Andrea Billarent Cedillo- ESR 12.

About me

I am part of the structural geology and petrology groups of the Earth Science department at Utrecht University (UU). Before starting my position at UU, I graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) with a BSc (2017) and a MSc (2019) in Earth Sciences. During my studies at UNAM, I got interested in structural geology and geochemistry. My master’s research focused on the hydrogeochemical characterization of two geothermal systems in Mexico. In my free time, I enjoy dancing, writing, and hiking.

About the project

Water in the Earth’s crust moves transporting energy and material. In the upper and middle crust, thermal water transport may lead to the dissolution of the host rock or precipitation of new minerals. These processes depend on the characteristics of the host rock (mineral composition, porosity, stress state) and the physicochemical characteristics of water (temperature, pH, dissolved ions composition, and concentration). Dissolution and precipitation processes affect the porosity and permeability of the rocks, sealing or producing fluid pathways. Understanding the evolution of these pathways is highly significant in the improvement of resources exploitation, the development of geothermal energy, and the sequestration of contaminants and greenhouse gases. In this project, I will use spectroscopic technics to characterize silica dissolved in water within typical geothermal field conditions. Then, I will couple spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to study dissolution and precipitation processes using isotope tracing in the mineral surface, as well as its effect on the porosity evolution.