February 2021 Outcrop

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Volume 70 • No. 2 • February 2021

The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Summit Sponsors PLATINUM SPONSOR

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OUTCROP | February 2021

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Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

OUTCROP The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

1999 Broadway • Suite 730 • Denver, CO 80202 • 800-970-7624 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.

2021 OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT

2nd VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT

Cat Campbell ccampbell@caminoresources.com

Mark Millard millardm@gmail.com

PRESIDENT-ELECT

SECRETARY

Rob Diedrich rdiedrich75@gmail.com

Jessica Davey jessica.davey@sproule.com

1st VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER

Nathan Rogers nathantrogers@gmail.com

Rebecca Johnson Scrable rebecca.johnson@bpx.com

1st VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT

TREASURER ELECT

Courtney Beck Antolik courtneyantolik14@gmail.com

Mike Tischer mtischer@gmail.com

2nd VICE PRESIDENT

COUNSELOR

Peter Kubik pkubik@mallardexploration.com

Jeff May jmay.kcrossen@gmail.com

RMAG STAFF DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Kathy Mitchell-Garton kmitchellgarton@rmag.org DIRECTOR OF MEMBER SERVICES

Debby Watkins dwatkins@rmag.org CO-EDITORS

Courtney Beck Antolik courtneyantolik14@gmail.com Nate LaFontaine nlafontaine@sm-energy.com Wylie Walker wylie.walker@gmail.com DESIGN/LAYOUT

Nate Silva nate@nate-silva.com

ADVERTISING INFORMATION

Rates and sizes can be found on page 35. 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 800-970-7624.

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: 800-970-7624 Fax: 323-352-0046 staff@rmag.org or www.rmag.org

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

Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

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Outcrop | February 2021 OUTCROP

RMAG SHORT COURSE

CARBONATES with Dr. Ali Jaffri

Module 1: How to approach carbonate reservoirs Module 2: Carbonate sequence stratigraphy

February 17-18, 2021 3 hours/day ~ morning sessions

ONLINE

RMAG Members: $150 Non-Members: $185 Register at www.rmag.org email: staff@rmag.org | phone: 800.970.7624 OUTCROP | February 2021

1999 Broadway, Suite 730, Denver CO 80202

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fax: 323.352.0046 | web: www.rmag.org Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

follow: @rmagdenver

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

CONTENTS FEATURES

ASSOCIATION NEWS

16 Lead Story: A Trip to the Burgess Shale

2 RMAG Summit Sponsors

6 RMAG Summit Sponsorship 30 RMAG Professional Awards

DEPARTMENTS 10 RMAG January 2021 Board of Directors Meeting 12 President’s Letter 35 Outcrop Advertising Rates 36 In The Pipeline 36 Welcome New RMAG Members!

4 Short Course: Carbonates 11 MiT Webinar Series 2021 13 2021 RMAG Golf Tournament 15 MiT Webinar Series: View the 2020 Sessions!

26 RMAG Foundation 2020 Donors 27 Publish with The Mountain Geologist

COVER PHOTO View from the Walcott Quarry of the Burgess Shale, B.C., Canada, Photo by Sara Stotter

28 The Outcrop Best Paper and Best Cover Photo, 2020 28 The Mountain Geologist Best Paper Award for 2020

37 Advertiser Index 37 Calendar

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RMAG Summit Sponsorship

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Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 1999 Broadway, Suite 730 Denver, CO 80202 Phone: 800.970.7624 | email: staff@rmag.org

January 1, 2021 Ladies and gentlemen, RMAG could not exist without the very generous support of our Summit Sponsors, and we greatly appreciate all the companies that contributed as Summit Sponsors in 2020.

As you know last year was challenging for everyone. When the stay-at-home order was enacted in March the RMAG quickly pivoted to online events to meet both the needs of our members and the greater geoscience community as well as to honor our sponsors’ commitment to the RMAG. Over the course of the year we hosted over 100 virtual events which included short courses, symposia, workshops, Members in Transition (MiT) talks, monthly member online lunch talks, virtual trivia and networking nights, the Geohike Challenge virtual scavenger hunt, and two virtual field trips. These events earned us new members while expanding our reach not only throughout the US but also internationally to England, Egypt, and Brazil, and we could not have achieved that without your help.

With the assistance of the RMAG Foundation, we provided student scholarships and professional development reimbursements to assist our geologic community.

Your sponsorship dollars also support our excellent publications including the monthly Outcrop newsletter, the quarterly Mountain Geologist journal, and our special publications such as Subsurface Cross Sections of Southern Rocky Mountain Basins. We recognized your financial commitment with website and publication advertising as well as through social media and before each online event. With a LinkedIn group of over 2600 members, in addition to the virtual events, we made our sponsors visible to the geoscience community in the absence of in-person gatherings.

We are in the process of planning our continuing education calendar for 2021 and we need your help to continue our programs. We can’t wait to see you all in person again but until then we will not miss a beat!

At this time we are planning both virtual and in-person events that will continue to prominently feature our Summit Sponsors. We have booked our annual golf tournament at Arrowhead Golf Club for September this year and are looking at dates for our sporting clay tournament. We will also have our Geohike Challenge and hope to host Trivia and Networking Night live monthly sometime in 2021.

If you are already a Summit Sponsor, we look forward to your continued support in 2021. If you are not already a sponsor, please take a look at the many free benefits included with the sponsorship levels.

Please feel free to contact our staff with questions about sponsorship by email: staff@ rmag.org or by phone at 800-970-7624.

We and the staff of RMAG wish you all a successful and prosperous 2021 and look forward to seeing you at our events.

Jane Estes-Jackson

Cat Campbell

2020 RMAG President

2021 RMAG President

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2021 RMAG Summit Sponsorship Platinum, Gold, & Silver Sponsors

Sponsorship Level

Platinum

Gold

Silver

$10,000

$5,000

$2,500

over $9,000

over $5,000

over $3,000

Large Logo & Link

Medium Logo

Medium Logo

4 articles & 4 large ads

2 articles & 2 medium ads

4 small ads

The Outcrop (receive benefits for 12 issues, monthly online publication)*

full page ad

2/3 page ad

1/2 page ad

Company logo listed as a annual sponsor in The Outcrop

Large Logo

Medium Logo

Small Logo

Company logo looping in PowerPoint presentation

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Small Logo

Company logo on Summit Sponsor signage at all events**

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Medium Logo

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ü

ü

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Contribution Level Benefits Value

RMAG Website Benefits Company logo on Summit Sponsor page on www.rmag.org Articles and Ads on special Advertisers’ web page Publication Advertising

Event Advertising (included for all events except where noted)

Opportunity to offer RMAG approved promotional materials

*12 months of Outcrop advertising: In order to receive 12 full months, company logos and ad art must be received no later than the 20th of the month in which you register. If received after the 20th of the month, ad will start in the month following the month after you register, and you will receive 11 total months (e.g., ads received March 25th will appear in the May issue and run through the following March). **Previous Summit Sponsors need to submit only advertising information.

RMAG Educational Events†

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Number of registrations for each type of educational event are suggested; however, you may use your registration points for any of RMAG’s 2021 symposia, core workshops or short courses. For example, a Gold sponsor may use 4 of their 6 points to send a group to the Fall Symposium.

Symposium registrations

4

2

1

Core Workshop registrations

4

2

1

Short Course registrations

4

2

1

Total Registration Points

12

6

3

Platinum

Gold

Silver

RMAG Social Events†

Golf and Sporting Clay registration points may be used for RMAG educational event registrations. For example, a Platinum Sponsor may use one of their golf teams (4 points) to send 4 people to a short course.

Golf Tournament player tickets Total Golf registration points Sporting Clay Tournament player tickets Total Sporting Clay Points RMAG Luncheons & Field Trips

2 team of 4 players

1 team of 4 players

2 individual players

8

4

2

2 team of 5 players

1 team of 5 players

2 individual players

8

4

2

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Number of tickets for field trips and luncheons are suggested; however, you may use your tickets for any of RMAG’s 2021 field trips or luncheons.

For example, a Gold sponsor may use all 3 of their points to send a group on a field trip.

Field Trip tickets (may be used for any 1-day field trip)

2

1

1

RMAG Luncheon tickets

3

2

1

†Registration points may be used for any RMAG educational event. One registration point = one admission ticket to event. Luncheon and field trip tickets are not eligible to use for educational or social events.

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2021 RMAG Summit Sponsorship All sponsor benefit event tickets follow RMAG event registration deadlines.

All benefits end 12 months after registration.

RMAG 2021 1 Summit Sponsorship Opportunities Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Silver Sponsor

Summit sponsorship benefits term is for 12 months! Specify type of payment on signed form, and send logo to staff@rmag.org.

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Signature: _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Payment by Check Mail checks payable to RMAG: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) 1999 Broadway, Suite 730 Denver, CO, 80202

RMAG events are subject to change. Cancellation or rescheduling of events does not give sponsor right to refund. Summit Sponsors will receive benefits at any new events added into the RMAG schedule.

email: staff@rmag.org

Thank you for your generous support!

phone: 800.970.7624

1999 Suite 730 Denver, CO, 80202 Vol. 70,Broadway, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

fax: 323.352.0046

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web: www.rmag.org

follow: @rmagdenver OUTCROP | February 2021

RMAG JANUARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

By Jessica Davey, Secretary jessica.davey@sproule.com

OUTCROP | February 2021

Challenge, so stay tuned for details! The Publications Committee is currently recruiting for articles to be featured in the Outcrop, so get your submissions ready! The On the Rocks Committee is finetuning the field trip listing for 2021; most trips will likely take place toward the end of summer/beginning of fall, so keep your eyes on the RMAG website for those to open up for registration. The Educational Outreach Committee has updated K-12 educator materials on the RMAG website and is working on getting the word out to educators.

Amidst the craziness going on in the political arena so far this year, I recently read an article that was very uplifting. The article is from last October, but it popped up in my news updates a few days ago: “Geologists Have Found the Earth’s Missing Tectonic Plate.” If you haven’t been following the story, the “Resurrection” plate has been hiding under northern Canada for the past 40 to 60 million years! View the article here.

There is also a link to the paper by Spencer Fuston and Jonny Wu from the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, which was published in the GSA Bulletin. This gives me hope that the lost and found posters I made when I lost my favorite pet rock as a child will be successful one day!

Welcome to 2021! RMAG has several new faces on the Board of Directors this year, along with some returning members. Here’s the 2021 lineup: Cat Campbell (President), Rob Diedrich (President-Elect), Nathan Rogers (First VP), Courtney Beck Antolik (First VP-Elect), Pete Kubik (Second VP), Mark Millard (Second VP-Elect), Jessica Davey (Secretary), Rebecca Johnson Scrable (Treasurer), Mike Tischer (Treasurer-Elect), and Jeff May (Counselor).

The 2021 RMAG Board of Directors met virtually at 4 pm on Wednesday, January 20. Everyone was present for the meeting, and in accordance with the memes trending now, Bernie Sanders may or may not have made an appearance as well! Treasurer Rebecca Johnson Scrable reported that RMAG is starting 2021 in a good financial position. Debby and Kathy continue to manage the RMAG operations from their homes.

The Continuing Education rang in the new year with a luncheon talk by Stephen Nalley (EIA), which drew a crowd of 130 attendees, followed by an engaging Q&A session. Ali Jaffri led a carbonates short course, which had participants from around the globe. The Membership Committee announced the continuation of the 2020 Mentorship Program participants for 2021, and is working on the Second Annual Geohike

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Webinar Series 2021 Members in Transition

Rocky Mountain Members in Transition (MiT) is a joint effort of members of AAPG, SPE, WOGA, COGA, DWLS, CU GEM, WEN-CO, DERL, DIPS, and RMAG in the Rocky Mountain region to help association members in the midst of a career transition.

All events are held 12pm-1pm MST

Webinars are free and open to all Register at www.rmag.org

February 4, 2021

Dr. Ali Tura, Colorado School of Mines  Climate Change, the Energy Industry, and the Role of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage

February 18, 2021

Caley Van Cleave, Iridium Consulting Company  Interview Skills in the Current Virtual Reality Hosted by WOGA Visit our partner website Petroleum Pivoters!

Rockies MiT Members in Transition

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

By Cat Campbell

Randi, one of my many incredible mentors, and a dear friend understood the importance of volunteering and the value of a strong network of peers. The calls she made to connect me to AAPG, the Golden Study Group, and RMAG changed my life for the better and I continue to thank her to this day.

YOU’LL THANK ME ONE DAY…

“ALL OF THE GOOD JOBS I’VE EVER GOTTEN, I ALREADY KNEW SOMEBODY ON THE INSIDE.”

You have one new message.

“You’ll thank me one day.” Click.

What? Was that Randi Martisen? Hmmmm, that’s an odd message. I was quickly distracted by the Niobrara and put the message out of my mind.

Until a week later.

You have two new messages.

“Hi Cat, Jim Lowell here, Randi gave me your number and I would like to talk to you about a geology meeting. Give me a call, thanks.”

“Hi Cat, this is Steve Sonnenberg over at Mines, Randi said you would be willing to take over the Rocky Mountain Section IBA. Give me a call please.”

—Matt Silverman A key way these connections from Randi changed my life was by providing me opportunities to know and work with those people on the inside. One of my roles, as chair of the AAPG Rocky Mountain Section IBA, was to find judges for the yearly graduate student competition. (On a side note, Randi was our professor for the first IBA competition in 2007 at the University of Wyoming.) These judges are subject matter experts, geoscientists and engineers who can provide insight to students on their presentations based on experiences from long careers.

They are often managers and decision makers at their respective firms. One such judge was Matt Silverman, the Exploration Manager at Robert L. Bayless, Producer.

When an opportunity arose at Bayless and I found myself across from Mr. Silverman for an interview, our shared work with the IBA program allowed me to walk into that room with additional confidence and a sense of familiarity, like meeting an old friend. I spent nearly six incredible years with Bayless working closely

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S E P T E M B E R 15 2021

2021

RMAG GOLF

TOURNAMENT

1:30pm Shotgun at Arrowhead Golf Club

Registration includes entry, 18-holes of golf, cart, dinner, & entry to win great door prizes

Registration open!

Teams of 4 and Individuals are welcome to register.

Member Individual: $150 Non-Member Individual: $175

Member Team: $600 Non-Member Team: $700

email: staff@rmag.org

phone: 800.970.7624

Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

1999 Broadway, Ste. 730, Denver, CO, 80202

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fax: 323.352.0046

web: www.rmag.org

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follow: @rmagdenver

PRESIDENT’S LETTER “UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT, NOTHING IS GOING TO GET BETTER. IT’S NOT.”

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with Matt and continuing to volunteer and give back to my community.

While at Bayless, I participated in the Denver Petroleum Club Mentorship Program. This program matches young professionals who have 5-10 years of experience with CEO-level mentors to spend a year learning about aspects of the industry that a young professional typically does not see. My mentor was Ward Polzin, who at the time was building Centennial. Fast forward to 2017, Ward and I met for lunch to catch up and he mentioned that he was starting a new company. I gained immense respect for Ward as a leader and mentor through the DPC program and decided to ask if I could interview for the new company. Now, more than three years later, I am still working at Camino, albeit at home, but enjoying this opportunity every day.

The volunteer roles I’ve held over the years did not directly provide jobs, rather they allowed me to meet people with a similar passion for giving back, which opened doors that I would not have otherwise had access to. For this I am grateful to RMAG, AAPG, and DPC and all the people who make these organizations work.

—Dr. Seuss We are facing enormous challenges on a daily basis; fighting a global pandemic, extreme uncertainty in oil and gas, significant layoffs, and disruptions to our daily lives that a year ago were nearly unimaginable.

Now the work begins to redefine our culture on a small and large scale. Volunteering and being part of a community that supports you, your beliefs, and makes the world a better place is a great way to help shape the post-COVID world.

It was the incredible staff and volunteers of RMAG that last year saw an opportunity to bring our community together through online lunches and learning opportunities as well as forums for members of the community facing job changes. This may just be a small drop in the pond, but it made my life better and motivated me to seek ways to bring happiness and caring to others.

Afterall, we are all in this same small pond.

Want to contact me or RMAG, send a note to board@rmag.org. I look forward to hearing from you!

OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists

Editors Needed!

You read the Outcrop—now you can help put it together!

The Outcrop editorial committee is looking for another volunteer or two to help produce each monthly issue. You will help with soliciting articles, coordinating with authors, copy editing issues, and other duties. We operate on a tight deadline and editors must be able to turn material around quickly.

Interested? Contact the RMAG office at staff@rmag.org.

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Webinar Series 2020 Members in Transition

View the 2020 Sessions!

Rockies Members in Transition (MiT) is a joint effort of members of AAPG, COGA, CU GEM, DERL, DIPS, DWLS, RMAG, SPE, WEN-CO, WGA, and WOGA in the Rocky Mountain region to help association members in the midst of a career transition.

(click on the date to view video or go to the RMAG website for more information) May 21, 2020 Thriving in the New World: Strengthen, Diversify, Innovate  Susan Morrice & Susan Nash June 16, 2020 Building the Future of Energy with O&G Expertise: Planning Your Geothermal Pivot  Jamie Beard, GEO UT Austin June 25, 2020 Pivot Yourself: Recruiters’ Perspective and Insights  Raychel Duncan, Lesley Prewitt, & Elizabeth Dahill July 23, 2020 What’s Your Super Position? Jobs for Geologists  Rick Fritz, AAPG President 2020-2021 July 30, 2020 Python for Data Analytics: What, Why, and How to Get Started  Matt Bauer, 2M Energy, & Kathryn Mills, HackerVillage August 6, 2020 The Value of Leadership in Your Geoscience Career  Denise Cox, President, Storm Energy; Past-President AAPG 2018-2019 August 27, 2020 Creating a Winning Resume  Mark Friedman, Ph.D. September 10, 2020 It All Comes from the Ground: Opportunities in the Energy Transition  Edith Wilson, Ph.D. September 17, 2020 What’s Next? Transitioning to Teaching  Teacher Panel: Rebecca Dodge, Sarah Edwards, Paige McCown, Lloyd Sobel October 6, 2020 Getting Started with QGIS  Diane Fritz, Ph.D. October 15, 2020 Pivoting to the Tech Industry: It’s Not Just About Programming  Rekha Patel & Liz Arthur November 5, 2020 Net Zero Carbon Opportunity: Can We Lead This Transition?  Dr. Christine Economides December 3, 2020 Geothermal Energy in Colorado: The Mt. Princeton Geothermal Project  Fred Henderson & Hank Held More resources for geoscientists in transition Earth Science: New Map Earth is our home planet and there is only one Earth. “Earth Science: New Map” presents the latest progress, problems, and prospects in Earth Science community, education and research. It is hosted by Dr. Rasoul Sorkhabi (University of Utah).

Geoconservation: Preserving Our Heritage ~ Geoscientist Workforce for the Future ~ Hydrocarbons, Geoscience and the Energy Transition Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

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LEAD STORY

A TRIP TO THE BURGESS SHALE

BY DAVID MOORE

The trail to the Burgess Shale is frosty this early on a clear mid-summer morning. Deceptively delicate flowers are covered with fine frost at this hour. Gathering near Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, our journey begins at 1500m elevation. We will hike about 11km and gain 800m in elevation as we make our way to the Walcott Quarry. It is a well-used trail; this route has been worn by hikers, horses and paleontologists for well over 100 years. Most people walk right by the quarry and if it were not for the abundant signage warning them that it is a closed area, most would not even know it was there. The scenery is stunning. Even in July, snow-capped mountains surround us, and glaciers are visible on several of the nearby peaks. A series of switchbacks makes short work of the elevation gain while the air still has an early morning chill. Stopping only for a quick break at a pristine alpine lake, the anticipation builds. For some, this is a beautiful walk in a gorgeous setting, but for many it is a pilgrimage. This is the journey to the place most associated with the origins of complex animal life and ultimately the origins of life like us. For many people, making the pilgrimage to the Burgess Shale is a once in a lifetime, bucket list adventure.

Our destination is the site of one of the most important and famous fossil discoveries in the world. The Burgess Shale, currently understood

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Walcott Quarry. The vertical drill holes visible are from the work of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Walcott’s original drill marks are still visible on the back wall of the quarry.

Photo: David Moore

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LEAD STORY also of strange creatures he had never seen before — most of which had no hard parts at all.

Walcott returned the following summer and discovered the source of these slabs a couple of hundred meters above the trail. His discovery profoundly altered our understanding of early life and ultimately evolution itself. Here on a treeless shaley slope high in the Canadian Rocky Mountains was a treasure trove of mid-Cambrian fossils, most of which were completely new to paleontology. New forms, weird and wonderful organisms that were unknown to paleontology, were found at the Burgess Shale in abundance. In addition to these new taxa, the preservation of many of the fossils was unlike anything he had seen before. The vast majority of fossils throughout history are the preserved hard parts – bones and shells – of long dead organisms. Here though, in addition to the hard parts of trilobites and brachiopods, soft parts of dozens of different, novel organisms had been beautifully preserved. This was at the time revolutionary, and is still today exceedingly rare. Soft part preservation offers a window very rarely seen into the whole of the animals and the ecosystem. Walcott must have known immediately that this was unlike anything else ever found to date.

This was the most complete view of any early fossil assemblage ever discovered. Soft part preservation requires a unique set of circumstances, the fossils must be rapidly buried in very fine-grained sediment in an anoxic environment in the absence of anoxic decaying organisms. Alternatively, oxygen may have been present and mineralized seeps may have been responsible for the lack of scavenging and burrowing. For reasons not well understood this phenomenon was much more common in the Cambrian than in any subsequent geologic time period.

Between 1910 and 1924 Walcott returned to the site many times, excavating and removing tens of thousands of fossils from the Burgess Shale, and sending them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, where they were studied, catalogued and preserved. The Smithsonian retains one of the most important collections of Burgess Shale fossils in the world.

The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) has a long

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to be about 510 million years old, has become synonymous with the spectacular, weird and wonderful Cambrian fossils that were first found here in 1909.

For amateur fossil lovers and professional paleontologists alike, this is a very special place. The fossils found high on Mt Field have changed the way we view Cambrian life, the origins of complex animals, and our understanding of evolution itself. You would be hard pressed to name a fossil site anywhere in the world that has done more to contribute to our knowledge of early animal life. The Burgess Shale is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and lies within a closed area of Yoho National Park, with quarry access limited to guided excursions.

As we make our way into the alpine, above tree line, the blue-green stillness of Emerald Lake is far below. Finally the tiny ledge of the quarry, hewn out of the shale over the decades, is visible above us. The last bit of the trail, closed to the public, is steep and narrow but no one seems to mind. All day we have been walking in the footsteps of Dr. Charles Walcott.

Walcott had a lifelong interest in fossils - particularly of the Cambrian period. He had been Chief Paleontologist and then Director of the US Geological Survey, then President of the Geological Society of America before accepting the role of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907. Walcott was an avid explorer and fossil collector and travelled throughout the United States and Canada discovering important Cambrian fossil sites in New York, Vermont and elsewhere.

As the westward expansion of the transcontinental railway in Canada opened up new opportunities for fossil exploration, Walcott ventured west. In August 1909, Walcott was travelling by horseback with his wife, Helena, towards the Burgess Pass on the trail we have been using today. The path was covered with scree which had fallen from the yet undiscovered FossilRidge above them. Amongst the scree were slabs with multiple fossils on them, some which would have been instantly familiar to him, like the many trilobites, and some completely unknown. A further examination revealed that in addition to the shells and hard parts there appeared to be preservation of the soft tissue both of known organisms but OUTCROP | February 2021

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LEAD STORY the theory of punctuated equilibrium by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. This re-evaluation would also form the basis of Gould’s 1989 best-seller Wonderful Life: the Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. More than any other publication, Gould’s book intensified interest in the subject and introduced the Burgess Shale to a wide audience.

Beginning in 1975, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) began a decades-long research project, still underway today. The aim of the project is multi-faceted; to discover new organisms, to understand the

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history with the Burgess Shale. It was their early discoveries on Mount Stephen in the latter 19th century that brought Walcott to the area. The GSC conducted their own research and collections at the site in the mid 1960s. Dr. Harry Whittington and his group from Cambridge were part of this research. Whittington and his students would perform the first major re-evaluation of the Burgess Shale since Walcott’s time. Their research and conclusions would turn our understanding of earliest metazoan evolution on its head and was instrumental in the development of

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Location of the Walcott Quarry of the Burgess Shale (red pin in NW quadrant), located in Yoho National Park within the Canadian Rockies. The city of Calgary is shown toward the eastern edge of the image (source: Google Earth)

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LEAD STORY

ABOVE: A trilobite from the Burgess Shale. Photo: Sean Smith BELOW: Sidneyia, an enigmatic arthropod from the Burgess Shale.

Charles Walcott named it after his son Sidney. Photo: David Moore

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LEAD STORY

Emerald Lake as seen from the Walcott Quarry. Photo: David Moore underwhelming. You could park a full-sized intercity bus here, but there wouldn’t be room for much else.

The cameras, antenna and other security equipment hint that this is a special place. I open the large metal lockbox and the hikers’ skepticism evaporates.

The fossils of the Burgess Shale are contained within shale beds about 25-30mm thick which extend more than 50km laterally nestled up against a limestone escarpment known as the Cathedral formation. The fossils themselves are contained within the Burgess Formation. Several theories have been proposed regarding where the animals lived with respect to the Cathedral escarpment and how the sediment accumulated, and whether they are preserved in the environment in which they lived or died. A number of other localities containing similar fossils to the original Walcott Quarry exist along the edge of the Cathedral Formation. All Cambrian life was marine, but the precise depositional environment of the Burgess Shale has been debated for years. The scarcity of trace fossils suggests that perhaps the assemblage did not live where the fossils are found.

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origins of complex animal life and the interactions within the ecosystem and to shed light on the nature of evolution itself. Desmond Collins was the ROMs principal researcher and he devoted most of his career to exploring, collecting and understanding the Burgess Shale. Collins collected over 150,000 specimens, dwarfing the impressive collection at the Smithsonian. He was succeeded by Jean-Bernard Caron in the 2000s. Collins and Caron both discovered new localities of Burgess Shale fossils and added exponentially to our understanding of these animals and their role in the history of life.

Arriving at the quarry, our eyes begin to pick out the characteristic dark marks on the light shale that represents the fossils. As most of the animals had no hard parts, the fossils are most frequently preserved as darkened films on the lighter carbonate rich shale.

The Walcott Quarry is unremarkable, and most visitors are surprised that it is so small. Given the outsized impact this little ledge of rock on the side of the mountain has had in our understanding of the evolution of complex life, its physical size is

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LEAD STORY

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prey and a hardened shell for protection. A carnivorous priapulid, Ottoia, is abundant and some specimens are so exquisitely preserved their digestive tracts and contents are preserved. The arthropod Opabinia has five stalked eyes and a single nozzle-like appendage extending from the centre of its head. The hard shells of trilobites likewise provided protection from predation from above, while legs allowed them to seek out nourishment using eyes and other sensory apparatus to find food in an increasingly competitive world.

What the Burgess Shale reveals is a complex and sophisticated fauna highly specialized for the many different niches available in the middle

The conventional model suggests they were living at the top of a submarine cliff and were buried at the bottom of this feature, but there are many other hypotheses.

The organisms discovered by Walcott captured the imagination of geologists, paleontologists and the educated general public. Here were very complicated forms seen for the first time in the fossil record - with eyes and legs and defensive adaptations such as hardened shells and spines. Animals such as Hallucigenia with its double row of spines on its back which probably evolved as protection from predators from above. The giant arthropod Anomalocaris had grasping appendages to trap

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Takakkaw Falls as seen from near the trailhead. Photo: David Moore

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LEAD STORY

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Cambrian environment. Precursor forms were nowhere to be found; it was as if the Burgess Shale fossils had suddenly appeared in the fossil record from nowhere. This led to the idea of the Cambrian explosion or radiation, the concept that complex life had “exploded” into the fossil record via a unique and unprecedented evolutionary radiation.

Trace fossils at the Burgess Shale are rare but do exist. All niches in the environment were exploited by the Burgess Shale animals. Representatives of pelagic, benthic and planktic organisms are all preserved. Most organisms are small, ranging from a few millimeters to centimeters in size, although Anomalocaris and several others reached sizes as great as a metre or more.

Darwin understood that the lack of intermediate or transitional forms in the fossil record made his idea of gradual evolutionary change difficult to prove. While he accepted that evolutionary rates for different taxa were necessarily different, he believed that evolutionary change took a long time and was a proponent of Charles Lyell’s idea of gradualism.

Ultimately the Burgess Shale and other fossil sites would lead researchers in the mid 20th century to develop the theory of punctuated equilibrium. Contrasting with the older idea of gradualism, punctuated equilibrium suggested that under specific favourable conditions rapid speciation can and would occur. Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould published a seminal paper on the subject in 1972 arguing that most of the fossil record represents periods of stasis where life is more or less static without much evolutionary change occurring.

Due to the poor resolution of the fossil record it can seem that new organisms appeared almost instantly, but these punctuations take many generations and can transpire over hundreds of thousands of years. Internal and external causes of rapid evolutionary change both occur. Internal drivers include chance mutations that can take hold and rapidly change the genome of long-static taxa. External forces include environmental changes, geologic or environmental catastrophes, extinction events and other forces which disrupt the stasis.

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Dr. Charles Doolittle Walcott about 1920. Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale and would spend many summers collecting fossils from the quarry that bears his name.

The Cambrian explosion or evolutionary radiation has been the topic of much discussion and controversy for many years. The fossil record suggests that all major extant phyla first emerge near the beginning of the Cambrian, about 540 MYA. The beginning of the Cambrian marks the first occurrence of most modern metazoans. The Cambrian radiation lasts approximately 10-20 million years and by the end metazoan life has diverged and the ancestors of almost all later high-level taxa are firmly established. At the phylum level, the basic body plan of all complex life that comes later has already been set. All subsequent metazoan evolution builds on

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LEAD STORY must provide a benefit that exceeds the cost of creating them. By the Cambrian, the world had changed drastically. It was no longer sufficient for heterotrophic organisms to wait for food to come to them - they had to go out and find it. The evolution of eyes provided a very significant advantage to those taxa unable to make their own food.

The Ediacaran Period, 635-540 MYA, begins at the end of the Marinoan Glaciation and ends with the beginning of the Cambrian Period. If precursor forms to the animals of the Burgess Shale exist, they will be found within the Ediacaran biota.

The Ediacaran was unknown in Walcott’s time, although Ediacaran discoveries were made beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. It wasn’t until the 1950s that their place in the geologic time scale was fully understood. Originally discovered in the 1860s they were not considered to be fossils because they were stratigraphically below the Cambrian, which was considered to be the origin of life on Earth. Early 20th century Ediacaran fossils were assumed to be Cambrian in age. It wasn’t until the mid 20th century that our current understanding of the significance and age of these organisms became clear.

Every modern phylum can trace its origins to this small outcropping of exquisitely preserved organisms high in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

The Burgess Shale is the beginning in many ways of the incredible evolutionary journey that represents complex animal life on Earth. The genetic and morphological change from the Ediacaran to the Cambrian brought so much change in a relatively short period of time that it often has us questioning our understanding of the origins of modern life itself.

The nature of the Cambrian radiation is poorly understood. It is possibly the most significant evolutionary event in the history of life like us. Our oldest ancestors that feature legs, eyes and a mode of life including predation are very far removed from us, but they hint at the beginning of an evolutionary pathway that will ultimately lead to the types of life far more familiar to us in the early 21st century. New research suggests that the Ediacaran may hold more clues to the origins of the Burgess

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the basic body plans first seen in the Cambrian.

Life on Earth is estimated to have begun as early as the environment would have supported it.

Earliest estimates suggest life began at least approximately 3.8 billion years ago. That early life was for billions of years the exclusive domain of single-celled organisms. It was long believed that multicellularity was a phenomenon of the Phanerozoic, the last 540 million years of evolution. While it is now understood that multicellular organisms may be up to 1 billion years old, life forms like us are a Phanerozoic development.

If the Burgess Shale captures a moment in time shortly after a great evolutionary radiation, the Cambrian Explosion, then what is the evidence and what are the proposed causes or mechanisms of this radiation?

Researchers have pointed to a number of potential causes, although a complete answer probably contains elements of many of these. Changes in the environment, a warming climate at the end of a great glaciation, increasing oxygen levels in the atmosphere and degassing from increased volcanic activity all probably contributed to creating the essential prerequisites. Others have pointed to evolutionary developments themselves, notably the appearance of eyes. But these evolutionary advancements were likely a response to changing circumstances rather than the cause of them. Perhaps the most likely candidate for a cause of the Cambrian radiation is the development of a new behaviour, predation. While tantalizing evidence of bilateralism and the precursors to the type of life so familiar today exists prior to the Burgess Shale, it is perhaps this development that drove the rapid evolutionary advancement of the early Cambrian.

Predation changes everything, both in terms of the predator and the prey.

Eyes, sometimes considered a catalyst for the Cambrian radiation, likely evolved in response to the pressure from predation. Both predators and prey would have benefited immensely from being able to see their surroundings, both to find food and to avoid becoming food. Eyes are expensive from an ontological perspective, they therefore OUTCROP | February 2021

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LEAD STORY ultimately to the fauna of our modern world.

Returning to our vehicles there is a shared sense of accomplishment, of a day very well spent.

While some are happy to remove muddy boots from tired feet, we are all left with a feeling of having done something unique, revealing a part of our shared history and the incredible story of the evolution of life on Earth. For those who have not made the journey it is a pilgrimage that we should all undertake even if just once in a lifetime.

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Shale organisms.

A major question remains in the study of earliest complex life. Do the Ediacaran fossils represent the precursors to later complex animal life or do they represent an evolutionary dead-end? Recent research suggests that the Cambrian radiation was more gradual than it may appear in the fossil record. As such, the seeds of the complexity in morphology and behaviour that the Burgess Shale and other early to mid-Cambrian fossil sites reveal may be more an artifact of the incompleteness of the fossil record than a single extraordinary evolutionary event. New discoveries and interpretations suggest that the Ediacaran biota was more complex than previously thought. Bilateralism, hollow body plans with guts, segmentation and other advanced features suggest that these organisms may indeed be the precursors of organisms of the early to middle Cambrian. If these so-called advanced features exist in the Ediacaran it suggests that the evolutionary radiation may have been less dramatic than previously thought. Research has also suggested that the Ediacaran underwent its own evolutionary radiation, the Avalon radiation, and that evolutionary events like this may be more common than previously thought.

In any case, the animals of the Burgess Shale have the power to inspire and get us to ponder some of the deepest questions in the history of life.

Future work will no doubt further illuminate one of the most fascinating and mysterious time periods in evolutionary history.

As we make our way down the trail past the glaciers and alpine lakes the group is quieter, perhaps reflecting on the significance of what we have experienced, pondering the great questions that have been raised by the presence of these amazing fossils high on the mountain. Packs are a little lighter and the trail gradually loses elevation. The scenery is no less spectacular, but our thoughts are lost in the wonder of the possibilities of the earliest animal forms that would one day evolve into the rich diverse abundance of the Devonian oceans, the well-known large vertebrates including terrestrial reptiles and dinosaurs of the Mesozoic and

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REFERENCES

Bobrovskiy, I., Hope, J.M., Golubkova, E. et al. (2020) Food sources for the Ediacara biota communities. Nature Commun 11, 1261.

Caron, JB., Gaines, R., Aria, C. et al. (2014) A new phyllopod bed-like assemblage from the Burgess Shale of the Canadian Rockies. Nature Commun 5, 3210 Eldredge, Niles and S.J. Gould (1972) Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism.

In TJM Schopf (ed) Models in Paleobiology. San Franscisco: Freeman Cooper. pp. 82-115 Watson, Traci. (2020) The bizarre species that are rewriting animal evolution. Nature Vol. 586, No. 7831. pp. 662-665 Zhang, X., Shu, D., & Erwin, D. (2007) Cambrian Naraoiids (Arthropoda): Morphology, Ontogeny, Systematics and Evolutionary Relationships. Journal of Paleontology, Systematics and Evolutionary Relationships. Journal of Paleontology, 81 (S68) pp 1-52.

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RMAG Foundation 2020 Donors The RMAG Foundation Trustees express their sincere thanks to the following individuals and companies who contributed this past year to the Foundation. The money raised will enable the Foundation to support both RMAG programs and student scholarships, undergraduate and graduate research scholarships, awards for the Earth Science Teacher of the Year, and various Rocky Mountain-based educational organizations.

Donna Anderson

Michael Johnson

Joyce Babcock

Anson Mark

Elmo and Kathy Brown

Phil Moffitt

Marshall Crouch

Ira Pasternack

Janet Foster

John Robinson

Gibbet Hill Foundation

J. Rick Sarg

J.P. Griffith in memory of Eileen Griffith

Lee Delattre Steinke David Taylor & Jaelyn Eberle

HighPoint Resourses

WPX Energy

Tanya Inks

Laura Wray

Patricia Irwin

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tps://www.rmag.org/publications/the-mountain-geologist/

OUTCROP | February 2021

The Outcrop Best Paper and Best Cover Photo, 2020 & Seismic Stations” by Kyren Bogolub. Both of these articles were scientifically impactful and locally relevant.

The RMAG Outcrop editors would like to thank all our 2020 lead article authors and we encourage our readers to go to the Outcrop archives and review all the interesting articles from this past year!

For the Best Cover Photo 2020 we selected the November cover photo taken by Stephen Sturm of the Sheep Mountain Tunnel Mill near Marble, Colorado. Add that site to your 2021 fall tree tour! If you have a picture you’ve taken that would be relevant for the Outcrop cover photo in 2021, we encourage you to submit to the editors.

Thanks again for all our authors and photographers for their contribution to RMAG as we continue to learn and explore into 2021!

—The Outcrop Editors

The RMAG Outcrop editors reviewed the lead article and cover photo submissions for 2020 and identified the Best Lead Article and Best Cover Photo. The decision was difficult, as this year had many interesting and impactful articles – from Colorado Glaciers to Python applications to Megadroughts in Montana. We greatly appreciate the work of the authors who contribute to our community. The winner for Best Lead Article 2020 was “Geology and the Skiing Experience” by Brian K. Jones from the October issue. This article was a great combination of local geology, outdoor recreation, and a spirit of curiosity, all of which we look for when accepting lead articles for the Outcrop.

The two honorable mentions were the June article “Blowing in the Wind” by Dan McGrath and the November article “Notable Colorado Seismicity

The Mountain Geologist Best Paper Award for 2020

OUTCROP | February 2021

to the Niobrara and Carlisle formations and relates the faulting to the mechanical properties of the stratigraphy.

The papers published in The Mountain Geologist in 2020 were outstanding. Thank you authors and editors for your contributions to the journal.

Congratulations to Kyle.

—The Best Paper Selection Committee

The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to announce the winner of The Mountain Geologist Best Paper Award for 2020. The winning paper is “Mechanical stratigraphy and layer-bound normal faulting in the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation, Wattenberg Field, Colorado” by Kyle A. Bracken. It was published in the April 2020 issue.

He describes normal faulting that is confined

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RMAG Professional Awards HONORARY MEMBERSHIP AWARD

• Ronald W. Pritchett

Ronald W. Pritchett

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP AWARD • John Ladd DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO RMAG • Daniel Bassett PRESIDENT’S AWARD • Terrilyn Olson

OUTCROP | February 2021

The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is pleased to present Honorary Membership to Ronald W. Pritchett in recognition of more than four decades of contributions to the association and to the geologic community.

Ron has long been a part of the geologic community since he is the son of geologist Frank Pritchett. As he says in the film, Geofamilies, he was out in the field so often with his father that the “difference between me and dirt wasn’t much.” Not surprisingly because of his childhood immersion in the field, Ron pursued and was awarded a BSc in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1972. In 1984, he began consulting with a focus on integrating geology, engineering and economics of petroleum and environmental technologies in projects across North America. It was during this time that Ron acquired a Masters of Technology Management in 1998 from the University of Denver.

In 2003, Ron was hired by Noble Energy and worked there until once again entering the consulting business in 2013.

Long a standout volunteer with the RMAG, Ron received several awards over the years 30

including Distinguished Service Award (1994), President’s Award (2004) and the prestigious Shaft Award (2014).

These awards were in recognition of his participation as a board member (1st Vice President, 1993), as emcee of the annual Rockbuster’s Ball for numerous years and as a contributor to the Outcrop and The Mountain Geologist. In addition, Ron has previewed numerous papers for authors in these and other publications.

A colleague noted that Ron is “more than accommodating in his personal approach to individuals.” He “is as low key, polite and thoughtful a person as you could ever hope to meet” and is always willing to pitch in when needed; such as serving on a panel discussion this year at the University of Denver for 7th and 8th grade STEM students. In recognition of his volunteer contributions to both the RMAG and the greater geologic community, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to award Ronald W. Pritchett with Honorary Membership.

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP AWARD

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP AWARD

John Ladd The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is pleased to present Honorary

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RMAG PROFESSIONAL AWARDS

OUTCROP | February 2021

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO RMAG

Daniel Bassett The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is pleased to present the Distinguished Service to RMAG to Daniel Bassett for his outstanding efforts chairing the 2020 Continuing Education Committee.

Dan received his BSc. in Geology from Fort Lewis College and his Master’s from Oklahoma State. He is a geologist with SM Energy working the Permian Basin. Dan has been an RMAG member since 2015 and he served as 2nd Vice-President of RMAG in 2020.

The “shelter in place” mandate enacted in early 2020 due to the Covid19 outbreak was a 32

potentially devastating blow to RMAG and its mission to provide educational content to its members. However, Dan and the Continuing Education Committee sprang into action spearheading the effort to get the monthly lunch meetings presented to our members via RMAG’s online video platform. It was no small job getting the process set up for our members and engaging and interacting with each lunch speaker to facilitate their needs for presenting to an online audience. On April 1st (less than 2 weeks after the shelter in place order) the first online lunch talk for its members was launched and it filled up in almost two hours after opening the registration. In 2020, the RMAG hosted seven online lunch talks with a monthly registration holding close to 100 attendees each month.

Dan’s collaborative thinking also helped create a partnership with RPS/Nautilus to offer a wide variety of quality courses to the geoscience community and at a discounted rate for RMAG members. The successful transition to online learning under Dan’s leadership inspired confidence to host many additional RMAG online endeavors including short courses, workshops, and symposia.

The impact of Dan’s proactive leadership has had a profound effect on our professional society that has not gone unnoticed by members and other organizations who have commented that the RMAG has been

Membership to John Ladd in recognition of his exceptional service to the association and to the greater geologic community.

John received his BSc from Brown University and a Master’s Degree from Cornell University.

He started his career in Tucson with the minerals division of Superior Oil, and pivoted to oil and gas when Superior was acquired

by Mobil in 1985. While at Mobil he moved to Denver and worked the Anadarko and Arkoma basins. During his long and varied career in Denver, he spent over 10 years working the Wattenberg Field for Snyder Oil, HS Resources, and Vessels Oil and Gas; 5.5 years working the Green River and Powder River basins for Kerr McGee, and 11.5 years working the Permian Basin for Discovery Natural Resources. He is currently working as a consultant.

John has served on six RMAG Boards, including President in 2016, President Elect in 2015, Counselor in 2012-2013, Treasurer in 2008, and Secretary in 2006. His steadfast leadership as President was critical to the successful resolution of several challenges that faced the organization that year. As a member of the Continuing Education Committee, he has been instrumental in recruiting speakers for the monthly luncheon program and he helped to plan the first ever and very successful RMAG Permian Basin Symposium in 2019. He has also been an integral and engaged

member of the Investment Committee since 2008, and has always been a go-to member that can be counted on for thoughtful and helpful input regarding association matters. John has also made scientific contributions to RMAG, publishing two papers on Wattenberg Field in the 2001 volume Gas in the Rockies.

An avid skier, mountaineer, and mountain biker, John also works part time as a ski instructor at Winter Park. In recognition of his volunteer contributions to both the RMAG and the greater geologic community, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to award John Ladd with Honorary Membership.

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RMAG PROFESSIONAL AWARDS

PRESIDENT’S AWARD

Terrilyn Olson The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is pleased to present the President’s Award to Terrilyn Olson in recognition of her vital contribution to the Rockies Members in Transition (MiT) group, a joint effort between RMAG, AAPG, Denver Section of SPE, WOGA, DWLS, and COGA. The MiT Group was created to support oil industry professionals who have been negatively impacted due to the current downturn. One of the group’s primary initiatives has been hosting free online webinars targeting those needing

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digital rock and image analysis software proved invaluable to predicting reservoir quality as well as providing pore scale modeling and fluid sensitivity analyses. Terri formed Digital Rock Petrophysics in Golden in the spring of 2016.

A long-time RMAG member and active volunteer Terri has been a dedicated and engaged mentor to young professionals.

Terri served as RMAG President in 2018 and President-Elect in 2017. She also served as Chair of both the RMAG and AAPG Publications Committees. She co-edited a Piceance Basin guidebook for RMAG in 2003 for which she authored a paper on White River Dome Field. She also edited a 2016 Memoir for AAPG, Unconventional Reservoir Pore Systems. Terri received Honorary Membership from RMAG in 2019. She has also been recognized with distinguished service awards from RMAG in 2007 and from AAPG in 2016. She has served on the boards of directors of RMAG and DWLS and is a valued member of AAPG, SPWLA, SPE, RMAG, and DWLS. In recognition of her exceptional leadership of the Rockies MiT, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to award Terrilyn Olson the President’s Award.

a leader in providing content during this “new normal”. The lunch talks and subsequent additional events that indirectly resulted from Dan’s leadership helped to create a sense of connectedness and normalcy for RMAG and the geoscience community during this unprecedented time in our history. In recognition of his outstanding leadership, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present Dan with the Distinguished Service to RMAG award.

assistance in their job search or who may be looking to make a career change. Terri has been the principal force behind this effort since its inception, and has been involved at every level, including organizing and leading the committee meetings, recruiting webinar presenters, and serving as moderator during panel discussions. Her tireless commitment, leadership, and drive have been critical to the success of the Rockies MiT group. As a result of her selfless efforts numerous RMAG members have received much needed career guidance and assistance at no cost.

Terri began her education as a geologist/petrologist at the University of Virginia before transferring to Colorado College where she obtained a B.A. degree in Geology. She went on to earn her Master’s at Dartmouth College. She started her career with Amoco Production Company (Amoco) in Denver, working on exploration and development projects in California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

Terri later transferred to Stavanger, Norway after attending the Amoco Petrophysics School in Tulsa. In 2000, Terri returned to Denver where she worked for Tom Brown, Encana and EOG. Terri joined FEI Oil & Gas (FEI) in 2015 where her expertise in

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IN THE PIPELINE FEBRUARY 3, 2021 RMAG Online Luncheon.

Speaker: Dave Runyon. “Salty Things - Shape Shifter Geology.” Online via RingCentral Meetings.

FEBRUARY 4, 2021 MiT Online Talk.

Speaker: Dr. Ali Tura. “Climate Change, The Energy Industry, and the Role of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage.” Online via RingCentral.

behind the Belize Oil discovery and how it is transforming the country”. Online via Zoom FEBRUARY 16, 2021 DWLS Webinar.

Speaker: Luis Quintero. “Reservoir Pressure in Tight Gas Formations from a Pressurized Core System.” Call Dominic Holmes at 303-770-4235.

Or register online.

FEBRUARY 17-18, 2021 RMAG Online Carbonates Short Course.

Instructor: Ali Jaffri. Online via RingCentral.

FEBRUARY 12, 2021 COGA Virtual Mardi Gras Ball.

DIPS Virtual Talk Speaker: Susan Morrice “The Secrets

WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!

is a student at Colorado School of Mines.

Leonela Aguada

lives in Arvada, Colorado.

Donald Jennison

is a Senior Account Manager at AWS and lives in Denver, Colorado.

is the owner of Robert J. Kenney & Associates and lives in Denver, Colorado.

runs Robert A. Bassett, P.C. and lives in Denver, Colorado.

is at the Colorado School of Mines.

is a student at the Colorado School of Mines.

AAPG, DPA, Certified Petroleum Geologist #5881 is an Independent Consultant and lives in Windsor, Colorado.

Elizabeth Arthur

Robert Kenney

Robert Bassett

Luke Pettinga

Nataly Chacon Buitrago

Raymond Pierson

Steve Enger

Hanaga Simabrata

works at Edge Energy and lives in Lakewood, Colorado.

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John Clark Gilbert

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OUTCROP | February 2021

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• Crestone Peak Resources ���������������������33

• LMKR ����������������������������������������������������35

• Daub & Associates �������������������������������10

• Mallard Exploration ������������������������������31

• Donovan Brothers Inc. ��������������������������25

• Sunburst Consulting �����������������������������29

• GeoMark Research �������������������������������29

• Tracerco ������������������������������������������������33

• Great Western ��������������������������������������31

• Tracker Resource Development �����������12

• Hollowtop Geological Services ������������10

CALENDAR – FEBRUARY 2021 SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

1

WEDNESDAY

2

3 RMAG Online Luncheon.

7

8

THURSDAY

9

4

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

5

6

12

13

MiT Online Talk.

10

11

COGA Virtual Mardi Gras Ball.

DIPS Virtual Talk

14

15

16 DWLS Webinar.

21

22

17

18

19

20

25

26

27

RMAG Online Carbonates Short Course.

23

24

28

Vol. 70, No. 2 | www.rmag.org

37

OUTCROP | February 2021