Vincent Milesi

SUBSEA Research Objectives

Development of new models of fluid flow, water-rock reactions, chemical disequilibria, and energy supplies for microbial ecosystems to guide exploration and to quantify our ability to generate successful predictions.

I am a postdoctoral research associate working on the development of theoretical models of water/rock interactions under a wide variety of pressure and temperature conditions. I am interested in the characterization of natural samples (X-Ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, GC- MS), and in conducting high pressure and temperature experiments to provide constrains for theoretical models.

My PhD, jointly supervised by the University Paris- Diderot (France) and the University of State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), focuses on the formation of reducing fluids and abiotic organic compounds under hydrothermal conditions in sedimentary and ultrabasic contexts. In collaboration with a petroleum company, I identified the formation of abiotic hydrocarbon gases in the sedimentary basin of Solimões (Brazil). Thus, I have been interested in the early diagenetic processes at the origin of Cretaceous lacustrine carbonates considered as interesting prospects for petroleum exploration. I studied the volcanic Crater Lake of Dziani Dzaha (Mayotte Island – Indian Ocean) to develop a reactive transport model of the early diagenetic processes at the origin of these carbonate rocks.

The study of water/rock interactions in a wide variety of P/T conditions gave me the opportunity to use a variety of modeling approaches: from theoretical thermodynamics to reactive (kinetic/thermodynamic) transport modeling.