National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

Geology & Geophysics Group

LITHOS: Advanced Lithological Imaging Project

Originally based at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, the first phase of the LITHOS project (1999-2002) focused on theoretical developments in electromagnetic and seismic methods in exploration geophysics. The work was supported by funding in excess of £1M from a consortium of fifteen oil companies and oil-field services companies. In early 2000, one of the three Principal Investigators of the project – Professor Martin Sinha – moved from Cambridge to the Southampton Oceanography Centre. Shortly afterwards, a second PI – Professor Satish Singh – also left Cambridge, in his case for the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. Thereafter, the LITHOS project – while maintaining a ‘core’ group in Cambridge – became a multi-institutional collaboration between Cambridge, Paris and Southampton.

The work of the Southampton team within LITHOS was from the outset focused on electromagnetic (EM) surveying, and its applications in hydrocarbon exploration. Within this project archive, we present a set of research papers originally published in the annual LITHOS Science Report volumes between Aprill 1999 and March 2002. These document those parts of the first phase of the LITHOS project that were principally or to a large extent based on work carried out at Southampton.

Above: The predicted bulk electrical conductivity of a 2-phase medium, based on numerical modelling by A. Greer. The model assumes that conductive fluid is distributed in spheroidal pores or inclusions. Conductivity depends on both porosity, and on the aspect ratio of the inclusions - which affects the probability of interconnection between adjacent pore spaces.

For ongoing research in this field at NOCS, see under the 'Exploration Geophysics' research area). For the full LITHOS website, click here.