The dataset employed comprises 3D seismic, electrical log, core and biostratigraphic data; the seismic coverage encompassing >60 km of the northern end of the half-garben bounding Late Jurassic Strathspey-Brent-Statfjord fault system. Seismic interpretation of fault segments and their abandoned palaeo-tips, and investigation of displacement-length scaling relationships were employed to reconstruct the temporal and spatial evolution of the fault population in the study half-graben. The timing of activity on individual segments was determined from stratigraphic evidence. An initial population comprising a large number of short, low displacement fault segments is identified; these faults defined a graben-like geometry. As the rift event progressed, strain was concentrated on fewer structures and, after ~10 Ma, on the Strathspey-Brent-Statfjord fault alone; hence the basin subsequently evolved an half-graben geometry. As the number of active faults in the basin decreased with strain localisation so the rates of displacement increased. The evolution of the fault population strongly influenced the distribution and stratal architecture of syn-rift sediments. During the initial stages of rifting (deposition of the Tarbert and Heather formations), the rate of sediment supply largely kept pace with the rate of tectonic subsidence. Sediment was sourced externally from the southward retreating Brent detail complex. In the rift climax phase the basin was sediment starved (deposition of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation), rates of tectonic subsidence greatly outpaced rates of sediment supply. The dominant process of sedimentation was hemipelagic settling; a secondary external source of sediment supplied an axial turbidite system during the Kimmeridgian. The impact of sediment starvation was the establishment of a submarine fault bounded range front that had an elevation locally in excess of 750 m. This bathymetric high was denuded by gravity driven sliding, controlled by the rheology of the pre-rift geologies exposed in the scarp; the products are preserved both mounted on the footwall scarp (the fault scarp degradation complex) and in the proximal hangingwall.

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Artificial Life is a research field which has developed around the use of synthetic artificial systems, mostly robotic and virtual, to investigate the supposed characteristic features of life. The thesis presents a case study of Artificial Life, with the overall objective of understanding some of the cultural, disciplinary and epistemological developments that may be distinctive of research communities who ground their work on a collaborative involvement with non-human simulation models. The study examines the cultural identity of the Artificial Life research community and its knowledgemaking practices, as well as its sustainability strategies into existing institutional contexts. The study aims at being neither an over-localized laboratory micro-study nor an over general macro-study, but tries to situate itself in the mid-range by combining both approaches. It has been conducted through a combination of ethnographical fieldwork and of bibliographical analysis, and places a special focus on the Artificial Life research group at University of Sussex, which has been selected for its centrality in the global Artificial Life landscape.

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