July 2016 Outcrop by The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Volume 65 • No. 7 • July 2016

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OUTCROP | July 2016

Vol. 65, No. 7 | 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.

2016 OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT

TREASURER

John Ladd john.ladd@discoverynr.com

Tom Sperr tsperr@bayless-cos.com

PRESIDENT-ELECT

TREASURER-ELECT

Larry Rasmussen larryr@whiting.com 1st VICE PRESIDENT

Karen Dean deankaren@comcast.net SECRETARY

John Roesink jroesink@jaggedpeakenergy.com

Sarah Hawkins shawkins@usgs.gov

2nd VICE PRESIDENT

1st YEAR COUNSELOR

Kelly Foley foleykk@gmail.com

Rob Diedrich rdiedrich@sm-energy.com 2nd YEAR COUNSELOR

Jane Estes-Jackson Jane.estes-jackson@mcelvain.com

RMAG STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Carrie Veatch, MA cveatch@rmag.org MEMBERSHIP & EVENTS MANAGER

Hannah Rogers hrogers@rmag.org ACCOUNTANT

Carol Dalton cdalton@rmag.org PROJECTS SPECIALIST

Marissa Stanger mstanger@rmag.org MANAGING EDITOR

Will Duggins will.duggins@i-og.net

ADVERTISING INFORMATION

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Rates and sizes can be found on page 47. 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.

Holly Sell holly.sell@yahoo.com

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.

WEDNESDAY NOON LUNCHEON RESERVATIONS

RMAG Office: 303-573-8621 | Fax: 303-476-2241 | staff@rmag.org or www.rmag.org

Greg Guyer Greg.Guyer@halliburton.com Cheryl Fountain cwhitney@alumni.nmt.edu Ron Parker ron.parker@taskfronterra.com DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Nate Silva nate@nate-silva.com

The Outcrop is a monthly publication of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Vol. 65, No. 7 | |www.rmag.org 3 www.rmag.org 3

OUTCROP| | July 2016 OUTCROP

Workshops to Improve Your Skills Well-Log Sequence Stratigraphy: Applications to Sandstones and Shales Tuesday – Thursday, July 12-14, 2016, 8:30 am – 5 pm, Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall rm. 243 Fee: $750, includes food at breaks, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Dr. Jeff May

On completion of the course, participants will be familiar with the methodologies and skills to subdivide, correlate, and map stratigraphic units (reservoirs, seals, and source rocks) through the application of sequence-stratigraphy concepts in the interpretation of well logs from a variety of nonmarine, shallow-marine, and deep-marine environments in siliciclastic settings Participants completing this workshop will be able to:  Analyze the major geologic controls and their interaction on the filling of basins.  Comprehend and critically analyze the often-confusing terminology utilized in sequence stratigraphy.  Apply appropriate sequence stratigraphy models to various basin settings.  Correlate well logs using sequence stratigraphy concepts.  Apply reservoir-seal-source rock concepts to sequence stratigraphic cross sections.  Generate maps of genetically related sequence stratigraphic units.  Demonstrate and predict new stratigraphic prospects or previously untapped reservoir compartments.  Determine the influence of chronostratigraphic surfaces on reservoir quality and flow units.

Cementing - Fundamentals and Current Overview

Monday, July 25, 2016, 8:30 am – 5 pm. Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall rm. 241 Fee: $250, includes food at breaks, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Talib Syed, P.E.

Designing and obtaining a good primary cement job is a critical phase in well construction and in maintaining the integrity of a well throughout its life cycle. Ensuring zonal isolation and the integrity of the cement sheath are also critical components in casing and cement design. This workshop will cover the fundamentals of cementing practices and a state of the art review of cement evaluation techniques – including cement bond logs such as CBL/USIT/CAST-V/SBT/Isolation Scanner etc. Basic principles of casing design will also be covered since both CASING DESIGN and CEMENTING have to be considered together in order to ensure that the drilled well has integrity throughout its life cycle. Types of wells will include oil and gas production and injection/disposal wells and shale, deep water and HPHT wells.

Hydraulic Fracturing in Horizontal Wells

Tuesday-Wednesday, July 26-27, 2016, 8:30 am – 5 pm. Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall rm. 241 Fee: $500, includes food at breaks, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Miskimins, Colorado School of Mines

The short course focuses on the challenges and issues that arise when hydraulic fracturing operations are conducted in horizontal wells, as compared to vertical systems. The mechanics of completion and diversion techniques and tools, such as plug-n-perf and sliding sleeves, will be discussed, along with the pros and cons of these various horizontal well completion systems. Also covered in-situ stress profiles and their effects on transverse and longitudinal fracture growth, both near wellbore and far-field. Stress shadowing and the resulting impacts on cluster and stage spacing will be reviewed along with proppant and fluid selection, proppant transport, and the conductivity requirements. The application of diagnostics, such as DFIT’s and geometric measurements (tracers, microseismic, fiberoptics, etc.) will be reviewed, along with how the results can be integrated for enhancing future treatments. Other topics include: perforating, fracture clean-up, flowback, brittleness, enhanced permeability volumes, treatment optimization, and post-treatment analysis. All disciplines are welcome to attend the course, however, a basic understanding of hydraulic fracturing should already be in place prior to enrollment.

Reservoir Engineering for Petroleum Professionals Thursday, July 28, 2016, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall rm. 241

Fee: $250, includes food at breaks, workbook, and PDH certificate. Instructor: Dr. Luis Zerpa, PhD. Assistant Professor, Colorado School of Mines

This one day short course presents an overview of the fundamental concepts used in petroleum reservoir engineering. Starting with the definition and classification of petroleum reservoirs, and with the presentation of fundamental rock and fluid properties, the instructor will guide the participants in the application of engineering methods for estimation of initial fluid distribution in a reservoir and the estimation of initial volume of hydrocarbons in place. Additionally, this short course will include a brief introduction to unconventional reservoirs, and the application of engineering methods to the estimation of reserves of unconventional reservoirs.

Class Descriptions and Register Online: www.pttcrockies.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org For more information, contact 4 Mary Carr, 303.273.3107,Vol. mcarr@mines.edu

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

CONTENTS FEATURES

ASSOCIATION NEWS

28 Lead Story: Former Rocky Flats Site Stirs Concerns For Some Neighbors

2 RMAG 2016 Summit Sponsors

38 OTR Field Trip: Tertiary Geology Of The Southwestern Denver Basin DEPARTMENTS 6 RMAG 2016 May Board of Directors Meeting 8 President’s Letter 14 Mineral of the Month: Topaz 35 Welcome New RMAG Members! 46 Calendar 46 In The Pipeline 47 Advertiser Index 47 Outcrop Advertising Rates

23 Rockbusters Ball 24 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Dr. Harry Rowe 25 RMAG Fall ‘Hot Plays’ Symposium 26 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Deborah King Sacrey 34 2016 RMAG Sporting Clay Tournament 37 Sporting Clay Tournament

Aerial view of Rocky Flats prior to cleanup, taken June 1995. Photo: Wikipedia, US Federal Government

39 RMAG Golf Tournament: Results, Thank You

42 3D Seismic Symposium Committee Seeks Members

40 RMAG Golf Tournament: Thank You Sponsors

43 RMAG Foundation Holds April Meeting, Awards Scholarships

41 RMAG Foundation

44 AAPG Pacific & Rocky Mountain Sections Meeting: Oct 2-5, Las Vegas

42 News From The RMAG Foundation: Changes To The Board, New Initiatives

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

COVER PHOTO

45 DIG & RMAG Breakfast Seminar

OUTCROP | July 2016

RMAG 2016 MAY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING By Sarah Hawkins, Secretary shawkins@usgs.gov

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OUTCROP | July 2016

The May meeting of the RMAG Board of Directors took place on May 18, 2016 at 4 p.m. Tom Sperr, RMAG treasurer reported that the organization continues to do well financially, despite the downturn in the oil and gas industry that has affected many RMAG members and sponsors. The May luncheon was another sell-out, and Chris Eisinger (chris.eisinger@state.co.us) is accepting ideas for speakers for the 2017 schedule. By the time that this goes to print, registration will be open on the RMAG website for the next three upcoming On the Rocks field trips. In July, Al Koch will lead a field trip to Cherokee Ranch near Sedalia, Colorado. The August field trip is local, and will include a tour of the USGS ice core facility and fossil collection and will be led by USGS curators at these facilities. Finally, the September field trip will be led by consulting geologist John Webb, and will examine the stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Fountain and Ingleside Formations in Boulder and Larimer counties. The first field trip this season sold out quickly, so be sure to register as soon as possible! Mark your calendars: several organizations for geology professionals have technical conferences or annual meetings that will be held nearby or locally, and they are rapidly approaching. The 2016 RMAG Fall ‘Hot Plays’ Symposium is scheduled for September 15, and includes a full day of presentations and core displays at the USGS Core Research Center in Denver. Please see the RMAG website for registration information. Less than two weeks later, the annual meeting for the Geological Society of America will be held in Denver on September 25-28. The deadline for abstract submission is July 11. Finally, the Rocky Mountain Section of AAPG is holding its annual meeting October 2-5 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This meeting includes field trips to some excellent geologic features near the city in addition to the technical program. We’re looking forward to these great opportunities for networking and technical exchange and hope to see you there!

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

PRESIDENT’S LETTER By John Ladd

Castle Rock, Colorado.

The Good, the Bad and The Ugly

OUTCROP | July 2016

despite being only vaguely familiar with the issue. Needless to say I didn’t feel like replying to my friend with a breezy “Oh, it’s going great!” Instead I said something about how in general it was going fine except for the days when some problem crops up and I need to come up with a solution NOW, whether I know enough about the situation to come

I ran into a friend recently whom I hadn’t seen for quite a while. He is a past-President of RMAG and the first thing he asked me was how things were going with being President. It just so happens that a controversy had just flared up that morning and instead of doing a long lists of things I needed to get done for my day job, I was fielding phone calls and making decisions on the fly about something

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

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up with the solution or not. My reply to him was probably way more involved than he wanted and I realized that I needed to come up with a snappy answer to that question for days when, truth be told, the position is sort of a pain in the neck. A couple of days later, I saw some reference to Clint Eastwood and the answer I needed suddenly came to me: this position involves The Good, the Bad and The Ugly. This issue of the Outcrop is released at the half way point of my term, and no, there isn’t so much of The Ugly that I am counting the days until it’s over. However, it does seem like a good time to comment on how RMAG is faring during a year where the industry most of us are or have been employed in is suffering through much more Bad and Ugly than Good. First the Good, of which there is considerable amount. The accompanying photo represents some of it. It was taken at the Castle Rock, which sits on top of the butte which overlooks the town of Castle Rock and gives it its name. It was taken at a stop on the first On the Rocks field trip of the year led by Lon Abbot of CU. The 30 spots on the trip sold out in a couple of days, the group was enthusiastic and the discussions at stops were stimulating and entertaining. With luck the rest of the trips this year will be equal to it, and maybe the logistics will even be worked out in advance. Similarly, our luncheon program has been going great. The available lunch spots have been sold out most months, there have been lots of walk-ins, the talks

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OUTCROP | July 2016

President’s Letter optimistic. Similarly, attendance at the 3D Seismic Symposium was less than half what it was as recently as two years ago despite a strong program. Attendance at the Night at the Museum and Playmaker’s Symposium were also disappointing. This all spells trouble for RMAG because the three ways that we pay for overhead and free events like the mentoring program are from dues, sponsorships and profits from symposia and major social events. Fortunately membership has not dropped off much, but not surprisingly, company budgets for sponsorships have dried up, so we are getting little income from that source, and profits from other events have either been non-existent or a small percentage of what they used to be. There’s no crisis: years like this are what we have a rainy day fund for, and Carrie Veatch has been diligent about keeping our overhead costs down. However, if the state of the oil industry stays the way it has been this year, some President a few years from now is going to be

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useful and well presented. The new mentor program was over-subscribed, meaning we had to find a few extra mentors to meet the demand, and the Petra and Kingdom training for student and unemployed members fill up almost as soon as new sessions are posted on our web site. There is a problem, though: the Petra training and mentor program are free, the field trips cost $20/person, lunches $30. In the days of $30 oil, $30 seems to be everybody’s price point. Which leads to the Bad: Attendance at other, more expensive events has dropped drastically. A case in point is the annual golf tournament. I am writing this before the event was held so I don’t know the final numbers, but a few days before the registration deadline, we weren’t even close to filling up the morning session. Until last year, we always sold out both a morning and afternoon session. We thought we were being prudent to just reserve one half day session but even that was over

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

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dealing with worse problems than a few irate phone calls. You will see some changes in the near future that will reflect the new reality. For example, the Hot Plays of the Rockies Symposium will be held at the USGS instead of a downtown hotel and will be a half day of talks and half day of viewing cores. Because of limitations in space at the core facility, numbers of registrants will be restricted to about 60. There is also another core workshop in the planning stage, a small and inexpensive event to put on that does not need a lot of people signing up to make a profit. You will also see a push towards less expensive venues for our other events, such as moving the golf tournament to the City Park course. At the recent meeting of our Corporate Advisory Board, committee members representing some of the larger companies in Denver all said basically the same thing. They were cutting out all travel to out of town conventions and training classes. However they also said that they all had lost large numbers of their older, experienced staff through cut backs and early retirement, so there is a great need to be training their largely younger staffs. They tell us that they want to see RMAG provide a comprehensive continuing education program. We will see if this expressed desire gets translated into attendance numbers. Maybe the recent rise in oil prices will hold and budgets will loosen up a bit. Either way, we will have to assume that there will no longer be

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

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money to pay for attendance at social/networking events, a big reason for the drop in attendance at the golf tournament. Also I doubt travel budgets will increase much, even if higher oil prices hold for a while. This will hurt attendance at the 3D Symposium which historically has included a lot of out of town attendees. We hope to continue to provide you with robust programs, but they will have to be done on the cheap as much as possible. That leaves the Ugly: some things are probably best left to me and a few staff and board members, so I will skip the details. I will say however, that I used to think that CEO’s and Chairmen of corporations were paid way too much. I’m not so sure of that anymore. Changing subjects, I’ll add a short post-script to last month’s column where I was commenting on the lack of scientific literacy among the general public and how that allows for false ideas to be spread and gain wide acceptance, such as the idea that fracing is a threat to the safety of our groundwater resources. I wrote that column on one of those rainy/ snowy weekend days that seemed to be so common this spring, when I couldn’t do anything outside, so I managed to finish it up before I had to get ready fora dinner party that my wife and I had been invited to that evening. It was a fairly large event, perhaps 50 people, and I probably knew about a third of those in attendance. Due to the large numbers of people, it was an informal, buffet type of event.

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President’s Letter water. Then, since I had just finished writing my column a few hours ago and it was fresh in my mind, I was all ready to present a concise, coherent explanation about why I thought the whole controversy and scare about fracing was utter nonsense. Once I finished, he nodded his head, thanked me, and then said “I thought so.” This seemed to justify my comment in the column that if all 2000 or so members of RMAG took any chance they got to spread a little truth about the issue then it might actually start to make a difference, at least in Colorado. Unfortunately, this incident also illustrates that the problem is worse than I thought. This guy could hardly be accused of being scientifically illiterate, or at least I hope so. He’s a doctor. Maybe what we really need is a push to get more earth science instruction in schools, so that nobody graduates from high school without a basic understanding of geology and the sources and production of natural resources. I am not going to put money on that ever happening.

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People got their food and then found a place to sit and chat with others. As is typical, my wife and I separated. I joined some friends I hadn’t seen in a long while in the kitchen so we could get caught up with what everyone had been doing, while she went elsewhere. When my group finished eating and broke up, I went to look for her and found her in the living room talking with a small group of people, none of whom I knew. She introduced me and I sat in and listened to their conversation for a few minutes, but they too had finished eating and were about to split up and go their separate ways. As we all stood up to go, one of the men stopped me and said “Your wife tells me you are a petroleum geologist. Tell me about fracing.” I first ascertained that he knew little about geology and oil production and that he wasn’t even aware that groundwater is fresh and potable for only a few hundred to at most a couple of thousand feet below the surface and that below that, where the oil is, it is all brackish or salt

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH By Ronald L. Parker, Senior Geologist, Borehole Image Specialists, 2355 South Oneida Street, Denver CO 80224 ron@bhigeo.com

TOPAZ Pretty Hard

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Topaz, Yuno, Shigar Valley, Skardu District, Baltistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas), Pakistan, 2.5 x 2.4 x 2.6 cm, Anne Cook Collection 10425. Photo by Jamison Brizendine.

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ

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Topaz, Al2SiO4(F,OH)2, is a treasured aluminum fluorosilicate mineral found mostly in silica-rich igneous rocks, particularly granitic and rhyolitic pegmatites and pneumatolytic veins (Johnsen, 2002). Topaz forms during late-stage crystallization when fluorine vapors become enriched in the residual silicic magma (Klein, 20002). Topaz has no industrial uses but it is highly prized by mineral enthusiasts because it is commonly discovered as aesthetically pleasing, vitreous, clear or intensely-colored prismatic euhedra, sometimes with complex multi-form terminations. Topaz is also special in that it has a Mohs hardness of 8, a rare characteristic in the mineral world and a feature that only adds to its special charm. This charm is bestowed upon those born in November, for whom topaz is their birthstone. The name topaz derives from the Greek topazion meaning ‘to seek’, purportedly a reference to Topasos (or Topazion) Island (now, Saint John’s Island) in the Red Sea. This island was evidently hard to find and was known from antiquity to yield a yellow-colored gemstone – now thought to be chrysoberyl or peridot. In fact, topaz is mentioned in numerous instances in the bible. It is thought that this usage may reflect that the label topaz was assigned to any yellowish translucent mineral in ancient times (Mineral Data

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Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

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OUTCROP | July 2016

MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ axial ratio (a:b:c) of 0.5285:1:0.95386 (Mineral Data Publishing, 2001). Topaz displays one perfect cleavage on {001} and euhedral crystals are often broken along this cleavage plane when harvested by collectors. The two large topaz crystals on display at the Smithsonian Institution (see photo) are resting on this convenient flat surface. Topaz is distinguished from other clear to translucent, vitreous, prismatic crystals (like quartz) by the very high hardness of 8.0 and a high specific gravity of ~3.5 (Klein and Philpotts, 2013). Additionally, the prismatic striations in topaz are parallel to the c-axis while the prismatic striations in quartz are perpendicular to the c-axis (Wenk and Bulakh, 2004). Topaz is often colorless, but can display almost any color of the visible spectrum. Common colors include pale blue, yellow, yellow-orange, and red. Less common coloration includes green, pink and orange-brown.

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 Publishing, 2001). Topaz is a nesosilicate, the type of silicate mineral characterized by isolated silica tetrahedra. In the case of topaz, isolated silica tetrahedral are linked to chains of AlO4F2 octahedra that parallel the c-axis (Klein and Philpotts, 2013). Although OH- substitution for F- occurs in topaz, fluorine is the much more prevalent anion (Klein, 2002). Topaz is oh-so orthorhombic, displaying characteristic 2/m2/m2/m orthogonal symmetry that is well-displayed in euhedral crystals. Topaz crystals are usually prismatic, elongated parallel to the c crystallographic axis. Vertical striations are commonly seen on prismatic faces and these, too, are c-axis aligned. Crystals often display multiple bipyramidal forms which makes crystal terminations highly complex (Klein, 2002). Unit cell dimensions of topaz are a=4.6499Å, b=8.7968Å, c=8.3909Å, for an

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ

A massive, 70 pound pink and yellow Imperial Topaz crystal from the Capão Imperial Topaz Mine, Ouro Prêto region, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A second huge topaz, weighing 111 pounds, is behind this one. Both are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This crystal displays beautiful prismatic and pyramidal euhedral crystal faces. Photo by Ronald L. Parker.

Coloration is the result of trace impurities, mostly of iron and chromium (Klein and Philpotts, 2013). Colored topaz crystals have been assigned an array of special names to reflect

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

these variations. Imperial topaz is Topaz sometimes displays color sector zoning resulting from differential trace element adsorption on different crystal faces. Pale blue prism faces (from Fe2+)

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 are sometimes found with golden-yellow bipyramid faces (due to Fe3+) (Wenk and Budakh, 2004). In thin-section, topaz appears colorless with moderate positive relief and 1st-order white or pale yellow interference color. Euhedral topaz displays a diamond-shaped cross-section when cut perpendicular to the c-axis. The crystal is biaxial + with a 2Vz that ranges from 48° to 68°. 2Vz decreases with increasing OH- substitution for F(Nesse, 2004).

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Superb doubly-terminated imperial topaz from the Ouro Preta region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Dimensions: 32mmx 14mmx8mm. From the collection of Albert S. Wylie. Photo by John Betts Fine Minerals. http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/index.htm. Topaz is not particularly rare as granitic and rhyolitic rocks are widespread across the globe. Yet, the requirement of elevated levels of fluorine (up to 1.5 weight %), constrains topaz mineralization to a small subset of granitic parent magmas. Topaz rhyolites are known from the region surrounding the Colorado Plateau

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OUTCROP | July 2016

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characterized by extensional tectonics (eastern Basin and Range and Rio Grande Rift) (Christiansen et. al., 1986). Topaz rhyolites are known to display extreme enrichment in the incompatible (lithophile) trace elements Be, Li, U, Nb, Rb, Mo, Sn, Ta, Th, Y and others (Christiansen et. al., 1984; 1986). Of

Topaz is an unusual metamorphic mineral associated with altered bauxite deposits and is sometimes found with the aluminosilicates kyanite and sillimanite. Some hydrothermal ore deposits of tin, tungsten, molybdenum and gold have associated topaz (Nesse, 2004; Klein and Philpotts, 2013). Far and away the most prevalent occurrence of topaz is in association with silica-rich intrusive and, especially, extrusive igneous rocks.

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ

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course, given its high hardness, topaz is also found as frosted, water-worn detrital grains in streams draining terranes with topaz-bearing lithologies (Geology.com, 2016). Hence, placer deposits are locally important sources of topaz (Klein and Philpotts, 2013). Mindat.org lists 1506 topaz bearing localities worldwide, including in Antarctica. (Mindat, 2016). Notable localities include the Nerchinsk district in Siberia, Mursinsk in the Ural Mountains, Saxony Germany, the Omi and Mino provinces in Japan and San Luis Potosi in Mexico (Klein, 2002). Topaz is also produced in Nigeria, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Namibia (Geology.com, 2016). The most sensational gem-quality topaz specimens hail from Minas Gerais, Brazil, particularly the Virgem de Lapa and Ouro Prêto regions (Mineral Data Publishing, 2001). Numerous locations in the Rocky Mountains host topaz mineralization, mostly as topaz rhyolites, including Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana (Burt et. al., 1982). Perhaps the most famous of these localities is Topaz Mountain in the Thomas Range, Juab county, Utah. (Topaz has held the distinction as the Utah state gem since 1969 (Utah.gov. 2016). In Colorado, topaz is known from the Tarryall area in Park County, near Florissant in Teller County, Devil’s Head in Douglas County and Ruby Mountain near Nathrop in Chafee County (Klein, 2002; Veatch and Frettard, 2005).

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Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, QEP Resources, Inc. (NYSE: QEP) is an S&P MidCap 400 Index member company. Learn more at www.qepres.com.

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OUTCROP | July 2016

MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ

Topaz has no significant economic value outside of its appeal as a gem mineral or semi-precious stone traded by mineral enthusiasts. The economic value of topaz, as with several other commonly traded minerals, is sometimes increased by appearance enhancements. Brown topaz, generally of lower value, is often heated to 450°-500° to yield a more valued pink color. Deep blue topaz, highly popular amongst mineral traders but naturally uncommon, is generated by a multiple step process of gamma irradiation followed by heat treatment (Wenk and Budakh, 2004). Natural topaz crystals are faceted and polished for sale as gemstones. Often these gems are labeled “precious topaz” to discriminate them from citrine quartz which is sometimes labeled as topaz (Klein, 2002). Topaz is an extremely hard (H=8.0) aluminum fluorosilicate that is found mostly in silicic igneous rocks such as granite and rhyolite. Topaz is to be found at any Rock and Mineral show. You will be rewarded by visiting the many fine topaz crystal images that are found in a photo gallery located at mindat.org (http:// www.mindat.org/gm/3996). Note: This article includes many excellent photos taken by my former geology student at Earlham College, Jamison

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Topaz, Medina, Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 4.6 x 4.8 x 5 cm, Paul and Janet Clifford Collection, 7055. Photo by Jamison Brizendine.

Topaz on Lepidolite, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 3 x 3.3 x 2.5 cm, Anne Cook Collection, 4021. Photo by Jamison Brizendine. 20

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Brizendine. He has many photos on display at his mindat.org webpage http://www.mindat.org/user-7583. html. If you like his photos (as I do), please let him know.

WEBLINKS http://www.mindat.org/ min-3996.html http://www.mindat.org/gm/3996 — A stunning photo gallery of topaz crystals. http://geology.com/minerals/ topaz.shtml http://rruff.info/doclib/hom/ topaz.pdf http://www.johnbettsfineminerals.com/index.htm http://www.minerals.net/ mineral/topaz.aspx http://www.webmineral.com/ data/Topaz.shtml#.V1irxJErIUQ http://onlinelibrary.utah.gov/ research/utah_symbols/ gem.html

REFERENCES Burt, Donald M., Sheridan, Michael F., Bikun, James V. and Christiansen, Eric H., 1982, Topaz Rhyolites – Distribution, Origin and Significance for Exploration: Economic Geology, 77:1818-1836. Christiansen, Eric H., Sheridan, Michael F., and Burt, Donald M., 1986, The Geology and Geochemistry of Cenozoic Topaz Rhyolites from the Western United States: Geological Society of America Special Paper 205, pp. 1-82. Christiansen, Eric H., Bikun,

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Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

Whiting: A Bigger and Better Team Visit us at www.Whiting.com

Fundamentally Better Whiting Petroleum Corporation is an independent exploration and production company. We are a leading crude oil producer in North Dakota and operate substantial assets in northern Colorado. At Whiting we are committed to economically attractive and environmentally responsible operations. Our hydraulic fracturing advancements, state of the art geoscience lab and expertise in exploration have made it possible for us to increase production and reserves while reducing emissions, minimizing surface impacts, and preserving precious water resources.

1700 Broadway | Suite 2300 | Denver, Colorado 80290-2300 P: 303.837.1661 | F: 303.851.4923

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MINERAL OF THE MONTH: TOPAZ 04/15/2016. Minerals.net, 2016, http://www.minerals.net/ mineral/topaz.aspx accessed 05/05/16. Nesse, William D., 2004, Introduction to Optical Mineralogy, 3rd Edition: New York: Oxford University Press, 348 pp. Utah.gov, 2016, Utah State Gem – Topaz: http:// onlinelibrary.utah.gov/research/utah_symbols/ gem.html, accessed 5/21/16. Veatch, Steve and Fretterd, Rich, 2005, New Topaz Discovery, Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds Newsletter, Volume 2005, Issue 3, pp. 3 and 13. Webmineral, 2016, Topaz Mineral Data: http:// www.webmineral.com/data/Topaz.shtml#. V1irxJErIUQ accessed 05/04/16. Wenk, Hans-Rudolf and Bulakh, Andrei, 2004, Minerals – Their Constitution and Origin: New York: Cambridge University Press, 646 pp.

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 James V., Sheridan, Michael F., and Burt, Donald M., 1984, Geochemical Evolution of Topaz Rhyolites from the Thomas Range and Spor Mountain, Utah, American Mineralogist, 69:223-236. Geology.com, 2026, Topaz, http://geology.com/ minerals/topaz.shtml, Accessed 5/12/16. Johnsen, Ole, 2002, Minerals of the World: Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 439 pp. Klein, Cornelis, 2002, The 22nd Edition of the Manual of Mineral 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. Mindat, 2016, http://www.mindat.org/min-3996. html accessed 04/13/2016. Mineral Data Publishing, 2001, Topaz, accessed

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Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

R o c k b u s t e r s

B a l l

Nig ht of the

Nove m be r 12, 20 16 T h e Wa r w i c k H o t e l

email: staï¬&#x20AC;@rmag.org

phone: 303.573.8621

910 16th Street Denver, CO, 80202 Vol. 65, No. 7#1214, | www.rmag.org

Rockbusters Ball

fax: 303.476.2241

web: www.rmag.org

follow: @rmagdenver OUTCROP | July 2016

RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS Speaker: Dr. Harry Rowe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; July 6, 2016

Handheld XRF Applications to Mudrock Chemostratigraphy Methods, Pitfalls, and Examples

By Dr. Harry Rowe, MUD Geochemical and Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin, TX

With varied success, chemostratigraphic studies continue to be integrated with more traditional evaluations of drill core, and often, with less-than-adequate comprehension of fundamental data generation and calibration. Initially, a workflow model consisting of 1) defining geologic questions, 2) optimizing the generation of high quality chemostratigraphic data, and 3) optimizing the linkages between geochemical data sets and other data sets (e.g., well logs, rock physics, organic geochemistry/petrography) ought to be considered. A primary reason for taking core during the drilling process is so that the stratigraphic succession and the sedimentary materials from which it is comprised can be observed directly, and in greater detail. And, because the assignment of sedimentary facies is one of the most fundamental methods of characterizing core, it is best practice to acquire geochemical data on the scale of facies variability. This is now easily accomplished, and the outcome yields a much more quantitative perspective of facies variability. Moreover, petrophysical properties can be compared with highly-resolved chemostratigraphic results in order

to better understand the linkages between mineralogical and rock physics variabilityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which have a profound impact on oil/gas well productivity and value addition. A deeper understanding of the problems and limitations associated with the handheld energy- dispersive x-ray fluorescence method of core analysis is required in order to place quantitative, semi-quantitative, and qualitative constraints on a geochemical data set. Additionally, the data collector and data user should be sufficiently skilled in the analysis of raw x-ray spectra in order to recognize the existence of, and analytical outcomes resulting from, the presence of brines, the occurrence of elevated barium concentrations, and other common complicating conditions. Ultimately, data quality and the quality of interpretations are intimately tied to the level of understanding of the technique and the depth of geochemical-mineralogical knowledge of the end user. Examples of pitfalls, limitations, and high quality data sets will be provided from drill core successions of the Eagle Ford and Bakken formations.

Dr. Rowe is currently a Research Scientist at the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, as well as a geochemistry advisor at MUD Geochemical, Inc. He is a member of the Mudrock Systems Research Laboratory and Reservoir Characterization Research Laboratory, where his research focuses on geochemistry and chemostratigraphy of sedimentary rocks, paleo-oceanography, applications of isotope geochemistry to Quaternary paleoclimate reconstruction, and X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction techniques for the characterization of sedimentary rocks. Dr. Rowe received his B.A. in Geology from Miami University of Ohio (1993), his M.S. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (1995), and his Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, Stanford, CA(2002). OUTCROP | July 2016

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS

Making Unconventional, Conventional

Speaker: Deborah King Sacrey — August 3, 2016

See More – Get more! Unsupervised Neural Analysis of Seismic Attributes to find the “Sweet Spots” in your data – with Conventional and Unconventional Case Histories By Deborah King Sacrey

Interpretation of seismic reflection data involves powerful multiple-CPU computers, advanced visualization techniques, and generation of numerous seismic data types and attributes. Even with these technologies at the disposal of interpreters, there are additional techniques to derive even more useful information from our data. Over the last few years there have been efforts to distill numerous seismic

attributes into volumes that are easily evaluated for their geologic significance and improved seismic interpretation. Seismic attributes are any measureable ® be measured at property of seismic data. They can PetroFecta from one instant of time or depth or over a time or depth Fluid Inclusion window. They are measured on a single trace, on a set of traces, or on aTechnologies surface - all interpreted from the seismic data.isCommonly employed a unique approach combiningcategories of seismic attributes include instantaneous, geometric XRF (PDQ-XRF ®), Trapped Fluid Analysis (coherency, curvature), amplitude accentuating (rel(FIS ®), and High Resolution Photography ative acoustic impedance, sweetness, etc.), AVO, spec® ) ofinversion. the entire wellbore from compo(RockEye tral decomposition, and Principal cuttings or core samples of any age.technique, nent analysis well (PCA), a linear quantitative has proven to be an excellent approach to understand analyses are or conducted on the sameof seismic which seismicAllattributes combination 1 gram sample (up to 575 samples per well) attributes have interpretive significance. PCA reduces with an analytical cycle to of four days. variations a large set of seismic attributes indicate in the data. The combination of seismic attributes Data provided on a DVD withoften relate to contributing to these variations quite

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Ph (435)657-0586 Cell (435)640-1382 email: mbarber@summitmudlog.com www.summitmudlog.com

»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

previewer software.

Neil H. Whitehead, III

SINCLAIR

Consulting Geologist PhD

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fax 303-679-8574

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OUTCROP | July 2016 OUTCROP

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www.rmag.org Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS

ÂťÂťCONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

features, and sweet spots for shale plays. With modern visualization capabilities and application of 2D color maps, SOM routinely identifies meaningful geologic patterns. Recent work utilizing SOM and PCA has revealed geologic features that were not previously identified or easily interpreted with the seismic data. The ultimate goal in this multi-attribute analysis is to enable the geoscientist to produce a more accurate interpretation and reduce exploration and development risk.

geologic features of interest. PCA, as a tool employed in an interpretation workflow, can help determine meaningful seismic attributes. In turn, these attributes are input to self-organizing map (SOM) training. SOM, a form of unsupervised neural networks, has proven to be an excellent method to take many of these seismic attributes and produce meaningful and easily interpretable results. SOM analysis reveals the natural clustering and patterns in data and has been beneficial in defining stratigraphy, seismic facies, DHI Deborah King Sacrey is a geologist/ geophysicist with 40 years of oil and gas exploration experience in the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast and Mid-Continent areas of the US. She received her degree in Geology from the University of Oklahoma in 1976 and immediately started working for Gulf Oil in their Oklahoma City offices.

Deborah has been very active in the geological community. She is past national President of SIPES (Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists), past President of the Division of Professional Affairs of AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists), Past Treasurer of AAPG and is now President

of the Houston Geological Society. She is also a DPA Certified Petroleum Geologist #4014 and DPA Certified Petroleum Geophysicist #2. She belongs to AAPG, SEG, PESA (Australia), SIPES, Houston Geological Society and the Oklahoma City Geological Society (OCGS).

She started her own company, Auburn Energy, in 1990 and built her first geophysical workstation using Kingdom software in 1996. She helped SMT/IHS for 18 years in developing and testing the Kingdom Software. She specializes in 2D and 3D interpretation for clients in the US and internationally. For the past four years she has been part of a team to study and bring the power of multi-attribute neural analysis of seismic data to the geoscience public, guided by Dr. Tom Smith, founder of SMT.

MENTOR!

Congratulations to all mentees and mentors who were accepted into the 2016 RMAG Mentorship Progam! Click here for more information.

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

LEAD STORY

Former Rocky Flats Site Stirs Concerns For Some Neighbors By Electa Draper, Denver Post Originally published in the Denver Post on 2/8/2014: www.denverpost.com/2014/02/08/ former-rocky-flats-site-stirs-concerns-for-some-neighbors/

OUTCROP | July 2016

environmental legacy included plutonium fires in 1957 and 1969 that wafted toxic smoke over the metro area. Leaking barrels of radioactive waste and other small accidents had contaminated downstream communities to the south and east. Now, nearly 25 years after the shutdown, most of Rocky Flats is considered safe, and the vast open spaces at its edge are among the few large areas still available for

ARVADA — For Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, learning that one of her neighbors, the 6,500-acre Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, had been a nuclear weapons production plant was like falling down the rabbit hole. More than 70,000 fission cores or “triggers” for nuclear weapons were manufactured there over four decades. By the time the plant 16 miles northwest of Denver was shut down in 1989, its

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www.candelasconcerns.com

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Lead Story

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“I only found out recently how close we are to Rocky Flats. The kids’ schools are about a mile and a half away,” said the mother of two, who moved to the Rock Creek neighborhood of Superior six years ago. “The more I learned about it, the more horrified I became.” Industrial sites often are reclaimed for new uses. In Denver, the old Stapleton International Airport was transformed into a 4,700-acre neighborhood in the heart of Denver. Farther south, defunct Lowry Air Force Base, including asbestos-filled buildings that were demolished and buried decades ago, has been repopulated with homes and commercial development. But the Cold War machine shop, Rocky Flats, has a more harrowing history. After the Rocky Flats fires, levels of radioactive plutonium in soils just east of the plant ranged up to hundreds of times higher than levels outside the plume of the airborne plutonium, according to a

development on the west side of metro Denver. A massive residential and commercial development called Candelas is underway. And a major toll road to complete the 470 beltway, though mired in litigation, has been proposed to slice through the area. Gabrieloff-Parish argues — along with longtime activists at the Boulder-based Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center — that ground disturbances, such as September’s floods, homebuilding, construction of the proposed Jefferson Parkway on the eastern edge of the refuge, and planned development of biking and hiking trails will kick up plutonium-laced dust, increasing the risk of leukemia and bone, lung and liver cancers for those who breathe it. And they worry that the memory of the site’s toxic legacy has faded to the point that people will move into what Gabrieloff-Parish describes as the “plutonium dust bowl,” without understanding the potential risk.

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Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

Lead Story

FIGURE 1: Distribution of plutonium contamination from Rocky Flats in becquerels per square meter (one becquerel equals one

disintegration or burst of radiation per second). The original version of this map was prepared by P. W. Krey and E. P. Hardy of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Health and Safety Laboratory, New York City, and published in their 1970 report, “Plutonium in Soil Around the Rocky Flats Plant.” Sampling done in September 2011 along Indiana St. by independent scientist Marco Kaltofen showed that present deposits of plutonium are roughly equivalent to the levels measured by Krey and Hardy in 1970. The dotted red line shows the route of the proposed Jefferson Parkway.

1970 report by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. If 1970 sounds like ancient history, Gabrieloff-Parish said, consider that the half-life of the most common radioactive isotope or form of the element released, Pu-239, is 24,000 years. Federal, state and local governments say the public has nothing to worry about. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Public Health Service and U.S Fish and Wildlife Service — in stacks of reports — say the public’s exposure to the contaminants has not posed any significant risks. Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

Scott Surovchak, the Rocky Flats site manager with the DOE Office of Legacy Management, says naturally occurring radioactive uranium and other heavy metals in Colorado soils present more of a health risk than the minuscule amounts of plutonium remaining around Rocky Flats. Plutonium is also present in soils because of fallout from nuclear bomb tests elsewhere. “I think the bottom line is that anything outside the Central Operable Unit (a 1,308-acre core of the plant retained by the Department of Energy) is now available for any and all uses,” Surovchak said. The EPA says Rocky Flats and other Superfund cleanup sites, formerly among the most hazardous

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Lead Story

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waste sites in the country, are continually monitored to safeguard public health. Colorado has 21 Superfund sites. There are 11 along the Front Range, including Rocky Flats and Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Commerce City, which also has been cleaned up and made into a national wildlife refuge. Rocky Flats’ history came to a climax in 1989, after years of calamities and protests, when a raid by the FBI and EPA halted production by the DOE’s private contractor at the time, Rockwell International. The raid also kicked off Rocky Flats’ transformation — first to a Superfund site and eventually, in 2007, to a 4,000acre national wildlife refuge. The site now is a beautiful vista of tallgrass prairie not yet opened for public use. Critics contend that the truth about the health effects on workers and nearby residents that eventually came out is now hidden from newcomers behind Rocky Flats’ re-branding as a wildlife refuge. FIGURE 2: Path of airborne plutonium releases from September 11th and 12th 1957 fire Gabrieloff-Parish and her at Rocky Flats Plant. group Candelas Glows have held some contaminated soil was buried onsite, accordprotests at the development over the last year to ining to the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council, which increase awareness of the “outrageous radioactive hiscludes representatives of local governments. tory” of adjacent Rocky Flats. Rocky Flats’ Central Operable Unit is the perma“There’s nothing we can say or do — no facts — nently closed area of the former plant that has reto change some people’s minds,” DOE’s Surovchak quired additional remediation and testing. said. “Professional protesters have an agenda. We’ve “We’re protecting what’s out there (equipment) got loads of data.” from the public,” Surovchak said. The Rocky Flats cleanup was declared complete Now, the mostly empty acreage at Rocky Flats in 2005, after more than 10 years and at a cost of $7 forms a stunning backdrop for bordering residenbillion. Some 800 buildings were demolished. More than 120 tons of material were transported to nucletial development, including the 2,000-acre Candelas ar waste storage facilities around the country, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

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Lead Story never be cleared out. It’s going to be dangerous for a really long time.” Gipe spent about seven months constructing the as-yetunnamed Cold War horse he envisions as a warning to future residents of the area around Rocky Flats. “It has a lot of personal symbolism for me — the sacrifices of all the people who worked there,” he said. “Now my major concern is finding a permanent site for it. When I originally started, it was going to be a renegade piece. I was just going to put it out there. But it probably would have been destroyed within a day.”

neighborhood in west Arvada, about 1.3 miles south of where the plant once stood. It could one day have more than 4,000 homes — priced from $300,000 to $1 million — developers’ literature says. “What really horrifies me is that they’re building houses around Rocky Flats, and nobody even knows what it was,” said artist Jeff Gipe, who now divides his time between Colorado and Brooklyn. In December, Gipe put the finishing touches on a slightly larger-than-life-size horse sculpture wearing a respirator, brilliant magenta hazmat suit and black booties. Gipe thinks of the horse as a fitting memorial to the Rocky Flats legacy. His father started working at Rocky Flats in the 1980s. Gipe, now 29, was a few months old

when his family moved to Arvada, just south of the plant. “He was there for 20 years, a supervisor at the plant,” Gipe said. “He couldn’t talk about anything. Even today he won’t talk about it. He doesn’t remember (because of neurological problems).” Gipe began digging into Rocky Flats history for himself about four or five years ago. “It’s been coverup after coverup after another coverup of all the accidents and illnesses,” he said. “There is no (adequate) marker saying it was ever a nuclear-arms facility, even though a lot of the contamination is buried there and can

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VOLUNTER!

As a diverse community of individuals working towards a worthy cause, we believe that your unique talents can bring us all forward. Volunteers are always needed and welcome! If you would like to volunteer for any of our committees or events, please contact the RMAG office at (303) 5738621 or staff@rmag.org

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

2016 RMAG SPORTING CLAY TOURNAMENT

Our industry has had a really tough past year. We need to come together now more than ever and have some fun! The Fourth Annual RMAG Sporting Clay Tournament will be held at the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club on September 22, 2016. Everyone is invited to this event, RMAG members and non-members. We call this a tournament, and there is a competitive aspect to it, but the goal is to have fun and network with your fellow industry people. We hope to get a mix of first-time shooters and experienced shooters. Beginner lady shooters, by the way, tend to do pretty well at shooting clays. If you do not own a shotgun, that’s not a problem, you can rent one at the event for $20. You could also share a shotgun with someone on your team. For those that are unfamiliar with sporting clay shooting, you will be in a team of five shooters with mixed experience levels in shooting. Your goal is to rotate through 12 different shooting stations and shoot as many of the bright orange disks that are thrown on your turn. It’s a real-life video game set in the beautiful outdoors of Colorado. Get your team together this summer and practice before the September shoot. Below is a list of courses you can practice at. There are three sporting clay courses in the Denver area that are open to the public, each course is about a one-hour drive from Downtown Denver. The typical cost to shoot 100 rounds is about $45, plus the cost of the shotgun shells.

SPORTING CLAY COURSES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC (FOR PRACTICE): • Kiowa Creek: www.kiowacreek.com • Colorado Clays: www.coloradoclays.com • Quail Run: www.quailruncolorado.com

To register for the event or to become a sponsor, go to the RMAG website (www.RMAG.org), or you can volunteer to help at the event by calling Carrie Veatch at the RMAG office at 303-573-8621. OUTCROP | July 2016

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!

is a student at the University of Oklahoma in Lexington, Oklahoma.

Justin Ahern

is a student at the University of Nebraska.

Treasure Bailley works at US EPA in Denver, Colorado.

Shanna Bauer lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Scyller Borglum

is a student at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Andrew Canada is a student at the University of Idaho.

Ian Cox

is a student in Littleton, Colorado.

Brandon Crawford

is a student at the University of Idaho in Pocatello, Idaho.

Ryan Creitz

is a student at New Mexico State University in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

Gayln Adams

Victoria Crystal

is a student at the University of Colorado.

Laura Cuccio

is a student at Utah State in Logan, Utah.

William Duckworth

is a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Subsurface Consultants & Associates, LLC Presents:

Applied Subsurface Geological Mapping

Coming to Denver August 1-5, 2016 Hosted by Noble Energy

Tom Evans

works at Western Geosciences in Mina, Nevada.

David Evans

is a Chief Operating Officer at Elk Petroleum in Sydney, Australia.

Sarah Evans

is a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Joao C. Luna Gonzalez is a student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Jennifer Graf

is a Geologist at Encana Oil and Gas USA in Evergreen, Colorado.

Grace Guryan

is a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 36 35

• This course covers both fundamental and advanced methods of subsurface mapping • Subsurface geologic maps are the most important and widely used documents in petroleum exploration and development • Mapping techniques, examples and exercises for extensional and compressional tectonic settings are the core of the course

OUTCROP | July 2016

WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!

Rachel Havranek

is a student at University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado.

Fischer Hazen

is a student at Colorado College in Placerville, Colorado.

Garth Hesseltine is a student at Utah State in Logan, Utah.

DeAnna Lauren

is a student at CSU in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Steven Levesque

is a student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Caleb Lewis

is a Fossil preparator/ molding/casting at Triebold Paleontology, Inc. in Pueblo, Colorado.

Stephen Luthy

is a Consultant at Vision Geoscience Consulting, LLC. in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Zoe Lyman

lives in Westminster, Colorado.

Edward Matheson

is a student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. OUTCROP | July 2016

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35

James Mauch is a student.

Alexie Millikin

is a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

James Mize

is a student at University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Cole Mount

is a student at WPX Energy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ryan Nostrud

is a Regional Account Manager at Horizon Well Logging/Excellence Logging in Yukon, Oklahoma.

Andrew Peterson

is the President at Peterson Energy Operating, Inc. in Loveland, Colorado.

Andrew Pfeiffer

is a student at Northwestern University.

Erica Ragland

is a GIT at Bureau Veritas North America, Inc. in Denver, Colorado.

Andrew Reisdorf

is a student at CO School of Mines in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 41

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

9/22/2016

The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

port i n g

lay

ourna me nt

At Kiowa Creek Sporting Club

Registration & sponsorship opens August 1, 2016. 5 Person Team Member: $425 5 Person Team Non-member: $500

Individual Member: $85 Individual Non-member: $100

37 t

910 Street Denver, CO, 80202 Vol. 16th 65, No. 7 |#1214, www.rmag.org

rting Cl po

phone: 303.573.8621

Does not include ammunition (please bring enough ammo for 100 clays or you may purchase ammo at Kiowa Creek). You may also rent a gun for $20 onsite.

email: staďŹ&#x20AC;@rmag.org

Prizes for individual high score and team 1st, 2nd and 3rd ďŹ&#x201A;ights. Includes one round of 100 sporting clays, lunch, and door prizes.

na me

fax: 303.476.2241

web: www.rmag.org

follow: @rmagdenver OUTCROP | July 2016

ON THE ROCKS

FIELD TRIPS JULY 23

Tertiary Geology Of The Southwestern Denver Basin Cherokee Ranch, Sedalia, CO On Saturday July 23, join us for a day of hiking through the Paleocene-Eocene geology on the Cherokee Ranch near Sedalia, CO. We will start at the “Castle” (Tweet Kimball’s former residence) at 9 am and do an all-day 2-mile loop hike from the Castle Rock Conglomerate down stratigraphically through the 55 million year-old Paleocene Petrified Forest, with stops along the way to examine outcrops and archeological sites. We will finish around 3 p.m. Al Koch, Director of the Cherokee Ranch Science

Institute, will lead the trip, along with colleagues who are experts in aspects of the sites that we will visit. The Cherokee Ranch is a limited-access area owned and managed by the non-profit Cherokee Castle and Ranch Foundation. It occupies 3400 acres of protected wildlife sanctuary in Douglas County, and at the Castle on the ridge-top, has a 200-mile panorama of the Front Range. We are fortunate to have a day truly “on the rocks” at this nearly pristine venue. Limit: 30 people.

Cherokee Ranch, Sedalia, CO

OUTCROP | July 2016

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

Thank you

Golf

Tournament

For attending the 2016 RMAG Golf Tournament.

Results 1st Place Top Flight: 58 Wesley Ingram Scott Hampton John Roesink James Spiers 1st Place Second Flight: 66 Chris Pulec Jason Anderson Dan Moore Kelly Bruchez

Thank you volunteers and committee members! Volunteers Roger Reinmiller Kurt Reisser Annika Otness Mick Domick Matt Romero Ryan Kowalski Bret Gunneson Kathy Maher Kristine Mize-Spansky Carlos Jimenez Jaime Jimenez Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org KC Oren 39

Committee Brandon Sejera James Spiers Gerald Brummett Terry Donze Terry Elzi Liz Arthur Caroline Charles Kim Roberts Rachel Socking Olson Gabe Aguilar Matt Silverman OUTCROP | Tracey Brummett

July 2016

Thank you

Golf

Tournament

2016 RMAG Golf Sponsors! Meal Sponsors

Steven Kirkwood Driving Range Sponsor

Susan Spancers Insurance & Investments

Putting Green Sponsor

Hole Sponsors

ZEP Consulting LLC., PWT (Paciﬁc Western Technologies)

Bag Item Sponsor

Door Prize Sponsors City Park Golf Course Denver Earth Resource Library Lime OUTCROP | July 2016

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!

Amy Rice

Jack Wiener

Matthew Sparacino

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 36

is a student at CSU in Fort Collins, Colorado.

is a Chief Technical Advisor at Halliburton in Denver, Colorado.

is a student in Broomfield, Colorado.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines in Lakewood, Colorado.

Daniel Scott

is a Geophysicist at Halliburton in Denver, Colorado.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

is a Senior Advisor at Anadarko Petroleum in Littleton, Colorado.

is a student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

Kevin Staggs

Kurt Rudolph

lives in Houston, Texas.

Elizabeth Wilson

Meagan Stephens

is a student.

Keith Shanley

Rebekah Simon

Tim Wyatt

Venessa Swenton

Jingqi Xu

Leiaka Welcome

is a student at the University of Colorado in Northglenn, Colorado.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

RMAG FOUNDATION

2013-14 +

SCHOLARSHIPS CONTRIBUTIONS

McKenna Fund

Babcock Fund

Stone/Holberg Fund

CSU Fund Bolyard Fund

Veterans Fund

Colorado School of Mines

Colorado College

SCHOLARSHIPS CU Boulder

Rocky Mtn region Universities awarded to veterans attending Rocky Mtn Region Universities

University of WY Fund

AAPG - Imperial Barrel

Morrison Natural History

AAPG Student Leadership

PTTC Futures in Energy

Friend of Dinosaur Ridge

Denver Public Schools

Rocky Mtn Section Rocky Mtn Section

Inner City School attendance Rocky Mtn Section mineral sets

Golden Pick Award RMAG

Guidebook contribution AAPG Sectional meeting Rockbuster Ball awards

Studying Rocky Mtn Structural Geology Golden

Foster

Studying Rocky Mtn Geology

RMAG Student Summit sponsor CO Science Teacher of the Year CO State Science Fair winners

CONTRIBUTIONS

Contibutions can be made at https://www.rmag.org/i4a/ams/publicLogin.cfm for RMAG members RMAG Foundation | 910 16th Street Mall, Suite 1214 | Denver, CO 80202

NEWS FROM THE RMAG FOUNDATION

Changes To The Board, New Initiatives new Chair. She and continuing Trustees, Marla Kula (Treasurer), Mitchell Reynolds and Ryan Kowalski, welcome two new Trustees, Donna Anderson and Kurt Reisser. The first order of business is to create a new stand-alone website for the Foundation. Other initiatives include a fall event to thank the major donors, an in-depth analysis of the Foundation finances, a review of tax-exempt compliance rules, and more frequent news regarding the work of the Foundation.

There have been some changes in the Board composition of the Foundation. Phil Moffitt stepped down as Chair and Treasurer, having given six years of service to the Foundation. Hal Macartney and Steve Sonnenberg have left the Board after five years of service. Please thank for the wonderful work they did to grow the Foundation’s assets and distribute many more geoscience scholarships. Beginning in May, Laura Wray has become the

CALLING ALL RMAG MEMBERS

3D Seismic Symposium Committee Seeks Members

KES T

OSCIENCE L GE , LL RE

RMAG office downtown Denver from 12-1. We’ll start planning the 2017 meeting in August. For more information, please contact Kim Alanis (kkaiser06@msn.com), Cambrey Cammon (cambrey@mightyseismic.com) or Angie Southcott (angiesouthcott@hotmail.com). If you are interested in the helping with the committee or perhaps presenting your work at the 2017 meeting, please let us know. Many thanks to all who have participated over the years in continuing to make the 3D Seismic Symposium one of the premier geoscience meetings in Denver.

Want to get more involved in the Denver geoscience community? The 3D Seismic Symposium committee is actively seeking new committee members and in particular, are looking for creative, hardworking and engaged GEOLOGISTS to help plan and execute the meeting. 2017 will mark the 23rd Annual RMAG/DGS 3D Symposium. Committee members help with the search for cutting-edge papers, selecting the technical program and soliciting sponsorship. We meet the 2nd Tuesday of the month at the

Thomas E. Hoak, Ph.D. Consulting Geoscientist Kestrel Geoscience, LLC

Structural Geology Seismic Interpretation Magnetic and Gravity Interpretation Basin Analysis and Restoration Regional Desk Studies Integrated Exploration Prospect Generation Presentation Graphics

OUTCROP | July 2016

Littleton, CO USA

Phone: (303) 933-5805 Cell: (720) 375-3015 kestrelco@comcast.net kestrelgeoscience.com

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

RMAG Foundation Holds April Meeting, Awards Scholarships Scholarship winners at the April 6, 2016 lunch meeting: Back row from left to right: Scyller Borglum (Babcock Scholarship); Fischer Hazen (McKenna Scholarship at Colo. College); Steven Levesque (Veterans Scholarship at New Mexico State). Front row from left to right: Cody Duckworth (McKenna Scholarship at Colo. College); Alexandra Racosky (CSU Scholarship); Elizabeth Wilson (StoneHollberg Scholarship at CSM). Scholarship winners not in attendance: Edward Matheson(Babcock Scholarship at Univ. of Nebraska); Gayln Adams (Veterans Scholarship at Univ. of Oklahoma); Alexander Cheney (CSM Scholarship); Derek Weller (Bolyard Scholarship at CU); Andrew Canada (Foster Scholarship at Univ. of Idaho); Rebekah Simon (Foster Scholarship at CU). Trustees at the April 6, 2016 lunch meeting; Back row from left to right: Mitchell Reynolds, Phil Moffitt and Hal Macartney. Front row from left to right: Marla Kula, Laura Wray and Ryan Kowalski.

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016

AAPG Pacific & Rocky Mountain Sections Meeting Oct 2-5, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada

OUTCROP | July 2016

Core Research Center in September, the conference will present RMAG’s Hot Plays of the Rockies. Other sessions will include round table discussions on topics specific to the environmental and governmental oversight and regulations we encounter here in the Rockies, as well as a special presentation focused on addressing challenges Independents face under low oil and gas price conditions. Fieldtrips include visits to great locations such as Megabreccias of the Basin-Range Province, Structural Geology and Oil Field Traps of the Western and Southern Margins of the San Joaquin Basin, Geology of the Mojave Desert National Preserve, Geology of Utah’s West Desert, Geology of the Paria Wilderness Area in Utah, a Dakota Formation field seminar, Geology of Death Valley national Park, and a special Student and YP fieldtrip looking at PlayBased Exploration in the Spring Mountains. Superb Short Courses round out this expansive and enriched program. They include Discovery and Recovery Thinking in Unconventionals, Intro to GIS, aLog Normalization, Deepwater Reservoirs, a student course on Sequence Stratigraphy, and a Teacher’s Workshop. Find the details of technical programs, registration to the conference, short courses, and field trips, along with hotel and travel information at www.psaapg.org/2016convention. Please consider accepting this extended invitation to attend this unique and exciting event. — Cat Campbell President, AAPG Rocky Mountain Section

As a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologist, you are officially invited. The Rocky Mountain Section of the AAPG and the Technical Committee of the 2016 Joint AAPG PS/RMS Conference invite you, the members of the RMAG, to attend this unique and exciting event. Unique in that this is the first joint meeting between these two Sections of the AAPG and exciting per the scope of the technical content and venue of the event, Las Vegas, Nevada. This conference, encompassing exploration and development topics over the vast geography of both sections, is looking for attendees to experience “New Plays, New Ways, and New Days” from an exceptional program. Conference themes include Frontier Exploration in the Rockies, Redevelopment of Old Fields (Finding the Green in Brownfields), Unconventionals (West of the Mississippi River), Sedimentology and Stratigraphy (Lacustrine to Deepwater Reservoirs), New Insight in Pacific Exploration, Geophysics and Petrophysics (From Basins to Pores), Structure and Tectonics (New Perspectives and Challenges), Energy and the Environment (Regulations and Water Issues), and Geothermal, Hydrothermal and Uranium Resources. Truly something of interest and an opportunity for further education for every Rocky Mountain geoscientist. Special breakout sessions (Jackpot Sessions of course) are focused on specific topics central to both Sections and the conference location. They include Basin-and Range Province (Strategies for Challenging Conditions), Source Rock Investigations, Mountains to Abyss (California Borderland as Archive of Geologic Evolution), Alaska (Developments in Exploration and Production), and to compliment RMAG’s Hot Plays Symposium at the USGS

— Steven Veal Technical Program Co-Chair (Rocky Mountains), 2016 AAPG PS/RMS Joint Conference

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

DIG & RMAG

Breakfast Seminar This course is open to all RMAG members. If you are not a member, this would be another great reason to join. Dolan Integration Group (DIG) oﬀers this introductory content to those geologists (and engineers) who are interested in knowing more about a very important aspect of unconventional evaluation. Whether you are employed, looking, or just want to know more about geochemistry, join us for this 90 minute Breakfast Seminar. Join RMAG, there are six Breakfast Seminars in this series, we would love to have you join us for all six!

$15 per class Discount for attending all 6 classes 7:30am - 9:00am Breakfast is included Registration opens July 5, 2016 August

August

Introduction to the Geochemistry of Organic Rich Source Rocks Location: Whiting Petroleum

Introduction to the Geochemistry of Oils Location: Whiting Petroleum Introduction to the Geochemistry of Oil-associated Gases Location: Encana

email: staﬀ@rmag.org

phone: 303.573.8621

Vol. No. 7 | #1214, www.rmag.org 91065, 16th Street Denver, CO, 80202

August

Introduction to the Geochemistry of Environmental Forensics from a Petroleum Systems Perspective Location: Encana

August

The Thermal Maturity of Rocks, Oils and Gases and Integration of Maturity Information into Geologic and Engineering Workﬂows

23 30 Sept.

Location: QEP Resources

Integrating Geochemistry into the Exploration, Development, Production and Environmental Workﬂows of Unconventional Resource Plays

Location: QEP Resources

fax: 303.476.2241 45

web: www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | July 2016 follow: @rmagdenver

CALENDAR | JULY 2016 SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

6 RMAG Luncheon. Speaker Dr. Harry Rowe

INDEPENDENCE DAY RMAG office closed

WEDNESDAY

13 PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Jeff May.

RMAG On the Rocks Field Trip.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Talib Syed.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Jennifer Miskimins.

Oilfield Christian Fellowship.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Luis Zerpa.

IN THE PIPELINE JULY 28, 2016

JULY 25, 2016

JULY 6, 2016 RMAG Luncheon. Speaker Dr. Harry Rowe “Handheld XRF Applications to Mudrock Chemostratigraphy: Methods, Pitfalls, and Examples.” Maggiano’s Little Italy, Downtown Denver.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Talib Syed. “Cementing- Fundamentals and Current Overview.” CSM, Golden, CO.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Luis Zerpa. “Reservoir Engineering for Petroleum Professionals.” CSM, Golden, CO.

JULY 26-27, 2016

AUGUST 3, 2016

JULY 12-14, 2016

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Jennifer Miskimins. “Hydraulic Fracturing in Horizontal Wells.” CSM, Golden, CO.

RMAG Luncheon. Speaker Deb Sacrey. “Using Seismic Attributes for E&P.” Maggiano’s Little Italy, Downtown Denver.

JULY 27, 2016

AUGUST 5, 2016

Oilfield Christian Fellowship. For reservations, RSVP to OCFdenver@gmail.com or 303258-6401.

RMAG On the Rocks Field Trip. Tour of USGS Ice Core Facility.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Jeff May. “WellLog Sequence Stratigraphy: Applications to Sandstones and Shales.” CSM, Golden, CO. JULY 23, 2016 RMAG On the Rocks Field Trip. Leader Al Koch. “Tertiary Stratigraphy on Cherokee Ranch.” Sedalia, CO. OUTCROP | July 2016

AUGUST 14-15, 2016 Enercom Oil & Gas Conference

Vol. 65, No. 7 | www.rmag.org

ADVERTISER INDEX • AAPG �� 7 • Columbine Logging �� 15 • Daub & Associates, LLC �� 18 • Décollement Consulting, Inc. �� 9 • Discovery Group, Inc. (The) �� 36 • Donovan Brothers Inc. �� 26 • Enerplus �� 16 • Eureka Geological Consulting, LLC �� 17 • Geokinetics �� 18 • Geo Link �� 11 • GeoMark �� 27 • GeoSteering �� 13 • Horizontal Solutions Intl. (HSI) �� 12 • JLog® Petrophysical Software �� 6 • Johnson Geo-Consulting, LLC �� 6 • Kestrel Geoscience, LLC �� 42 • Lario Oil & Gas Company �� 11

• Louis J. Mazzullo, LLC �� 42 • Mineral Appraiser, LLC �� 6 • MJ Systems �� 10 • Neil H. Whitehead, III �� 26 • PTTC �� 4 • QEP Resources �� 19 • Sinclair Petroleum Engineering, Inc. �� 26 • SM Energy �� 22 • Spancers & Associates �� 6 • Stephens Production Company �� 33 • Stoner Engineering (SES) �� 30 • Subsurface Consultants & Associates, LLC �� 35 • Sunburst Consulting �� 19 • Tracker Resource Development LLC �� 12 • Whiting Petroleum Corporation �� 21 • Yates Petroleum Corporation �� 15

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OUTCROP | July 2016