Dr Peter Gatt
biography
Peter Gatt studied geology and its applications to Malta in the UK (B.A. London, MSc Reading and PhD Durham) and engineering geology at Cornell University (USA). His research on the >150 km wide Malta Platform was presented at conferences/lectures in the UK (London and Oxford), southern Africa and Italy and has contributed to the understanding of the development of the Malta Platform, its potential petroleum systems and industrial use of Maltese limestones. In 2009, Peter’s research on climatic controls on the limestones of the Mediterranean won an award from the multinational oil company BP.
Dr Gatt is national correspondent for the International Association of Sedimentologists and has lectured geology at the University of Malta, worked as a geologist at the Public Works Division of the Government of Malta and the Environment DG of the European Commission and served as member of the Minerals Board of the Planning Authority. In order to increase the dissemination of geological sciences among the public, Peter has written several articles on magazines and newspapers about local geology and has published on scientific journals.
Dr Peter Gatt is President of the Malta Chamber of Geologists
Publications
2022 GATT, P. Facies, depositional environments and drowning of Tethyan isolated carbonate platforms: the Paleogene of Malta.
Facies, 68(9). DOI: 10.1007/s10347-022-00648-1. Link: https://rdcu.be/cM58T
2021 GATT, P. Embayment morphometrics, granulometry and carbonate mineralogy of sandy beaches in the Maltese Islands. Marine
Geology, 432,106394.
2019 GATT, P. Evaporite dissolution sinkholes in the Dwejra Depression. European Geologist 48, 53-57.
2019 Klar, A., Deerberg, G., Janicki, G., Schicks, J., Riedel, M., Fietzek, P., Mosch, T., Tinivella, U., De La Fuente Ruiz, M., GATT, P.,
Schwalenberg, K., Heeschen, K., Bialas, J., Pinkert, S., Tang., A.M., Kvamme, B., Spangenberg, E., English, N., Bertrand, C.,
Parlaktuna, M., Sahoo, S.K., Bouillot, B., Desmedt, A., and Wallmann, K. Gas hydrate technology: state of the art and future possibilities
for Europe. COST Report Action ES 1405.
https://doi.org/10.3289/MIGRATE_WG2.2019
2018 GATT, P. Sediment provenance and impacts of climate change on coastal systems of the Maltese Islands. Mediterranean Coastal
Erosion Conference. Ministry for Transport & Infrastructure, Malta.
2016 GATT, P.A. Map of the Maltese Islands (with geological cross section and geological overview).
Scale 1:30,000, Berndt & Freytag Publishers, Vienna. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11118.20804
2014 GATT, P. A. "Fluid Migration Conduits Systems in Carbonate Platforms-Meso- Cenozoic Malta Platform." EAGE Shallow Anomalies
Workshop. 23-26 November 2014.
GATT, PETER. "Field Guide to the Cenozoic Platform Carbonates and Salt Tectonics of the
Maltese Islands." EAGE Shallow Anomalies Workshop. Sponsors: Statoil, Shell
2012 GATT, P.A. & GLUYAS, J.G. Climatic controls on facies in Palaeogene Mediterranean subtropical carbonate platforms. Petroleum Geoscience, 18, 355-367.
2011 GATT, P.A. The Malta Platform: Controls on sedimentation and petroleum plays. In: New and Emerging Plays in the Eastern Mediterranean (Eds. A. Belopolsky, J. Craig, J. Iliffe & G Tari), Petroleum Group (Geological Society) Conference Abstract book, London.
2010 GATT, P.A. Discussion: ‘‘Facies analysis and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the Late Oligocene Attard Member (Lower Coralline Limestone Formation), Malta’’. Sedimentology, 56, 1138–1158.
GATT, P.A., TUCKER, M.E. & ARMSTRONG, H. Climatic Controls on Porosity in Subtropical Carbonate Platform Reservoirs. In: Advances in Carbonate Exploration and Reservoir Analysis (Eds. J. Garland, J. Neilson, S. Laubach & K. Whidden), Petroleum Group (Geological Society) Conference Abstract book, London.
2009 GATT, P. A., TUCKER, M. E., & DAVIES, R. Drowning of the Malta carbonate platform: Facies and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Lower Coralline Limestone (U. Oligocene). In: Sedimentary Environments of Mediterranean Islands (Eds. V. Pascucci, & S. Andreucci), Conference abstract book, 27th IAS Meeting of Sedimentology, Alghero, p. 181.
2008 GRUSZCZYŃSKI, M., MARSHALL, J., GOLDRING, R., COLEMAN, M.L., MAŁKOWSKI, K.,GAŹDZICKA, E., SEMIL, J., GATT, P.A. Hiatal surfaces from the Miocene Globigerina Limestone Formation of Malta: biostratigraphy, sedimentology, trace fossils and early diagenesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 270, 239–251.
2007 GATT, P.A. Model of limestone weathering and damage in masonry: Sedimentological and geotechnical controls in the Globigerina Limestone Formation (Miocene) of Malta. Xjenza, 11, 30-39.
GATT, P.A. Plio-Quaternary controls on foreland sedimentation in the region of the Maltese Islands. Bollettino della società geologica
italiana, 126, 119-129.
GATT, P. A. 2007 Discussion of ‘Methodology to identify badly weathering limestone using geochemistry. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology & Hydrology, 40(1), 187 – 192.
2005 GATT, P. A. 2005 Syntectonic deposition of an Oligo-Miocene phosphorite conglomerate bed in Malta. Central Mediterranean Naturalist, 4, 109-118.
GATT, P. A. Assessing Limestone Quality for the Construction Industry in Malta: A Geological Perspective. The Architect, 35, 20-21.
2002 GOLDRING, R., GATT, P.A, GRUSZCZYNSKI, M. A bow-form burrow and its sedimentological and Palaeoecological significance. Palaios, 17, 622-630.
2000 GATT, P. Quarrying in Malta. Quarry Management, 29, 10-13.
Education
2008-2012 PhD, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, UK
Sedimentology & structural geology: specialised on Tethyan carbonate
platforms of the Mediterranean; Sequence stratigraphy; tectonostratigraphic development
of carbonate platforms; climate controls on carbonates; well correlation
2000-01 Postgraduate research, Cornell University, New York, USA: Engineering geology &
geotechnical engineering
1994-95 Postgraduate research, Royal Holloway College, University of London
1991-92 MSc Postgraduate Research Institute for Sedimentology,
University of Reading, U.K.: Sedimentology and its applications
1984-87 B.A. (Hons) University of London: Geography.