Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Volcanic Fluid - Oxford, United Kingdom - University of Oxford

University of Oxford

Verified Company

Oxford, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Fixed term for 24 months

The department seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Assistant to work under the direction of Professors Jon Blundy, Tamsin Mather and David Pyle (Earth Sciences, University of Oxford) to further our understanding of volcanic fluid geochemistry with a focus on rethinking natural resources in the context of geothermal energy.

The role will have a specific focus on making measurements of volcanic and hydrothermal fluids and fluid inclusions from the Caribbean island of Montserrat and modelling their composition to build up a process understanding of metal behaviour and distribution within the volcano/hydrothermal system.

This post is part of the new Oxford Martin School programme in Rethinking Natural Resources, which aims to develop new ways to address the challenges that the Net Zero energy transition will place on demand for natural resources, both as means of generating renewable energy and as sources of raw materials required for production, storage and transmission of electricity.

The urgency of the transition calls for new thinking about where to explore for, and how to recover, natural resources set against the backdrop of establishing social license and developing the right regulatory and financial framework.

The Oxford Martin School programme will explore these issues with focused effort on one exemplar of innovation in the new resources landscape - the recovery of metals and energy from hot saline geofluids - in order to develop and test new frameworks for managing the needed transformations in geo-resource politics, science and economics.

Rethinking Natural Resources will approach this problem through a case-study of the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat, a location with geothermal energy potential and opportunities for co-recovery of raw materials, and where such activities could be socioeconomically transformative if managed well.

Working out the subsurface distribution and spatial variability of hydrothermal fluids on Montserrat is a key objective of the programme, working in collaboration with colleagues from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO).

Sampling of volcanic gases from the summit area, of plumes during grounding episodes, 'soufrières' around the flanks (hot springs, fumaroles, boiling mud pools, steaming ground, warm ponds) and further measurements of fluids and scales from exploratory geothermal wells and fluid/melt inclusions from drill-core will be combined with geophysical data to build a model of the subsurface system.

Volcanic aerosol and fluid samples will be analysed for major anions using ion chromatography and metals using ICP-MS. Fluid/melt inclusions will be analysed via laser-ablation ICP-MS. Well-bore scales will be characterized mineralogically by X-ray diffraction.

These new data on the metals endowment and spatial distribution of geothermal fluids will allow us to better understand the raw materials potential.

The post-holder will be based in Oxford, but will undertake field visits to Montserrat to collect samples and will be expected to liaise with other team members from the project across the other Oxford departments involved, and with the MVO.

There is scope for the PDRA to undertake some teaching, either in taught courses, field courses, or in the supervision of Masters projects.

This post is full-time and fixed term for up to 24 months and we wish to fill it at the earliest opportunity and at the latest by 31 January 2024.

For further details of the post please see the further particulars.

Applications must be received by

12:00pm on Monday 25 September 2023.
Our provisional date for interviews is Monday 16 October 2023.