Dorik A. V. Stow

Dorik A. V. Stow
Heriot-Watt University · Institute of Petroleum Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy

About

468
Publications
8,173
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705
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Introduction
International expert in sedimentary systems, modern, ancient and subsurface. Particular interest in deepwater with over 300 scientific publications, numerous books and edited volumes. Current projects: Heartbeat of the Earth (Leverhulme Trust), Contourites and organic carbon transfer (ExxonMobil), Contourite cyclicity (China Scholarship Council), Contourites & slope instability (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), and Breath of Life – new paradigm for the abiogenic origin of life.

Publications

Publications (468)
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mudclasts (shale clasts) are found in sediments from many environments, and typically range from 0.01m to 1m in length. Much smaller microscopic mudclasts, or micro-aggregates, are also present in many sediments, ranging from 20-200 μm in diameter. Here we study fine-grained deepwater facies – turbidites, pelagites, hemipelagites and a hybrid hemip...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Cyclic depositional features are commonly developed in deepwater sedimentary facies. Stacked sequences in varied forms is the most obvious characteristic, which is related to complex variation in depositional conditions. This study introduced several geostatistical approaches to analyse the cyclical bi-gradational sequences of contourite deposits f...
Article
The bi-gradational sequence (C1-C5) is the standard facies model for fine-grained, mixed mud-sand contourites. Drilling in the Gulf of Cadiz during IODP 339 recovered over 4.5 km of contourites with over 1600 distinct contourite sequences, having an average thickness of 3 m (range 0.5–7.5 m). This study documents the past 1.1 My of contourite succe...
Article
Full-text available
The transition between the slope and basin floor is typically marked by a slope break, in some cases causing channels to terminate and turbidity currents to undergo a loss of confinement. It is thus essential to understand how these slope breaks and losses of confinement influence the hydrodynamic evolution of turbidity currents and impact their de...
Article
Full-text available
Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen variations in foraminiferal shells have been widely used in paleo-environment studies. However, studies about the shells of benthic foraminifera in methane-hydrate-bearing sediments as reliable geochemical proxies to reconstruct the potential methane release events in the geologic past are rare. In this study, w...
Article
Full-text available
At the end of the Palaeozoic Era, most species on Earth disappeared completely and the global sedimentary environment and biology changed dramatically. The Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) was studied in three sections of the middle Upper Yangtze Platform, SW China: Xingwen well and Zhijin and Shangsi sections. These sections are characterized by ca...
Article
Several drifts of different types and sizes are identified near the northern exit of the Vema Channel, within the projects Neogene-Quaternary contourites of the Central and South Atlantic and Lateral sedimentation in the deep ocean (on the examples from the Central and South-Western Atlantic). Herein, we discuss new results of a multidisciplinary s...
Article
Vertical bed scale heterogeneity in six massive sandstone beds is investigated using digital image analysis to determine flow processes. Images parallel to the bedding plane and perpendicular to the apparent grain long-axis orientation were acquired to minimize the uncertainty in the grain-size and fabric, and increase the statistical significance...
Article
Full-text available
Hydraulic fracture modelling is a key component of a shale reservoir well placement strategy as it provides an indication of the typical lengths and heights of stimulated fractures and of the changes to the stress environment in which these are propagating. However, spatial and stratigraphic variations in the stress and geomechanical properties of...
Article
Contourites are well-known from many continental margins under the influence of bottom currents but have been little reported from the Pacific Ocean. This paper documents a new area of contourite-controlled sedimentation in the NW Pacific Ocean, which we call the Ryukyu Sand Sheet. This contourite sand sheet has an area of around 35,000 km² and ext...
Article
In many ancient turbidite systems, a consistent relationship has been reported in terms of the deposit character mapped out over large distances: the base of the beds comprises of a ‘core’ of massive and thick to thin stratified sandstone intervals, draped by a thinner and much more extensive laminated and rippled sandstone interval. The Peïra Cava...
Article
Full-text available
An evaluation of prospective shale gas reservoir intervals in the Bowland Shale is presented using a wireline log dataset from the UK's first shale gas exploration well. Accurate identification of such intervals is crucial in determining ideal landing zones for drilling horizontal production wells, but the task is challenging due to the heterogeneo...
Article
The Eirik Drift, off southern Greenland, is one of a series of contourite deposits in the northern North Atlantic that record changes in the strength and location of western boundary currents in the region. To date however, the sedimentary facies, and particularly the variation in facies across this drift, have received relatively little investigat...
Article
The central aim of this paper is to address the role of unconformities in affecting reservoir quality. Do they facilitate diagenesis that leads to either enhanced or reduced porosity through dissolution or cementation? Or, do they have little effect? We have investigated the Late Triassic Skagerrak sandstone reservoir underlying the Mid-Cimmerian U...
Article
Full-text available
Distinguishing among deep-water sedimentary facies has been a difficult task. This is possibly due to the process continuum in deep water, in which sediments occur in complex associations. The lack of definite sedimentological features among the different facies between hemipelagites and contourites presented a great challenge. In this study, we pr...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the sediment distribution and basin context of the different Oligo–Miocene successions in the eastern Maghrebides thrust belt of northern Tunisia is challenging and several contrasting models have been proposed. We present the results of detailed field mapping together with facies, microfacies and microfaunal analyses of the NE Mogod...
Article
The sediment budget of the Northwest Sub-basin, South China Sea since the Late Miocene (11.6 Ma, average thickness > 1000 m) accounts for more than two-thirds of the total infill since the initial ocean spreading of the sub-basin (32 Ma). The sediment sources and architectural pattern of these deposits, however, are poorly known. Using high-resolut...
Article
Fine-grained gas hydrate (GH) reservoirs are extensively studied worldwide, among which the Shenhu Area (located on the northern slope of the South China Sea) is a world-class GH exploration area. However, the lithology, physical properties, and depositional origins of the fine-grained GH reservoirs are not well known. Understanding how sediment gr...
Article
Infilling of trace fossils can serve as a proxy for sediment otherwise missing from basin deposits. The Petra Tou Romiou section (southern Cyprus) includes calcilutite/calcarenite material that represents deep-marine deposits of Eocene age. Lateral and vertical variation indicates pelagic, gravitational, and bottom-current processes simultaneously...
Article
The microstructural analysis of muds and mudrocks requires very high-resolution measurement. Recent advances in electron microscopy have contributed significantly to the improved characterisation of mudrock microstructures and their consequent petrophysical properties. However, imaging through electron microscopy is limited to small areas of covera...
Article
There is a growing interest in mudrocks as a result of their potential as hydrocarbon reservoirs, in the storage of carbon dioxide, and as repositories for nuclear waste. Methods for characterising mudrocks are fast evolving in order to better characterise their very small grain sizes. Grain-size analysis of mudrock is challenging and time-consumin...
Chapter
Full-text available
Heterogeneity in hydrocarbon reservoirs has significant impact on fluid flow during production and may lead to oil being trapped in low-permeability reservoir compartments. This is particularly true for producing turbidite fields with significant thin-bedded turbidite (TBT; 3-10 cm [1.2-3.9 in.] sand and silt unit) and very thin-bedded turbidite (V...
Book
The oceans are critical for life on Earth. They are vital for the regulation of climate, and with global warming and decreasing land area they have become increasingly important as a source of food and of energy in the form of oil and gas, and for their mineral wealth. Oceans also form a key part of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, an...
Article
‘Ocean bounty’ examines the variety of resources and their availability in the ocean realm—from oil, gas, coal, and clathrates to industrial metals and food resources—as well as the use of oceans for renewable energy, waste disposal, and trade routes. In a world where the human population is set to exceed 10 billion by 2100 and global aspirations a...
Article
‘Chemical broth’ considers ocean chemistry and physics. The Earth is a single unity linked everywhere by oceans and seas. The remarkable properties of the simple water molecule have allowed Earth to retain its hydrosphere and all its cycles, the seas to develop their saltiness and tiered hierarchy, and life to develop and flourish. Water is a super...
Article
‘Fragile environment’ looks at the stresses on the ocean environment and considers the options and challenges we face for achieving sound management of ocean space in the coming decades. We need to be fully aware that the oceans’ resources have different limits to their renewability, and that marine ecosystems are profoundly fragile. The world’s po...
Article
‘Evolution and extinction’ explores the likely origins of life, its evolution and marked changes, and the major extinction events that have punctuated this progress. The principal focus is the role of the oceans in the history of life. The passage of life through the different eras of ocean history is marked by evolutionary divergence and episodes...
Article
From the dawn of history the ocean has provided a source of food, refreshed our bodies, and cleansed waste. Once a barrier to human migration, it has since become a highway for transport and trade, as well as a battlefield for human conflict. It offers adventure and challenges to explorers and scientists, a source of philosophical and poetic wonder...
Article
Once formed from the primitive Earth environment, the oceans and continents have been constantly moving, changing, and evolving at a rate perceptible only in geological time. Oceans are defined as much by the shape and features of the underlying seafloor and their cover of sediment and organisms, as by the water they contain. Ocean basins are born,...
Article
‘Ocean floor’ examines the morphology, composition, sediment cover, and cycles of change of the ocean floor. The jigsaw puzzle of tectonic plates and their movement about the Earth determines the nature and shape of the seafloor, which is as varied as it is variable. But all these features change with time and in cyclic patterns of change with vary...
Article
‘Dynamic ocean’ explains the movement of water and energy in the oceans. Almost all surface waves are generated by wind stress with the three stages in wave development known as sea, swell, and surf. Tides are created by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun and by a centrifugal force due to the rotation of the Earth. The pattern of circul...
Article
The oceans now cover 71 per cent of the world and over 90 per cent of its habitable living space. They provide vital nutrients, dissolved gases, and mineral salts, and are rich in oxygen with their surface bathed in an endless supply of sunlight. ‘Marine web of life’ provides an introduction to marine biology. Each of the six kingdoms into which we...
Article
The Epilogue explains that the use and abuse of the oceans will undoubtedly affect every individual on the planet, so that it is far too important an issue to leave in the hands of politicians alone. Already, ocean-related issues are becoming ever-more prevalent in the global media—warming seas and the El Niño effect, ocean acidification, melting o...

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