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In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere-carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide-continued their increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth's surface was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm, the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800 000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contribute just over 3 W m−2 to radiative forcing and represent a nearly 43% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. With a weak La Niña in early 2018 transitioning to a weak El Niño by the year's end, the global surface (land and ocean) temperature was the fourth highest on record, with only 2015 through 2017 being warmer. Several European countries reported record high annual temperatures. There were also more high, and fewer low, temperature extremes than in nearly all of the 68-year extremes record. Madagascar recorded a record daily temperature of 40.5°C in Morondava in March, while South Korea set its record high of 41.0°C in August in Hongcheon. Nawabshah, Pakistan, recorded its highest temperature of 50.2°C, which may be a new daily world record for April. Globally, the annual lower troposphere temperature was third to seventh highest, depending on the dataset analyzed. The lower stratospheric temperature was approximately fifth lowest. The 2018 Arctic land surface temperature was 1.2°C above the 1981-2010 average, tying for third highest in the 118-year record, following 2016 and 2017. June's Arctic snow cover extent was almost half of what it was 35 years ago. Across Greenland, however, regional summer temperatures were generally below or near average. Additionally, a satellite survey of 47 glaciers in Greenland indicated a net increase in area for the first time since records began in 1999. Increasing permafrost temperatures were reported at most observation sites in the Arctic, with the overall increase of 0.1°-0.2°C between 2017 and 2018 being comparable to the highest rate of warming ever observed in the region. On 17 March, Arctic sea ice extent marked the second smallest annual maximum in the 38-year record, larger than only 2017. The minimum extent in 2018 was reached on 19 September and again on 23 September, tying 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest extent on record. The 23 September date tied 1997 as the latest sea ice minimum date on record. First-year ice now dominates the ice cover, comprising 77% of the March 2018 ice pack compared to 55% during the 1980s. Because thinner, younger ice is more vulnerable to melting out in summer, this shift in sea ice age has contributed to the decreasing trend in minimum ice extent. Regionally, Bering Sea ice extent was at record lows for almost the entire 2017/18 ice season. For the Antarctic continent as a whole, 2018 was warmer than average. On the highest points of the Antarctic Plateau, the automatic weather station Relay (74°S) broke or tied six monthly temperature records throughout the year, with August breaking its record by nearly 8°C. However, cool conditions in the western Bellingshausen Sea and Amundsen Sea sector contributed to a low melt season overall for 2017/18. High SSTs contributed to low summer sea ice extent in the Ross and Weddell Seas in 2018, underpinning the second lowest Antarctic summer minimum sea ice extent on record. Despite conducive conditions for its formation, the ozone hole at its maximum extent in September was near the 2000-18 mean, likely due to an ongoing slow decline in stratospheric chlorine monoxide concentration. Across the oceans, globally averaged SST decreased slightly since the record El Niño year of 2016 but was still far above the climatological mean. On average, SST is increasing at a rate of 0.10° ± 0.01°C decade−1 since 1950. The warming appeared largest in the tropical Indian Ocean and smallest in the North Pacific. The deeper ocean continues to warm year after year. For the seventh consecutive year, global annual mean sea level became the highest in the 26-year record, rising to 81 mm above the 1993 average. As anticipated in a warming climate, the hydrological cycle over the ocean is accelerating: dry regions are becoming drier and wet regions rainier. Closer to the equator, 95 named tropical storms were observed during 2018, well above the 1981-2010 average of 82. Eleven tropical cyclones reached Saffir-Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. North Atlantic Major Hurricane Michael's landfall intensity of 140 kt was the fourth strongest for any continental U.S. hurricane landfall in the 168-year record. Michael caused more than 30 fatalities and $25 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages. In the western North Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut led to 160 fatalities and $6 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages across the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was responsible for 170 fatalities in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly all the islands of Micronesia experienced at least moderate impacts from various tropical cyclones. Across land, many areas around the globe received copious precipitation, notable at different time scales. Rodrigues and Réunion Island near southern Africa each reported their third wettest year on record. In Hawaii, 1262 mm precipitation at Waipā Gardens (Kauai) on 14-15 April set a new U.S. record for 24-h precipitation. In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte received nearly 75 mm of rain in just 20 minutes, nearly half its monthly average. Globally, fire activity during 2018 was the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area of about 500 million hectares. This reinforced the long-term downward trend in fire emissions driven by changes in land use in frequently burning savannas. However, wildfires burned 3.5 million hectares across the United States, well above the 2000-10 average of 2.7 million hectares. Combined, U.S. wildfire damages for the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons exceeded $40 billion (U.S. dollars).

The introduction of green chemistry principles into the preparation of various commercial products, such as chiral building blocks for drug preparation, is becoming an imperative in the scientific community. There are numerous tools of green chemistry such as the use of alternative solvents and environmentally benign raw (or renewable) materials and performing reactions by (bio)catalysis. The aim of this study is the application of two biocatalysts, purified lipase enzymes and whole-cell biocatalysis (plant cells), for the preparation of interesting chiral intermediates within environmentally friendly solvents (natural deep eutectic solvents, NADESs). For that purpose, enantioselective hydrolysis of (R, S)-1- phenylethyl acetate by immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B and Daucus carota root in cholinium-based NADESs as solvents, was conducted. Based on the results, we can conclude that for both biocatalysts the NADESs are superior to the traditional solvents when used in enantioselective hydrolysis of (R, S)-1-phenylethyl acetate, in terms of product yield and the enantiomeric excess (e.e.). Finally, if we consider environmental benefits of applying NADESs as solvents, they are excellent candidates for environment-friendly biocatalysis.

Master's thesis in Petroleum geoscience engineering The Tabaco anticline is located in the Cesar-Ranchería basin of northern Colombia, South America, close to the transpressional collision between the Caribbean and South American plates. The anticline is bounded by the Cerrejón thrust to the east, the right lateral strike slip Oca fault to the north, and the left lateral strike slip Ranchería fault to the south. The anticline is asymmetric and verges to the SE, with a NW limb dipping in average 26°W, a SE limb dipping 41°E, and a fold axis 217°/7° (trend and plunge). The fold’s vergence is opposite to that of the Cerrejón thrust. In this thesis, I make a 3D structural model of the Tabaco anticline using a high resolution dataset from the Cerrejón open coal mine in an area of about 10 km2. This 3D model contains 17 coal seams and 67 faults. The thesis is divided in three main parts: Construction of a 3D structural model, fault displacement analysis, and restoration of the anticline. Four different patterns in the contours of fault throw were observed: 1) Low throw in the middle of the fault and high throw in the areas around, 2) Highest throw at one corner of the fault and not in the center, 3) Highest throw in the middle of the fault, and 4) In conjugated faults, highest value of throw at the intersection of the two fault planes. Most of the faults show pattern 3. Patterns 1 and 2 are mostly due to lack of sampling of the entire fault surfaces. Faults show a consistent pattern of slip in the area. 3D restoration of the anticline using a flexural slip technique suggests a total shortening of 18%. Fault-related strain (from the analysis of fault displacement) and fold-related strain (from the restoration of the coal seams) are related, with the highest values of fold-related strain associated with a fault in the core of the anticline, and the faults located in the SW anticlinal limb. Fold-related strains are also high in the SE, steeply dipping anticlinal limb. The results of this study show that the anticline was affected by uplift of the Santa Marta massif, Perijá range deformation, and strike-slip movement of the Oca , Samán and Ranchería faults.

The main focus of this study is to improve the understanding about the lateral variation of the Zechstein Group and the impact on the Triassic sedimentary minibasins. The study area is located approximately 225 km south-west from Stavanger and covers the Jæren High and Cod Terrace in the Central North Sea. This master thesis utilizes 3D seismic and well data to study the influence of lateral and vertical facies variations of the Zechstein Group, as well as the impact on evaporite mobilization on the Triassic sedimentation. The Zechstein Group in the study area consists of a variety of evaporitic and non-evaporitic lithologies, ranging from anhydrite and dolomite in the northern part of the study area to a more halite dominated succession in the southern part. The processes that initiates salt movement in the study area are interpreted to be extension accompanied by sediment loading. These processes resulted in creation of thick minibasins surrounded by salt ridges. The majority of the wells in the study area were drilled on top of the salt structures where the Triassic succession is very thin, as these interpod reservoirs has been proven in the Ula Field south east of the study area. The lithologies in the minibasins consists of sand in the Skagerrak Formation and sand and shale in the Smith Bank Formation. Interpretation of these minibasins has proven evidence of structures such as anticlines and wedges, which can be of interest for the petroleum industry. The minibasins were divided into seismic units based on the strata geometry and strata termination such as onlaps, downlaps, truncations etc. The seismic units give an indication about the timing of the salt mobilization but show little to no correlation from north to south. In addition, the depositional environment of the minibasins is suggested to be interfingering alluvial fans and fluviodeltaic systems. A model of the play elements has been proposed based on the observation of sand with good reservoir qualities in sub-salt and in supra-salt. The traps identified consists of two-way closures in rotated fault blocks and four-way closures in anticlines and stratigraphic highs, in addition to stratigraphic pinch-outs and wedges. Furthermore, an area where the Zechstein Group could be suitable for the storage of hydrogen have been suggested in the southernmost part of the study area where the lithology of the Zechstein Group is halite dominated.

Previous geologically works in Sørvestsnaget Basin and Veslemøy High region, suggest that Tertiary reservoirs in the western Barents Sea are promising, but not yet properly understood laterally, with the influence of regional and local tectonics. This thesis focuses on understanding the lateral and vertical variation of the Tertiary succession, and how the tectonics influenced the deposition of reservoirs, using 2D and 3D seismic data, together with provided well logs. A major and thick Tertiary succession is present in the western Barents Sea in areas such as Sørvestsnaget Basin. The Paleocene and Eocene seismic units are influenced by normal faulting and rifting tectonics in Sørvestsnaget Basin, while the seismic units over Veslemøy High were deposited in a less tectonic active period, especially in Paleocene, before a major uplift event affected this high during the Eocene. At the western margin of the Sørvestsnaget Basin, a marginal high was uplifted, probably time equivalent to the uplift of Veslemøy High during Eocene, but at a significantly smaller scale. Major depocenters were present in Sørvestsnaget Basin due to salt mobilization of a major salt diapir in the south eastern margin of the basin, triggered during Eocene. Possible reactivation is suggested by depocenters. Glacial isostasy from the Pliocene have led to further uplift and subsequently subsidence, causing the accumulation of a large clastic erosional glacial wedge deposited in the generated accommodation space, mainly Sørvestsnaget Basin. Normal faulting, together with uplift (marginal high, Veslemøy High and the salt diapir) and subsidence events have greatly affected the Tertiary succession, and routed/deflected the postEocene (post rift) deposits and localized them into preferential areas in Sørvestsnaget Basin, situated in the western Barents Sea. Syn kinematic wedges are found to be controlled by normal faulting in Sørvestsnaget Basin and at the bounding fault between the Sørvestsnaget Basin and the Veslemøy High, in Paleocene to Eocene. Turbiditic flows controlled by local footwall uplift, rotation and erosion are found in hanging walls of the Paleocene seismic unit, together with the syn kinematic wedges in the Sørvestsnaget Basin. Injectite features are found to be common in Paleocene and Eocene, probably triggered by earthquakes related to local faulting activity, as well as differential compaction. The uplift of Stappen High have caused the deposition of a large sand rich submarine fan in the Sørvestsnaget Basin, while at the approximately same time, salt halokinetic movements controlled the deposition of a mass transport complex in proximity of the salt diapir. Pliocene shelf margin clinoforms are found to be prograding towards the west, sourced by isostatic uplift of the Barents Sea. Within the clinoforms, a vast submarine channel belt shows signs of erosion, transportation and deposition.