Dr Rachel Brackenridge

Biography

The application of my science, i.e. its relevance to solving real-world societal problems, is central to my research strategy and my work is broadly aligned with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 7 (affordable and clean energy); 13 (climate action); and 14 (life under water).

The overarching theme of my past research has been to understand past and present sediment transport. My PhD research focused on characterising sand-rich depositional systems deposited by ocean currents (named contourites) and their importance as potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. My research is now focused on the how the distribution of these deposits are controlled by global climate and how bottom currents interact with the continental margins with respect to margin architecture, geohazards and pollutant (microplastic) dispersion. 

Gaining a number of years of experience in the petroleum industry has given me a good multidisciplinary understanding of the evolution of extensional settings through to passive margins. Frontier basins and plays have been the main focus of past work. Following my postdoctoral research on the UK Central North Sea, energy stability and energy equality has become an important driver to my work. Current research examines the utilisation of the subsurface for the Energy Transition including the investigation of the subsurface for intermittent and long-term energy storage. 

Research Overview

Sedimentary Systems: Sedimentology; Contourites; Mixed systems; Strat. Traps; Ocean Currents; Climate; Geohazards; Tsunamigenic Submarine Landslides; Passive Margins; Sequence Stratigraphy; Source-to-Sink; Sediment Transport; Machine Learning, Microplastics. 

Petroleum Geology & GeoEnergy: Petroleum Exploration; Regional Geology; Frontier Basins; Frontier Plays; Play Mapping; Deep Water Plays; Geohazards; Big Data; Risking, Salt Cavern Storage, Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS); Hydrogen Storage; Salt Caverns.

Past Research Projects

Teaching Responsibilities

Programme Director, MSc Sustainable Energy Geoscience.

Course Coordinator, GL5011 ‘Geophysics & Petrophysics’ (Level 5).

Course Coordinator GL5301 'Borehole Geophysics and 4D Reservoir Modelling' (Level 5)

Course coordinator GL5572 'Subsurface Storage and Sequestration' (Level 5)

Lecturing 

GG1010: Creating the Anthropocene: 'The Growth of Energy’ 

GG1512: The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 'Clean and Affordable Energy'

GP3501: Interpretation of Seismic Reflection Data. 'Seismic Stratigraphy', 'Seismic Mapping', and 'Seismic Facies' 

GL4034: Applied Geological Synthesis

GL5011: Geophysics & Petrophysics. 'Exploration Geophysics Fundamentals' 

GL5572: Subsurface Storage & Sequestration. 'Subsurface Storage Fundamentals'

GL5913: Projects in Energy Geoscience. 'Report Writing'