“A new, non-statistical, direction for quantitative stratigraphy”
With Graham Potts from the University of Liverpool

Thursday 20 October
Upstairs in the Royal Cambrian Academy, Crown Lane, Conwy, LL32 8AN (located behind Plas Mawr
Talk commences at 18:30, refreshments available from 18:00

Over recent decades quantitative stratigraphy has followed a series of directions that are, in general, statistical.  In this talk an alternative non-statistical approach will be presented that can be used to analyse and predict the distributions of vertical sequences both onshore and offshore.

A series of relatively simple equations has been developed that produce realistic, spatially complex patterns of stratigraphy. From these equations, a graphical approach has been developed which can be used to both interpolate and extrapolate vertical sequences in and around the original stratigraphical data.  Not only does this approach enable valid sequences to be determined but it also allows alternatives to be explored with relative ease.  Thus, well prognosis can be placed on a more rigorous and hopefully successful basis.

Speaker Profile: Dr Graham Potts
Following graduation from the University of Leeds with a degree in Geological Sciences, Graham completed a doctorate, also in Leeds, on the origins of fold nappes.  He undertook a Natural Environment Research Fellowship at the University of Birmingham followed by a year as a lecturer in Structural Geology and Tectonics at the University of Oxford.  In 1985 he joined Robertson Research as a structural geologist where he worked on several offshore multi-client projects, mainly in the UKCS, and onshore studies in North Africa, principally Morocco.  In 1987 he was appointed as lecturer in Structural Geology at the University of Liverpool.  In addition to his teaching duties at undergraduate and postgraduate level he has completed research on a variety of topics, most recently on the timing of deformations and fracture processes.  Fieldwork has been undertaken in a wide variety of locations including Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa and Southern England.  This work has led to a renewed interest in stratigraphy and stratigraphical methods.