Gareth is a structural geologist with broad expertise across the geosciences and extensive field experience in North America and Europe.  He previously worked at BHP on a diverse range of projects in exploration and development, including the Eagle Ford and Permian shale plays and the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. His areas of expertise include structural analysis, salt tectonics, regional geologic synthesis, and play analysis.

Most at home when outside, Gareth has an accumulated 25 months’ field experience in a wide variety of tectonic and sedimentary settings. His master’s research focused on structural analysis of faulted foreland-basin rocks in the Appalachian Basin. For his PhD he mapped highly deformed evaporite successions within the basal décollement of the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico. He has also done shorter field courses in world-famous geologic localities including the Paradox Basin, Spanish Pyrenees, Death Valley, and Cyprus.

In addition to technical skills, he also brings a unique depth of geographic knowledge and cross-cultural experience to his role at firstelement, garnered from more than a decade of travel across North America and almost thirty countries globally. 

Gareth holds a bachelor’s degree in geological science from the University of Plymouth, a master’s degree in geology from the University at Buffalo, and a PhD in geological sciences from The University of Texas at Austin.