Professor Fiona F Whitaker

My research focuses on carbonate sedimentology and diagenesis, integrating field studies of modern environments with numerical modeling, to provide a holistic understanding of the evolution of porosity-permeability in carbonate sediments from birth to burial. Recent work has inlcuded application of these techniques to understanding restless volcanic sytems and CO₂ sequestration in reservoirs and aquifers.

Field studies in the Bahamas, Yucatan and Guam include aqueous biogeochemistry, hydrological monitoring and aquifer characterization, and enable quantification of key processes and evaluation of fundamental controls on carbonate diagenesis, and in Montserrat with application to hydrogeophysics.

Modeling approaches include hydrological, geochemical and reaction transport modeling (RTM). The latter, an emerging technology which simulates geochemical reactions in systems open to fluid flow, is providing exciting new insights into a range of rock-water interaction systems.

Field and modeling studies have informed development an innovative model for prediction of coupled sedimentological and early diagenetic evolution of carbonate platforms (CARB3D+), supported by the Leverhulme Trust and industry via the Bristol Carbonates Consortium. Most recently I am running a large ITF project IRT-MODE: integrated reactive transport modelling of dolomitization (https://sites.google.com/site/bristolitfproject/home).