Aggregate potential of Irish south coast offshore palaeovalleys
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Date
2021-04-28
Authors
O'Mahony, Evan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
The southern shelf of offshore Ireland possesses many developed marine based
resources such as hydrocarbons and commercial fisheries. Increasing knowledge of the seabed
and the processes that cause large scale variation to the morphology and sedimentology is
crucial in determining marine aggregate resource potential on the south coast. Qualitative data
was processed using a multiproxy geophysical and sedimentological approach, creating
detailed seabed maps using bathymetric data supported by ground truthing sedimentsamples.
Surficial sediment deposits display a close fit to industry standard aggregates but considerable
temporal variance at depth from vibrocore analysis shows variable marine reworking over time.
Marine processes off the south coast diminish the aggregate quality of reworked fluvio-glacial
deposits as evidence of increased marine reworking causes the replacement of favorable
coarse-grained deposits with shell fragments. The southern shelf, at depth shows potential for
marine aggregate exploration but variance within the extractable near surface deposits deems
it too variable and accurate prediction of areas with high aggregate yield is diminished.
Description
Keywords
Aggregates , Sedimentology , Marine geology , Marine geoscience
Citation
O'Mahony, E. C. 2021. Aggregate potential of Irish south coast offshore palaeovalleys. MRes Thesis, University College Cork.