Energy Geology Course Combines Data and Practical Learning

Students in the Iceland School of Energy’s Energy Geology course got a closer look beneath Iceland’s surface this semester, working directly with drill cores collected from different geological settings across the country.

Led by Dr. David McNamara, Visiting Professor at the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavik University and Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, Energy Geology is designed to give students the foundational geoscience knowledge they need before progressing into more specialised courses in geothermal energy and other subsurface energy fields.

This year also marks a milestone for McNamara and ISE. He first began teaching at Reykjavík University in 2017 and has returned to Iceland to teach every year since, with the exception of the COVID year. What began as a visiting teaching opportunity has developed into a decade-long relationship with ISE.

Over those years, McNamara has taught students from around the world and from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds. He has also brought several of his PhD students to Iceland, giving them an opportunity to contribute to teaching, experience a different academic environment and engage with Iceland’s energy landscape.

The hybrid Energy Geology course combines classroom teaching, online learning, geological datasets and practical work with real geological material. Students build a foundation in geology, structural geology, volcanology, geothermal systems and geomechanics, while developing skills in interpreting geological maps, well data and subsurface structures. The course continues to evolve alongside the knowledge and skills students need for more specialised study in geothermal and subsurface energy.

As part of this approach, students worked with drill cores loaned from the collections of Náttúrufræðistofnun, with the support of María Helga Guðmundsdóttir, who helped identify material suited to the course and facilitate the educational loan. The cores were selected to give students examples of contrasting geological characteristics and different stages of alteration.

For McNamara, having students work directly with the cores is an important part of the learning experience. Handling the rock allows students to see how geology changes with depth, recognise differences between cores and understand how subsurface conditions can vary from one location to another, observations that are much harder to appreciate from images and datasets alone.

During the practical session, students examined and logged the cores, identifying features including fresh and altered basalt, fractures, vesicular textures, red beds, veins and secondary mineralisation. Working directly with the rock allowed students to connect concepts introduced through lectures and online learning with physical evidence from the subsurface.

This type of integrated geological interpretation is central to geothermal exploration and development, where geoscientists combine evidence from drill cores, well data, geological maps and other subsurface information. It also connects closely with McNamara’s research on geological structures, stress, mineralisation and fluid flow in geothermal and other subsurface systems.

After a decade of teaching at ISE, McNamara’s involvement has grown beyond the course itself, connecting students and researchers with a different academic environment and with Iceland’s wider energy sector. The addition of drill core work this year continues that development, bringing another practical element into how students learn Energy Geology.