Xavier Mangenot receives the 2018 Van Straelen thesis prize from SGF

Xavier Mangenot receives the 2018 Van Straelen Prize for his thesis entitled: Contributions du thermomètre _Δ47 et du chronomètre U-Pb à l’étude de l’histoire diagénétique, thermique et hydrogéologique des réservoirs carbonatés du Jurassique Moyen du bassin de Paris.

Summary of his thesis:

Since the 1970s, the reconstruction of the thermal history of sedimentary basins has been based on the chemical and physical properties of the organic matter present in the sediments. The constant improvement in rock analysis techniques has led to the recent emergence of two new, highly promising isotopic tools for studying carbonate minerals. These methods are Δ47 clumped isotope thermometry and U-Pb chronometry using LA-ICP-MS, which can be used to constrain the absolute temperature and age of carbonates with hitherto unequalled precision. The coupling of these two isotopic tools was tested for the first time during this thesis and gave rise to a new approach called Δ47/(U-Pb) thermo-chronometry of carbonates. This approach was tested on the Paris Basin and enabled a direct and accurate reconstruction of the time-temperature path of a reservoir rock over more than 150 million years. The ease of use and accuracy of these characterisation methods means that it is now possible to describe the thermal history of sedimentary basins in a new way.