Geography, Geology and the Environment

Biography

I carried out my undergraduate degree (BSc) at Keele University studying Geology and Biology. I received my degree in June 2008.

Once I had completed the degree I went on to become the Venue Manager of ‘The Vaults’ in Shrewsbury. Alongside this I had my own band as music has always been a big part of my life, we performed at a few of the county’s largest music festivals and are now going on to record our first album.

I returned to Keele in September 2009 to start my PhD on ‘The Lower/Middle Silurian Black Shales of the Cantabrian Arc (Northern Spain): facies analysis, stratigraphy and a generic model’ under the supervision of Dr Michael Montenari and Prof Graham Williams.

I have now begun my 3^rd and final year of the PhD project.

Affliations

• Geological Society of London: Fellow (GSL)
• American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
• International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS)
• Tectonic Studies Group (TSG)

Awards

2010: Keele Research Symposium, Poster Award (Awarded by Keele University). Keele, United Kingdom.

The Lower/Middle Silurian Black Shales of the Cantabrian Arc (Northern Spain): facies analysis, stratigraphy and a generic model

Supervisors : Dr Michael Montenari and Professor Graham Williams

Funding: Acorn/EPSAM

The Silurian black shale deposits of the peri-Gondwanan region are one of the most important Palaeozoic source rocks for hydrocarbons world-wide (Lüning et al, 2000). Despite intensive research, questions regarding the genesis and the palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographic factors controlling the deposition of these shales are a matter of ongoing debate.

The project area lies within the Cantabria-Asturias Arc of Northern Spain in the autonomous region of Castilla y León. The Cantabrian Arc formed as a result of the collision between Gondwana and Laurussia during the formation of the supercontinent Pangea. The Cantabrian Arc has been divided into five major tectonostratigraphic zones. The ‘Folds and Nappes’ zone is of a particular interest especially the Somiedo-Corecillas thrust system.

This work focuses on the deposition of the Silurian black shales of the Formigoso Formation (Fm) within the Somiedo-Corecillas unit. An in-depth palaeoenvironmental reconstruction combined with the high resolution biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic data will provide new insights into the sedimentation and deposition of the Formigoso Fm. There is an abundance of graptolite fauna within the Formigoso Fm especially towards the base. These graptolites will be used alongside chitinozoan and acritarch data to determine marker horizons laterally within the Cantabrian Arc. Geochemical analysis of the Formigoso Fm will be utilised on a 25cm resolution to determine chemical signatures.

Thickness changes within the Formigoso Fm are dramatic, from metres to several hundred metres in total thickness. The thickness of the Formigoso Fm is seen to increase significantly from the south to the north of the Cantabrian Arc. The lateral changes in thickness are related to a combination of extensional tectonics during the rifting of Gondwana plus erosional processes of the Late Ordovician Hirnantian glaciation.

Future work aims to define the nature of the contact and lithologies present between the underlying Cambro-Ordovician Quartzite of the Barrios Fm and the base of the Formigoso Fm and this will be used to determine the Rheic (Cantabrian) basin architecture during the initial deposition of the Formigoso Fm.  

A comparison of the results of this research and datasets available from Silurian black shale deposits across the northern margin of Gondwana will provide an advanced understanding of the factors controlling the deposition and genesis of the Silurian black shales of the Cantabrian region.

• Ferriday, T. and Montenari, M. 2012. Chemostratigraphical Characterisation of the Lower Silurian Formigoso Formation: A Case Study from Aralla (Cantabrian Mountains, Province Leon, NW Spain), Geophysical Research Abstracts 14 2012.  EGU 2012 abstract;  EGU 2012 poster
• Doherty, H., Ferriday, T., Kelly, M., Montenari, M., Rodgers, S. & Williams, G. (2010) ‘The Cantabrian Thrust Belt: basin history of the North Gondwana passive margin – rifting, glaciation? more rifting and collision.’ Tectonic Studies Group Annual Meeting, University of Birmingham. TSG 2010 Poster
• Ferriday, T. (2010) ‘The Silurian Black (Hot) Shales of the Cantabrian Arc, Northern Spain: Biochemistry, Chemostratigraphy & Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction’ Keele Research Symposium 2010. Keele Research Symposium Poster 2010.