Dr. Christopher Nicholas

Chris Nicholas is an Exploration Field Geologist. Over the last 30 years he has conducted field surveys all around the world from Arctic Canada, eastern Siberia and the snow-covered Japan Alps, to the rainforests of Java, deserts of Kazakhstan, and on to ocean islands such as the Atlantic Cape Verdes and Kilauea volcano on Hawaii. However, his particular speciality for the last 25 years has been exploration across the Equatorial Tropics of Africa, Arabia and the Caribbean, working in collaboration with geologists from Government Ministries, their Corporations and a suite of major Industry exploration companies in those Countries. Chris graduated with a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, followed by Research Fellowships at the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, before joining Trinity College Dublin as a Lecturer in 2001. Chris' current, main research theme is the evolution of African Rift basins from the Neoproterozoic to the modern day East African Rift System (EARS), and in particular, how tectonics coupled with climatic cyclicity have driven sedimentary dynamics in the Pliocene " Recent Albertine Rift in Uganda and DR Congo.

  Geological evolution of the East African Rift System   Geological field surveying in frontier regions   Mesozoic to Recent stratigraphy of Tanzania   Petroleum exploration in East and Central Africa   Quaternary geology of Lake Edward, Uganda & DR Congo

Chris" research focus over the past 17 years has been on the structural evolution and sedimentary dynamics of the Albertine Rift, which is the northern sector of the EARS Western Arm, investigating how tectonics and glacial " interglacial driven climatic cyclicity in East Africa together form a coupled dynamo that drives and controls the sedimentary fill of an early continental rift basin. Chris has conducted many geological field surveys and mapping in the Albertine Rift, both in Uganda and DR Congo (DRC). Chris was also Chief Geologist for Dominion Petroleum Uganda, during its hydrocarbon exploration of the Lake Edward basin and has worked with most of the Industry Companies, Government Ministries and Corporations operating across East, Central and West Africa. From 2015 to 2019, Chris helped and advised in the restructuring of the state oil company in DR Congo, SONAHYDROC (formerly COHYDRO), and provided a strategic exploration plan for the next 5 years. With the drive now away from hydrocarbon investment in the Developed World, this has opened opportunities for Exploration Field Geologists to apply their expertise to prospecting for other natural resources in the Equatorial Tropics, and Africa in particular. Thus, 2018 saw the first involvement of Chris in the mining of precious minerals, devising a detailed mining and financial plan for placer diamond and gold mining in Banalia Province, central DRC. This was followed more recently, in 2021, with another project on gold ore concentrations in hydrothermal veins at Kilima, Rungu-Wamba, DR Congo, and an appraisal of the Alia Gemstone mine in southern Kenya, where there is the occurrence of the rare emerald-like precious gemstone, Tsavorite.