Paleoenvironments Offshore the Netherlands

Did you know??? Back in the Ice Age, you could actually walk from France to the UK!

Geologists know this well, but if you’re not one of the geo folks, it might be something new to learn: when specialists such as sedimentologists or paleoenvironments researchers look at gravel, sand or clay, they don’t just see raw material itself – they „see” much more: ancient rivers, lakes, or vast glaciers – environments where those sediments were formed.

A wide range of geological, geotechnical, and seismic studies are usually done for offshore wind farms. The main focus of such studies is, of course, geotechnical aspects of the seabed and subsurface. However, depositional environments and transport processes, thus paleoenvironments are greatly responsible for physical properties and areal distribution of the soils, so understanding paleoenvironments is of significant importance. Nevertheless, comprehensive paleo studies rarely appear in technical reports.

In an unusual and refreshing step, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) decided to highlight and share this often underappreciated part of the extensive technical studies.

I had a pleasure of illustrating and animating this paleo-story shown in animation. The animation shows how the environment of one particular spot in today’s North Sea has changed over the past 500,000 years – based on real and detailed research (https://offshorewind.rvo.nl/page/view/2dd28a50-5344-47a6-b3ff-7d0e36911159/soil-ijmuiden-ver).

And as always, I simply animated and illustrated it, but I could do nothing without NGI’s team, their knowledge and guidance.

Magnetic signals from ocean tides

I’m on the journal cover! OK, not me exactly, but my illustration :))

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Vol. 382, Issue 2286

Honestly, I didn’t contribute any scientific insights to the article the illustration is associated with – I simply helped the authors present their study in a more visually engaging way. That said, the task wasn’t easy and straightforward. The illustration is built on real data, and authors, as always, challenged me with complex datasets as the foundation. Those colourful little arrows? They’re actual vector data – just reduced and ‘polished’ for visual simplicity purpose.

The article explores how the movement of ocean tides interacts with Earth’s magnetic field to create faint magnetic signals. Using satellite data, these signals can be used to uncover details about the ocean floor and Earth’s mantle, providing valuable insights into both Earth’s interior and potential ocean changes over time.

Being a geologist I do get the main idea of the article, but I have to admit that I lack a deep understanding of the math and physics behind this study, so I wouldn’t dare to explain article’s deeper details here for you. If you’re curious about the essence of the research, it’s best to refer directly to one of the authors, Alexander Grayver´s, recent post here on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/e8RvRgdS

It has links to the article itself and few other, like ESA Swarm mission, which you might find interesting as well.
By the way, you’ll find a breakdown of this illustration on Alexander’s post.

It’s exciting, and I suppose it’s a small achievement to be proud of 🤭

Feldspars

Feldspars are one of the most common minerals on Earth. There are two solid solution series of feldspar minerals: alkali feldspars and plagioclase feldspars. The end members of these solid solutions are potassium feldspar (orthoclase, microcline) (KAlSi₃O₈) – albite (NaAlSi₃O₈) – anorthite (CaAl₂Si₂O₈). So, the alkali felspars range from orthoclase and microcline to albite. Accordingly, chemical formula of these minerals ranges from KAlSi₃O₈ to NaAlSi₃O₈ because of K⁺-Na⁺ substitution. Ion charge is the same. However, the ion size is not that similar so that K⁺ and Na⁺ would change each other very easy, that is why at lower temperatures there is a gap in alkali feldspar sequence. But in higher temperatures this substitution happens and then there is no gap in alkali sequence. This aspect is not illustrated in my picture.

Plagioclase feldspars range from albite to anorthite, so from NaAlSi₃O₈ to CaAl₂Si₂O₈ because of Na⁺Si⁴⁺– Ca²⁺Al³⁺ substitution. Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions are similar in size, so they tend to substitute each other, and the difference in charge is compensated by Si⁴⁺ and Al³⁺.

The solid solution between K and Ca feldspars doesn’t work because of both ion sizes and charges differences. K⁺ and Ca²⁺ differ in ion size and charge and Si with Al cannot compensate those differences.

Intermediate blended minerals are present for both sequences. Barium feldspars (celsian and hyalophane) are not illustrated there.

This illustration is simplified and generalized version of feldspar mineral classification. It is important to know that some feldspars form in high temperature (ex. sanidine) whereas others in low (ex. microcline). Meanwhile this picture generalizes all feldspars and does not tell anything about mineral abundance depending on t-p conditions.

Colors of feldspar minerals have great variety and this illustration can not show all the possible variety. However, few, more common colors are used for each mineral. The ‘colorless’ color is ignored there.

Again, this picture is not for professional mineralogy use but can be used by professionals as fun illustration to put on the wall, show non-geologist friend or explain basics to the beginners.

High resolution poster available there:https://gumroad.com/linajakaite

Hydrogen

Natural hydrogen generation in intracratonic basin and ophiolites  – a couple of illustration done for HydroGenesis. Captions for both illustrations as well as the full article can be found there: https://geoexpro.com/the-genesis-of-natural-hydrogen-exploration/

Atlantic Nickel Project

3D representation of a geological and geophysical data of Atlantic Nickel Project, Newfoundland, Canada.

Done for First Atlantic Nickel Corp. More info about the project itself on their website: https://www.fanickel.com/atlantic

Ambient Noise Tomography

Ambient Noise Tomography Shear Wave model and depth slice illustrations done for Pulsar Helium.

Much of my work I publish is very much to the artistic side. However, in many cases they are based on real data. In this case the illustrations ARE the data.

Making illustrations like these brings me back to time when I was more of a geologist than illustrator :))

Lithium brine system

Lithium is quite a common topic in my illustrations recently. They often contain really beautiful geology, terrains and colors, like red-orange-brown-black mountains and volcanoes surrounding lakes and salars which are contrasting with white and pastel palette.

I’ve done this one for the CGG team to help illustrate their study. This illustration is just a little visual piece done for their further use in the poster.

Shetland Islands Geology in watercolor

Painting geological maps in watercolor works as a coloring book for me – relaxes the mind. There is no specific reason why I choose one or another part of the world, I just find something interesting, shape, shoreline, bathymetry, geology, etc.

Geology shown there is a combination and simplification based on few online resources, therefore it obviously might be inaccurate in some places. But since the aim of this image is to be an artwork and not an actual map – all good, I guess :))

The whole map is quite big, so details are not visible on screen. Therefore, to highlight the texture of paper and watercolor I added few parts zoomed and cropped.

Muography

Illustrations done for company specializing in muon tomography.

Although there are no labels in the first image – it is pretty easy to understand – blue trails are muon trails, white boxes are detectors in the boreholes and underground mines and the yellow body – ore body.

But there are plenty of info online, if you find this method interesting or unknown.

The last two  images  – just a couple of environment variations.

Vision on a UNESCO Global Geopark – Southeastern Dead Sea

Animation was done as part of the initiation of a UNESCO Global Geopark in Jordan – it presents the highlight area of sinkholes and subsidence at the Dead Sea. More info can be found under https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/4/549 and https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/4/553 .

What’s the color inside Earth?

Years ago, probably in my first years of studying geology, when I learned that huge part of Earth’s mantle is olivine-green I was amazed by that fact. And at the same time I found it interesting that most of Earths structure illustrations show red-hot-glowing spheres and there’s no clue about parts of it being green. So the green-mantle illustration idea was born long time ago :)) .

I am fully aware that the internal structure, thus colors are not that obvious and simple. In this illustration there is no representation of convection, plumes or subduction slabs. And the deeper you go the more theory based all is.

It’s just the very basic, most common numbers and facts about the Earths structure illustrated but in slightly different perspective, to raise the curiosity and questions of What and Why??

By the way, interesting thing. I had an idea of showing half of it as hot-red and another part as ‘cooled down’. I was struggling to find the nice balance for these red and yellow colors, how do I show it properly, how do I show one sphere hotter than other, but then again making sure they are all well visible. I was jumping back and forth with those colors, but when I saw Earths internal temperature graph somewhere and because it was in Kelvins somehow ‘connecting the dots’ moment happened and I realized that there is also the color spectrum for black body based on its temperature in Kelvins known. So what I did – I simply used black body color spectrum based on its temperature. So we can say that those hot colors are also true colors :))

Integrated Ground Model. Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden Wind Farm Zone

Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden Wind Farm Zone (TNWWFZ) is located 56 km off the north coast of the Netherlands. NGI and SAND Geophysics have developed an Integrated Ground Model of this area by combining knowledge from Geology, Geophysics and Geotechnical engineering. This model provides geotechnical design parameters for the complete 3D area.

Animation on youtube: https://youtu.be/JEenpiAU8Mk

Two Billion Years in the Making – Greater Falun Project

‘Two Billion Years in the Making – Greater Falun Project’ animation shows the geological evolution of Falun (Sweden) area. It explains how different layers formed, what happened when rifting and opposite (compression) were dominant in the area, how the Cu-Au and polymetallic skarns (main targets) formed and why limestone layer present in the area is so helpful in prospecting.

Animation is accompanied with a bunch of illustrations. To see them all check this: https://strike-dip.com/two-billion-years-in-the-making-greater-falun-project/

Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash Project

Geological evolution of Lake Wells (West Australia) paleochannel. More about: https://strike-dip.com/lake-wells-sulphate-of-potash-project/

Witwatersrand gold deposition environments illustrated

Illustrations of Mesoarchaean-Neoarchaean environments within which the Witwatersrand-type gold deposits formed. Read more about what they show and what is the study behind them: https://strike-dip.com/witwatersrand/