Tag Archives: coal

Carbon Accumulation and Loss in the Cretaceous

On the 7th of June, 9pm Brisbane, Australia time I’ll be giving an invited lecture on some of the palaeoclimate, palaeovegetation and palaeotectonic studies we’ve been doing in the Hailar Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. This is for The Society for Organic Petrology. Read the abstract for the talk below. It’s ONLINE and Open to All! […]

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Its ON! – – The 38th Annual Conference of The Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP) – ORGANICS IN THE GEOLOGICAL CYCLE

Abstracts have been submitted, short course arranged and we are ready to roll! It’s VIRTUAL and virtually free. Come join us: its only the price of TSOP membership for one year (that is, $US25 for professionals and $US15 for students). For more information check out the meeting website at: https://tsop.org/TSOP2022/index.html Between the 12th and 16th […]

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UNDERSTANDING THE LATE CRETACEOUS GUADUAS FORMATION, COLOMBIA

Colombia is an utterly magical place and the geology is awe-inspiring. If you haven’t visited yet, make a booking. Today. Especially if you are a geologist. We’ve recently published a paper* on the Late Cretaceous (possibly Paleocene) Guaduas Formation in the Eastern Cordillera Basin. The formation is consistently organic–rich and coal beds are common and […]

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ANGIOSPERMS NOT YET MIRE PLANTS: NEW PAPER OUT

Excellent paper* just out by Alex Wheeler reconstructing palaeoclimate and palaeoecology in the Early Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia. Amazing what studying organics can tell you!!! I was lucky enough to work on this paper with him and co-authors Prof Jian Shen, Dr Marvin Moroeng,and Dr Jingjing Liu. We did the sampling of this back in […]

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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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Organics in the Geological Cycle: Abstracts Due for Conference 30 June 2022

It’s a Virtual Meeting you shouldn’t miss! And it’s FREE to all TSOP members – if you are not a member, it still will only cost you the price of joining TSOP for a year ($US25 for professionals and $US15 for students). Check out the meeting website: https://tsop.org/TSOP2022/index.html The Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP) is […]

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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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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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Cipher is Ten

It was like jumping off the end of a pier into unknown depths with unknown dangers – but a quick calculation (in actuality lots of deep reflection) indicated that it was safe…-ish; nevertheless it was exhilarating. Thus, Cipher was born. In early September 2010 Cipher started trading and by late September we had our first […]

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How Many Holes Does It Take to Fill the Albert Hall?

It would not be untrue, though perhaps unwise, to say to a burly coal miner ‘your coal is full of holes’. Indeed, a fundamental property which makes coal such a special and unique material – and has implications for coal properties ranging from not just methane holding capacity but also activated carbon and liquefaction – […]

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