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ENERGY TRANSITION AND COAL BED METHANE IN MONGOLIA

Cipher Consulting has a few projects in Mongolia and because of this took part in the first annual donor coordination meeting, held virtually and hosted by the Australian Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The event took place on March 29, 2022, featuring two key presentations on the subject matter by the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority […]

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Uncertainty – Shaken, Not Stirred

The beautiful thing about data is its uncertainty. That is, in a world where sometimes it is hard to know what is real and what is…well, lets say not real, with data you can actually characterize how certain you are about such and such. After a couple of decades of working in coal seam gas […]

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Early September Organic Feast!

Of all the particles in a sedimentary basin, organics are arguably the most insightful. Think about it: they tell you how hot things got, millions and millions of years ago, and that is both within the basin at depth but also at the surface when they were deposited; they tell you what plants were evolving; […]

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New Paper: Evaluation of peat character in Kutai lakes area, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia

Ever get that sinking feeling? Well, if you were standing in the Kutai lakes area in central Borneo you’d be right to think so. And its not just because it is full of peat and wetlands. Located about 100 km from the nearest coast and surrounded by low, heavily vegetated hills, that border on becoming […]

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Hydrogen

When someone says ‘hydrogen’, what do you think of? I think BOOM! I wasn’t sure why I thought that until I looked up the range at which hydrogen can explode compared to methane. And indeed hydrogen is more flammable. Methane’s range of concentration in which it can explode is between 5 and 15% (so lower […]

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Climbing up Scree Slopes – Diversity and the Spectrum of People

There was a recent article in the Eos Science News by the AGU. As a whole the AGU is doing a great job at being relevant and topical in today’s geoscience world. Its dynamic and attracts a lot of young professionals, which is fantastic. The article that caught my eye was titled “Teaching Geoscience History […]

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The Elixir of Data

“Without data, you are just another asshole with an opinion”, said John Ferm standing at the blackboard, chalk in one hand and a cigar in the other with smoke swirling around his head (this was, after all, 1985). It’s a phrase John (my MSc and PhD advisor) would often use when we, his students, started […]

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Rock’n to Heavy Metal in New Zealand – The ‘Little’ Book that Could

I was flying through the chill Christchurch air with my arms outstretched like some newbie superhero about to make a hard landing on frosty, frozen gravel. I had just been cycling through Hagley Park on my way to work thinking about how to put together a disparate set of papers for a book when I […]

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New Paper (and Poster): Isotopes and organics in the Early Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia

Though mostly overlooked by sedimentologists and climatologists coal provides highly detailed information on past climates and tectonics. In a recent paper* by myself and my colleagues (available Here) we take a look at a very thick (>40 m) coal of Early Cretaceous age in Inner Mongolia, near the borders with Russia and Mongolia. Using stable […]

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Two Geologists Walk into a Bar or Organic Proxies for Climate and Environmental Research – New Paper

Two geologists walk into a bar. The first orders a ‘Flaming Volcano’ (he’s a neo-tectonics/Quaternary guy). Without blinking an eye the bartender asks him what sort of rum he’d like. The second geologist orders a ‘Black Coal’ Stout (she is an organic petrologist). Everyone in the bar freezes then slowly slinks out the door …. […]

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