Research Portal

Geoscience » Tectonics and Crustal Structure

Prospectivity of the Shelburne Subbasin, Scotian Margin: An Integrated Multidisciplinary and Multiparameter Approach from Plate to Pore Scale (part of the PAGEO research program)

January 2021 – June 2023

This project will significantly increase our understanding of both the reservoir potential of Tertiary sequences within the Shelburne Subbasin, offshore Nova Scotia, and the crustal architecture underlying this critical region located at a proposed transition from a magma-rich to a magma-poor con

Geoscience » Tectonics and Crustal Structure

Geologic Origin of Deep Crustal and Uppermost Mantle Structures at the Continent-Ocean Transition Offshore Nova Scotia from Modeling of Wide-Angle S-Wave Arrivals (part of the PAGEO research program)

January 2021 – June 2023

This work will produce S-wave velocity models for two of the existing refraction profiles from the Scotian margin. The objective is to better constrain the crustal origin of the continent-ocean transition (COT) using both the P and S-wave velocity models.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Identifying and Constraining favourable paleoenvironments for the deposition of an Upper Jr SR using geochemical proxies (part of the PAGEO research program)

January 2021 – June 2023

This work will determine the paleoenvironmental conditions under which potential Upper Jurassic source rock intervals were deposited in offshore Nova Scotia.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Application of a source-to-sink sediment model to a petroleum systems analysis from field studies and numerical modeling (part of the PAGEO research program)

January 2021 – March 2023

This project will test the application of a source to sink analysis to the prediction of petroleum system elements in the Scotia Basin.

Geoscience » Georges Bank Research & Data

Science and Socio-economic Review of the Georges Bank Prohibition Area 2020-2021

June – December 2021

Georges Bank is a large submarine platform located at the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. The Georges Bank Prohibition Area covers a significant portion of Georges Bank and is located on the Canadian side of the Canada-United States maritime boundary.

Development of Acoustic Doppler Aquatic Animal Monitoring (ADAAM) for application to marine life movement in high-energy tidal channels

March 2018 – February 2021

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) are a standard tool used for measuring ocean currents.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Sequence stratigraphy, titania diagenesis and relationship to petroleum systems modeling

October 2018 – January 2021

This project examines different forms of titania (TiO2) minerals to confirm the relationship between late diagenetic titania (i.e., titania minerals transformed under the heat and pressure of sedimentary processes) and hydrocarbon migration and thus assess the use of titania polymorphs as “pathfi

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Predictive Modeling of Sandstone Reservoir Distribution in the SW Scotian Basin

March 2018 – April 2020

The SW Scotian Basin is considered an under-explored passive margin sedimentary basin, however, it is also the most probable location to find oil on the Scotian Margin.

Multi-Scale Turbulence Measurement in the Aquatron Laboratory

July 2018 – July 2019

This project has two primary objectives - to characterize the flow and turbulence in the Aquatron facility pool tank using turbulence sensors calibrated against a traceable standard; and to test technologies for investigating the horizontal variability of turbulence in real-world tidal channels.

Geoscience » Play Fairway Analyses Atlases 2010–Present

Shelburne Sub-Basin Play Fairway Analysis Update

November 2018 – June 2019

Shortly after the Scotian Shelf and Slope Play Fairway Analysis (PFA) was released in 2011, Shell Canada acquired six exploration parcels in the Shelburne Subbasin and collected approximately 10,850 square kilometers of wide azimuth 3D seismic data.