June 2016 Outcrop by The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Volume 65 • No. 6 • June 2016

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OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | 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 38. 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. 6 | www.rmag.org 3 www.rmag.org 3

OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

CONTENTS FEATURES

ASSOCIATION NEWS

24 Have You Been To The Wall?

2 RMAG 2016 Summit Sponsors

30 Lead Story: NASA Study Solves Two Mysteries About Wobbling Earth

21 RMAG 2016 Publications Sale!

DEPARTMENTS

23 RMAG Fall ‘Hot Plays’ Symposium: Call For Papers

6 RMAG April 2016 Board Of Directors Meeting

25 Colorado Science And Engineering Fair

8 President’s Letter

27 OTR 2016 Field Trips

20 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Michael Leibovitz

29 Rockbusters Ball

COVER PHOTO

33 RMAG Golf Tournament 2016

26 In The Pipeline

35 RMAG Mentorship Program

Earth does not always spin on an axis running through its poles. Instead, it wobbles irregularly over time, drifting toward North America throughout most of the 20th Century. That direction has changed drastically due to changes in water mass on Earth.

28 Welcome New RMAG Members!

37 RMAG Foundation

Photo credit: pio3/shutterstock.com

22 RMAG Luncheon Programs: Dr. Harry Rowe

38 Calendar 38 Outcrop Advertising Rates 39 Advertiser Index

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

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

Lon Abbott, a Geological Sciences Advisor in the CU Geological Sciences department, led the trip entitled “The Enigma That is the Colorado Rockies.” These popular field trips continue throughout the summer. Keep an eye on the RMAG website for future field trip announcements and register early! The 2016 RMAG Fall ‘Hot Plays’ Symposium is scheduled for September 15, and includes a 1 and 2 man Mudlogging Summit full day of presentations and core displays. The Gas Referencing™ Geosteering Mudlogging technical session and accompanying core workServices shop is focused on successful onshore North American operationsMike during a challenging comBarber Manager modity-price schedule. Register early, because Serving the Rocky Mountain Region attendance for this event will be very limited. It will be held Research 230 Airport Rd. this year at the USGS Core Ph (435)657-0586 Unit D Cell (435)640-1382 Center. details areemail: available on the RMAG Heber City, More Utah 84032 mbarber@summitmudlog.com www.summitmudlog.com website. The abstract deadline is Wednesday, June 22.

The March meeting of the RMAG Board of Directors took place on April 20, 2016 at 4 p.m. Tom Sperr, RMAG treasurer reported another good month for RMAG financially. We continue to have great speakers with excellent topics at the RMAG luncheons, and the March luncheon was no exception. The RMAG Continuing Education Committee is working on filling remaining 2016 and early 2017 speaker slots, so please contact Chris Eisinger (chris.eisinger@state. co.us) if you have suggestions for speakers. Be sure to check out the RMAG website this month! We have some exciting upcoming events, but the RMAG is also having a huge summer publication sale that started May 2 and runs through June 30. Members receive 50% off of select digital and tangible publications. The first 2016 On the Rocks field trip was scheduled for May 21, and it sold out quickly.

Neil H. Whitehead, III Consulting Geologist PhD

CPG-AIPG

PG WY

Rocky Mountain Basins Wellsite to Petroleum Systems ArcGIS 303-679-8573

fax 303-679-8574

31634 Black Widow Way

KES T

OSCIENCE L GE , LL RE

Conifer, CO

neil3@q.com 80433-9610

OUTCROP SINCLAIR

Thomas E. Hoak, Ph.D. Consulting Geoscientist

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Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER By John Ladd

Hutton’s Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland

Disseminating Geological Truth

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deserves the title of the father of geology as much as anyone else. Probably his greatest contribution to the development of the science was his theory of uniformitarianism, meaning that small events that are frequently observed, such as the erosion of stream banks during floods, the shifting of dunes during windstorms, or movement on faults during earthquakes, can produce, given enough repetitions and time, the landforms and rock deposits that we observe in the present. He originally presented his ideas in 1795 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh but

No, I haven’t developed a sudden case of vanity where I feel compelled to post pictures of myself from a time before my hair turned grey. Quite the contrary. If you knew anything about my gene pool, you would understand why I am overjoyed to have any hair at all at this stage in my life, no matter what the color. The reason for using this photo is that my visit to Hutton’s Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland nicely illustrates a point I want to make in this column and it just so happens that the one time I visited there was in 1998. Hutton’s Unconformity refers to James Hutton, of course, the man who

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then spent parts of the next few years looking for good examples in the rock record to support his theory. In 1798, he got funding to hire a boat to take him along the coast line east of Edinburgh in order to study the outcrops exposed in the sea cliffs along the shore. Upon sailing into the cove formed by Siccar Point, he realized he had found his spot. The layering in the light grey rocks you can see in the photo at the base of the cliff, mostly greywacke with minor mudstone, is highly contorted and often standing on end, yet bedding surfaces often have ripple marks, suggesting the rock was deposited by flowing water and was presumably flat-lying when it was originally deposited. In contrast, the red rock above it, the Old Red Sandstone, is flat-lying and undeformed. The contact between the two formations is rough. Resistant greywacke layers stick up into the overlying rock, while depressions in the surface formed where the soft mudstone is present. Immediately above the contact is a layer of conglomerate that has clasts of the greywacke and above that are layers of more uniform sandstone. Beyond the left side of the photo, the whole section is offset by a near vertical fault. Not only had Hutton discovered some great evidence to support his theory, but more fundamentally, there was incontrovertible evidence that the earth has a history, that even in one small sea cliff, there were signs of multiple independent events that must have taken a huge amount of time to produce, totally in conflict with the prevailing

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President’s Letter towns mentioned in the guide book. Although there were a few small roads leading down to the shore, there were no signs or other indications of where the point might be. After some fruitless wandering along country lanes, we ended up in the other town, which turned out to have a beautiful old stone harbor as well as the birthplace of John Muir, so we paid our 5 Pounds and went through the museum in his house, then drove back to Edinburgh. During the next dozen years before I visited him there again, I uncovered some detailed instructions on how to get to Siccar Point which I brought with me on the return trip. There was another rare sunny day and he was agreeable to giving it another try. The directions were accurate, and we found a narrow, unsigned country lane leading off the coast road at exactly the correct mileage point. We drove down it for a mile or so across fields and then made a sharp turn into a grove of trees and almost immediately ended up in the court yard of an old farm. As we were now obviously on private land, I thought it wise to stop

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wisdom of the time that the earth was 6000 years old and that all rocks had been deposited in one big flood. In a sense, he had discovered the concept of time as something of huge duration. Given the Brits’ general habit of turning just about every castle, Roman ruin, stone circle or famous person’s birthplace into a national historic site, you would have thought that Siccar Point would be an official tourist site complete with a well-signed access road, interpretive signs and at least a 5 Pound admission fee. But when I first tried to go there in 1986 the only information I could find about it was a brief mention in a Scottish tourist guide that I had brought with me saying that it was located on the coast between two small towns. I was visiting my brother, who had recently moved to Edinburgh, and we agreed it would be an interesting way to spend a rare sunny Sunday afternoon driving out there to look for the site. We drove along the coast road until we got past the first of the two

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and ask for permission to proceed. I have had enough unpleasant experiences in the past while doing fieldwork trying to get permission to get on someone’s property, that I am always a little nervous when I approach some stranger’s house in the country, and being in a foreign land made it even more so. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. I had barely gotten out of my car when the farmer came out of his barn. Like most Scots who walk in the country, he had on knee high rubber boots to protect him from the ubiquitous mud, but underneath them was a tweed suit. He was even wearing a tie! I was definitely not in Kansas anymore. I introduced myself and told him why I wanted to pass through, as if he didn’t already know. His first response was to ask me where I was from and who I worked for. He seemed a little disappointed at my answer. “I get quite a few of you from Colorado stopping by here. This week there were groups from Russia and Japan.” I could imagine that he had a wall map of the world mounted on cork board in his house and he would stick push pins into the spots where every visitor had come from. There were probably too many pins stuck in and around Denver for him to add anymore. He started giving me a description of Hutton’s voyage along the coast, including details of the ship that he sailed on, and then asked me if I knew what else he accomplished in life. Fortunately, I did know he was responsible for debunking the idea of the Neptunists that all crystalline rocks

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formed by crystals coming out of solution from seawater, and he demonstrated, in an outcrop in Edinburgh itself, that they were originally molten magma that slowly crystallized into solid rock. But that wasn’t the answer he wanted, Instead I got a five minute lecture on all of his other achievements in life, including in the field of medicine and chemistry as well as his involvement in building a canal that cut across the Scottish lowlands between Edinburgh and Glasgow. After he was done with his lecture, he gave me some quick directions on where to park and how to proceed to the outcrop, before finishing up with that universal command of farmers and ranchers world-wide. “Be sure to close any gate you open after you pass through.” As we walked from the road end down to the shore and along the beach to the outcrop, I expressed my amazement to my brother that a farmer would know all this detailed history about a scientist who had died 200 years ago. He assured me that this was quite normal. The British, he said, do a really good job of giving every student a basic knowledge of history, literature and science, even if they go no further than high school. I wondered to myself, what if I spent a Sunday afternoon wandering through the Cherry Creek Mall asking random people if they knew who James Hutton was? Would I find a single person who knew of him before the security guards got suspicious of me and escorted me out of the mall? I thought of this story because

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Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

Workshops to Improve Your Skills Tectonics of the Rocky Mountain Region

Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 8:30 am – 5 pm. Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall rm. 243 Fee: $250, includes food at breaks, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Dr. Bruce Trudgill, Colorado School of Mines This one day short course will review the tectonic framework and history of the Rocky Mountain region. It will begin with a short review of tectonostratigraphic analysis and tectonic maps. The tectonic analysis will begin at the bottom of the geologic column with a brief discussion of the basement underpinnings of the region and Lower Palaeozoic cratonic-shelf setting. These shelfal deposits are variably preserved in the region but in some areas provide hydrocarbon reservoirs. This cratonicshelf was interrupted by crustal-scale intra-plate deformation in the late Palaeozoic, that resulted in widespread development of the Greater Ancestral Rocky Mountains. The uplifts produced arkosic sediments surrounding localized evaporite basins, but the voluminous Late Paleozoic sands are from a distal source. The early Mesozoic represents a return to the stable cratonicshelf that, in late Jurassic, begins to reflect orogeny to the west. Data support the presence of a low-dipping subduction zone along the western plate margin that resulted in crustal shortening and the development of the Cordilleran thrust belt and the basement-cored 'Laramide' Rocky Mountain uplifts and basins. Hydrocarbons, generated by the earliest subsidence related to thrusting began migrating toward the craton, only to be captured by the Laramide structures. Erosion of the uplifts filled the adjoining basins to spill-points. Cenozoic regional uplift (in places related to rifting) or climate changes have resulted in exhumation of the basins. This process is continuing today and was accelerated during the Pleistocene glacial event.

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. • Analyze and subdivide stratigraphic successions from well logs into packages of increasing or decreasing accommodation and identify chronostratigraphically significant surfaces. • Examine the pitfalls of lithostratigraphic vs. chronostratigraphic well-log correlations. • 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.

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 Class Descriptions and Register Online: www.pttcrockies.org

For more information, contact Mary Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org 13 Carr, 303.273.3107, mcarr@mines.edu OUTCROP | June 2016

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

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it is a presidential election year and politics and political issues seem to be on everyone’s mind. Although issues involving a basic knowledge of geology are not the biggest issues of the campaign, there are a few that do involve it and related sciences. The eventual resolution of some of these issues will have an outsized impact on natural resource businesses, and unfortunately, scientific ignorance on a large part of our population makes them easy prey for folks who might want promote anti-industry positions. I will focus on two of them. Before I proceed, two caveats. First, the RMAG is a 501c(3) organization and thus is prohibited by IRS regulations from engaging in lobbying as a primary activity. The opinions expressed in this column are mine only and do not represent official RMAG positions. However, as Article I of our by-laws clearly states, one of the objectives and purposes of this organization is to “disseminate geologic information.” When people in government, politicians running for office, or advocacy groups disseminate information that appears to be ignorant of geologic principles, it is well within our bounds to point out the discrepancy between what they say and reality. Second, one of the two issues I will use as examples has become incorporated into the presidential debates, with those ignoring geology all belonging to the same political party. Personally, I have major philosophical differences with both major parties; I am not advocating you vote

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for the candidates of either one. The best case scenario in my opinion, given the five candidates that remain while I am writing this, is that we once again end up with divided government, thus keeping the bases of both parties in check. Ignorance about geology is abundant in the debate about fracing, which received much attention in the run up to the primary in New York, where a state-wide ban on fracing was instituted a few years ago. Among RMAG members, there are a wide range of views about climate change and what we should do about mitigating it. However I assume every member sees that the movement to instill fear in the general public about fracing is a purely bogus one and that the only real purpose of those behind it is to make it impossible to drill for oil and gas in the United States, outside of a few select areas such as the Gulf of Mexico. The EIA has recently come out with the interesting statistic that 4.3 MMBO/D of domestic oil production in 2015, or almost 50% of the total, came from frac’d wells, compared to only 102 MBO/D, or 2% in the year 2000. I suspect that the percentage of gas coming from frac’d wells is even higher. Thus if your goal is to stop the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, it might make sense to convince the public that oil companies are contaminating our ground water by fracing wells. However, if the vast majority of citizens had at least a basic knowledge of geology, would the politicians be able to get away with spreading what really is just the big lie? Imagine

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taking a poll of a large cross section of our population in regards to their geologic knowledge. How many would know that oil is found almost exclusively in sedimentary rocks? I may be wildly optimistic, but maybe it would be over 50%. But how many would know that sedimentary rocks are deposited in layers? That they accumulate in basins as a series of layers? That each layer has different mechanical properties, some brittle and some more ductile and that when a fracture is initiated in a brittle layer and then travels up to the interface with a ductile layer that it usually stops? How many people would know that the vast percentage of oil wells produce from rock that is at depths of 5000’ or greater yet fresh ground water sits as a thin layer, usually no more than 1000’ thick, on top of a vast pool of salt water-saturated rock? Or how about that oil is only found in certain layers sandwiched in between salt water-bearing layers, so we in industry expend huge amounts of capital and brainpower trying to force the fracs to stay within those oil-bearing layers? And how after getting back the results of frac modeling or microseismic surveys, we bemoan the fact that we only get a few hundred feet of effective frac growth in a typical unconventional or tight sand play? How could that possibly affect the fresh water supplies when there is at least 4000’ separating the fracs from the water? The other issue I’ll mention here is of a more local manner, mainly the set back of wells from

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houses and schools in Colorado. There are numerous proposals for citizens’ initiatives that may or may not make it onto the ballot in November regarding this. The Denver Post published an article supporting these initiatives on March 20th, written by State Representative Mike Foote and entitled “Treat oil, gas like other industries.” His basic thesis is that every other industry in the state is subject to local zoning rules that require the placement of industrial facilities only in areas which are zoned commercial or industrial. Therefore, the oil and gas industry should be treated the same way, required to place their wells only in areas zoned for industry. Of course, large portions of the western and southern parts of the Wattenberg Field now lie within the incorporated limits of various suburban towns, all with zoning rules, and filled either with completed or planned housing developments. The portions of these towns that are zoned for industrial purposes is probably minimal. Consider if you had bought a 40-acre tract of land to build a factory on adjacent to one of those towns and then they annexed your land into their incorporated boundaries and zoned it for single family housing, perhaps to appease a builder who was planning to develop a subdivision on an adjacent tract. You would presumably file suit and undoubtedly win a judgement whereby either you would be permitted to build the factory or the town or developer would be forced to buy the land and pay you a sum to compensate

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President’s Letter for the lost business opportunity. I am sure Representative Foote understands this. But many of the suburbs that are sprouting up north of Denver are being built on land that has been producing oil and gas for at least 25 years. The leases are HBP by old vertical wells but are now prime acreage to develop with horizontal wells. Somebody paid good money for those leases in the 1980’s and now they or their successors are fortunate to own leases that are worth even more because we have figure out ways to extract large additional amounts of oil out of them thanks to horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracs. If the lessors can’t spud a well on or anywhere near the lease, they can’t develop the minerals, so suddenly the leases are worthless. How is this situation different than the guy that bought the land to build a factory and now the zoning says he can’t? Does Rep. Foote think we can drill a well five miles from our lease and magically draw the oil across that distance into our well? Does he think we can economically drill a five mile lateral just to the edge of our lease and send out branches from there to develop our minerals? Is he going to suggest that the municipality that passed the zoning regulation pay for that extra five miles of lateral length? Or does he not understand that economic accumulations oil are only found in certain areas and that we have only limited leeway on where we can spot wells

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to drain those accumulations? It is always easier to point out problems than it is to come up with solutions, and all I have done here is do the first. However, as it is one of RMAG’s missions to disseminate geological information, I would be happy to entertain ideas on how we may do that more effectively, especially as it pertains to political issues of the day. Of course we always need to operate under the constraints of our tax status, but that does not require us to be silent. We have a Public Affairs Committee which has been active to varying degrees through the years. Maybe it is time to rejuvenate it. Alternatively, we have about 2000 members. If each one of you took the time on occasion to educate someone on one of these issues, maybe it would have an impact. And maybe we wouldn’t have to face the possibility of a presidential election between a candidate that wants to stop oil drilling in the US and one who… I think I better stop there or I’ll really get in trouble! By the way, since I visited Siccar Point 18 years ago, the Edinburgh Geological Society has arranged for a direct public access route. If you happen to be vacationing in Scotland and want to visit it without getting lost, the society has produced a downloadable brochure with directions on getting there and a description of the geology of the point. Google Siccar Point and it is one of the first sites listed.

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RMAG LUNCHEON PROGRAMS Speaker: Michael Leibovitz — June 1, 2016

Photo by Vladislav Gajic, Dreamstime.com

Kurdistan’s Exploration Frontier Past and Present By Michael Leibovitz

Kurdistan is a semi-autonomous area in northern Iraq that is part of the Zagros Fold Belt and shares a great deal of its geologic history with the greater Arabian Plate. Like much of the Arabian Plate, the petroleum system is robust and has hosted a number of discoveries and developments in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sections. Exploration in the Kurdish area of Iraq started in the early 20th century, but the campaign in the 1920s kicked off exploration and production across Iraq. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Kurdistan went against the central government of

Iraq’s wishes and conducted its own oil lease sales. Initially, only small independents entered the region while larger companies preferred to deal with the central government in southern Iraq. In the wake of these initial lease sales, a number of exploration wells were drilled and some significant discoveries were made. While Kurdistan shares elements of its geologic history with the rest of the Arabian Plate, significant differences have been observed that have implications for the region in terms of future development of these discoveries.

Michael Leibovitz is a Geologist for Caerus Oil and Gas LLC. He is currently responsible for Caerus Oil and Gas LLC’s asset in the Piceance Basin. Prior to returning to Denver in late 2014, Mike worked for Exxon Mobil for 5 years where he spent the bulk of his time working on Iraq and 3 years specifically dedicated to exploration in Kurdistan. OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

50% oﬀ

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Publications Sale! May 2 - June 30

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21 | www.rmag.org (303) 573-8621

OUTCROP | June 2016 @rmagdenver

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 | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | June 2016

MAIN IMAGE: West end of “Leadville’s Geologic Wonderland” mosaic showing the Grizzly caldera superposed on the metamorphic basement complex in the Sawatch Range. INSET: Townspeople (including the Mayor) in the early stages of constructing the cross section.

Have You Been to the Wall?

OUTCROP | June 2016

installation. Members of the Leadville Arts Coalition enthusiastically joined in the project. Members of the community were invited to participate in the installation, and many did. RMAG member, Vince Matthews, helped with the geologic details. The geology wall is just one more addition to the growing list of attractions in Leadville, e.g. National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, Tabor Opera House, Mineral Belt Trail (hiking, history, biking and Nordic skiing), multiple murals, as well as wonderful glacial and periglacial features. You can’t get to Leadville without traveling on the Top of the Rockies National Historic and Scenic Byway. Come on up. The scenery and geology are unparalleled.

Leadville has a new, mosaic mural celebrating Lake County’s “Geologic Wonderland”. This new artwork is along the south side of the County Building just off Harrison Avenue. The diagrammatic, cross section extends from the Continental Divide in the Mosquito Range to the Continental Divide in the Sawatch Range — northeast-southwest across the county. The section includes the Climax molybdenum mine, Leadville Historic Mining District, Rio Grande Rift, and ends at the Grizzly caldera just south of Independence Pass. The wall is the brainchild of Amanda Good, Intermediate School art teacher. She came up with the idea, obtained funding and tile donations, mixed the mosaic adhesive, and directed the

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

Colorado Science and Engineering Fair By Susan Wager I have been the RMAG Science Fair Committee Chair for over 25 years. It has been very enjoyable and I am glad to have had this opportunity. It is time to find someone to take over the committee leadership. I would like to have a transition next year; anyone who would be interested in joining the fair and then taking over next year, should email me at swager80228@ yahoo.com. It is a fun and rewarding experience.

The Colorado Science and Engineering Fair was held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, April 7-09 2016. Regional junior and senior high school winners from across Colorado participate in this event. The RMAG grants awards to exceptional projects in the earth sciences. Susan Wager represented the RMAG as Special Awards Judges. The RMAG awards Certificates of Excellence and a cash award of $250 from the RMAG Foundation to each of the winners. This year, the winners were: Logan Kilgroe (8th grade) for Tsunami!, Nathaniel Miner and Drake Ludgate (Team- 9th grade) for The Role of Temperature on Limnic Eruptions, and Jenna Salvat (9th grade) for Sediment Injectites in Fault Zone Areas: An Investigation of Sedimentological Characteristics. There were many fine projects and it is always a pleasure to interview the students and give them an opportunity to discuss their work. Congratulations to the all participants of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Colorado Science and Engineering Fair.

THE BOOK CLIFFS, UTAH: A CASE STUDY IN COASTAL SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

W.W. Little Geological Consulting, LLC 2016 Schedule 15-19 August 29 Aug â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 Sept By arrangement

$3500 Professional/$2500 Student Information and registration: http://littleww.wordpress.com wwlittle@gmail.com

Marty Hall

Program Development Manager Multi-Client Services

7765 Windwood Way P.O. Box 549 Parker, CO 80134 USA P: 720.851.6152 C: 303.885.8860

geokinetics.com marty.hall@geokinetics.com

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | June 2016

IN THE PIPELINE

JUNE 1-2, 2016 PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Bruce Trudgill. “Seismic Interpretation for Geoscientists.” CSM, Golden, CO. JUNE 7, 2016

“Making Geologic Sense of Pore-System Characterizations in Carbonate-Rich Mudrocks: Examples from the Niobrara Formation, DJ Basin.” Email Luncheons@rmssepm.org or call 720-272-6697.

JUNE 10, 2016

RMAG Luncheon. Speaker Michael Leibovitz. “Sandstone Injectites of the Colorado Front Range: Age, Regional Extent, Emplacement Mechanism, and Significance as a Fluid Migration Pathway.”

JUNE 1, 2016

DIPS Luncheon. Email aeglerd@ directpetroleum.com. Or call 303-285-9136. JUNE 22, 2016

RMAG Golf Tournament. City Park Golf Course, Denver, CO.

Oilfield Christian Fellowship. For reservations, RSVP to OCFdenver@gmail.com or 303-258-6401.

PTTC Rockies Short Course. Instructor Dr. Bruce Trudgill. “Tectonics of the Rocky Mountain Region.” CSM, Golden, CO.

Industry Happy Hour. 4:30pm at the Denver Athletic Club. Tickets are $10 and include one drink ticket and appetizers

JUNE 8, 2016

RMS-SEPM Luncheon. Speaker David Budd.

OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

Registration opens June 7th.

OTR 2016 Field Trips

Upcoming Field Trips July 23rd

Tour of Cherokee Ranch Tertiary stratigraphy on Cherokee Ranch near Sedalia Lead by Al Koch

August 5th (Half Day)

$20 - Professional $5 - Student

USGS Ice Core Facility and Paleo Collection Combined Tour Tour of Ice Core Facility run by USGS curator (90 minutes) Tour of USGS Fossil facility/collection USGS curator, Casey McKinney Includes tour of Bill Cobban's collection

September 10th

$5 - Unemployed

Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Fountain and Ingleside Formations, Boulder and Larimer Counties, CO Trip leader is John Webb, consulting geologist

phone: 303.573.8621

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OUTCROP | June 2016 follow: @rmagdenver

WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!

Michael Bowers

is a new RMAG member.

Rusty Mourning

is an Exploration Geologist at Mull Drilling Co. in Wichita, Kansas.

Chris Carroll

David Murray

is a Coal Geologist at the Wyoming State Geological Survey in Laramie, Wyoming.

is a Sr. Geologist in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

is a new RMAG member.

Travis Payeur Lives in Broomfield, Colorado.

is a new RMAG member.

is a Graduate Student at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

is a new RMAG member.

Byron Clayton Jaclyn Coulon

Travis Sullivan

Lauren Cross

Stacy Suppeland Drew Tatman

Robert Eaton

lives in Boulder, Colorado.

is a Business Development Manager at Columbine Logging in Denver, Colorado.

Steve Veal

is the President at DCX Resources in Denver, Colorado.

Ben Eppley

is a new RMAG member.

William Gutterman

MENTOR!

is an Undergrad Student in Boulder, Colorado.

Jess Heise

is a new RMAG member.

Jon Kell

is a new RMAG member.

Congratulations to all mentees and mentors who were accepted into the 2016 RMAG Mentorship Progam!

Ryan Lawrence

lives in Longmont, Colorado.

Click here for more information.

Lindsay Mota

is a new RMAG member. OUTCROP | June 2016

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R o c k b u s t e r s

B a l l

Night of the

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

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Rockbusters Ball

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LEAD STORY

Demystifing the Drift NASA Study Solves Two Mysteries About Wobbling Earth

For More Information About NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Earth Science Activities

Visit www.nasa.gov/earth

OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

Written by Carol Rasmussen, NASA Earth Science News Team

the reduced mass beneath that continent pulls the spin axis toward Canada at the rate of a few inches each year. But some motions are still puzzling.

Published April, 8, 2016 at http://www.nasa. gov/feature/nasa-study-solves-two-mysteriesabout-wobbling-earth

A SHARP TURN TO THE EAST

sing satellite data on how water moves around Earth, NASA scientists have solved two mysteries about wobbles in the planet’s rotation — one new and one more than a century old. The research may help improve our knowledge of past and future climate. Although a desktop globe always spins smoothly around the axis running through its north and south poles, a real planet wobbles. Earth’s spin axis drifts slowly around the poles; the farthest away it has wobbled since observations began is 37 feet (12 meters). These wobbles don’t affect our daily life, but they must be taken into account to get accurate results from GPS, Earth-observing satellites and observatories on the ground. In a paper published today in Science Advances, Surendra Adhikari and Erik Ivins of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, researched how the movement of water around the world contributes to Earth’s rotational wobbles. Earlier studies have pinpointed many connections between processes on Earth’s surface or interior and our planet’s wandering ways. For example, Earth’s mantle is still readjusting to the loss of ice on North America after the last ice age, and

Around the year 2000, Earth’s spin axis took an abrupt turn toward the east and is now drifting almost twice as fast as before, at a rate of almost 7 inches (17 centimeters) a year. “It’s no longer moving toward Hudson Bay, but instead toward the British Isles,” said Adhikari. “That’s a massive swing.” Adhikari and Ivins set out to explain this unexpected change. Scientists have suggested that the loss of mass from Greenland and Antarctica’s rapidly melting ice sheet could be causing the eastward shift of the spin axis. The JPL scientists assessed this idea using observations from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which provide a monthly record of changes in mass around Earth. Those changes are largely caused by movements of water through everyday processes such as accumulating snowpack and groundwater depletion. They calculated how much mass was involved in water cycling between Earth’s land areas and its oceans from 2003 to 2015, and the extent to which the mass losses and gains pulled and pushed on the spin axis. Adhikari and Ivins’ calculations showed that the changes in Greenland alone do not generate the gigantic amount of energy needed to pull the spin axis as far as it has shifted. In the Southern Hemisphere, ice mass loss from West Antarctica is pulling, and ice mass gain in East Antarctica is pushing, Earth’s spin axis in the same direction that Greenland is pulling it from the north, but the combined effect is still not enough to explain the speedup and

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP | June 2016

shutterstock.com

»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

Lead Story

ge 43

Earth does not always spin on an axis running through its poles. Instead, it wobbles irregularly over time, drifting toward North America throughout most of the 20th Century (green arrow). That direction has changed drastically due to changes in water mass on Earth. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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new direction. Something east of Greenland has to be exerting an additional pull. The researchers found the answer in Eurasia. “The bulk of the answer is a deficit of water in Eurasia: the Indian subcontinent and the Caspian Sea area,” Adhikari said. The finding was a surprise. This region has lost water mass due to depletion of aquifers and drought, but the loss is nowhere near as great as the change in the ice sheets. So why did the smaller loss have such a strong effect? The researchers say it’s because the spin axis is very sensitive to changes occurring around 45 degrees latitude, both north and south. “This is well explained in the theory of rotating objects,” Adhikari explained. “That’s why changes in the Indian subcontinent, for example, are so important.”

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»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

OUTCROP | June 2016

Lario Oil & Gas Company

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

June 8, 2016 City Park Golf Course

RMAG Golf Tournament 2016 Only one Morning Flight! Registration is closed. Please visit www.rmag.org for more information. Half Day 7:30am shotgun Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Golf Chair - Brandon Sejera brandon.sejera@gmail.com 303-842-4104 Past Golf Chair Advisor - Gerald Brummett gb@westlandandlegal.com 303-918-6425

email: staďŹ&#x20AC;@rmag.org

phone: 303.573.8621

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OUTCROP | June 2016 follow: @rmagdenver

Lead Story

Before about 2000, Earth’s spin axis was drifting toward Canada (green arrow, left globe). JPL scientists calculated the effect of changes in water mass in different regions (center globe) in pulling the direction of drift eastward and speeding the rate (right globe). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32

appeared to have no relationship to the wobble — only changes in water on land. Dry years in Eurasia, for example, corresponded to eastward swings, while wet years corresponded to westward swings. When the researchers input the GRACE observations on changes in land water mass from April 2002 to March 2015 into classic physics equations that predict pole positions, they found that the results matched the observed east-west wobble very closely. “This is much more than a simple correlation,” coauthor Ivins said. “We have isolated the cause.” The discovery raises the possibility that the 115year record of east-west wobbles in Earth’s spin axis may, in fact, be a remarkably good record of changes in land water storage. “That could tell us something about past climate — whether the intensity of drought or wetness has amplified over time, and in which locations,” said Adhikari.

NEW INSIGHT ON AN OLD WOBBLE In the process of solving this recent mystery, the researchers unexpectedly came up with a promising new solution to a very old problem, as well. One particular wobble in Earth’s rotation has perplexed scientists since observations began in 1899. Every six to 14 years, the spin axis wobbles about 20 to 60 inches (0.5 to 1.5 meters) either east or west of its general direction of drift. “Despite tremendous theoretical and modeling efforts, no plausible mechanism has been put forward that could explain this enigmatic oscillation,” Adhikari said. Lining up a graph of the east-west wobble during the period when GRACE data were available against a graph of changes in continental water storage for the same period, the JPL scientists spotted a startling similarity between the two. Changes in polar ice

»»CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

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OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

RMAG Mentorship Program Mentors Mentees Jeﬀery Aldrich

Aryn Rowe

Elmo Brown

Hunter Eden

Lyn Canter

Shawn Lopez

Roger Charbonneau

Scott Manwaring

Jim Emme

Daniel Bettinger

Debra Higley

Tiﬀany Yesavage

Tanya Inks

Amanda Kohn

Mark Longman

Zachary Hollon

Ron Pritchett Kurt Reisser John Robinson Orion Skinner Mark Sonnenfeld Steven Terlecki Ray Thomasson Joan Tilden

email: staﬀ@rmag.org

Jagged Peak Energy

Dutch Crews

Laura Levorson Katie Joe McDonough

Mentorship Program Happy Hour Sponsors. Thank you!

Marissa Hillje Ian Hogan

RMAG Membership Committee

Joel Legg Robert Selover

Sophie Berglund Brandy Butler Dylan Cobb Jack Bowler Jane Estes-Jackson Jason Harms Kevin Liner Laura Wray

Hunter Eden Dylan Cobb Brandon Snyder Adam Smith Korey Harvey

phone: 303.573.8621

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

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OUTCROP | June 2016

follow: @rmagdenver

Lead Story

The relationship between continental water mass and the east-west wobble in Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spin axis. Losses of water from Eurasia correspond to eastward swings in the general direction of the spin axis (top), and Eurasian gains push the spin axis westward (bottom). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech OUTCROP | June 2016

Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

Lead Story

»»CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34

information on the mission, visit: • http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov • http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

“Historical records of polar motion are both globally comprehensive in their sensitivity and extraordinarily accurate,” said Ivins. “Our study shows that this legacy data set can be used to leverage vital information about changes in continental water storage and ice sheets over time.” GRACE is a joint NASA mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. For more Daub & Associates, Inc.

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•  Field Studies •  Geological Mapping •  Sequence Stratigraphy •  Sedimentary Petrology •  GIS Applications •  Training Courses

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OUTCROP | June 2016

CALENDAR | JUNE 2016 SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

RMAG Luncheon. Speaker Michael Leibovitz.

PTTC Rockies Short Course.

RMS-SEPM Luncheon. Speaker David Budd.

RMAG Golf Tournament.

DIPS Luncheon.

PTTC Rockies Short Course.

Oilfield Christian Fellowship. Industry Happy Hour.

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ADVERTISER INDEX

• AAPG �� 4

• Louis J. Mazzullo, LLC �� 6

• Columbine Logging �� 14

• Mineral Appraiser, LLC �� 25

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• MJ Systems �� 10

• Décollement Consulting, Inc. �� 12

• Neil H. Whitehead, III �� 6

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• PTTC �� 13

• Enerplus �� 15

• QEP Resources �� 17

• Eureka Geological Consulting, LLC �� 19

• Sinclair Petroleum Engineering, Inc. �� 6

• Geokinetics �� 25

• SM Energy �� 26

• Geo Link �� 11

• Spancers & Associates �� 34

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• GeoSteering �� 15

• Stoner Engineering (SES) �� 7

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• Lario Oil & Gas Company �� 11

• Yates Petroleum Corporation �� 16

VOLUNTER! Vol. 65, No. 6 | www.rmag.org

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) 573-8621 or staff@rmag.org

OUTCROP | June 2016