Join the Museum of Arts and Sciences in welcoming Dr. Julia Reece, assistant professor in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, as she shares her research about the compression of marine sediments beneath the seafloor. Her work particularly focuses on the interaction between sedimentary or detrital particles transported into the ocean and microorganisms, microfossils, and pore fluid and how they are together converted from sediment into sedimentary rock.

Fine-grained sediments such as mudstones are the most common sedimentary rocks preserved close to Earth’s surface. Mudstones are very susceptible to developing significant amounts of overpressure because their low permeability and high compressibility prevent pore fluids from draining. This can result in seepage, submarine landslides, or damage to offshore infrastructure. Additionally, mudrocks are fundamentally important as source, seal, and shale gas/oil reservoirs in petroleum systems or as seals for anthropogenic-related storage.

Dr. Reece received her B.B. and M.S. from the University of Bremen in Bremen Germany and her Ph. D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship Award recipient from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and participated in two International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions. She is one of six 2018-2019 Ocean Discovery Lecturers selected by the International Ocean Discovery Program. The lecture series is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Science Support Program. The Museum of Arts and Sciences is one of 10 locations across the country selected to host Dr. Reece.

This event is FREE for members and college students (with ID). General Public is $5/person.