Quote Originally Posted by pll View Post
Woohoo!! Congratulations, DrBadger!

PhD in ...?
Whoops, sorry, Geophysics.

The title of the dissertation is: Stress triggering of earthquakes and subsidence in the Louisiana Coastal Zone due to hydrocarbon production.

I basically had two major projects. In the first I was looking at how earthquakes interact and whether one earthquake can trigger or suppress future earthquakes in the region. When we were unable to get funding to continue these projects I moved on to the second topic. In that part I did modeling to see if oil and gas production could explain the observed land loss and subsidence (land sinking) in southern Louisiana. Turns out that oil and gas production does have a significant impact on subsidence, but only locally, that is directly over the producing field, and thus, can't explain the entire regional subsidence and land loss signal. Also, my most recent modelling suggests that subsidence will continue over the oil and gas fields for at least 50 years (though slowing) after production ends due to the shales continuuing to compact.

Now after a bit of vacation combined with moving I am going to be starting a job with BP in Houston, TX.