OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Volume 66 • No. 12 • December 2017
OUTCROP | December 2017
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Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
OUTCROP The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
910 16th Street • Suite 1214 • Denver, CO 80202 • 303-573-8621 The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is a nonprofit organization whose purposes are to promote interest in geology and allied sciences and their practical application, to foster scientific research and to encourage fellowship and cooperation among its members. The Outcrop is a monthly publication of the RMAG.
2017 OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT
TREASURER
Larry Rasmussen larryr@whiting.com
Karen Dean deankaren@comcast.net
PRESIDENT-ELECT
TREASURER-ELECT
Terri Olson tmolson8550@gmail.com
Robin Swank robin.swank@gmail.com
1st VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY
Steve Sturm 303petro.images@gmail.com
Jennifer Jones jaseitzjones@gmail.com
2nd VICE PRESIDENT
1st YEAR COUNSELOR
Cat Campbell CCampbell@bayless-cos.com
Jim Emme jim_emme@yahoo.com 2nd YEAR COUNSELOR
Rob Diedrich rdiedrich@sm-energy.com
RMAG STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Barbara Kuzmic bkuzmic@rmag.org MEMBERSHIP & EVENTS MANAGER
Hannah Rogers hrogers@rmag.org ACCOUNTANT
Carol Dalton cdalton@rmag.org PROJECTS SPECIALIST
Kathy Mitchell-Garton kmitchellgarton@rmag.org LEAD EDITOR
Cheryl Fountain cwhitney@alumni.nmt.edu ASSOCIATE EDITORS
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Rates and sizes can be found on page 56. Advertising rates apply to either black and white or color ads. Submit color ads in RGB color to be compatible with web format. Borders are recommended for advertisements that comprise less than one half page. Digital files must be PC compatible submitted in png, jpg, tif, pdf or eps formats at a minimum of 300 dpi. If you have any questions, please call the RMAG office at 303-573-8621. Ad copy, signed contract and payment must be received before advertising insertion. Contact the RMAG office for details. DEADLINES: Ad submissions are the 1st of every month for the following month’s publication.
Holly Sell holly.sell@yahoo.com Greg Guyer Greg.Guyer@halliburton.com Ron Parker ron@bhigeo.com DESIGN/LAYOUT
Nate Silva www.nate-silva.com
WEDNESDAY NOON LUNCHEON RESERVATIONS
RMAG Office: 303-573-8621 | Fax: 808-389-4090 | staff@rmag.org or www.rmag.org The Outcrop is a monthly publication of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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Outcrop | December 2017 OUTCROP
Thank you, 2017 Rockbusters Bash Sponsors! Awards Sponsor
Thank You! Event Sponsor
North Ranch Resources Champagne Sponsor
Weatherford Laboratories Centerpiece Sponsor
Innovative Geo-tech Resources email: sta@rmag.org
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fax: 888.389.4090
phone: 303.573.8621
OUTCROP | December 910 16th Street #1214,2017 Denver, CO, 80202
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web: www.rmag.org
66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org follow:Vol. @rmagdenver
OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
CONTENTS FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
6 RMAG Summit Sponsorship
12 RMAG October 2017 Board of Directors Meeting
44 Lead Story: Baja California Sur and the Opening of the Gulf of California
14 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Zane Jobe 16 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Pete Stark
ASSOCIATION NEWS 2 RMAG 2017 Summit Sponsors 4 2017 Rockbusters Bash Sponsors 11 Become a 2018 RMAG Summit Sponsor
22 President’s Letter 34 Mineral of the Month: Pyrolusite 54 Welcome New RMAG Members! 54 In The Pipeline 56 Outcrop Advertising Rates
13 2018 RMAG Mentorship Program
57 Advertiser Index
15 RMAG 2018 Short Course
57 Calendar
17 Geo Train Trip to AAPG Ace, Salt Lake City
COVER PHOTO East Thorne Peak in the Gore Range, north of Silverthorne, CO, September 10th, 2016. A large rockfall on the east face is shown in the white area, bounded by rhombohedral jointing. This image is taken the following day and rocks were still falling – note the dust. Photo by Stephen Sturm
20 RMAG/DAPL Geoland Ski Day 56 Submit Your Digital Photos!
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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OUTCROP | December 2017
2018 RMAG Summit Sponsorship
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 910 16th Street, Suite 1214, Denver, CO, 80202 phone: 303.573.8621 | fax: 888.389.4090| email: staff@rmag.org
November 7, 2017
Dear Partners, First, for those of you have been faithful Summit Sponsors, we want you to know your contributions have made it possible to provide quality educational programming, and assist with overall operations throughout 2017. On behalf of the 2017 RMAG Board of Directors, our fabulous RMAG office staff, and myself, a sincere thank you! The 2018 Summit Sponsorship package has changed some from 2017, and previous years. We have reduced the number of levels to three, and renamed them as Platinum, Gold and Silver. We are now giving you the option to choose the events you wish to attend, as well as purchase additional ½ price registrations at the Platinum and Gold levels. As always, you are welcome to register anyone of your choosing, or give the registrations as gifts. For those of you who have been Student level sponsors in the past, know that a portion of all Summit Sponsorship contributions in 2018 will go directly towards deeply discounted student registrations. Another benefit we are pleased to offer in 2018 is a full 12 months of advertising in The Outcrop, at RMAG Luncheons, and at all other RMAG events, provided we have your materials at the office by January 31, 2018. By meeting the deadline, your advertising will run through January 31, 2019. If your company hasn’t previously been an RMAG Summit Sponsor, please consider becoming an RMAG Summit Sponsor in 2018. RMAG has a membership base of over 1800 members, the largest membership base of any geological-based association in the Rocky Mountain region, which grows monthly, assuring your company broad exposure. We also like to have fun, with our annual Golf Tournament, Sporting Clay Shoot, and various social activities throughout the year. In addition, your company will also have exposure at the RMAG booth during the AAPG-ACE conference in May 2018 with Summit Sponsor advertising materials. Again, a sincere thank you to everyone who has supported RMAG throughout 2017! We are looking forward to continued partnership, and making new ones in 2018. Please contact me directly at bkuzmic@rmag.org, or 303-573-8621 x 2, if you or your company have any questions.
Best Regards,
Barbara Kuzmic Executive Director Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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OUTCROP | December 2017
2018 RMAG Summit Sponsorship Platinum, Gold, Silver Sponsorship Level Contribution Level
Platinum
Gold
Silver
(formerly Gold)
(formerly student)
(same as 2017)
$10,000
$5,000
$2,500
$9,500 for returning 2017 sponsors
$4,500 for returning 2017 sponsors
RMAG Website Benefits Company logo on 2018 Summit Sponsorship page on www.rmag.org
üLarge Logo & Link
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
The Outcrop (receive benefits for 12 issues, monthly online publication)*
ü Full page ad
ü 2/3 page ad
ü 1/2 page ad
Company logo listed as a 2018 annual sponsor in the Outcrop
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Company logo looping in PowerPoint presentation
ü
ü
ü
Company logo placed on 2018 Summit Sponsor signage at all monthly luncheons
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Opportunity to offer RMAG approved promotional items at luncheons
ü
ü
ü
Publications
Monthly Luncheons
2018 Continuing Education Event Tickets
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Choice of two events. Please make your selections below. Selections are due by January 31, 2018.
4 Core Workshop Tickets - including Hot Plays Core Workshop without Fall Symposium Tickets
2 Core Workshop Tickets - including Hot Plays Core Workshop without Fall Symposium
2 Core Workshop Tickets - including Hot Plays Core Workshop without Fall Symposium
2 Short Course Tickets
2 Short Course Tickets
1 Short Course Ticket
2 Fall SymposiumTickets
2 Fall Symposium Tickets
1 Fall Symposium Ticket
2 Fall Symposium Tickets - including Hot Plays Core Workshop (counts as two selections)
1 Fall Symposium Ticket - including Hot Plays Core Workshop (counts as two selections)
2 half price Tickets to the Fall Symposium and Hot Plays Core Workshop
* 12 months of Outcrop Advertising: Company logos and advertising information must be received no later than January 31st, 2018 to receive 12 total months. 12 total months includes January 2019. If received between January 31st and February 28th will receive 11 total months. All logos and advertising information must be received no later than January 31, 2018 to be included on Summit Sponsor Signage. Previous Summit Sponsors only need to submit advertising information.
OUTCROP | December 2017
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Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
2018 RMAG Summit Sponsorship Platinum, Gold, Silver RMAG 2017 Events
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Buy Additional Tickets
Purchase additional 1/2 Price Continuing Education Event Tickets
ü3 total tickets for any event ü2 total tickets for any event
except a combo purchase for except a combo purchase for No half price tickets at this level Fall Symposium and Hot Plays Fall Symposium and Hot Plays Core Workshop Core Workshop
RMAG Luncheons
ü 4 Total Tickets through
ü 2 Total Tickets through
ü 1 Total Tickets through
Player tickets
ü 2 Teams of Four Players
ü 1 Team of Four Players
ü 2 Individual Players
Company logo placed in Golf Tournament PowerPoint
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Company logo placed on 2018 Summit Sponsor signage
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Player tickets
ü 2 Teams of Five Players
ü 1 Team of 5 Players
ü 2 individual players
Company logo placed in Sporting Clay Tournament PowerPoint
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Company logo placed on 2018 Summit Sponsor signage
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Event tickets
ü 4 Tickets
ü 2 Tickets
ü 2 Tickets
Company logo placed on 2018 Summit Sponsor signage
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Company logo looping in PowerPoint presentation
üLarge Logo
üMedium Logo
üMedium Logo
Event Tickets
2018
2018
2018
Golf Tournament
Sporting Clay Tournament
Rockbusters Bash
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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OUTCROP | December 2017
2018 RMAG Summit Sponsorship All sponsor benefit event tickets must meet RMAG event registration deadlines. All benefits end January 31, 2019. Discount to returning 2017 Summit Sponsors for 2018 Summit Sponsors only.
RMAG 2018 Summit Sponsorship Opportunities Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Silver Sponsor
Deadline for sponsorship: January 31, 2018. Specify type of payment on signed form, and send logo to staff@rmag.org by 1/31/18. No benefits will be provided without payment. Company: Company Representative: Address: City/State/Zip: Phone:
Email:
Payment by Credit Card Select a card: Amex M/C VISA Discover Name as it appears on Credit Card:____________________________________________________ Credit Card #: Exp. Date: _________________ Security #: Signature: Payment by Check Mail checks payable to RMAG: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) 910 16th Street Mall, Suite 1214 Denver, CO, 80202
RMAG events are subject to change. Cancellation or rescheduling of events does not give sponsor right to refund. Summit Sponsors will receive benefits at any new events added into the RMAG schedule for 2018.
Thank you for your generous support!
email: staff@rmag.org
phone: 303.573.8621
OUTCROP | December 2017 CO, 80202 910 16th Street #1214, Denver,
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fax: 888.389.4090 web: www.rmag.org Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org follow: @rmagdenver
Consider becoming a 2018 Summit Sponsor and help RMAG provide the very best in symposia, short courses, social events and much more. Summit Sponsors not only support professional exchange and education, but also gain visibility in the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas, and Geoscience Community.
Visit www.rmag.org for more information and to join the 2018 Summit Sponsorship team.
email: sta@rmag.org
|
phone: 303.573.8621
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
910 16th Street #1214, Denver, CO, 80202
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fax: 888.389.4090
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web: www.rmag.org
OUTCROP | December 2017
follow: @rmagdenver
RMAG OCTOBER 2017 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING By Jennifer Jones, Secretary jaseitzjones@gmail.com
waiting for a finalized 2018 budget to make plans for events. The Publications committee expects to have two special publications in the first or second quarter of 2018. The On the Rocks committee held their wrap-up meeting to discuss how the events for the year went, and they are brainstorming ideas for new trips in 2018, as well as repeating some 2017 trips due to popularity. The process of developing, reviewing, and approving the 2018 budget is in full swing, and the board members are all working diligently to help optimize RMAG in the upcoming year. As always, please check the RMAG website often for the exciting events and opportunities coming up soon. We look forward to seeing you!
The October meeting of the RMAG Board of Directors was held October 18, 2017 at 4 PM. All board members except Jim Emme and Steve Sturm were present. Treasurer-Elect Robin Swank reported that the RMAG financials are continuing well, and the accounts are in good shape compared to the budget. Executive Director Barbara Kuzmic reported that membership is up slightly, with a new total of 1,809. Registration for the October core workshop event closed the following day, and interest was high. Final details for the Rockbuster’s Bash on November 9 were discussed, as well as the upcoming November short course with Dr. Junaid Sadeque. There are already seven exciting luncheon speakers booked for 2018. The Continuing Education committee is brainstorming ideas for next year, and
Formation Evaluation • Petra® Projects Reserve Reports • Drilling Engineering • Well Plans
Bill Donovan
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Marty Hall
Program Development Manager Multi-Client Services
7765 Windwood Way P.O. Box 549 Parker, CO 80134 USA
SINCLAIR
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Licensed in CO, UT, MT, & WY
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john@sinclairengineering.com
marty.hall@geokinetics.com
OUTCROP | December 2017
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Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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R M A G
Apply Accepting applications October 2, 2017 through December 18, 2017. Visit www.rmag.org to apply.
About RMAG young professionals will be paired with mentors to provide young professionals with a senior professional mentor who can provide career path and technical mentorship. RMAG provides participants with opportunities for the whole program to get together throughout the year.
February 1, 2018 December 31, 2018 email: sta@rmag.org
phone: 303.573.8621
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
910 16th Street #1214, Denver, CO, 80202
fax: 888.389.4090 13
web: www.rmag.org
OUTCROP | December 2017
follow: @rmagdenver
RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS Speaker: Reinaldo Michelena — December 6, 2017
Calibration and modeling of natural fractures properties using 3D poststack seismic data Reinaldo Michelena orientation), circular variance (or Fisher coefficient), and families of orientations in each cell of the seismic cube. Seismic derived orientation statistics is compared against orientations from outcrops and microseismic data to assess their validity and consistency across different scales. In the example presented in this talk, fracture orientations and families of fractures remain invariant across seven orders of magnitude, from outcrop scale to large seismic data scale. Once the correlation between seismic orientations and actual natural fractures is established, I use this information to constrain discrete fracture models of small faults and joints for different families of orientations. To finalize, I show one example of how this information is later used to constrain the generation of the pressure field in a naturally fractured reservoir by doing dual porosity flow simulation.
Natural fractures properties such as orientation, intensity, and anisotropy are routinely extracted from seismic data to help in the characterization of conventional and unconventional fractured reservoirs. These seismic derived properties, however, must be carefully checked and calibrated by using independent fracture information to increase the confidence in the interpretation of the attributes before they are used to support further characterization and development decisions. I present in this talk a workflow to extract, map, calibrate, and model natural fractures from 3D poststack seismic data that are used to constrain discrete fracture modeling and flow simulation models. The workflow starts by extracting local orientations from 3D seismic curvature. These orientations are then analyzed statistically to extract properties such as mode (dominant
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in 2003 and since then he has worked
OUTCROP | December 2017
to help reservoir delineation and characterization, from programming and testing of algorithms to integrated interpretation of field data results. He worked 18 years for PDVSA-Intevep, the research and technical services affiliate of PDVSA. He joined iReservoir
Reinaldo Michelena received a B.S. in physics (1984) from Universidad Simón Bolívar (Venezuela) and a Ph.D. in geophysics (1993) from Stanford University. He has over 30 years of experience in research, development, and application of seismic methods
in a variety of problems and geological settings where seismic data analysis results are used to geological models for matrix and natural fractures and flow simulation models.
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
RMAG February 2018
Short Course At
the
Denver
Place
999 Eighteenth Street, Denver, Colorado 80202
Registration opens 12/11/17. Register at www.rmag.org. Members: $175 Non-Member: $225 Student: $50
February 8, 2018 Edwin Moritz Valuing Upstream Oil & Gas Properties Course is a short primer that provides a practical understanding of appraisal methods and techniques applied by the market for acquisition of oil and gas interests. The course includes a discussion of standard appraisal concepts, value patterns in the market, commodity price analysis and consideration of risks. Course includes a practical case history. Attendees are introduced to methods that are commonly used by market participants to value upstream oil and gas properties. The course includes an overview of upstream oil and gas activities and the range of possible oil and gas rights, such as royalties and working interests. The cost approach, comparable sales and income methods of valuation are presented. Various methods for adjusting value based on risk are covered. Course participants will increase their understanding of how market participants value upstream oil and gas property rights.
email: sta@rmag.org
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phone: 303.573.8621
910 16th Street #1214, Denver, CO, 80202
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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follow: @rmagdenver
web: www.rmag.org
OUTCROP | December 2017
RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS Speaker: Pete Stark — January 3, 2018
Petroleum Industry Perspective 2018 Pete Stark, Executive Director Upstream Research, IHS Markit Energy 1.6 MMb/d along with other non-OPEC producers who will add another 0.8 MMb/d from 2017 - 2019 thus offsetting most of OPEC’s cuts. In a base case scenario WTI oil prices are expected to average below $50 again during 2018 before oil demand and inventory reductions finally kick in to boost WTI into the mid-$50s during 2019. An oil market conundrum creates a near-term push me-pull you cycle in oil markets. If oil drops into the mid $40’s US capex slumps along with tight oil production. If oil prices rebound into the mid $50’s capex accelerates and US tight oil surges. But US tight oil production – expected to add 1.9 MMb/d - is not enough to meet the projected 12.3 MMb/d call on new oil production between 2019 and 2023. Moreover, sanctioned
“The future influences the present just as much as the past.” —Friedrich Nietzsche The current oil market struggle is between forces to rebalance supply and demand (OPEC) and forces to recalibrate the business to operate at lower cost (US tight oil operators). This struggle impacts the shape and performance of future E&P portfolios and investments. As a part of this struggle, short cycle U.S. shale barrels have fundamentally changed the structure of oil markets and the nature of upstream investment. Near term, thanks to OPEC’s agreement to cut production, oil markets are slowly rebalancing. But led by the Permian basin, US oil production is expected add
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University of Wisconsin Department of Geology and Geophysics honored Dr. Stark’s contributions to the university and profession with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Pete received a 2011 Honorary Member Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the 2011 IHS Chairman’s Award and the 2015 COGA Lifetime Achievement Award. Pete’s career was recognized in the 2017 AAPG Heritage of the Petroleum Geologist publication and he has been named to the Denver and Houston Business Journal’s “Who’s Who in Energy” publications.
OUTCROP | December 2017
gas supplies, North American and global tight oil and global reserves replacement. Pete has participated in the AAPG Resources Committee and AAPGSPE and Hedberg resource research conferences. He has served on the AAPG Corporate Advisory Board and boards of the AAPG International Pavilion and PPDM. Previously, he was chairman of the Board of Visitors for the University of Wisconsin Department of Geology and Geophysics. Dr. Stark holds a BSc in geology from the University of Oklahoma and MSc and PhD degrees in geology from the University of Wisconsin. The
Philip H. “Pete” Stark is Executive Director Upstream Research for IHS Markit in Englewood, Colorado. Prior to joining IHS in 1969, Stark was an exploration geologist for Mobil Oil. Dr. Stark has authored papers on E&P databases, hydrocarbon shows, horizontal drilling, US natural gas, global oil and gas resources, global E&P trends, giant fields and unconventional O&G. He co-authored IHS studies of North American gas supplies, unconventional
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
Geo Train Trip to AAPG Ace, Salt Lake City F r o m
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D e n v e r
May 2018
Departs at 8:05am Arrives at 11:05 pm
Travel to AAPG Ace 2018 in style! Join RMAG members on a train trip from Denver to Salt Lake City. As the train passes through the Piceane Basin, the Uintah Basin, the edge of the Paradox Basin, and the Utah Thrust Belt, short geo talks will be given throughout the day.
Ticket Price - $115 Register at www.rmag.org This is a one-way ticket. Passengers will be responsible for planning travel back to Denver after AAPG ACE.
Sponsored By:
email: sta@rmag.org | phone: 303.573.8621 #1214, Denver, CO, 80202 Vol. 66,910 No.16th 12 Street | www.rmag.org
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fax: 888.389.4090 | web: www.rmag.org follow: @rmagdenver OUTCROP | December 2017
RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS percent of the new production. Remaining Permian Basin resources are estimated to be 65 to 70 billion barrels – almost twice the cumulative production to date. During 2017 Permian Basin oil production surpassed the previous peak of 762 MMbbl set in 1973. Similar successes in the Williston Basin Bakken-Three Forks, the smaller Denver Basin Niobrara and other examples of oily super basin potential. The®Appalachian Basin, PetroFecta from which is dominating US gas supply growth, is the modFluid el for a gassy Super Basin.Inclusion Internationally, companies are pursuing bypassed and underperforming opportuTechnologies nities in large mature basins as a means to reduce risks is a unique approach combining and project cycle times. ® XRF (PDQ-XRF ), Trapped Fluid Analysis Global gas markets also are oversupplied. With (FIS ®), and High Resolution Photography huge U.S. gas resources that break-even at less than ) of the entire from (RockEye ®gas $4.00/Mcf, associated and thewellbore Appalachian Basin wellnear cuttings or core samples of any age. growth. will cover most and mid-term demand Power generation and LNG exports are expected to be All analyses are conducted on the same lead gas demand growth but renewables challenge gas 1 gram sample (up to 575 samples per well) for new power generation and excess LNG supplies will with an analytical cycle of four days. last five years or more. Gas exports to Mexico and expanding chemicalData processing bright provided onare a DVD with spots for gas and NGL demand.
»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
conventional projects only account for about a third of the projected demand. Supplies could tighten if capital is not forthcoming to boost additional project sanctions and higher prices will be needed to support expansion of additional tight oil production. Longer term, 41 MMb/d will be needed to meet projected 2040 oil demand. The global petroleum industry has reduced full-cycle costs by about 25% since 2015 in a “great cost reset” to reposition profitability in a low cost world. This cost reset is critical as the onset of $80 oil prices, which is thought to stimulate adequate investments to meet 2040 demand, is not expected until 2030. Scenarios also indicate the onset of peak 1 and 2 man Mudlogging Summit Referencing™ oil demand could occur during the 2030s asGasthe transGeosteering Mudloggingfuels accelerates. Peak formation of transportation deServices mand triggers other long term strategic implications for the petroleum industry. Mike Barber Manager With the Permian Basin as the model, the rise of Serving the Rocky Mountain Region Super Basins could substantially alter the future of ex230 Airport The Rd. prime driver for the rebound Ph (435)657-0586 ploration. in PermUnit D Cell (435)640-1382 ian Basin application of horizontal Heber City,production Utah 84032 was the email: mbarber@summitmudlog.com www.summitmudlog.com technologies in the Wolfcamp shale while production from tight conventional reservoirs accounts for 20
previewer software.
Neil H. Whitehead, III Consulting Geologist PhD
CPG-AIPG
PG WY
Information about PetroFecta ® and other FIT services, call 918.461.8984 or visit www.fittulsa.com
Rocky Mountain Basins Wellsite to Petroleum Systems ArcGIS 303-679-8573
fax 303-679-8574
31634 Black Widow Way
Conifer, CO
OUTCROP
OUTCROP | December 2017
neil3@q.com 80433-9610
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www.rmag.org
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Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
Sharpen Your Skills with PTTC!
Turbidite Crash Course: Depositional Environments and Facies Architecture (lecture and core workshop) Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm. USGS, Core Research Center, Lakewood, CO Fee: $250, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Dr. Zane Jobe, Colorado School of Mines
This is an intensive, hands-on course focused on submarine depositional processes and the resultant stratigraphic products. We will discuss the geometries, dimensions, and heterogeneities in submarine depositional environments (e.g., canyons, channels, lobes, mass-transport deposits). An integrated core workshop provides hands-on learning opportunities on deep-water reservoir deposits. Particular emphasis will be on recognition criteria of reservoir forming elements and baffles/barriers to flow (i.e., stratigraphic architecture), which are critical for (1) understanding the formative depositional processes and (2) planning for successful field development.
Log Interpretation of Clastic Depositional Environments
Wednesday-Thursday, January 24-25, 2018, 8:30am-5:00pm Colorado School of Mines, Parker Student Center, Ballroom C Fee: $500, Class notes, snacks and PDH certificate included. Instructor: Dr. Ali Jaffri, Applied Stratigraphix
Being able to interpret environments of deposition using open-hole logs is a skill most geologists and engineers desire. As important as this skill is, not many publications and industry courses address this issue. The purpose of this course is to use a systematic approach that uses the process of elimination to diagnose common fluvial, shallow marine and deepwater depositional environments in well log suites such as Gamma Ray, Resistivity and Porosity and in Borehole Image and Dipmeter Logs. Borehole image logs are commonly acquired but are often underutilized when it comes to interpreting environments of deposition. Most geoscientists and engineers are somewhat familiar with picking faults and fractures on image logs, but the same professionals will often rely on reports provided by the logging company for sedimentology and stratigraphy. This 2-day course is taught in a workshop format and after a morning lecture session, afternoons are devoted to interpretation of logs provided by the instructor. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own logs to work on (these will not be shared with other participants and will only be reviewed by the instructor). Class Descriptions and Register Online: www.pttcrockies.org For more information, contact Mary Carr, 303.273.3107, mcarr@mines.edu
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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OUTCROP | December 2017
RMAG ♦♦ DAPL
GeoLand Ski Day
Friday, March 2, 2018
More Event Details:
https://dapldenver.org/event/dapl-rmag-geoland-ski-day-2018/ Ticket Type
Price
Party Bus & Party Bus & Lift ticket Lift ticket & Party WHOLE PACKAGE!
$65 $95 $100 $140 $160
*Double the Door Prizes* Now accepting sponsors - Submit Sponsorship: https://dapldenver.org/product/event-sponsorship/
Sponsorship Levels
Bus
$1,500+
Extreme Terrain
$1,000+
Double Black Diamond
$750+
Black Diamond
$500+
Nastar
$500+
Blue
$250+
Green
$100+
For 2018 sponsorship opportunities, contact one of the committee chairs:
DAPL Chairs ♦♦ Meg Gibson ♦ meg@majorsgibson.com ♦♦ Patsy Botts ♦ 303-925-0696 RMAG Chairs ♦♦ Tom Sperr ♦ tsperr@bayless-cos.com OUTCROP | December 2017
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Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
RMAG ♦♦ DAPL
GeoLand Ski Day
Thanks, Extreme Terrain 2017 sponsors!
[YOUR COMPANY HERE] For 2018 sponsorship opportunities, contact one of the committee chairs:
DAPL Chairs ♦♦ Meg Gibson ♦ meg@majorsgibson.com ♦♦ Patsy Botts ♦ 303-925-0696 RMAG Chairs ♦♦ Tom Sperr ♦ tsperr@bayless-cos.com Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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OUTCROP | December 2017
PRESIDENT’S LETTER By Larry Rasmussen
Marvin’s Geologists, 1979-85
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have always heard that they were a prospect-generating machine and wanted to understand that process more. Most of the geologists who worked for Marvin from 1979 through 1985 are still around, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk first-hand to some of the geologists who made Davis successful during the early ‘80s boom.
I was 11 years old when my dad left Amoco to take a job with Davis Oil Company in 1979, and I was 17 years old when oil hit $10/bbl in March of 1986. That’s roughly the same age that my daughter is now. Like her, I was a self-absorbed teenager, and I was mostly oblivious to what my dad did for a living. I mean, I knew he was a geologist, I knew he spent a lot of time working, I knew that he drilled wells. Yet, I had no clue how much work he did, nor did I realize what the job actually meant in terms of financial stability. It goes without saying that I was incredibly naïve. When Davis started laying off staff in 1985, I wasn’t aware of how wide-reaching the industry downturn was and how many people it affected. I’m there now, and I completely understand. Like my dad, I entered during a boom in the industry as the price of oil was rising in 2004. When the bottom dropped out for us during the latter part of 2014, I witnessed the same mayhem that had erupted 30 years earlier. Companies went through massive layoffs, some companies closed their doors, and I saw many friends and colleagues scrambling to find work. Some took jobs in other cities, some switched professions, others retired, and some are still looking. The single most important mentor that I’ve had throughout my career is my dad. He never discouraged me from taking a job in the petroleum industry, in fact, he encouraged it. His passion for geology and paleontology was infectious and inspired me to follow the same path. So, as I finish my term as RMAG President, I would like to devote my last column to an exploration of one facet of my dad’s career. Since I’ve become a petroleum geologist, I’ve become more and more curious about his time working for Marvin Davis. They were a very successful company, and they left their mark on the Rockies with thousands of wells drilled and dozens of fields discovered. I
CAST OF CHARACTERS
I have spoken to all of the people in this article over the past year, and I’m letting them tell this story through their own words. A few of the people mentioned in this article are no longer with us. John Melby passed away on August 8, 2015 at 72, Paul Messinger passed away on January 31, 2014 at 91, and Marvin Davis passed away on September 25, 2004 at 79. Ed Lafaye (EL), Will von Drehle (W), Don Rasmussen (DR), Dan Bean (DB), Harvey DuChene (H), Ed Coalson (EC)
MARVIN DAVIS (The following is taken from “How Marvin Davis got so rich” Forbes, November 26, 1979) This year, Denver’s independent Davis Oil Co. will probably be the third most active driller of wildcat oil and gas wells in the country, behind only Amoco and Exxon. That’s an extraordinary achievement for an independent. But just as extraordinary is Davis Oil’s owner, Marvin Davis. Davis is a six-foot-four-inch, 300-pound giant of a man with volcanic energy, a dominating will and a canny sense of timing who turns his most successful geologists into millionaires. At 54, he is also one of the richest men in the country.
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Over the past 25 years, Davis’ company may have drilled or helped drill as many as 10,000 oil and gas wells, of which an estimated 1,500 were producers. Currently, Davis Oil is working the booming Rocky Mountain region around the Green River and Powder River basins. Davis also has producing leases in major oil and gas states like Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Davis likes to quote something H.L. Hunt told his father years ago: “The guy that drills the most has the chance of coming up with the most.” To drill, you need acreage. To find it, you need the best geologists in the industry. Davis has been able to get them by paying a royalty on ultimate production from the leases they find. Davis’ demands on his employees have taken their toll. Many have left, including Marlis Smith, his Chief Geologist until this past September. Davis tends to burn people out. When that happens, Davis simply woos away more talent from the majors – like Amoco, one of his favorite hunting grounds. Smith worked there before Davis hired him, and his replacement came from Amoco. (The following is from a Davis Oil Company brochure) The Davises attended a wrap party for ‘Dynasty’ at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1987. The show’s executive producer Aaron Spelling was a friend and said he based the Carringtons on the couple. (Photo: Jim Smeal/WireImage)
In the petroleum industry, timing is all important. One must know when to be bold, aggressive and decisive, and when to assume a defensive posture. Sound business practices and the ability to respond timely and intelligently to the dynamic forces in the industry are the hallmarks of Davis Oil. This philosophy has kept the company a forerunner in the oil business. However, in the final analysis, it is the people at Davis Oil who breathe life into that philosophy, putting it to work to build a strong and viable company. Through the skill and dedication of our people, Davis Oil has achieved its marked success. I take great pride in the men and women of Davis Oil. They are truly an elite group of professionals. Indeed, the best in the business. (Marvin Davis, General Partner)
Exploration. Ed Lafaye was hired to replace Marlis, and Will and John Melby might have had something to do with recommending Ed. W: Marlis worked for Marvin for a long time and built a really good group of people. They found all sorts of stuff in the Powder. Marlis bought a place in Hawaii and wanted to spend more than the 2 weeks of vacation that we got. He and Marvin got to arguing about it, and Marlis ended up quitting. EC: Marvin would say everyone gets two weeks of vacation, ‘but I want to know who the sonofabitch is who takes that second week.’ W: Marlis was Chief Geologist. Within a week or so, Buffington and Heele both left. Both of them
THE BREAK UP, 1979
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were pretty well off from the stuff that they had found. Gordy had Hartzog and Heldt Draw. At that time, Marvin needed to hire some other people. First, he had to replace Marlis. Short term, it was Bill Stone. Bill thought he was going to become the chief geologist, but he realized he wasn’t going to get it. Marvin called me in and had a couple names, one of which was Ed Lafaye. Of course, Ed was by far the best that I knew of. Shortly thereafter, he hired Ed. In that timeframe, Bill left and went to work with Maxim. So that left us with Melby, me, Al Smith, Gene Sungee, and George Hine.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HIRING GOOD GEOLOGISTS
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Ed Lafaye, circa 1982
ED LAFAYE I went to Tulane for a B.S., LSU for a Masters, and I later went to Stanford for an MBA degree. I started with Amoco in New Orleans and I was with them for 25 years. I had a lot of management positions. I was Chief Geologist, I managed the Foreign Division, and I managed the Rocky Mountain Division. I had a lot of district geologist experience, too. In 1979, I went to work with Marvin and I was with him until we shut the company down when the oil business was going in the tanks. I was Chief Geologist – that was the title. First of all, Marvin oversaw the company. There wasn’t any question about it. If he needed some help or if he was out of town or something, I was second in command. DB: Ed’s value to us in my view was two-fold. He did the rig chart – all the rig scheduling for 27 rigs and trying to keep all the permits and all that stuff ahead of it. He was very, very, busy and he had more rigs than that, because he had more basins than just the Powder. More importantly, he kept Marvin off our backs during the day. He handled most of the outside contacts that were not related to specific prospects. Doing that eliminated a lot of miscommunication. The main time we saw Marvin was at our daily 4pm meeting. It worked pretty well. W: Ed was really good for the troops. I told you I took a pay cut to go over there, I’m sure the other guys will tell you the same thing. Ed started getting
Will von Drehle us raises, it was like pulling teeth, but he was getting us raises. He got us company cars for a short period of time. He got rid of the Saturday meetings. Just overall, we were treated a lot better. Not that Marvin treated us badly before, but it was an old-time relationship that needed updating. DR: I first worked with Ed at Pan Am in New Orleans. He was in charge of the offshore and nearshore trends, and was a popular and effective
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manager. I left New Orleans in 1970 to go back to school and he convinced me that I should take a leave of absence instead of resigning. That was very wise advice and when I returned to Amoco in 1974, Ed was the exploration manager in Denver and convinced me to come to Denver. After Ed started at Davis in 1979, I was the first person he contacted at Amoco to join him at Davis.
WILL VON DREHLE I started with Amoco in New Orleans, got there right after your dad left. I got transferred to Denver in December of 1975. When I came up here they put me in field studies. That just wasn’t my style. I liked the people I was working with, and I liked some of the projects I was working on, but I really wanted to explore. I signed up for Amoco’s petrophysics school and went there from the Fall of 1977 through the Fall of 1978. In the course of that, I realized that this is just a support position, it’s not a type of job I thought I was good at. I worked for John Melby in New Orleans, and he knew I wanted to move on from Amoco, so he set up an interview for me. He said that Marvin wanted to talk to me, because he didn’t want to recommend me without some prior knowledge. He ended up offering me a job. I took a pay cut and went over there as fast as I could get there. I started in January, 1979 the first time I worked for Marvin. The second time, Marvin called Melby and me, met us at the airport, and offered us a job to come back and help restart Davis in early 2000. That’s when Gregg was running the business. Marvin was failing health-wise at the time. Marvin was kind of my hero, though. John couldn’t bring himself to leave EOG, but I did. I had mixed thoughts about it. I enjoyed being independent again, but economically, I would have been better off staying at EOG. DON RASMUSSEN Ed Lafaye left New Orleans and transferred to Exploration Manager in Denver. He wasn’t chief geologist in New Orleans, but he was a hell of a good manager in charge of the offshore and nearshore areas. I worked in both exploration and development in those very active areas, which gave me valuable experience for the remainder of my career as a geologist. Amoco moved Ed to Denver while I was Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
Larry, Stan, Jerry & Don Rasmussen, Winter 83/84 taking a leave-of-absence getting another degree at KU. I found out through correspondence that he was moved to Denver. I was to keep in touch with Amoco when I left for school at KU in 1970, and I did that through Ed Lafaye. After finishing my PhD coursework and field work at KU in 1974, I tried to get a teaching job in vertebrate paleontology. I had some damned nice interviews at universities and museums, but frankly I got beat out by people that were better paleontologists. I look back on it and I’m so glad I never did that. Academia is so very cut throat, and paleontology changes so damn fast it is difficult to keep up. I kept in touch with Ed Lafaye and gave him a call when I was ready to come back to Amoco. He said, ‘I’ll get back to you in a couple days.’ So, he called me back and says, ‘Where would you like to go?’ I said, ‘I want to come to Denver.’ He said, ‘Great! When are you coming?’ We moved to Denver in the summer of 1974. They stuck me in one office for a couple weeks, and then they shuffled me out and put me in the Powder River Basin. I shared an office with Ed Coalson
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President’s Letter and Karen Tombaugh (Karen Dean), and that was absolutely great. I became instant friends with Ed and Karen. I got shuffled around at Amoco, but I worked quite a bit in the Powder River Basin. One of my interns one summer was Paul Weimer. I had him making cross sections down through the Teapot SS to the Parkman SS, and we were looking at these big clinoforms in the Parkman. That was one of his projects before he was given another one in the Williston Basin. When Ed Lafaye quit Amoco, he called me after a few days to come to work for Davis. I’d already met Gordon Heele, Bill Stone and John Buffington because I was working in the Powder. They would take me to lunch all the time, mainly quizzing me about what Amoco was doing, because they used to sell them prospects. In fact, I looked at a lot of their prospects that they wanted to sell to Amoco. So, I got to know those guys very well. I had told them something that I’d heard about a new discovery in the basin. I was telling Buffington about it and he said, ‘You’ve got to come and tell that to Marvin.’ After lunch I went with him up to his office (Marvin was on the 14th floor and Amoco was on the 4th floor of the Four-Ten Building). In Marvin’s large office I told him the story of the discovery. Marvin never forgot that. When I finally came on at Davis, he reminded me about that meeting. When first offered the new job at Davis I turned Ed Lafaye down three times, and the fourth time I was going over to tell him one more time, ‘No’, because at that time I was going to be involved with the teaching of the Amoco carbonate seminar in the Bahamas. I was working with Alan Shaw (author of Time In Stratigraphy), and he really wanted me to become one of the instructors. Plus, they wanted me to become one of the field geology instructors for the “ancient phase” in Iowa and Montana. Anyway, I turned Ed Lafaye down again. When I walked out of there Will von Drehle was out in the hallway, and he grabbed my hand and said, ‘Congratulations! You’re coming to work!’ I said, ‘Nah, I turned him down. I’m not going to do it.’ Will had me go into his office, closed his door and chewed me out. ‘You’re going to be able to do all the exploration you want, Marvin is OUTCROP | December 2017
going to be ‘blowing and going’, you’ll get an override, you need to do this!’ I knew von Drehle from Amoco and briefly knew John Melby from Amoco in New Orleans. Melby worked out a transfer from New Orleans to Denver, but he quit before I finished grad school. I worked with von Drehle at Amoco in Denver. Then I walked out of von Drehle’s office and into Lafaye’s office and told him I’d take the job. That was the end of September, 1979. I remember talking with John Buffington before moving to Davis’ office, and he made some important recommendations on what to expect at Davis and how to make the best impression with Marvin during the daily meetings and when in his office. Above all, always be fully forthcoming with what you knew and stand up for what you thought was right. I was offered the entire Powder River Basin as my primary area, and moved into John Buffington’s old office that was filled with piles of papers, racks of maps and stuffed filing cabinets. Bill Stone was still working at Davis and hung around until the end of the year to complete some of his well projects – I started October 1, 1979. I was told that I would take over the operation of about 25 wells that were in the works by Buffington and Heele, and some of Bill Stone’s wells that were to be drilled after he left, and would not participate in any overriding interest from those wells. Immediately after arriving at Davis, I met with Ed and we talked about who to hire from Amoco. I recommended Dan Bean, Lynn Belcher (landman), Ed Coalson, Pat Tolson, Bill Hanson, and a couple others. Ed talked with Dan first because I pitched that Dan fully understood the Minnelusa play in the Powder River Basin and could easily handle Gordon Heele’s Minnelusa prospects and be able to generate new prospects. Dan turned him down. It was not until after I got the big Minnelusa discovery at West Mellott near Gillette, which was one of Heele’s prospects, that Dan agreed to come to work at Davis. Because of my input into that Minnelusa discovery, Marvin gave me overrides on some of the remaining 25 wells. Lynn Belcher hired on about the same time as when Dan arrived. Early on it was obvious to me that I would not be able to handle the entire Powder River Basin, so if Dan did the Minnelusa trend,
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we still could use another geologist to handle Bill Stone’s Muddy plays and Gordon Heele’s Shannon plays. Will was given that task. I continued the operations of some of Gordon Heele’s Cretaceous prospects in the northern part of the basin (Todd field and some other smaller prospects in the Dakota and Mowry). John Buffington had so many things going on in the south part of the basin that I was swamped with development wells while trying to generate new prospects, that I spent most of my career at Davis working in the southern PRB. Marvin sometimes would let us work in other areas, and because of my prior experience at Amoco with the Overthrust Belt in western Wyoming and Utah, I caused a Nugget SS discovery well to be drilled at North Pineview in 1981. EL: The first one I hired was Don. I am telling you right now, he had a nose for the Powder River Basin. He was fantastic.
DAN BEAN I worked for Amoco with Don, Will and Harvey in the late 70’s. I started as a six-month summer hire in 1974 when Wattenberg Field in the DJ was being developed. I went off to grad school for an MS, and came back full-time in 1976. During 5 years at Amoco, I had exposure to a lot of different basins, including the Powder River Basin and became interested in the Minnelusa which was a very active exploration play at that time. Ed Lafaye had been our Exploration Manager at Amoco. All of us had worked for Ed at Amoco at some point. Ed just turned around and raided his old staff to build the Davis geology staff. Don and Will were already working for Davis when Ed approached me. When I was offered the Green River Basin, I declined. I didn’t know anything about it, and I didn’t know how to explore in that world. When Gordon Heele left, Ed called and asked if I wanted to work the Minnelusa in the PRB. I said ‘yes’ and went to work in January 1980. Gordon Heele was very supportive as I took on his old job, introducing me to the Davis data, scouting and how to survive working with Marvin. DR: Heele was already gone before I started in October, and Dan likely did not know that I was the one who recommended to Ed that he work the Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
Dan Bean and Family, 1990
Harvey DuChene, John Melby and Bill Connelly at Davis Oil Co., circa 1982 Minnelusa. Dan had worked the Minnelusa in the Powder River Basin under my supervision at Amoco, and I considered Dan as one of my best geologists.
HARVEY DUCHENE I went to work for Amoco in Denver, stayed there for about 4 years, and part of that was because I wanted to live somewhere in the mountain country. When I left Amoco I went to work for Slawson, and I was there for about 5 ½ years. That was a really good learning platform. I helped them discover Edsel Field (Minnelusa). I can’t say I discovered
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President’s Letter allow you to say, ‘So Long, Marvin’). They needed to replace him with somebody. I knew the area, so I took over the Green River Basin. I also worked the Paradox and San Juan. This was late ’79. If I had stayed at Amoco for another 3-6 months, I would have had a retirement from them, but I knew I was going to go find oil and get rich on overrides. Knowing what Davis was – a drilling machine – I was excited to get over there. I was there for a year and put together 25 prospects that were drilled. I left in early ’81.
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it, but I had the same idea at the same time as Dan Bean at Davis Oil. Davis was out there taking leases and competing with Slawson. We both ended up with about 50% interest in the prospect area. That’s when I got the offer from Dan Bean to come over to Davis, and by that time, the well that eventually led to the discovery of Edsel Field was drilling. I had only been over there for about a week and Dan’s wife was about to have a baby. The day the well got to the objective in the Minnelusa, the baby was coming. Dan says to me, “Can you watch this for me, you know it as well as I do. I need to be with my wife.” I said, “Of course.” They drilled into the zone and I called a DST, and the test recovered 4,000’ of free oil and no water, and I got to call Slawson and tell them what had happened. I stayed with Marvin until he closed the doors in ’85. I worked on anything I could get my hands on. That included the Williston, the Casper Arch, I worked on some Paradox stuff, literally anything that I could find. When Dan Bean left it was an easy move for me to go right into the Minnelusa, which was one of Marvin’s favorites. ED COALSON I was at Amoco before Davis. They’d put me in a management position by that time, and that wasn’t all that much fun. I’d gone through petrophysics school, then came back and was doing petrophysical based project work. Will von Drehle Ed Coalson, official Amoco and I overlapped by six photo, circa 1978 months in petrophysics school. The last big project I worked on before going over to Davis was the drilling program on the Wamsutter – Washakie area of the Green River Basin. We drilled about 115 wells in a few years. It was a big deal. Marvin had just found Hay Reservoir Field in the Green River Basin, and he had a geologist [George Hine] working there who got his SLM (that discovery that would OUTCROP | December 2017
THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD DATABASE W: When I first started I was working the Big Horn and the Wind. People were assigned to specific areas and no one was working there. It was a hard road. We had to build a database and build prospects. I hadn’t done prospecting in the Rockies, so it was a struggle. EC: When you talk about databases, there were no computer databases when I got over there. It was all paper files. There were a lot of well files, which was a handy thing, and there were a lot of work files, the kind that people leave behind. I got started making my own databases, which at that time involved photocopying well logs of critical sections, like the Almond Fm of the Mesaverde Gp, on 8 ½ by 14 pages, then putting them in 3-ring binder books. I’d pick all the tops and mark all the tests, and you’d just have to page through there to find the data for the well you’re interested in. I built those for the Green River, San Juan and Paradox basins. DB: Will, Don, and I split the Powder River Basin and we had 27 rigs between us. Sometimes you’d have 9 rigs, sometimes 13, and sometimes six, but you’d always have something drilling. You got a lot of logs telecopied at home, and you were on the phone a lot. Three of us worked the Powder, and the Powder River Basin was Davis’ bread and butter. He did deals in all the other basins, but the Powder was where he had an incredible database in terms of both land and geologic data (because he’d participated in so many wells). Much of that data existed nowhere else. We had great geology data and great salinity data, which for the Minnelusa meant
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President’s Letter kids. I’ll give you three of this for one of that. There was a lot of data trading going on. But we were easily two weeks ahead of when a drill stem test or report would show up in PI reports or equivalent. We were way ahead of that. A key was we had the geologic perspective to put a new piece of information into context and recognize any significance. Our Land Department could act on it quickly. Typically, in those days companies would control maybe 9-18 sections on a big prospect before they drilled a well. So, if it was a new shoreline or something that had some area to it, they probably did not control the whole play. They controlled part of it with their prospect. A lot of the larger fields were a chain of prospects that came together and finally merged as they got developed out. It wasn’t that somebody had a great idea and drew the whole picture, leased it and then drilled it under their control. Even in those days that was very, very hard to do, especially in the Powder River Basin. It was much more patchwork, where once operators got 9 or 12 or 16 sections under control, that was good enough for them to drill. That wasn’t the case as resource plays came into vogue and you needed massive amounts of acreage. Anyway, geology, land and scouting….that’s why the Exploration Department was so effective. DR: Concerning scouting, all of us were encouraged to go to lunch with other geologists and other people from companies that were active in your area. We were also encouraged to go to luncheon talks where there were other geologists. I can absolutely say that much of the best scouting was done at lunchtime. Keeping up with old friends at Amoco was a help. We also had our own well-site geologists and often they would tell us important things. Even Marvin was active in scouting and many times would scoop us on an important item.
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a lot because the salinity was highly variable and very important. We had pressure data from all the DSTs – all the tests, including the charts, full pressure breakdowns and everything else. We could get in as deep as we wanted to with these data. DR: When Marvin started the lay-offs in 1985, Will arranged to have all of the core, DST, water analyses, and geological reports archived on microfiche – one of the smartest things he could have done. For our copy we had to pay $500. DB: In terms of the science, Don and I were very early to use computers for exploration. There was no Windows operating system, and DOS was still a toy. We worked with early small expensive Unix computers, and everything (operating system and databases) lived on a single 40 MB hard drive. Don and I were both assembling databases of tops, pressures, shows and everything else. The first part of that is data shoveling, just trying to get the framework set up. It takes a long time of cleaning up data, but they become more valuable as you repeatedly comb through those datasets and get them cleaner and cleaner. It was early – most people weren’t using computers. They weren’t making regional maps using computers. However, Don and I were, and it really helped us to integrate the historical data that Davis had in the Powder.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SCOUTING
DB: Scouting was incredibly important. Don did it in the southern Powder, Will did it in the Muddy, and I did it in the Minnelusa. I used a data service at the time called Hotline. They were recording all the permits when filed and I had a weekend batch job on a mainframe somewhere that ran all the permits in Wyoming. A report would be sitting on my desk Monday morning, and I would call every operator of every rig running in the basin. We kept tabs pretty much every day when a well was important. They’d say, ‘It’s tight-hole and I can’t tell you’, but there are different levels of tight holes. Sometimes it’s absolutely, ‘We can’t talk about this, period.’ Sometimes it’s, ‘Between you, me and the fencepost, we got a little free oil in the Muddy, but it looked pretty tight.’ It was like trading baseball cards as Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD LAND DEPARTMENT
DB: Head of the Land Department at that time was a guy named Paul Messinger. Paul was wonderful. He was Marvin’s age. Marvin’s dad, Jack Davis, sent Paul out to look after Marvin when he came out to Denver in the 1950s. Paul was
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President’s Letter previously working in the garment district in New York. Paul turned into a wonderful landman, and he was a very skilled and flamboyant negotiator. The bulk of the land work was done by Lynn Belcher and Russel Spencer. They were the three negotiating landmen and it was basically just those three guys assembling all the deals. I worked with Lynn 90% of the time on deals, and he and I left to form Focus Exploration in 1985. DR: One time when Lynn and I went to lunch with Paul Messinger at the Brown Palace, Paul told us a long story about how he got started working for the Davis family and his eventual move to Denver. He started as an expert in cloth in the garment district for Marvin’s dad Jack when he was 16 years old. Jack asked him how old he was one day shortly after starting work, and Paul replied that he was 18. Jack told him that if he ever lied to him again that he would be promptly fired. During WWII, Paul was part of an entertaining troupe in the Army and was sent to all of the active fighting areas during the war. EC: Paul Messinger was a kind and upright individual. I have great admiration for how Paul treated me. He always got the leases bought and the deals put together. Even after I left, he was still assigning me overrides on prospects that I put together. I didn’t see Paul again until I was working at Cabot (circa 2000) and I was selling a couple of Minnelusa deals to Marvin Davis. I really enjoyed doing that. It was a third for a quarter deal, too. Paul came walking into the conference room where I was going to show him the geology, and he comes up and throws his arms around me and gives me a great big hug. I was speechless. I think it takes a guy with a good heart to do something like that in front of everybody. DB: We had a full set of brokers in the Powder River Basin, and that was their whole world. Each one knew the mineral owners, who got along with whom, who hated whom, and who the ‘bell cow’ was that you had to lease first. And they could put deals together very quickly because they knew the mineral owners and they knew their relationships and feuds and the name of their dog. DR: For the southern part of the Powder River OUTCROP | December 2017
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Paul Messinger, circa 1982 Basin, the Land Department had a guy who owned a grocery store in Douglas. He was informally known as “The Butcher”. He knew all the ranchers and farmers and often made many of the land deals come together for Davis. Marvin rewarded him with a small override on each of the land deals the Butcher worked on. W: There was a time when the industry was really hot and you couldn’t get any land. We would run the POMCOs and look for expiring leases. If there was a block that was expiring, then you’d see if you could put a prospect there, so in that regard Land sometimes drove prospecting. In a lot of cases, we could keep leases active for much longer than a 10-year term. You put a unit together, drill over it, get an extension and so on. We might do that multiple times.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DAILY 4PM MEETING
W: When I started there, we had meetings on Saturday too. Everybody hated that. Somebody was always designated to bring in donuts, because Marvin liked jelly donuts. The first time I went to a Saturday meeting, I was the designated guy. Marvin said he was going on a diet and wouldn’t eat a donut. I guess I looked so crestfallen that he eventually ate it. When Ed Lafaye got there, he stopped those Saturday meetings pretty quickly. DB: Davis Oil’s exploration efficiency was due
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President’s Letter to the daily 4pm meeting. Every day at 4, Marvin’s secretary, Molly Weiss, would come around and say, ‘Meeting time,’ and we’d all go to Marvin’s office. He had a great big round table, and Marvin would sit there with the landmen on either side and all of the geologists and Joe McHugh, our geophysicist. We would cover every prospect every day, and sometimes it would be only one sentence, but every prospect got talked about and you had all the disciplines there. There was no, ‘I’m waiting on the Land Department’, or ‘I’m waiting on Geology to do something.’ If someone was waiting on somebody, they got the glare from Marvin and ‘Let’s get going.’ There was no wasted time, and the good thing about this meeting was that was where you pitched your prospect and it either moved forward or was killed here. For a geologist, you explained, ‘Here’s why I think there’s a trap here.’ It was pretty simple reservoir-source-seal-trap type stuff, but we pitched it to Marvin in 90 seconds with an analog of something that was nearby. Marvin would either say ‘OK’ or ‘No’ and if approved, your outline would be given to the Land Department to see if they could put together a deal on it. If Marvin didn’t like it, it got killed then and there. The good thing about that, as a geologist, is that you didn’t spend a lot of time working up a prospect, making it all pretty only to have it quickly killed. The meeting was also a motivator: About 3pm you would ask yourself, ‘What did I do for Marvin today?’ DR: Sometimes during the presentation of a new prospect to Marvin, others would comment about it either as a positive or negative comment, and that was perfectly okay to speak up as Marvin listened carefully to what everyone had to say. Nevertheless, if Marvin had a strong interest in some particular prospect or well, he would have you come in and give an update. I did that many times. Whatever was discussed in those meetings was considered confidential and was not be leaked to others. Also, whenever something great (or bad) happened prior to the 4pm meeting, you could always walk directly into Marvin’s office and tell him about it, regardless of who was in the office meeting with Marvin. I did that a few times, especially when it was good news. However, none of my Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
visits occurred when Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, George Lucas, Robert Redford, or other important people were present. EC: At those 4pm meetings, which were very productive, most of the time you were listening to other people and what they were working on. While that was going on, John Melby would lean over and whisper jokes in my ear. He had an infinite supply of brand new vulgar jokes. Marvin didn’t like that I was laughing so much in those meetings. John would tell me a joke and I’d be holding back the laughter, and Marvin would give me that old fish eye that he had. DB: What we found out with Marvin was that he had an incredibly good memory. He remembered your key well, and he knew the operator, and he knows about such and such DST. He may know as much as you do, so you better get your facts right or you’ll be skewered. That was always fun. The main thing is, to push something forward there was no waiting on the other guy. Marvin would chase something down if someone was waiting on something, in order to get it done. If it took money, he’d get money. If it took a kick in the ass, he’d give a kick in the ass.
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THIRD FOR A QUARTER
In the late 1930s, [Marvin’s father] Jack Davis began to transition from garments to the oil business. He met Ray Ryan, a wildcatter from Evanston, Illinois, on a vacation to Miami. Ryan was an independent oilman, leasing mineral rights, lining up investors, and drilling wells on a ‘third for a quarter’ basis, meaning each investor paid one-third of the cost and got one-fourth of the interest, leaving the wildcatter with a one-quarter interest in the well for his promotional efforts. [Jack Davis adopted Ryan’s third for a quarter deal for Davis Oil Co.] (Seal, 2005) DB: Marvin was a promoter and he sold everything third for a quarter. Each partner paid a third of the land and drilling cost to casing point for a quarter of the project. Marvin paid zero before casing point. His risk dollars were in land costs before a prospect was sold and in development costs.
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President’s Letter DR: Sometimes Marvin would smear my last name and refer to me as “Ramason”. Once when I missed one of the afternoon meetings, someone referred to me as “Ramason”. Marvin immediately corrected them and said that I was “Mr. Rasmussen”. Marvin often told stories during our meetings, with some stories told more than once. One I remember was about two wells that were being drilled in Oklahoma. One was a dry hole and the investors were told the well was a failure, whereas the other was a discovery and the investors were so notified. However, it was shortly discovered that just the opposite had occurred and Marvin had to make the call and get things straightened out among the investors. Another story he told was about an investor from Seattle who brought him a large salmon. Marvin had the salmon placed in the trunk of his car and he then drove to the airport to catch a plane to California for the holidays. The rotting salmon was found upon his return and the car had to be totaled. W: Marvin hated the Tyler because it’s valley fill in some places, and you couldn’t even offset a good well. We were always getting prospects that people would try to sell to Marvin. This one prospect came in for the Tyler and it really looked good. We had the 4pm meeting, and everybody had to tell Marvin what you did for him that day. Well, John Melby started telling Marvin about this prospect, but he was calling it the Pennsylvanian. Marvin just loved it, and then somebody told him that it was the Tyler, and Marvin nearly fired John on the spot. John was the only person we had that would really resist Marvin, and part of it was he enjoyed messing with him. I think Marvin appreciated the fact that that was going on, too. But, man, he got mad about that one. H: Marvin always called his favorite people – his land guys and geologists – by diminutives. Your dad was Donny, John Melby was Johnny, and on down the line. W: Marvin called me Willie. H: What do you do with Harvey? You can’t add another Y. In my case, he shortened it to Harv.
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W: Each of us had people that liked to do business with us, either because of past success, because we were looking at the same thing they were looking at, or just because of the general area. There was also a period of time where he had some industry partners that were across the board. In my case I had a good relationship with Exxon, and quite often I could have a day meeting and sell them a half dozen prospects. We were on the same wavelength, chasing the same thing. An awful lot of the marketing was us building contacts. Over time, people liked dealing with Davis – Marvin was always tough, but he was also honest. There are people who would tell you otherwise, but in the experience that I had, I never remotely saw anything that was questionable. He just liked to play hardball. DR: The third for a quarter was to cover the prospect cost and the drilling of the wildcat well. If the well was a discovery then Marvin would cover his quarter for the cost for completion and development. This turned out to be very popular among investors as the completion costs could be much higher than the initial costs. W: Gerry Ford and Lucille Ball were investors. We had one instance where Gerry was a partner for a while, and we had a long string of dry holes. It was long. Anyway, Dan had a Minnelusa discovery and I think Marvin put both Gerry and Lucille Ball in the well. They weren’t originally investors in that well, but Marvin put them both in the well out of his own interest, just to give them some success.
MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES
W: We hadn’t sold a deal for a long time, and Marvin said he would give $50 to the next person who sold a deal. John Melby comes to the meeting and says “Marvin, I sold a deal!” Marvin says, “That’s great, John,” and pats him on the back. John, of course, asked for his money right up front, and Marvin pulls it out of his wallet and gives it to him. The next day, Marvin finds out that John only sold a quarter of the deal. He tells him, “John, I want ¾ of my money back.” John says, “I just bought a pair of shoes, I can’t give it back to you.” So, for a long time after that, Marvin called Melby “Shoes.” OUTCROP | December 2017
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President’s Letter too broke not to do it. They got me whole again. It was a good deal.
»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32 EVERYTHING FALLS APART, 1985 DB: We could see the layoffs coming. We could see that the boom was over, but had no idea how terrible it was going to get. As the crash was happening, Lynn and I decided that we were going to resign and jointly start a new small exploration company. The mechanics of resigning were interesting: Who was going to go in to Marvin first? ‘Hey, Marvin, I’m leaving. Oh, by the way, Lynn’s in the hall and he wants to talk, too.’ We decided to go in together, and Marvin was really good about it. He said, ‘I understand perfectly why you guys want to go out on your own, but there is just one thing: This is a bad time to do it.’ He was right, of course. Initially we had no funding. We left Davis and met at 7am the next morning in Duffy’s restaurant saying, ‘I guess we have to go find an office somewhere.’ Over the next several months, we were able to get some support from NICOR and later, Exxon. It was no coincidence that the Exxon money evaporated two weeks after the Exxon Valdez hit the rocks. We left before the layoffs, but we could see it coming and Davis wasn’t going to be a happy place to be working. DR: I hung around as long as Marvin would let us stay. He told us of the lay-off in February I think, but I and others stayed on until May. I was offered a job at Apache but turned it down and told John Melby to check it out. W: When Davis shut down in ’85 – Russel Spencer, a landman who I did most of my work with at Davis, started a company called Magnolia, and we both did consulting on the side. By the early 90s I was running out of juice. The problem with Magnolia was there were a couple years that we drilled more wildcats than anyone else in Denver. We were just a 2-man shop. You know things were bad. We were selling 2-5%. When you’d drill a second or third well after a discovery, you’d have to put in your own money. I didn’t have pockets to handle that, so I started consulting. Ultimately, Jim Lightner at Enron hired me to do some stuff in the Wind River Basin for them. After a few years, he told me that I had to sign on full time, or they were going to have to get somebody else to do it. I was Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
POSTSCRIPT
EL: We drilled more wells in the Rocky Mountains than anybody else in the business. I used to keep statistics. We drilled a lot more than the majors – the majors never drilled that much in the Rockies anyway. It was tremendously active. Sixty-hour weeks were not uncommon. Without a doubt, Davis Oil was the best. It was the best of any of the independents. We had an excellent royalty situation that gave us the incentive to turn out products, and Marvin gave everybody the opportunity to…. There were just no rules. Just bring him deals to look at was the only rule. Marvin was a slave-drivin’ pleasure to work for. EC: I liked being part of that organization because it was such an admirable prospect factory. It was my first PhD. It was a wonderful experience, and I’m thankful for it. I certainly gave them everything I had, professionally speaking. H: Let me leave you with one thought. Working at Davis Oil was an astounding experience, because I got to work with some of the best exploration guys that I’ve ever run into in my life. I refer to all of those guys as the Davis Mafia, and in my mind they were all exceptional explorers. What Marvin did was take that talent and give it a chance to flower. What heady times those were. When I look at the list of people that worked for Marvin, and I see my name on there – I feel like it doesn’t belong because I think so much of all those other people. We all got our baptism of fire working for Marvin. It was a special fraternity, no doubt about it.
CITED REFERENCES
Rudnitsky, Howard and Linda Gasparello. “How Marvin Davis got so rich.” Forbes Nov. 26, 1979. Seal, Mark. “The man who ate Hollywood.” Vanity Fair, Nov. 2005. Web. Nov. 2010. 33
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH By Ronald L. Parker, Senior Geologist, Borehole Image Specialists, P. O. Box 221724, Denver CO 80222 ron@bhigeo.com
PYROLUSITE Stealth Manganese
Cluster of many intersecting lustrous black pyrolusite pseudomorphs after manganite. Crystals up to 14 mm long. Pinal County, Arizona. Used with permission from John Betts Fine Minerals OUTCROP | December 2017
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE crystals the most common habits are radiating fibers or columns. Instead of beautiful crystals, pyrolusite most commonly occurs as massive aggregates, coatings, crusts or nodules, often co-occurring with other Mn-oxides and hydroxides. Manganese dioxide is hardly ever found as stoichiometric MnO2. Rather, there are several common forms that are the result of various degrees of hydration and the frequent appearance of multiple Mn valence states in the structure. Six different structures of MnO2 (and compositions close to it) are known. These are described as α, β, γ, δ, ε, and
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for an axial ratio (a:c) of 1.53:1 (Chang, 2002). Unlike almost all other minerals, different crystal habits of pyrolusite display different hardness values. The massive or earthy form of pyrolusite has a low hardness of 2 to 2.5 (Johnson, 2002), yet hardness is 6 to 6.5 when pyrolusite is crystalline (Mindat, 2017). Hardness variability of this magnitude is quite unusual in the mineral kingdom. The specific gravity of pyrolusite ranges from ~4.43-5.1 (Johnson, 2002; Klein, 2002). Pyrolusite displays perfect cleavage on {110}, although this is very rarely observed due to the scarcity of well-crystallized material. When pyrolusite does form euhedral
Pyrolusite, manganese dioxide (MnO2), is the most common manganese mineral and is found in highly-oxidizing weathering environments in a variety of geologic settings. Pyrolusite often stems from alteration of precursor manganese minerals and is usually found with other manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides, and also with those of iron (Fe). Pyrolusite rarely occurs as euhedral crystals, instead appearing most often as massive aggregates, crusts and coatings. The name pyrolusite derives from the Greek for “fire” (pyro) and “to wash”, a reference to its historical use for removing color impurities from glass (Mindat, 2017). Pyrolusite is lightgray to dark-black with a matte, earthy luster. Rare crystal forms display a metallic luster (Bonewitz, 2005). The streak is metallic black but yields a bluish-green color when wetted by benzidine (Wenk and Bulakh, 2004). Pyrolusite bears the same 4/ m2/m2/m tetragonal structure as rutile (TiO2) and it is a member of the Rutile Group (which includes Cassiterite (SnO2), Chrysoberyl (BeAl2O4) and Columbite (Fe,Mn)-(Nb,Ta)2O6 along with Rutile (TiO2) (Klein, 2002). Like rutile, the cation in pyrolusite is in 6-fold coordination with oxygen. (Recall that 6-fold coordination, typified by cation-to-anion radius ratios between 0.414 and 0.732, is called octahedral coordination as an octahedron is the shape formed by the 6 anions around the cation) (Klein, 2002). Unit cell dimensions of Pyrolusite are a=4.39Å and c=2.87Å,
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE
Dark black, manganese oxide “wad” horizon marking a relict water table in Pleistocene deglaciation outwash sands and gravels near Richmond, Indiana. Progressive river incision lowered the regional base level, dropping the phreatic surface and oxidizing the formerly reduced material. Note that the outwash below the wad horizon is stained by post-drainage iron oxides and oxyhydroxides but there is no staining above the layer. Photo by Ronald L. Parker.
ramsdellite (Chang, 2002). Pyrolusite is β-MnO2 and it is the most highly crystallized and least reactive (most stable) of all the manganese oxide and oxyhydroxide varieties (McKenzie, 1989). The manganese oxide and oxyhydroxide varieties crystallize to form tunnel structures comprised of single, double or wider chains of MnO6 octahedra that are linked by sharing corners. Tunnel structures are elongate parallel to the c-crystallographic axis. Tunnel structures in manganese oxides and hydroxides are “occupied by large foreign cations and water molecules.” (McKenzie, 1989, p. 441). Indeed, substantial scavenging of metal ions may accompany Mn-oxide and oxyhydroxide precipitation, by adsorption,
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Manganese oxide and oxyhydroxide mixture appearing as a typical black dendritic crystal aggregate. For several decades, the author operated under the impression that dendrites like this were composed of the mineral pyrolusite. This is a typical example of the adage attributed to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey “Be very, very careful what you put in your head, because you’ll never, ever get it out.” Jurassic Solenhofen Limestone, Bavaria, Germany. Photo by Ronald L. Parker. 36
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE co-precipitation or both (Langmuir, 1997). Metals that are incorporated into pyrolusite include cobalt, lead, zinc, copper, nickel, vanadium and barium (Hem, 1989; McKenzie, 1989). The occurrence of pyrolusite is governed by the chemistry of manganese and some discussion of Mn chemical complexity is warranted. Manganese has similar geochemical behavior to iron with the difference that manganese has 3 oxidation states (Mn2+, Mn3+ and Mn4+) whereas iron has only 2 (Fe2+ and Fe3+) (Kesler, 1994). Manganese participates in redox reactions that – like iron - yield many varieties of oxides and oxyhydroxides in weathering environments. Manganese is both an element essential for plant and animal nutrition and a toxic agent (McKenzie, 1989). The range between essentiality and toxicity is large, so manganese toxicity in humans is rare (Reimann and Caritat, 1998). Like iron, manganese dissolves in reducing groundwater and may form nuisance stains and coatings when it is oxidized in toilet tanks, showers and laundry facilities. Excess dissolved manganese imparts a bitter taste to drinking water, even though it does not pose a threat to human health. As a consequence of nuisance issues, the EPA has established a non-mandatory, secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (SMCL) for manganese of 0.05 mg/L (parts per million) (USEPA, 2017). Where pyrolusite forms by precipitation from aqueous solution, many other manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides, as well as iron minerals, co-precipitate with it (Hem, 1989). The term “wad” is used to describe these impure mixtures in the field. Analysis of wad samples reveal that it is often comprised of pyrolusite with a mixture of the other manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides (Eckel, 1997). The occurrence of wad in glacial drift aquifers has been used to demarcate the former position of the water table (see photo). Wad precipitation and growth is facilitated by oxidation of a reduced, manganese-bearing groundwater at the phreatic interface. Oxygen present in the vadose zone reacts with dissolved manganese at the water table to create a black cement of wad. Manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides also comprise the beautiful black dendrites that grow along bedding plane and fracture surface partings in rocks. This is the same stuff that creates the fractal pattern
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Hemispherical pocket lined with druzy, white quartz crystals with several splays of acicular, black pyrolusite. Crystals are 1 to 3 mm in length. Tizi-n-Tichika Pass area, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Used with permission from John Betts Fine Minerals. in moss agates. For several decades, I operated under the impression that black dendrites were composed of the mineral pyrolusite. This notion is, however, false. As Potter and Rossman (1979) so succinctly put it “Although dendrites have long been considered to be pyrolusite, no example of pyrolusite mineralogy has been found” (p. 1219). Further, as summarized in Eckel (1997), “Occurrences of black manganese oxides are sometimes assumed to be pyrolusite. Without confirmation by XRD, however, the identity of pyrolusite, as opposed to the typically less well-crystallized “psilomelane” minerals, such as hollandite, romanechite, and todorokite, is questionable” (p. 389). My mistake seems to be a classic example of the adage attributed to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey “Be very, very careful what you put in your head, because you’ll never, ever get it out.” I may have a shortcoming with respect to ability to resolve the true mineral composition of dendrites, but I still regard them hopefully. Maybe, just maybe, there is a pyrolusite dendrite somewhere!
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE
Pyrolusite pseudomorphs after manganite, Pinal County, Arizona. Used with permission from John Betts Fine Minerals.
Compact mass of pyrolusite “needle ore” from the McComber Mine (Lucy Mine), Negaunee, Marquette County, Michigan. Used with permission from John Betts Fine Minerals.
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As should come as no surprise, mineral associations with pyrolusite include many of the multitudinous manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides. Such minerals include: hollandite (Ba2Mn8O16), vernadite (δ-MnO2), lithiophorite ((Al,Li) MnO2(OH)2), manganite (MnOOH), hausmannite (Mn3O4), birnessite ((Na,Ca,K)Mn7O14*3H2O), todorokite ((Na,Ca,K,Ba, Mn2+)2Mn4O12*3H2O), cryptomelane (K2Mn8O16), romanechite ((Ba,K,Mn,Ca)2Mn5O10)) and coronadite (Pb,2Mn8O16) (McKenzie, 1989). Other mineral associates include iron oxides and oxyhydroxides (such as hematite and goethite) and quartz, calcite and barite (Mindat, 2017.) Pyrolusite-bearing manganese deposits form in several geological settings which may be subdivided into continental and subaqueous. Continental manganese ores are formed in hydrothermal vein deposits, sedimentary deposits in volcanic settings and supergene weathering environments. In these ore-mineral settings pyrolusite, along with other Mn-oxides and oxyhydroxides, forms a weathering cap on top of more reduced Mn mineral species like manganite or rhodochrosite (gasp). Sub-aqueous manganese deposits containing pyrolusite are found as nodules, crusts and pavements in modern oceans, shallow seas and freshwater lakes (Chang, 2002). Notable pyrolusite occurs in the grapefruit-sized manganese nodules that litter the seafloor in some parts of the deep open ocean. Manganese nodules appear to grow slowly (1 to 4 mm’s/million years), apparently
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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE
by precipitation from seawater in localities somewhat near mid-ocean ridge “black smoker” chemical inputs. In addition to Mn, which typically comprises up to 25% of nodules, other elements are co-precipitated with manganese including Co, Ni, Cu and other metals. Rates of growth appear to be 100 to 1,000 times slower than rates of sediment deposition, so why are manganese nodules observed on the seafloor at all, when they should be buried? What keeps them at the seafloor? Possible explanations include sediment removal by oceanic currents and the influence of bioturbating organisms to “float” the nodules. Attempts to mine manganese nodules are not yet economically viable (Kesler, 1994). Manganese nodules containing pyrolusite are also found in many freshwater lakes (Hem, 1989; Kesler, 1994). Pyrolusite is the most significant source of manganese (Johnson, 2002) 95% of which is used in the production of steel. Non-metallurgical uses, accounting for the remaining 5%, are devoted mostly to making dry-cell batteries, chemical catalysts, glass, fertilizers, pigments, wood preservatives, fungicides and ceramics (Reimann and Caritat, 1998; Chang, 2002). As a ferroalloy in steelmaking, manganese is used for deoxidation, removing or neutralizing impurities, sulfur control and increasing hardenability. Manganese addition is used in almost all production of steel (Kesler, 1994). By increasing steel hardening, manganese has the effect of permitting a very sharp edge, essential in modern manufacture of knives and razors (Gray, 2009). The most significant non-metallurgical use of MnO2 is in battery manufacture, where it acts as a depolarizer that keeps the energy-producing reaction moving forward (Chang, 2002). In early glassmaking, pyrolusite was used to remove brown and green tints resulting from excess iron (Webmineral, 2017). As a strongly redox reactive element, Mn is utilized in creating potassium permanganate (KMnO4), a strongly reactive oxidant used in many organic and inorganic chemical processes (Chang, 2002). Manganese oxides were, along with iron oxides and oxyhydroxides, the 1st pigments known to be used by humans. Cave art dating to before 17 ka contains MnO2 as black paint pigment and this use of pyrolusite continues today in paints, dyes and ceramic glazes (Gray, 2009).
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Typical appearance of MnO2 dendrites. Formerly considered to be pyrolusite by the author, and many other geologists, these are now known to contain little, if any, pyrolusite. Instead, these dendrites are a mix of many Mn-oxides and oxyhydroxides. This example is from slabs of the Lyons sandstone at the top of Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colorado. Baseball cap gives scale. Photo by Tim Graves. Pyrolusite is a common mineral that is found in many localities worldwide. Most steelmaking nations lack economic manganese resources and this is particularly true of the United States, which possesses less than 1% of world reserves (Kesler, 1994). The most extensive manganese reserves are in South Africa and a region connecting Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia (Kesler, 1994). In the United States, small hydrothermal Mn deposits are distributed across New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California (Mindat, 2017).
WEBLINKS:
http://www.minerals.net/mineral/pyrolusite.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolusite https://www.mindat.org/min-3318.html http://webmineral.com/data/Pyrolusite.shtml#. WeWRvWiPLdM http://rruff.info/doclib/hom/pyrolusite.pdf
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POSITIONED FOR GROWTH
MINERAL OF THE MONTH: PYROLUSITE
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REFERENCES: Bonewitz, Ronald Louis, 2005, Gem and Mineral: The Definitive Guide to Rocks, Minerals, Gems and Fossils, New York, New York: Dorling-Kindersley Limited, 360 pp. Eckel, Edwin B., 1997, Minerals of Colorado, Updated and Revised by Robert R. Cobban, Donley S. Collins, Eugene E. Foord, Daniel E. Kile, Peter J. Modreski and Jack A. Murphy, Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 665 pp. Chang, Luke L. Y., 2002, Industrial Mineralogy: Materials, Processes and Uses, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 476 pp. Gray, Theodore, 2009, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, New York, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 240 pp. Hem, John D., 1989, Study and Interpretation of the Chemical Characteristics of Natural Water, 3rd Edition, United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2254, Washington D.C.: Unites States Government Printing Office, 263 pp. Johnsen, Ole, 2002, Minerals of the World: Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 439 pp. Kesler, Stephen A., 1994, Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment, New York: MacMillan College Publishing Company, Inc., 391 pp. Klein, Cornelis, 2002, The 22nd Edition of the Manual of Mineral
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Science: New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 641 pp. Klein, Cornelis and Philpotts, Anthony, 2013, Earth Materials – Introduction to Mineralogy and Petrology: New York: Cambridge University Press, 536 pp. Langmuir, Donald, 1997, Aqueous Environmental Geochemistry, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 600 pp. McKenzie, R. M., 1989, Chapter 9: Manganese Oxides and Hydroxides, in J.B. Dixon and S. B. Weed, eds., Minerals in Soil Environments, 2nd Edition, Soil Science Society of America Book Series 1, pp. 439-465. Mindat, 2017, Pyrolusite, https://www.mindat.org/ min-3318.html, Accessed 10-16-17 Potter, R, and G. Rossman, 1979a, The Tetravalent Manganese Oxides: Identification, Hydration and Structural Relationships by Infrared Spectroscopy, American Mineralogist, 64:1199-1218. Potter, R, and G. Rossman, 1979b, Mineralogy of Manganese Dendrites and Coatings, American Mineralogist, 64:1219-1226. Reimann, Clemens and Patrice de Caritat, 1998, Chemical Elements in the Environment: Factsheets for the Geochemist and Environmental Scientist, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 397 pp. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2017, Secondary Drinking Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
Water Standards: Guidance for Nuisance Chemicals webpage, https://www.epa.gov/ dwstandardsregulations/ secondary-drinking-water-standards-guidance-nuisance-chemicals. Accessed 10/11/17. Webmineral, (2017), Pyrolusite Mineral Data, http://webmineral.com/data/Pyrolusite. shtml#.WeWRvWiPLdM, Accessed 10-16-2017. Wenk, Hans-Rudolf and Bulakh, Andrei, 2004, Minerals – Their Constitution and Origin: New York: Cambridge University Press, 646 pp.
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LEAD STORY
Baja California Sur and the Opening of the Gulf of California TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA REGION By William R. Drake, QEP Resources Many know it as “the aquarium of the world,” but the Gulf of California is also the world’s premier example of a young, active, highly oblique-divergent continental rift and plate boundary. The Baja California peninsula, now separated from the mainland of Mexico (Figure 1), plays an important role in understanding the complex tectonic evolution of the southwestern margin of North America. But prior to formation of Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula, northwestern Mexico had a very different tectonic setting. From the Cretaceous to the Neogene, the Gulf of California region was a convergent plate boundary between the Pacific basin plate system and the North American plate (e.g., Atwater, 1970; Lonsdale, 1989). By the Middle Miocene, a major plate reorganization led to the termination of subduction and the initiation of extension in the Gulf of California region as the Baja California peninsula began form and be captured by the Pacific plate (Stock and Lee, 1994;
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Fletcher et al., 2007). The stage was set for continental rifting along the axis of what has been assumed for decades to be a linear suprasubduction volcanic arc, sometimes referred to as the Comondú volcanic arc. The dimensions of the arc and exactly how the arc-to-rift transition Gulf of California region took place are still debated. Our understanding of the nature of the volcanic arc is limited because rocks between the conjugate margins of the rift have now foundered beneath the Gulf of California and often buried by sediments delivered by the Colorado River. Recent sampling of the seafloor rock has been restricted to sparse dredge samples and regional 2-D seismic lines, and as a result, the equivalent volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks preserved at the rift margins are of particular importance. From Oligocene to mid-Miocene time, Baja California region and westward was a stable marine continental shelf receiving volcanic
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SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Bixby Creek Bridge seen along Highway One in Big Sur, California
LEAD STORY
FIGURE 1: Oblique view of the Baja California peninsula, the Gulf of California, and the western coast of mainland Mexico
(http://www.geomapapp.org; Ryan et al., 2009). Inset map shows major tectonic elements (after Umhoefer, 2011). Thin black lines are faults; red lines are spreading centers in the southern Gulf of California and complex pull-apart basins in the northern Gulf of California and Salton trough. Abbreviations from north to south: SAF—San Andreas fault; G—Guaymas spreading center; C—Carmen spreading center; F—Farallon spreading center; P—Pescadero spreading center; A—Alarcón spreading center; T-A F.Z.—Tosco-Abreojos fault zone; EPR—East Pacific Rise.
detritus from the active Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic arc (Hausback, 1984). Volcanic activity migrated westward and arrived near what is now the southern Gulf of California around 24 Ma (Umhoefer et al., 2001; Ferrari et al., 2002; Drake et al, 2017). Calc-alkaline volcanism and sedimentation in the Comondú volcanic arc and forearc dominated the geologic events in the Baja California region from 24 Ma to about 12 Ma (e.g., Hausback, 1984; Umhoefer et
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al., 2001) until cessation of subduction in the Gulf of California region around 12.5 Ma caused significant changes in volcanic activity and depositional settings (Conly et al., 2005). The convergent margin gave way to extension and the localization of oblique rifting along the Comondú arc to form the Gulf of California (Hausback, 1984; Lonsdale, 1989; Fletcher et al., 2007; Umhoefer, 2011). The earliest structural evidence of rift-related
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LEAD STORY of California. Today, the Comondú Group is displaced northwestward with the Baja California Peninsula due to the opening of the Gulf of California. Neogene structural features, including rift segments and accommodation zones along the eastern Baja California peninsula, reflect the structural complexities of oblique rifting (Axen, 1995; Umhoefer et al., 2002; Drake, 2005) (Figure 4) and are responsible for excellent exposure of the Comondú Group rocks along the uplifted rift flank - the Main Gulf Escarpment - of Baja California Sur (Figure 5). 40Ar/39Ar ages dates for well-preserved and distinctive ignimbrites in this area constrain the timing of vertical facies changes that resulted from an evolving sediment and volcanic source area (Figures 2 and 3). Arc-to-Rift Transition? Evidence from the Conjugate Margins of the Southern Gulf of California The tectonostratigraphy of the Comondú Group has been historically interpreted as volcanic and volcaniclastic deposition in a forearc basin and derived from the fringe of a volcanic arc related to subduction west of Baja California Sur (Hausback, 1984; Martín-Barajas et al., 1995; Umhoefer et al., 2001; Pallares et al., 2007). In recent years, however, the tectonic setting of Comondú Group has been challenged, based mainly on igneous geochemical analysis and structural evidence from the eastern margin of the Gulf of California. The alternative interpretation is that the Comondú-age magmatism in the Gulf of California region formed from decompression melting caused by progressive thinning across mainland Mexico to the Gulf region, a model which evokes narrowing tectonic depressions rather than a linear suprasubduction volcanic arc along the Gulf axis (Bryan et al., 2014; Ferrari et al., 2013; Duque-Trujillo et al., 2015; Ferrari et al., 2017). Drake et al. (2017) present stratigraphic and 40 Ar/39Ar age evidence from Baja California Sur that andesite dominated rocks of the Comondú Group form a linear belt roughly aligned with the subduction zone and trench to the west. They show that alluvial fan deposits and interbedded primary volcanic deposits together form a broad and progradational sedimentary series of increasingly proximal volcanic and sedimentary facies derived from volcanic
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extension northwestern Mexico can be found along the eastern Gulf of California, where a wide region of Late Oligocene to Early Miocene extension predates the cessation of subduction (e.g., Gans, 1997; Ferrari et al., 2007; Ferrari et al., 2013; Duque-Trujillo et al., 2014). However, no unambiguous evidence of extensional faulting of this age has been observed (so far) along the southern Baja California peninsula (Drake et al., 2017). Seismic evidence from Gulf of California transects suggests that the initial stage of oblique extension began ca. 14–12 Ma (Sutherland et al., 2012), followed by Pacific–North American plate motion localizing in the Gulf of California by 6 Ma (Oskin and Stock, 2003) and the development of seafloor spreading in the southern Gulf of California that accommodated > 85% of plate motion by ~3.5 Ma (DeMets, 1995). The peninsula now moves almost entirely with the Pacific plate due to its nearly complete transfer to Pacific plate and San Andreas Fault system (DeMets et al., 2000; Plattner et al., 2007), with a minimum of 296 ± 17 km of offset within the margins of the Gulf of California (Oskin and Stock, 2003). Other reconstructions suggest that significantly more (450 – 500 km) offset may be required in the southern Gulf of California (Fletcher et al., 2007; Bennett et al., 2016).
THE COMONDÚ GROUP OF BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR
The coastal margin of eastern Baja California Sur - the southern half of the peninsula - is special because the sedimentary record there contains forearc basin strata that span the arc-to-rift transition as experienced from the western side of the future Gulf of California. The Comondú Group makes up a broad stratigraphic apron consisting of terrestrial volcanic and volcaniclastic materials was shed westward from a volcanic highlands source to the east (Drake et al., 2017) and is therefore key to understanding the pre-rift setting. The sedimentary and volcanic sequences include andesitic lava flows, volcanic breccia, rhyolitic ignimbrites (Figures 2 and 3), volcaniclastic conglomerate and sandstone (Figures 2 and 3), and minor shallow intrusive rocks. The area serves to compliment rocks of the same age along the eastern side of the Gulf Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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FIGURE 2: Coastal outcrop of the Lower Comondú Group. Volcanic sandstone and conglomerate are overlain by a ~21.2
Ma rhyolitic ignimbrite deposit (Drake et al., 2017). Note minor secondary faults.
highlands to the east of the Baja California peninsula. The timing of the arrival of proximal fan facies and the first occurrence of volcanic vents along the Baja California margin do not support a model of a narrowing linear source of extension-driven magmatism in the future Gulf of California. Furthermore, the west to southwest sediment transport direction of Comondú Group deposits (Hausback, 1984; Drake, 2005) and a lack of unambiguous syn-Comondú extensional faulting appear to be inconsistent with the formation of tectonic depressions to the east, toward which Comondú sediments would likely accumulate. If such an extensional setting and localization of sedimentation along the Gulf axis existed during the early and middle Miocene, it must have been located farther east (i.e. in the intra-arc or back-arc position) than the volcanic highlands that caused westward progradation of volcanic and
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volcaniclastic sediments of the Comondú Group in the forearc fringe. In short, there are different lines of evidence that point to two seemingly disparate tectono-morphologic settings for the region that was later replaced by the Gulf of California during rifting. Can the evidence be explained and the models reconciled? Can a tectonic setting that should include some form of a linear volcanic arc parallel to the forearc basin and active subduction zone paradoxically show evidence of extension-driven volcanism along tectonic depressions? The southern Cascades volcanic arc of Oregon and northern California might be a reasonable modern analog that best accounts for a) Oligocene to mid-Miocene extensional faulting along the eastern Gulf of California margin (Ferrari et al., 2013), b) extension-driven bimodal magmatism in the Gulf region
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FIGURE 3: Example of cross bedding, scouring, and lagstone and channel-fill deposits of fluvial volcanic sandstone and
conglomerate of the Comondú Group, overlain by a regionally widespread 19.62 Ma rhyolitic ignimbrite (Drake et al., 2017). Sur must in some way be compatible, with differences in interpretation perhaps being more a function of location of observation (i.e., back-arc and/or intra-arc extension vs an undeformed forearc basin). Evidence for reconciliation of the origin of the Comondú Group likely exists under the Gulf, where more robust sampling from the seafloor promises insight. More advances in igneous geochemistry, structural analysis, and geophysical investigation will also be important. In the meantime, the geologic community continues to make progress in its understanding of the evolution of the highly-complex Gulf of California region. Different interpretations point to different tectonic settings, but are likely converging on a better solution. But for now, the nature of the source of the Comondú Group of Baja California Sur (Cascade-style volcanic arc or otherwise) remains equivocal.
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during Comondú time (Bryan et al., 2014), and c) a west-facing linear volcanic highlands sourcing unfaulted, early-to-mid-Miocene volcanic and volcaniclastic sediments deposited along the western Gulf of California margin. The bimodal volcanism of the southern Cascades formed in a transtensional and extensional fault zone with the more-typical extensional faulting of the Basin and Range province located to the east in the back-arc region, while the forearc basin to the west is not extending (Pezzopane and Weldon, 1993).
SOME LESSONS FROM THE SOUTHERN GULF OF CALIFORNIA
The extension-driven volcanism model for the Gulf of California and the stratigraphic and structural evidence from the eastern margin of Baja California Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
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LEAD STORY for a “Baja California shear zone”: Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 27, p. 3961-3964, doi: 10.1029/2000GL008529. Drake, W., 2005, Structural analysis, stratigraphy, and geochronology of the San José Island accommodation zone, Baja California Sur, Mexico: M.S. Thesis, Northern Arizona University, 271 p. Drake, W.R., Umhoefer, P.J., Griffith, A., Vlad, A., Peters, L., and McIntosh, W.C., 2017, Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the Comondú Group from Bahía de La Paz to Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico: Tectonophysics, vol. 719-720, p. 107-134, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2017.04.020 Duque-Trujillo, J., Ferrari, L., Norini, G., LópezMartínez, M., 2014, Miocene faulting in the southwestern Sierra Madre Occidental, Nayarit, Mexico: kinematics and segmentation during the initial rifting of the southern Gulf of California: Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, vol. 31, p. 283-302. Duque-Trujillo, J., Ferrari, L., Orozco-Esquivel, T., López-Martínez, M., Lonsdale, P., Bryan, S.E., Kluesner, J., Piñero-Lajas, D. and Solari, L., 2015, Timing of rifting in the southern Gulf of California and its conjugate margins: Insights from the plutonic record: Geological Society of America Bulletin, p. 702-736, doi:10.1130/B31008.1.Ferrari, L., López-Martinez, M., and Rosas-Elguera, J., 2002, Ignimbrite flare-up and deformation in the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, western Mexico: Implications for the late subduction history of the Farallon plate: Tectonics, vol. 21, p. 17-1 - 17-24, doi: 10.1029/2001TC001302. Ferrari, L., Valencia-Moreno, M., and Bryan, S., 2007, Magmatism and tectonics of the Sierra Madre Occidental and its relation with the evolution of the western margin of North America, in Alaniz-Alvarez, S.A. and Nieto-Samaniego, A.F.: Geological Society of America Special Paper 422, p. 1-39, doi: 10.1130/2007.2422(01). Ferrari, L., López-Martínez, M., Orozco-Esquivel, T., Bryan, S.E., Duque-Trujillo, J., Lonsdale, P. and Solari, L., 2013, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene rifting and synextensional magmatism in the southwestern Sierra Madre Occidental,
»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49 REFERENCES Atwater, T., 1970, Implication of plate tectonics for the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of western North America: Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 81, p. 3513-3535, doi: 10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[3513:IOPTFT]2.0. CO;2. Axen, G., 1995, Extensional segmentation of the Main Gulf Escarpment, Mexico and United States: Geology, vol. 23, p. 515-518, doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(1995)023<0515:ESOTMG>2.3.CO;2. Bennett, S.E.K., Darin, M.H., Dorsey, R.J., Skinner, L.A., Umhoefer, P.J., and Oskin, M.E., 2016, Animated tectonic reconstruction of the Lower Colorado River region: Implications for late Miocene to Present deformation, in Reynolds, R.E., (ed.): Going LOCO, Investigations along the lower Colorado River: Northridge, California State University, Desert Studies Center Desert Symposium Field Guide and Proceedings, p. 73–86. Bryan, S.E., Orozco-Esquivel, T., Ferrari, L. and López-Martínez, M., 2014, Pulling apart the mid to late Cenozoic magmatic record of the Gulf of California: Is there a Comondú arc?: Geological Society, London, Special Publications, vol. 385, no. 1, p.389-407, doi: 10.1144/SP385.8. Conly, A.G., Brenan, J.M., Bellon, H., Scott, S.D., 2005, Arc to rift transitional volcanism in the Santa Rosalía Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, vol. 142, p. 303–341, doi: 10.1016/j. jvolgeores.2004.11.013. DeMets, C., 1995, A reappraisal of seafloor spreading lineations in the Gulf of California: Implications for the transfer of Baja California to the Pacific plate and estimates of Pacific–North America motion. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 22, no. 24, p. 3545–3548, doi: 10.1029 /95GL03323. Dixon, T., Farina, F., DeMets, C., Suarez-Vidal, F., Fletcher, J., Marquez-Azua, B., Miller, M., Sanchez, O., and Umhoefer, P., 2000, New kinematic models for Pacific-North America motion from 3 Ma to present: II. Evidence OUTCROP | December 2017
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FIGURE 4: View along strike of a rift-related normal fault in the Lower Comondú
Mexico: The beginning of the Gulf of California rift: Geosphere, vol. 9, p. 1161-1200, doi: 10.1130/GES00925.1. Ferrari, L., Orozco-Esquivel, T., Bryan, S.E., Lopez-Martinez, M., Silva-Fragoso, A., 2017, Cenozoic magmatism and extension in western Mexico: Linking the Sierra Madre Occidental Silicic Large Igneous Province and the Comondú Group with the Gulf of California rift: Earth-Science Reviews (in press), doi: 10.1016/j. earscirev.2017.04.006. Fletcher, J.M., Grove, M., Kimbrough, D., Lovera, O., Gehrels, G.E., 2007, Ridgetrench interactions and the Neogene tectonic evolution of the Magdalena shelf and southern Gulf of California: Insights from detrital zircon U-Pb ages from the Magdalena fan and adjacent areas: GSA Bulletin, vol. 119, p. 1313-1336, doi: 10.1130/ B26067.1. Gans, P.B., 1997, Large-magnitude Oligo-Miocene extension in southern Sonora: Implications for the tectonic evolution of northwest Mexico: Tectonics, vol. 16, no. 3, p. 388–408, doi: 10 .1029 /97TC00496. Hausback, B.P., 1984, Cenozoic volcanic and tectonic evolution of Baja California Sur, Mexico: in Frizzell, V.A., Jr. (ed.), Geology of the Baja California Peninsula: Society of Economic Paleontologists
Group. The vertical separation of the pink rhyolitic tuff is ~30 m (note geologist for scale). The southwest strike of the fault is approximately perpendicular to the modern extension direction of Baja California Sur, suggesting that this is a relatively young fault.
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FIGURE 5:
View of the Main Rift Escarpment of Baja California Sur and three general facies of the ComondĂş Group preserved at this location. The stratigraphicallylowest distal fan facies in the lower left (tan sandstone) are faulted against younger medial fan facies on the right that consists of braided channels of sandstone and conglomerate (green) that are interbedded with primary volcanic deposits (white and pink rhyolitic ignimbrites). Proximal fan facies cap the escarpment in the distance (dark gray) and consist of thick volcanic breccia deposits, intermediate composition ignimbrites, and coarse conglomerates. The normal fault (white line with ball symbols on hanging wall) has ~450 m of down-to-theeast-northeast vertical offset. The orientation of the strike of the fault suggests that this fault probably first formed as part of early (but postComondĂş) extension in the region (Drake, 2005).
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LEAD STORY and Mineralogists, Pacific Section, vol. 39, p. 219-236. Lonsdale, P., 1989, Geology and tectonic history of the Gulf of California: in Winterer, E.L., Hussong, D.W., Decker, R.W. (eds.), The Eastern Pacific Ocean and Hawaii, The Geology of North America, vol. N, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, p. 499-521, doi: 10.1130/DNAG-GNA-N.499. Martín-Barajas, A., Stock, J.M., Layer, P., Hausback, B., Renne, P. and López-Martínez, M., 1995, Arc-rift transition volcanism in the Puertecitos volcanic province, northeastern Baja California, Mexico: Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 107, no. 4, p.407-424, doi: 10.1130/0016-7606(1995)107<0407:ARTVIT>2.3.CO;2. Oskin, M., and Stock, J., 2003, Pacific-North America plate motion and opening of the Upper Delfín basin, northern Gulf of California, Mexico: Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 115, no. 10, p. 1173-1190, doi:10.1130/B25154.1. Pallares, C., Maury, R.C., Bellon, H., Royer, J.Y., Calmus, T., Aguillón-Robles, A., Cotten, J., Benoit, M., Michaud, F. and Bourgois, J., 2007, Slab-tearing following ridge-trench collision: Evidence from Miocene volcanism in Baja California, México: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, vol. 161, no. 1, p. 95-117, doi: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2006.11.002. Pezzopane, S.K. and Weldon II, R.J., 1991, Tectonic role of Holocene fault activity in Oregon: Tectonics, vol. 12, p.1140-1169, doi:10.1029/92TC02950. Plattner, C., R. Malservisi, T. H. Dixon, P. LaFemina, G. F. Sella, J. Fletcher and F. Suarez-Vidal, 2007, New constraints on relative motion between the Pacific Plate and Baja California microplate (Mexico) from GPS measurements: Geophysical Journal International, p. 1373-1380, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007.03494.x. Ryan, W.B.F., Carbotte, S.M., Coplan, J.O., O’Hara, S., Melkonian, A., Arko, R., Weissel, R.A., Ferrini, V., Goodwillie, A., Nitsche, F., Bonczkowski, J., and Zemsky R. (2009), Global Multi-Resolution Topography synthesis: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, vol. 10, Q03014, doi: Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
10.1029/2008GC002332. Stock, J.M., and J. Lee, 1994, Do microplates in subduction zones leave a geological record?: Tectonics, vol. 13, no. 6. p. 1472-1487, doi:10.1029/94TC01808. Sutherland, F.H., Kent, G.M., Harding, A.J., Umhoefer, P.J., Driscoll, N.W., Lizarralde, D., Fletcher, J.M., Axen, G.J., Holbrook, W.S., González-Fernández, A. and Lonsdale, P., 2012, Middle Miocene to early Pliocene oblique extension in the southern Gulf of California: Geosphere, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 752-770, doi: 10.1130/ GES00770.1. Umhoefer, P.J., Dorsey, R.J., Willsey, S., Mayer, L., Renne, P., 2001, Stratigraphy and geochronology of the Comondú Group near Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico: Sedimentary Geology, vol. 144, p. 125-147, doi: 10.1016/ S0037-0738(01)00138-5. Umhoefer, P.J., Mayer, L., and Dorsey, R.J., 2002, Evolution of the Margin of the Gulf of California near Loreto, Baja California Peninsula, Mexico: Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 114, p. 849-868, doi: 10.1130/0016-7606(2002)114<0849:EOTMOT>2.0.CO;2. Umhoefer, P.J., 2011, Why did the Southern Gulf of California rupture so rapidly?—Oblique divergence across hot, weak lithosphere along a tectonically active margin: GSA Today, vol. 21, no. 11, p. 4-10, doi: 10.1130/G133A.1.
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WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!
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IN THE PIPELINE DECEMBER 6, 2017 RMAG Luncheon. Speaker: Reinaldo Michelena. “Calibration and Modeling of Natural Fractures Properties Using 3D Poststack Seismic Data.”
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PTTC Rockies Short Course. “Turbidite Crash Course: Depositional Environments and Facies Architecture.” Lakewood, CO. For more information contact Mary Carr (mcarr@mines.edu) 303.273.3107 54
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• Discovery Group (The), Inc. ��������������������� 43
• Sinclair Petroleum ����������������������������������� 12
• Donovan Brothers Inc. ����������������������������� 12
• SM Energy ����������������������������������������������� 40
• Geokinetics ���������������������������������������������� 12
• Spancers & Associates ��������������������������� 53
• Geomark �������������������������������������������������� 39 • Geostar Solutions ������������������������������������ 12
• Stoner Engineering (SES) ������������������������ 40
• Laramide Geosciences ���������������������������� 18
• Sunburst Consulting �������������������������������� 42
• Lario Oil & Gas Company ������������������������ 35
• Tracker Resources ����������������������������������� 39
CALENDAR | DECEMBER 2017 SUNDAY
3
MONDAY
4
TUESDAY
5
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
6
7
RMAG Luncheon.
PTTC Rockies Short Course.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
The RMAG office will be closed.
24
25
26
27
28
29
The RMAG office will be closed.
The RMAG office will be closed.
The RMAG office will be closed.
The RMAG office will be closed.
30
CHRISTMAS DAY The RMAG office will be closed.
31 NEW YEAR’S EVE
NEW YEAR’S DAY The RMAG office will be closed.
Vol. 66, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
57
OUTCROP | December 2017