Skip navigation

You are in:  Home » Staff and students

Paul van der Vegt MSc

paulvdv

Cambridge Quaternary
Department of Geography
University of Cambridge
Downing Place
Cambridge CB2 3EN
England

E-mail: paulvandervegt@gmail.com
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 766525
Fax: +44 (0)1223 333392

Biography and project

The aim of Paul's thesis is to make a general model of the sedimentary infill of glacial tunnel valley deposits with special interest on sedimentary processes and up- and downstream changes in sedimentary deposition. This general model will provide a tool for predicting the sedimentary infill for hydrological and hydrocarbon prospecting purposes and shed light on sub-glacial hydrological processes.

Glacial tunnel valleys are highly elongate depressions carved by meltwater beneath the marginal zones of former ice sheets. Their dimensions can be several kilometres wide, tens of kilometres long and hundreds of metres deep.
Their infill lithologies range from glaciofluvial gravels and sands through diamictons, to glaciolacustrine/-marine and even interglacial deposits. Most tunnel valleys contain multiple erosional and depositional events caused changes in meltwater flow and ice movement, creating a highly complex sedimentary infill.

The Pleistocene glaciations have formed multiple generations of these tunnel valleys in NW Europe, situated both on– and offshore. The research will be based on a compilation of detailed outcrop and borehole data of Pleistocene tunnel valley deposits of onshore NW Europe. The first part of the study will focus on Elsterian deposits in East Anglia, after which tunnel valleys in e.g. Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands will be investigated. grasplogo The Glacigenic Reservoirs Analogue Programme..

This study is part of a joined research effort with the Universities of Aberdeen and Delft. Close cooperation of the three projects will combine outcrop, borehole and seismic data of both on- and offshore NW Europe to create an unequalled tunnel valley analogue.
The studies are sponsored by BP, ENI, Gas de France, Repsol YPF, Shell and Total to gain insight into the reservoir and source rock potential of tunnel valley deposits.

Supervisor: Prof. Phil Gibbard

Publications

Gallery

coreinterpretationPaul with fellow GRASP members Julien Moreau and Adriaan Janszen examining cores at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, October 2009.