.

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