About us

Why the Summer School take place in Azerbaijan?  The Republic of Azerbaijan is located between Europe and Asia at the coast of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan hosts the highest desnsity of mud volcanoes on Earth. Out of 2,500 estimated onshore mud volcanoes in the world,  nearly 400 of them are located in Azerbaijan, both on and off-shore. The Azerbaijan summer school provides a unique opportunity to explore many aspects of hydrocarbon fluid migrations systems from source rocks, reservoirs, and surface manifestations such as degassing sites and mud volcanoes. This spectacular geological phenomenon that can be easily accessible at various localities in Azerbaijan.

What offers the Azerbaijan Summer School? The duration of the course is 5 days. The course includes one initial day of thematic indoor lectures covering the general aspects of fluid migration, mud volcanism, their relationship to petroleum systems, description of the main tectonic settings, rheology and mechanisms of the mud flows, the coupling of mud volcanism and seismicity, new areas of exploration for mud volcanism, hybrid systems on Earth, and extra planetary sedimentary volcanism and laboratory simulations. The lectures take place at the Oil & Gas Institute (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences) in Baku (Azerbaijan). The remaining days include field activities and visits at outcrops, degassing sites and different types of mud volcanoes. Practical field exercises are conducted at various structures in the region around Baku. More specialized topics are also addressed with lectures conducted directly on the field. Among other topics, highlights include tectonic control on the mud volcano systems, morphologies of the mud flows, sedimentary basins and fluid migration, and  petroleum systems. Field observations are compared with satellite imagery, and various techniques for fluid sampling and data collection (e.g. flux measurement, seismometry) are introduced with practical exercises directly on the field. More information about the Azerbaijan Summer School programme you can get here. 

Course content for students: This course is organized in cooperation with the HOTMUD partners of the Moscow State University and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS). The School is open for bachelor's students, master's students, PhD candidates and scientists/specialists interested to learn more about the topic of sedimentary volcanism, related petroleum systems, and atmosphere degassing. Students will receive a complete overview of fluid migration mechanisms including those related to hydrothermal activity or occurring in purely sedimentary domains (i.e. from a source rock, reservoir, and the surface manifestation of degassing) that may result in violent clastic eruptions. These phenomena represent the second largest natural source of methane emission in the atmosphere and remain still poorly constrained and investigated. On the last day, students present their reports and achievements during a dedicated workshop. A final report is among the requirements for the students attending the school.  

Learning outcome: Students and scientists will learn about sedimentary volcanism, related petroleum systems, atmosphere degassing, various mechanisms of fluid migration systems and extraplanetary . For students that plan to have projects related to these topics, it is possible to organize additional days of fieldwork to collect data and observations. The data collected are then processed for further laboratory analyses in various Institutes and may be used by students for their bachelor's, master's and PhD projects.

Teaching:

• Field guide will be provided to participants with instructions.

• 1-day seminars (Auditorium Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences)

• 4 days of field lecturing

• Final presentations from the students on field activities

• Submit a written report of activities and learnings achieved during the summer school

• Handling of a written essay with a review of literature on a topic of interest from the student related to summer school activities