OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Volume 71 • No. 4 • April 2022
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Summit Sponsors PLATINUM SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
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OUTCROP The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
1999 Broadway • Suite 730 • Denver, CO 80202 • 720-672-9898 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.
2022 OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT
2nd VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT
Rob Diedrich rdiedrich75@gmail.com
Matt Bauer matthew.w.bauer.pg@gmail.com
PRESIDENT-ELECT
SECRETARY
Ben Burke bburke158@gmail.com
Sandra Labrum slabrum@slb.com
1st VICE PRESIDENT
TREASURER
Courtney Beck Antolik courtneyantolik14@gmail.com
Mike Tischer mtischer@gmail.com
1st VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT
TREASURER ELECT
Ron Parker parkero@gmail.com
Anna Phelps aphelps@sm-energy.com
2nd VICE PRESIDENT
COUNSELOR
Mark Millard millardm@gmail.com
Jeff May jmay.kcrossen@gmail.com
RMAG STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Bridget Crowther bcrowther@rmag.org OPERATIONS MANAGER
Kathy Mitchell-Garton kmitchellgarton@rmag.org CO-EDITORS
Courtney Beck Antolik courtneyantolik14@gmail.com Nate LaFontaine nlafontaine@sm-energy.com Wylie Walker wylie.walker@gmail.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Elijah Adeniyi elijahadeniyi@montana.edu
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Rates and sizes can be found on page 44. 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 720-672-9898. 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. The Outcrop is a monthly publication of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Danielle Robinson danielle.robinson@dvn.com
WEDNESDAY NOON LUNCHEON RESERVATIONS
RMAG Office: 720-672-9898 Fax: 323-352-0046 staff@rmag.org or www.rmag.org
DESIGN/LAYOUT: Nate Silva | nate@nate-silva.com
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2022 RMAG FIELD TRIPS CEMEX Niobrara Quarry Virtual Tour | April 7, 3:30pm (MDT) | Online Trip leaders: Brown Hawkins & Steve Sonnenberg
Registration open! Unconventional Reservoirs of the Southern Denver Basin | May 21 | Pueblo, CO Trip leader: Jeff May
San Juan River Raft Trip | June 14-16 | Bluff, UT Trip leader: Gary Gianniny, Fort Lewis on the Water (FLOW)
Colorado Glaciology | June 25 | Minturn/Vail, CO Trip leader: Vince Matthews
Leadville Mineral Belt Bike Tour | July 9 | Leadville, CO Trip leader: Fred Mark
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument & Clare Quarry Fossil Collecting | August, Date TBD | Florissant, CO Trip leader: Monument Visitor Center Staff
Picketwire Dinosaur Trackways | October 22-23 | La Junta, CO Trip leaders: Martin Lockley & Bruce Schumacher Trip run in conjunction with Dinosaur Ridge
More to be added! Stay tuned... Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: www.rmag.org
OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
CONTENTS FEATURES 6 2022 RMAG Summit Sponsorship Packet 16 Lead Story: RMAG Centennial, Part II–The Rise of the DJ Basin (1947-1972) 30 Presidential & Professional Awards 36 Mineral Of The Quarter: Wolframite
DEPARTMENTS
35 In The Pipeline
10 RMAG March 2022 Board of Directors meeting
43 Welcome New RMAG Members!
22 Hybrid Lunch Talk: Alexa Socianu
44 Outcrop Advertising Rates
26 Hybrid Lunch Talk: RMAG– Celebrating The Past And Embracing The Future
45 Advertiser Index
28 Member Corner: Meet Adam Lane
45 Calendar ASSOCIATION NEWS 2 RMAG Summit Sponsors 4 2022 RMAG Field Trips 11 RMAG Hybrid Short Course Series: Geochemistry Skills for Basin and Petroleum System Assessment, A 3 Course Series 12 President’s Letter 13 RMAG Golf Tournament Arrowhead Golf Club 15 On The Rocks: San Juan River Raft Trip 21 RMAG Powder River Basin Symposium
COVER PHOTO Willow Lake, Prescott, AZ. Granite Dells, just north of the city, is a coarse-grained granite that is dated at about 1,400 million years. Photo by Cat Campbell
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44 Call For Papers for The Mountain Geologist
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RMAG Summit Sponsorship
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Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 1999 Broadway, Suite 730 Denver, CO 80202 Phone: 800.970.7624 | email: staff@rmag.org
November 30, 2021 Geoscience Community: 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 2021. The second year of a pandemic was not what any of us hoped for but, as we learn to live with the new reality, RMAG has continued to meet both the needs of our members and the greater geoscience community as well as honor our sponsors’ commitment to RMAG. We have hosted dozens of virtual events which included short courses, workshops, Members in Transition talks, monthly online luncheons, virtual trivia, and a virtual field trip. Slowly over the course of the year, we have been able to add back so many of our outdoor events, from the Annual Golf Tournament to six On the Rocks field trips across the region. With the assistance of the RMAG Foundation, we provided student memberships and professional development reimbursements to assist our geologic community. Your sponsorship dollars also supported our excellent publications including the monthly Outcrop newsletter, the quarterly Mountain Geologist journal, and 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 before each online event. With a LinkedIn group of over 2600 members, we made our sponsors visible to the geoscience community for both virtual and in person events. We are in the process of planning for our upcoming year, and we need your help to continue our programs. 2022 will be an exciting year for RMAG as we celebrate our 100th anniversary with special events and publications to honor our association’s rich history. Summit Sponsor company names and logos will be prominently featured at all RMAG events, and while we plan to host more in person gatherings, we also will continue to hold online events which have been very popular with our membership. If you are already a Summit Sponsor, we look forward to your continued support in 2022. If you are not a sponsor, please 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 2022 and look forward to seeing you at our events.
Rob Diedrich
Bridget Crowther
2022 RMAG President
RMAG Executive Director
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2022 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
Large Logo
Medium Logo
Small Logo
Company logo on Summit Sponsor signage at all events**
Large Logo
Medium Logo
Small Logo
✓
✓
✓
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 other social event 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
2 team of 4 players
1 team of 4 players
2 individual players
Total Golf registration points
8
4
2
Total Social Event registration points
8
4
2
Platinum
Gold
Silver
RMAG Luncheons & Field Trips
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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2022 RMAG Summit Sponsorship All sponsor benefit event tickets follow RMAG event registration deadlines. All benefits end 12 months after registration.
RMAG 2022 2 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. Company: _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Company Representative: ________________________________________________________________________________
Address: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip: ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Phone: ___________________________________ Email: __________________________________________________________ Payment by Credit Card Select a card: Amex
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Name as it appears on Credit Card: _____________________________________________________________________
Credit Card #: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Exp. Date: _______________________Security #: ____________________________________________________________
Signature: _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Payment by Check Mail checks payable to RMAG: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) 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: 720.672.9898
1999 Suite 730 Denver, CO, 80202 Vol. 71,Broadway, No. 4 | www.rmag.org
fax: 323.352.0046
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RMAG MARCH 2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING By Sandra Labrum, Secretary slabrum@slb.com
for volunteers so reach out if you want to be a part. The Publications Committee is continuing to do great work bringing us a full slate of articles to celebrate the 100th anniversary of RMAG. If you would like to write an article for the Mountain Geologist, please let us know. Educational Outreach is looking for members to make short videos about why they became geologists for the RMAG Instagram page. Also, the RMAG foundation teacher of the year applications open on April 4th so be sure to nominate your favorite earth science teacher. On the Rocks, is finalizing the list and dates for the field trips for the year, see the calendar linked on the RMAG website for the full lineup. The next event is CEMEX Quarry Niobrara Virtual Trip on April 7th. Finally, Diversity and Inclusion committee is continuing to work on increasing the diversity in RMAG members and increasing the visibility of RMAG at events that we typically haven’t participated in. I hope you all have a fantastic month and let hope that you all can get outside and enjoy some beautiful spring weather. Until next time!
Hi everyone! Happy spring officially! The warmer weather means we are getting close to field trip season which is going to be a great one this year. March also brought the first luncheon back in person and it was so good to see everyone in real life, be sure to join us in April! The March Board of Directors meeting took place March 16th, 2022 at 4pm via Microsoft Teams. All board members except one were present. March was a great month for new members we had 27 join! Welcome to all the new members we are so happy to have you. The Finance committee provided an overview of the financials for February. RMAG had a net operating loss due to the lack of summit sponsorships coming in this month. The Continuing Education Committee short course for April starts on the 5th. Mike Lewan will be teaching a 3 course geochemistry series all about petroleum basins and systems. The Membership Committee matched all the mentors and mentees in mentorship program and the kickoff is happening later this month. The committee is also still looking
Well Log Digitizing • Petrophysics Petra® Projects • Mud Log Evaluation Bill Donovan
Geologist • Petroleum Engineer • PE
(720) 351-7470 donovan@petroleum-eng.com
RMAG Hybrid Short Course Series
Geochemistry Skills for Basin and Petroleum Systems Assessment: A 3 Course Series April 5, 13, 19 8am-12pm (MDT) daily April 5: Stages of Petroleum Formation April 13: Determining Petroleum Charge April 19: Timing and Extent of Petroleum Formation Instructor: Mike Lewan Register for series or individual classes. Attend in-person or online. Registration and details at www.rmag.org. In-person (series/single class) Online (series/single class) RMAG members $200/$75 RMAG Members: $100/$40 Non-members: $250/$100 Non-members: $125/$60 Students: $100/$35 Students: $50/$20 Vol. 71, No. 4 |
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER By Rob Diedrich
“The Best Geologists Are The Ones Who Have Seen The Most Rocks”
The sign “The Best Geologists are the Ones Who Have Seen the Most Rocks” hung on a respected petroleum geologist’s wall in Casper, Wyoming when I began my career for a major oil company in 1981. Doesn’t that make a lot of sense? Studying rocks, whether on outcrop, in core or thin section is foundational to a geologist’s training. Outcrops provide some of the best classrooms for geologists. Investigating rocks in their natural environment and drawing conclusions about their origin are the keys to understanding ‘On the rocks’ with Dr. Gerald Friedman (tan shirt & pants) in upstate New York, 1977. geologic history. I remember my first geology field trip very well. I was and a recipient of AAPG’s prestigious Sidney Powa newly declared geology major. My university’s earth ers Medal. science department hosted the New York State GeologAs I look back at my career, a few exceptional field ical Association’s annual meeting and I signed up for trips provided some enlightening ‘aha’ moments. One a trip called ‘Carbonate and Terrigenous Sedimentary such trip was to an active coal mine in SW Wyoming. Facies of Tidal Origin, Eastern New York.’ Our trip leadThere a huge mine face wall held a massive coal seam er, a professor from a nearby college, was a memorable that split laterally into multiple thin seams before character. He spoke with a thick German accent, and merging with other coals in an unpredictable fashion. his enthusiasm was infectious. As we scrambled over I realized then why my coal bed methane project subearly Paleozoic tidal carbonates, he told stories about surface correlations were so puzzling. I also recall exthe ‘critters’ who lived and burrowed through these amining an eolian sandstone pinch out in the Permian ancient sediments. The trace fossils they left behind White Rim Formation of SE Utah. This was no ordihelped us unravel the depositional environment and nary pinch out but an exposed stratigraphic trap holdgeologic setting. What a stroke of good fortune that my ing billions of barrels of oil. Tar was oozing out of the first geology field trip was led by Dr. Gerald Friedman, CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 one of the greats in the field of applied sedimentology
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RMAG Golf Tournament Arrowhead Golf Club June 7, 2022
13th hole @ Arrowhead ~ Photo by RMAG member Megan Cornellisen
2pm Shotgun | Grab & Go Lunch Starts @ 1pm Registration includes entry, 18 holes of golf, cart, lunch, dinner, & entry to win prizes Teams of 4 and individuals are invited to register! Member Team: $600 Member Individual: $150 Non-member Team: $700 Non-member Individual: $175 Registration open at www.rmag.org Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: www.rmag.org Vol. 71, No. 4 | www.rmag.org
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER Wire Canyon Track site • Take a tour of exceptional glacial features in the central Colorado mountains
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outcrop at this site appropriately called the Tar Sand Triangle. What a unique visual guide to aid in my subsurface hunt for oil fields. If you are looking for an opportunity to see more rocks, plan to attend one of RMAG’s 2022 field trips. The ‘On the Rocks’ committee’s charge is to get you out ‘on the rocks,’ and this year’s field trip schedule has something for everyone: • Bring your family on a guided tour of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and a fossil dig at a nearby quarry • Raft the San Juan River on a three-day float and see spectacularly exposed cyclic Pennsylvanian carbonates • Learn about the geology and history of the Leadville area on a bike tour of this historic mining district • Consider applications to exploration and development of unconventional reservoirs on outcrops at Pueblo State Park • Walk with dinosaurs at the world-famous Picket
Registration for these and other trips will be opening later this month on the RMAG website, and we hope you will join us ‘on the rocks.’ This month’s Centennial anecdote is about one of RMAG’s most unique field trips. In 1980, with overthrust exploration booming, RMAG planned an ambitious field trip to the Utah-Wyoming Overthrust Belt. It included a flyover of the foreland belt with two chartered turbo-prop aircraft. Unfortunately, there was so much turbulence on the mountain overflight that one trip leader cut his flight short and the other explained to his nauseous passengers what they might see beneath the cloud cover. Look for more Outcrop stories about the history of RMAG field trips in the months ahead.
LIVE IN PERSON HYATT REGENCY DENVER
AT COLORADO CONVENTION CENTER
EARLY BIRD DEADLINE: APRIL 30
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2022 RMAG FIELD TRIPS
San Juan River Raft Trip | June 14-16 | Bluff, UT Trip leader: Gary Gianniny, Fort Lewis on the Water (FLOW)
ON
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Join us on the river! Come join us for three days (and two/three nights camping) on a geologic float-trip through the Upper Canyon of the San Juan River, June 14-16. Our trip leader, Dr. Gary Gianniny, Professor of Geosciences at Fort Lewis College, will lead us on rafts piloted by boatmen from the Fort Lewis on the Water program (FLOW). We will launch near Bluff, Utah on Tuesday, June 14, and float 27 miles to Mexican Hat, Utah, where we will disembark on Thursday June 16. Geological highlights we will float through include: • • •
The Navajo Sandstone on the Comb Ridge Monocline Triassic and Permian terrigenous redbeds The spectacularly exposed cyclic Pennsylvanian carbonates, mudstones, and evaporites of the Paradox Formation
Classic shoaling-upward cycles, including phylloid-algal bafflestone buildups with ooid grainstone caps, are exposed at river-level near Eight Foot Rapid. We will also float through the spectacular Raplee Anticline on our traverse from the Paradox Basin onto the Monument Uplift.
Trip limited to 25 participants $850/RMAG member, $900/ non-member Registration opens soon! See details at www.rmag.org
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RMAG CENTENNIAL Part II: The Rise of the DJ Basin (1947-1972)
By Jane Estes-Jackson, Donna Anderson, and Matt Silverman
T
HE YEARS FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II WERE A TIME OF GENERAL
prosperity in the US, and demand for oil expanded along with the economy. Geophysical exploration methods continued to improve, and in 1949, the Ohio Oil Company drilled and completed the Mary Egging #1 well (Figure 1) on a seismic high in Cheyenne County, Nebraska (Figure 2) for 225 BOPD from the D Sand at a depth of 4,429’. It was followed by the discovery of the Armstrong Field (Figure 2) on a seismic high in Logan County, Colorado in 1950. This kicked off the first big drilling boom in the Denver-Julesburg Basin (also known as the DJ Basin or more properly the Denver Basin), which continued throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, driven in part by a combination of the accessibility, relatively shallow depths, low drilling costs, and high gravity oil of the D and J sands. Over a period of 15 years an average of 1,000 D and J sand wells per year were drilled in the
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FIGURE 1: (right) The Mary Egging #1, discovery well for the
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FIGURE 2:
Index map showing key locations discussed in the text.
DJ Basin. It is estimated that millions of acres were leased within a matter of months as the play moved west and south from southwestern Nebraska into northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Elsewhere in the Rockies, several new pipelines constructed in the late 1940s through early 1950s provided new markets for numerous large gas fields in the San Juan, Piceance, Uinta, and Green River basins, which accelerated drilling activity in those areas as well. Large oil companies established division offices in Denver (Figure 3) and maintained smaller district offices in such places as Albuquerque, Farmington, Durango, Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Casper, and Billings. Uranium prospecting in the western US was also increasing due to the advent of the Cold War. In short, it was a good time to be a geologist in the Rockies. The momentum from all this activity had a profound impact on RMAG. In 1950 membership had
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reached close to 200 members; by the end of 1960 it had increased fivefold to 1,050 members. By 1964 it was second only to the Houston Geological Society in terms of membership. The organization was growing and thriving, and it achieved several milestones during this time. The first member roster was printed in 1951 and was followed in 1955 by the first photo directory. The first RMAG office was established in 1956 in the Denver Club Building, located at 518 17th Street. RMAG moved and changed management several times over the next 15 years. From 1960 through 1969 the phone and mail functions for RMAG were handled by a third-party business service, with the Board taking care of all the other business functions, including membership and financial records. Petroleum Information managed the RMAG office from 1969 through 1970, and in 1971 RMAG once again established an office with a full-time staff member.
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In 1954 RMAG was formally incorporated as a non-profit under the leadership of President Robert Munoz (1904-1998, Figure 4). That same year the relationship between RMAG and AAPG was formalized, and RMAG hosted AAPG annual meetings in Denver in 1948, 1961, and 1972. Programs were integrated into the weekly luncheon meetings in 1950 as a means of improving attendance. The meetings were held at the Albany Hotel and were attended by an average of over 100 members. While some of the presentations were geologically oriented, many of them were of more general interest. Special evening meetings were also held and usually included programs on the latest “hot” play. By 1964 the Friday luncheon meetings had moved to the “old” Petroleum Club located at 16th and Broadway in downtown Denver. As past President John Rold (1927-2012; Figure 4) remembered:
“Every geologist in the Oil Patch knew that if they were in Denver on a Friday they could come to RMAG, meet their friends and hear a good talk.”
Attendance averaged around 165 members and the lunch consisted of a seafood buffet. The tradition of recognizing the best luncheon speaker with a yearly award started in 1965. In 1964, while serving as RMAG President, John Rold was approached by George Fentress, a member of Colorado’s state legislature at the time, regarding the reinstatement of the Colorado Geological Survey. A joint RMAG-AIPG committee was formed in 1966 to gather research from other state geologists. This information was used to write a bill that was passed and signed by Governor John Love in 1967, when Earl Griffith (1919-2006; Figure 4) was RMAG President. The state of Colorado appointed a selection committee to interview and administer the examination to candidates for the new position and in 1969 John Rold became State Geologist and Director of the Colorado Geological Survey, a position that he held for 24 years. The RMAG newsletter was published sporadically starting in 1951, and in 1956 it became a monthly publication under editor Bill Mallory, who
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FIGURE 3: The Continental Oil Company building located at
18th and Glenarm in downtown Denver, circa 1960 (from the Denver Public Library Western History Collection). later served as RMAG President in 1960 (Figure 4). Petroleum Information generously provided the printing of the newsletter from 1951 through 1995. Publications were becoming a very important part of RMAG’s contribution to the scientific community. A committee of several RMAG members revised and updated the Possible Future Petroleum Provinces in the Rocky Mountain Region and published it in the AAPG Bulletin in February 1951. In May of that year an RMAG research committee chaired by Alex McCoy III published “Types of Oil and Gas Traps in the Rocky Mountains” in the AAPG Bulletin. In 1954, RMAG published the guidebook Oil and Gas Fields of Colorado, which sold 1,700 copies and was the first oil and gas field symposium published for the Rocky
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Mountain region. It established a tradition of compiling technical symposia into yearly hardbound “guidebooks”, which continued through 1963. By the early 1960s the members of RMAG were generating an abundance of high-quality technical papers and there was a growing need for a venue to publish them. So, in 1964 RMAG established The Mountain Geologist, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal focused on Rocky Mountain geology. In effect it replaced the guidebooks from 1964 through 1972, which in turn had a negative financial impact on the organization. The Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region (aka “The Big Red Book”) is arguably RMAG’s most notable publication. FIGURE 4: Notable RMAG Members and Past Presidents It was inspired by the volume Geological History of Western Canada published in followed him as RMAG President in 1969 and AAPG 1964 by the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists. President in 1991-1992. He chaired the AAPG naEdited by Bill Mallory (1917-2003; Figure 4), the Attional meeting held in Denver in 1972. In addition to las was initiated in 1967 and published in 1972 at a their numerous contributions as petroleum geolocost of $235,000 for 7,500 copies. Pre-publication gists, both Dr. Haun and Dr. Weimer were professors sales had covered only about half of the expenses, so at Colorado School of Mines for over 30 years. Both John Lockridge (1931-2015; Figure 4), who became men received the Sidney Powers Memorial award RMAG President the following year, provided a shortfrom AAPG term personal guarantee to secure a loan to cover Social events have also been important to the the rest. A committee of 100 RMAG members was mission of RMAG. The first golf tournament was formed to provide additional financial support; three held June 25 and 26, 1951 at the Lakewood Country years later this committee evolved into the RMAG Club, and the tournament quickly became a well-atFoundation. The Big Red Book was ultimately a sigtended annual event. The first official RMAG ski day nificant money-maker for RMAG. There was a second was held on April 24, 1961, at Arapahoe Basin, in printing of 1,500 copies in 1982; it was digitized in conjunction with the AAPG annual convention. It 2006; converted to GIS shapefiles in 2014; and reproved so popular that it became the “Annual Alpenmains an important reference for anyone working fest” and was organized and hosted by the RMAG the Rockies. Auxiliary (see “Celebrating nearly 70 years of the RMAG was very fortunate to have two very notable GeoLegends serve as president during the late RMAGA” in the February Outcrop). 1960s. John Haun (1921?-2020; Figure 4) served In 1970, Margaret “Peggy” Fuller Boos (1892as RMAG President in 1968 and AAPG President in 1978; Figure 4) became the first woman to receive 1979-1980. He was the co-founder and first editor Honorary Membership in RMAG, the organization’s of The Mountain Geologist, and an associate editor of highest honor. As a well-regarded researcher and the Big Red Book. He edited the AAPG Bulletin from teacher, she established the Department of Geolo1967-1971, and is credited with starting the AAPG gy at the University of Denver in 1935 and served as Explorer. Robert Weimer (1926-2021; Figure 4) CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
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its department head until 1943. She and her husband Maynard worked as petroleum geologists together for many years, and co-authored “Tectonics of Eastern Flank and Foothills of Front Range, Colorado” published in the December 1957 AAPG Bulletin. She authored over 50 publications throughout her career, and was named the “First Lady of Petroleum” by the American Petroleum Institute in 1971. One of the most significant events for hydrocarbon exploration in the Rockies took place in 1969, when the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRC) agreed to lease 7.4 million gross acres of its land holdings in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah exclusively to Pan American/ Amoco for $9 million. This “UP Strip” acreage followed and flanked the railroad in a checkerboard pattern 20 miles on each side. A resurgence of drilling activity in the DJ Basin soon followed, and the prolific Wattenberg Field (Figure 5) was discovered in 1970 with the completion of the Grenemeyer #1 well (Figure 2), which came on at 484 MCFGPD and 10 BOPD from the J Sand. Vessels Oil and Gas drilled it under a farmout agreement from Amoco. Within two years Wattenberg was Colorado’s largest producer of wet gas, which was sold to Public Service Company (now Xcel Energy), after the liquid components were stripped out, for consumers in the Front Range. Prior to the numerous discoveries in the DJ Basin, the greater Denver area got most of its natural gas via pipeline from the giant Hugoton Field in southwestern FIGURE 5: Original map of Wattenberg Field prepared by R.A. Matuszczak, published in 1973 in the Mountain Geologist, vol. 10, num. 3, p. 102. Kansas. Spindle Field, the second largest oil field in the DJ Basin, was discovered in 1971 during Amoco’s initial development drilling October 1997. of Wattenberg. Denver once again became • Western Oil Reporter’s Rocky Mountain Oil Histoan oil boomtown, and new skyscrapers popped up ry, by Russ Rountree, 1984. throughout downtown. • High Altitude Energy: A History of Fossil Fuels in To be continued . . . Colorado, by Lee Scamehorn, 2002. • A Look Back at the D-J Play 1950-1965 and OthSOURCES er Oil Stories, by R.E. Chancellor and A.A. McGre• A Special Volume: 75 years of the RMAG, by Harold E. Kellogg, in the Mountain Geologist, gor, 1998.
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Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Powder River Basin Symposium & Core Workshop Sept. 14-15, 2022 • Sheraton Denver West
Call for Papers The RMAG is soliciting papers for presentation at their Fall Symposium, which will focus on the geology and petroleum development of the Powder River Basin. Talks will be 20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for questions. We will consider papers on any producing formation in the basin but with an intention to focus on the Niobrara, Turner, Frontier, and Mowry. We are also looking for companies and organizations that would be willing to exhibit core from the basin. Cores will be exhibited on the afternoon of the 15th, and core presenters will be given the opportunity to present a paper on their evaluation of the core during the morning oral session. Please submit your abstract and a short biographical sketch through the RMAG website or send them to the RMAG Office at staff@rmag.org.
Abstract submission deadline: May 1, 2022 Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: www.rmag.org Vol. 71, No. 4 | www.rmag.org
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HYBRID LUNCH TALK Speaker: Alexa Socianu Date: April 6, 2022 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Old Dog, New Tricks A Multiscale Re-Evaluation of the Sequence Stratigraphic Framework in the Emerging Mowry Shale Unconventional Play A. Socianu1,2, J. May1,3 1: Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO | 2: PDC Energy, Denver, CO | 3: Geologic Consultant, Littleton, CO
frequently punctuated this suspension fallout. An understanding of the multiscale heterogeneity and controls on reservoir quality within a sequence stratigraphic framework helps in defining sweet spots and optimum horizontal targets. End-member facies in the PRB range from micro-crystalline quartz-rich mudstone, derived from intrabasinal biogenic silica, to bioturbated and ripple cross-laminated muddy siltstone. Intervening facies include siliceous mudstone with varying amounts of silt laminae and bioturbated silty mudstone. In the more proximal BHB, bioturbated muddy sandstone and ripple cross-laminated to hummocky cross-stratified sandstones occur.
ABSTRACT The Mowry Shale is a prolific source rock in numerous Laramide basins, having expulsed large volumes of oil and gas into adjacent conventional reservoirs. Operators are now testing the Mowry as an unconventional reservoir in the Powder River Basin (PRB) and, to a lesser extent, the Bighorn Basin (BHB). During the Albian to Cenomanian, the Mowry seaway was separated from warmer southern waters of the Tethys Ocean. Cold, boreal waters yielded a hemipelagic mixture of clay, radiolaria, marine kerogen, and fish debris while volcanism to the west provided sporadic input of silica-rich ash. Terrigenous silt and sand delivered by high-energy events
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ALEXA SOCIANU graduated with a B.A. from Northwestern University in 2011 with a double-major in Biology and Geology, along with a minor in Secondary Education. She graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2015 with her M.Sc. in Geology where she was advised by Dr. John Kaszuba and went on to continue her doctoral studies at Colorado School of Mines advised by Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg as part of the Mudrock and Tight Oil Consortium (MudTOC). Building upon her previous work, her doctoral research utilizes a multiscale, integrated approach to study the influence of rock type, thermal maturity, and sequence stratigraphy on core-, pore-, and basin-scale reservoir characteristics of the Mowry Shale with a goal of improving future Mowry Shale horizontal drilling efforts in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Beginning in 2017, Alexa worked for Centennial Resource Development as an Operations Geologist and later as a Development Geologist in the Permian Basin for three years while continuing her Mowry Shale research. She is currently a Development Geologist at PDC Energy for their Delaware Basin asset. OUTCROP | April 2022
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Mallard Exploration is a Denver-based upstream Oil & Gas Exploration and Production company focused on the DJ Basin of Colorado. We are building a successful business with strong ethics, hard work and industry-leading technology.
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HYBRID LUNCH TALK systems tracts and condensed sections. Our sequence stratigraphic interpretation is quite different from previous models and has important implications for defining and mapping the best lateral target. Core data demonstrate the middle Mowry HST hosts the highest organic content, hydrocarbon saturations, and proportion of biosiliceous facies. Higher maturity biosiliceous facies are nearly 25x more permeable than samples of the identical facies in the earliest oil window. We suggest the optimal horizontal target for Mowry production in the PRB is in the uppermost parasequence of this HST, where detrital silt content, moveable hydrocarbons, and mechanical properties are optimized. In this zone silt provides storage and permeability pathways, silica cement generates a brittle framework for hydraulic fracturing, and organic matter increases hydrocarbon saturation and matrix permeability.
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Gradational successions of these facies, with upward increasing detrital content and bioturbation, characterize most Mowry parasequences. Abrupt decreases in grain size, with bentonite and/or clay-rich mudstone sitting directly on coarser grained parasequence tops, represent flooding surfaces. In the distal portions of the PRB, some parasequences transition to an apparent fining-upward pattern that actually reflects biosiliceous material with lower gamma response dominating the base of the package becoming clay-rich with higher gamma values at the top of the parasequence. Multiple parasequences stack to form upward coarsening regressive packages interpreted as highstand systems tracts (HSTs). At least three HSTs make up the Mowry Shale. They are variably capped by very thin inferred transgressive
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OUTCROP | April 2022
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WE ARE GREAT WESTERN AND WE ARE COMMITTED TO:
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HYBRID LUNCH TALK Speaker: Donna Anderson Date: May 4, 2022 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
RMAG: Celebrating The Past And Embracing The Future By Donna Anderson, Jane Estes-Jackson, Matt Silverman since then. The RMAG has a long history of scientific excellence and leadership. Four members are Halbouty awardees, 36 are Honorary Members of AAPG, and 28 have received the AAPG Distinguished Service award. Seven members have received the AAPG Sidney Powers award; ten received the Pioneer award; and three the Robert Berg Outstanding Research award. One former member, John Hickenlooper, successfully pivoted to politics first as Mayor of Denver, then as Governor of Colorado, and currently as a U.S. Senator. RMAG may have been ahead of its time when it elected Ninetta Davis in 1941 as its first woman president, although it would be another 60 years before Susan Landon was elected as the second woman president of RMAG. Women currently comprise 16% of RMAG membership but have had average Board representation of 33% over the last 20 years. Of the twenty RMAG members who have been AAPG presidents, Robbie Gries (2001-2002) and Randi Martinsen (20142015) were the first two women AAPG presidents. The RMAG is proud to celebrate its accomplishments over the past 100 years and it will continue to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of its membership to remain viable into the future.
ABSTRACT Colorado has been an important petroleum province since oil was discovered at Florence Field in 1881. Denver became an exploration hub in the early 1920s, when numerous companies opened offices there after several significant oil and gas fields were discovered in the Rockies by geologists using the newly developed science of petroleum geology. Many of these same geologists came together in Denver in January of 1922 (five years after the founding of AAPG) to create the Rocky Mountain Association of Petroleum Geologists. The name was shortened to the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) in 1947 when the first bylaws were approved, and it became a non-profit in 1954. Over the last 50 years, RMAG membership has averaged around 2000, with an all-time high of over 4500 in 1984. The RMAG has published over 65 guidebooks since 1937 and its peer-reviewed quarterly journal The Mountain Geologist since January of 1964. Technical talks became part of the luncheon program in 1950, and its monthly newsletter, The Outcrop, has been published since 1983. The RMAG hosted the first regional AAPG meeting in August of 1922 and 10 ACE meetings
JANE ESTES-JACKSON, DONNA ANDERSON, AND MATT SILVERMAN have been working on the Centennial history of the RMAG for the last couple of years. All are past-Presidents of the RMAG, and they collectively have over 100 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, much of it in the Rockies and all of it as RMAG members. That experience only covers the last 50 or so years of RMAG history. For that and the first 50 years, they have also relied on Hal Kellogg’s 75th anniversary history, other archives, and the memories of RMAG members who lived the history from the 1950s to the present. As former Outcrop editors, they like to write, and they like history, with Matt currently being the President of the Petroleum History Institute. Donna was “elected” to give this talk, by virtue of her absence at the committee meeting at which the speaker was decided. Which only supports the saying that 90% of life is showing up. OUTCROP | April 2022
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Confluence Resources is an upstream exploration and production company Confluence Resources is an confluenceresources.com upstream exploration and production company confluenceresources.com Vol. 71, No. 4 | www.rmag.org
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MEMBER CORNER
Meet Adam Lane Ph.D. Student, Department of Geology, The University of Kansas & Recipient of the 2021 RMAG Foundation Veterans’ Memorial Scholarship geology undergraduate in Missouri by the Association of Missouri Geologists. In 2018 Allie and I received our master’s from Kansas State, and Aaron officiated our wedding. Currently, I’m working on my Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, where I’ve expanded my interests to include sediment-hosted metal deposits. Plus, as of October, Allie and I are navigating being new parents. Absolutely all of it, the entire trajectory of my career and more, began because no science class other than geology was available.
1. HOW DID YOU END UP INVOLVED IN THE GEOSCIENCES? Honestly, it was pure serendipity. I grew up on a farm outside of Stanberry, MO. Ever since I was a toddler, my parents would take me to the local creek, and we would go “rock hunting”. Primarily we looked for Native American artifacts. However, we’d also find petrified wood, shark teeth, amber, agates, mammoth molars, ammonites, etc., as well as a multitude of rocks of various lithologies from glacial outwash. “The best geologist sees the most rocks,” and I’ve been working on that, without realizing it, for most of my life. I was not introduced to geology as a career until I attended the local university, Northwest Missouri State, using the Montgomery GI Bill. I was late signing up for classes because of my annual training for the National Guard, so I was randomly placed in a geology course because there weren’t enough students. Dr. Aaron Johnson, now the Executive Director of AIPG, was my professor; he saw my potential and changed my life. At NWMSU, I became interested in petroleum geology thanks to Dr. John Pope’s lectures and met my future wife, Allie, a fellow geology student recruited by Aaron. In 2016, I became the first in my family to earn a college degree and was selected as the top
2. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
On my seventeenth birthday, I joined the Missouri Army National Guard as a 35N-Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Analyst, a position requiring a Top-Secret security clearance. I wasn’t even out of high school, and someone from the federal government tracked down one of my friends while he was skateboarding and asked him if I was associated with any foreign terrorist groups. I know they must ask everyone that, but I always thought it was funny. One of the early highlights of that job was that out of the approximately seventy recruits with whom I began training, only seven graduated, and I was the top graduate. That experience helped solidify my self-confidence and realize that the perceived limits of my
RMAG’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee is featuring a monthly Member Corner. We hope you’ll enjoy learning about the diverse community of Earth scientists and wide variety of geoscience disciplines that comprise our membership. If you would like to appear in an upcoming column, or if there is someone you would like to nominate, please contact staff@rmag.org.
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capabilities were only self-imposed. I’m proud to say that I’m a fourth-generation veteran, and I’ll always be thankful for that period of my life.
3. WHAT IS THE BEST CAREER LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED SO FAR?
I’d have to say it’s to “Embrace the Suck.” There will be situations in life that you can’t change or avoid and so the best thing that you can do is accept what is happening, do your best, and even try to find the humor in it, if possible. The best example of that is from my dad, who worked for the City of Stanberry and was a Marine Corps drill instructor. The sewage drying beds at the treatment plant needed to be scooped out, and the front-end loader was out of operation. What else was there to do but grab a shovel and go? He just laughed at the task at hand and got to work.
4. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE ENTERING THE GEOSCIENCES?
I’d say that you first need to evaluate the motivation behind your decision. If it’s money or family history and not a passion, you should walk away and find something that truly brings meaning to your life. I believe that there are too many fair-weather friends in the workforce, and you are seeing their presence or rather absence with the “Great Resignation.” During my field camp, I spoke to a geologist who was let go during the 80’s oil bust but worked with the same company as a janitor until he could be rehired as a geo simply because he loved what he did. It’s likely there will be tough times ahead, so if you feel that you do not have a similar drive, make a different career decision to ensure that the fervent geoscientists keep their jobs.
the effort they put into raising me, being good examples, and teaching me life skills. Whether it was my dad showing me how to save money by fixing a vehicle myself or seeing my mom following her dreams and publishing three children’s books, I am who I am because of them. In the end, I hope I will be even a fraction of how good they were for my son.
7. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES OR PASSIONS OUTSIDE OF WORK?
I enjoy rock hunting, hiking, fishing, and cryptozoology. Yes, cryptozoology, especially the Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, phenomenon. I think it’s healthy to be open to the seemingly improbable, especially when you work in geoscience.
5. WHAT WOULD YOU DO (FOR A CAREER) IF YOU WERE NOT DOING THIS?
I’d be a cattle rancher. I enjoy working with cattle, and I wouldn’t want all that experience from the farm to go to waste. I’m not entirely sure where I’ll end up after this degree, but hopefully, it’ll be somewhere where my wife and I can have a few cattle and some chickens on a piece of land, and my son can enjoy the outdoors as I did. That’s the dream, at least.
8. WHAT 3 TRAITS BEST DESCRIBE YOU? Honest, Compassionate, Appreciative.
9. WHAT FOOD DO YOU DISLIKE THE MOST AND WHY?
6. WHO INSPIRES YOU?
My parents inspire me. Now that my wife and I have our first child, I’m just beginning to understand
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During basic training at Fort Jackson, SC, the dining facility served us boiled okra and tomatoes as a side dish. Supposedly it is soul food, but it was unholy to me, and that squishy substance burned itself forever into my memory. OUTCROP | April 2022
Presidential & Professional Awards It was such an honor serving as your president this past year. One of the greatest benefits is the incredible group of staff and volunteers I was able to work with. To top that off, as president, you get to honor people with an award! This year I chose two individuals that I could not have made it through 2020-2021 without. Jeff May, counselor extraordinaire, and Debby Watkins, the creative, supportive, and dedicated former staff member of RMAG. Jeff has been a mentor my entire career, teaching some of my earlier classes when I was new grad and someone whom I am honored to call a friend today. He took on a monumental and highly sensitive topic this year- diversity. Through his leadership and guidance, RMAG has made significant strides towards honoring and working within the diversity space. Honestly Jeff amazes me with his incredible technical ability and now this work. It is truly an honor to give Jeff this award. Debby brought a smile to my face nearly every day of my presidency and even before that. She is insightful and passionate. Her unique ideas and energy helped get us through the challenges of Covid and keep RMAG relevant. I especially want to recognize her work on the geo hike challenge. She is OUTCROP | April 2022
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO RMAG AWARD
Anne Steptoe The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present the 2021 Distinguished Service to RMAG award to Anne Steptoe in recognition of her outstanding service to the association. Anne has been an RMAG member since 2017 and has led the charge these past couple of years for the Geohike challenge, which has been a creative and fun way to keep our geocommunity and friends and families active and out there exploring during the past couple of years. Anne joined the RMAG Membership Committee in 2019 and quickly took on a leadership role. She ran for Board Secretary in 2019, and has participated in many organization events since joining the community. Her willingness to pitch in and lend a hand has come at crucial points and she is a dependable, resourceful and enthusiastic volunteer. For her dedicated service to the RMAG, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists presents Anne 30
the 2021 Distinguished Service to RMAG award.
Jeff May, Debby Watkins
the one behind that incredible logo and unique events that made the challenge so much fun. Although we miss her terribly at the RMAG, she will always be welcome as our guest and friend. Thank you Debby Watkins for all your contributions to RMAG. —Cat Campbell
PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS
OUTSTANDING SCIENTIST AWARD
Dr. James Hagadorn The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present the 2021 Outstanding Scientist Award to Dr. James Hagadorn for his scientific contributions to geology and paleontology in the Rocky Mountains and western U.S. Dr. Hagadorn is an expert in the microbiology and biostratigraphy of Precambrian and Cambrian strata, having published over 45 papers on that topic. That work particularly focuses on the roles of microbes in the rock record and the life transition from Precambrian to Cambrian times. James has a fascination with Deep Time and mass extinctions, as well as microbes. His diverse studies in the past 11 years have taken him to the Permo-Triassic and Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinctions, particularly in Colorado, even while working on his Precambrian/Cambrian loves. As the Tim and Kathryn Ryan Curator of Geology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, he has been one of a few geoscience researchers taking new looks at Mesozoic and Paleozoic stratigraphy in the Rockies. His Colorado work includes the Devonian Dyer Formation of the White River Uplift with papers published
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RMAG PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO RMAG AWARD
Holly Lindsey The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present the 2021 Distinguished Service to RMAG award to Holly Lindsey in recognition of her outstanding service to the association. Holly has been an RMAG member since 2016 and has a long history of volunteering for the organization. She joined the membership OUTCROP | April 2022
MICHAEL S. JOHNSON EXPLORER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Susan Morrice The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present the 2021 Michael S. Johnson Explorer of the Year Award to Susan Morrice for her significant contributions to the geologic community and unflappable perseverance as an ambitious explorer over the past three decades. Susan is the Chair and President of Belize Natural Energy (BNE) and is an expert in international oil and gas exploration. On June 24, 2005, she made her first independent discovery onshore Belize. This discovery set the stage for Belizean energy independence. Prior to Susan’s 2005 discovery, a handful of oil companies had invested north of $140 million on and off-shore Belize; every one of these companies came up empty handed. Susan’s discovery was not the “luck of the Irish” but reflects her unparalleled devotion to thinking beyond the norm. Her ambition and insatiable 32
work ethic led her to develop the BNE Holistic Business model, which has become a model followed by many companies including major oil and gas companies, universities, and countries worldwide Susan has an uncanny fascination with thinking outside the box and analyzing geology from a rare angle. Since she came to the United States from Ireland, her perseverance and resilience has led her into opportunities that otherwise would not have been possible. As her knack and obsession began to blossom early in her geologic career, she developed the ability to see and understand the subsurface in an extraordinary way. Susan’s contributions to RMAG have been ongoing for many years and her investment in the young professional geology community has helped many students and young professionals in their pursuits as future explorers. All in all, her hustle and ambition has inspired many. From her creation of the International Pavilion to her recent support of the Members in Transition program, she has been an enthusiastic proponent of advancing opportunities for geoscientists and has been an invaluable member of our community. For her outstanding and dedicated service to exploration and education the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists presents Susan Morrice the 2021 Michael S. Johnsons Explorer of the Year Award.
in regional and international journals. In 2020-2021, he collaborated to produce a special issue of the Mountain Geologist about the Cretaceous Codell Sandstone of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, co-authoring several papers in that volume, including a re-definition of the Codell type section in Kansas. That work provided new data and compiled updated material on a debated and important petroleum reservoir. Importantly, James is collaborative and multi-disciplinary, employing modern lab techniques along with classical field studies, pulling scientists together, engaging students, and fostering community-based science. He integrates paleontology and geology, something of a lost undertaking in this era of specialization. For his outstanding and dedicated service to the RMAG and the scientific geologic community, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists presents Dr. James Hagadorn the 2021 Outstanding Scientist Award.
committee in 2020 and has been instrumental in navigating the committee through the difficult past two years. Along with Anne Steptoe, she conceived of and developed the Geohike Challenge as a way for members to stay connected and enjoy the outdoors during the Covid lockdown. She is a go to person who has been an invaluable member and volunteer. For her dedicated service to the RMAG, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists presents Holly the 2021 Distinguished service to RMAG award.
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RMAG PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
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HONORARY MEMBERSHIP
Tom Sperr
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists is pleased to present the Honorary Membership to Mr. Tom Sperr in recognition of his outstanding and dedicated service to RMAG and the geologic profession. Tom is a longtime member of RMAG and has served on four Boards of Directors. The organization has greatly benefited from his financial acumen during his tenure. He has been an integral member of the Financial Advisory Committee since serving as Treasurer Elect in 2015 and Treasurer in 2016. As Treasurer and Trustee for the
RMAG Foundation, he helped that group successfully navigate the financial downturn of 2009. His steadfast leadership as RMAG President in 2019 was critical to the successful resolution of several critical challenges that faced the organization that year. Tom has made important scientific contributions to the geologic community through his publications. He and Jeff Ware co-authored a paper on paleostructural control of hydrocarbon production from the Niobrara that was published in the Mountain Geologist, and he co-authored several other papers regarding the Williston Basin and Rangely Field. Tom grew up in Ohio and received his BS in Geology and BA in History from the University of
Akron in 1976. He earned his MS in Geology from the University of Wyoming in 1985 and his MBA from the University of Denver in 1987. His long and successful career as a petroleum geologist was spent entirely in Denver and included stints at Texaco, Texas Gas, CSX, Total, Presidio, Equity Oil, Bill Barrett Corp., Prima Exploration, and Robert L. Bayless, Producer. Since retiring in 2020, he and his wife Libby, who is also a geologist and longtime member of RMAG, have indulged in their love of travel, skiing and hiking. In recognition of his years of service and loyalty to the association, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists awards Honorary Membership, the association’s highest honor, to Tom Sperr.
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RMAG Foundation 2022 Scholarship Awards
After reviewing a record 81 scholarship applications from undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 9 universities in the western US, the Trustees of the RMAG Foundation have granted nine scholarships totaling $45,000. The diversity of thesis and dissertation topics shown below reflects the increasing variety in geoscience research being conducted by the participating colleges and universities. Students and their advisors will receive a oneyear free RMAG membership from the RMAG Foundation. The RMAG Foundation Trustees congratulate these students for their outstanding academic successes.
Shadya Taleb, Masters student at the University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences “Multiphase flow studies for geological carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration in The Gulf of Mexico using microfluidics devices” COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES SCHOLARSHIP Robert Charnock, Masters student at the Colorado School of Mines “Geology of a Climax-type porphyry molybdenum deposit and base-metal mineralized system, Mount Emmons area, Crested Butte, Colorado”
GARY BABCOCK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
Christophe Simbo, Doctoral candidate at Colorado State University “Sedimentological and geochemical factors influencing the viability of aquifer storage and recovery in the Edwards aquifer, New Braunfels, Texas”
PHILIP J. MCKENNA SCHOLARSHIP FOR COLORADO COLLEGE Spencer Shaw, Junior at Colorado College “Investigating Flow Regime Changes on Channel Morphodynamics, Fountain Creek, Colorado”
Jacob Slawson, Doctoral candidate at Colorado School of Mines “Using Paleogene stratigraphy to predict future hydrologic change”
RMAG FOUNDATION SPECIAL AWARD Aaron Orelup, Junior at Colorado Mesa University “Provenance of detrital sanidine grains, western San Juan Volcanic Field, Colorado”
DUDLEY AND MARION BOLYARD SCHOLARSHIP Nicholas Ferry, Doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas “Source-to-Sink Sediment Dispersal of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, Southeastern Utah” OUTCROP | April 2022
ROBERT M. CLUFF MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
STONE-HOLLBERG SCHOLARSHIP Moones Alamooti, Doctoral candidate at the University of North Dakota “The Application of New Optimization Algorithm 34
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in Mapping of Fracture Networks in the Red River Formation of McKenzie County, North Dakota”
NORMAN H. FOSTER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP Luis Carlos Escobar Arenas, Masters student at Colorado State University “Surface-based modeling of 3D architectural elements controlled by near wellbore modeling”
VETERANS’ MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP Wade Aubin, Doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences “Unraveling the thermal evolution of the pyroclastic density currents from the Crater Lake climactic eruption”
MICHAEL S. JOHNSON SCHOLARSHIP Carolina Mayorga, Doctoral candidate at the Colorado School of Mines “Oil Potential of the Asquith Marker, Lewis Shale, Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming”
IN THE PIPELINE APRIL 13-14. 2022
APRIL 1, 2022 RMS-SEPM 2022 Scholarship Applications Deadline.
CU Denver Global Energy ManagementLifecycle of Oil and Natural Gas Certificate Please email Michele Cooper at michele. cooper@ucdenver.edu for specific registration instructions. (DPC members receive a discount).
APRIL 5-19, 2022 RMAG Short Course Series. “Geochemistry Skills for Basin and Petroleum Systems Assessments.”
APRIL 14, 2022
APRIL 6, 2022
WOGA Virtual Lean-In. Speaker: Nadya James. “Personal Branding.” In person at The Denver Earth Resources Library. starting at 11:00 AM-12:30 PM. Register at www.wogacolorado.org/eventlisting.
RMAG Online Luncheon. Speaker: Alexa Socianu, PDC Energy. “ “Old Dog, New Tricks: A Multiscale Re-Evaluation of the Sequence Stratigraphic Framework in the Emerging Mowry Shale Unconventional Play.” Online or in-person. 12:00 PM-1:00 PM.
APRIL 19, 2022
APRIL 7, 2022
DWLS Luncheon. Speaker: Scott Jacobson, NoHiddenPay LLC. “Dielectric-Spectroscopy Observations while Drilling in U.S. Unconventional Reservoirs.”
RMAG On the Rocks. Cemex Niobrara Quarry Virtual Tour. 3:30 PM. APRIL 12, 2022
APRIL 26, 2022
DPC Luncheon- U.S. Energy Outlook. Speaker: David Braziel, RBN Energy. Denver Athletic Club. 11:30 AM- 1:00 PM.
Vol. 71, No. 4 | www.rmag.org
RMS-SEPM Webinar. See rmssepm.org/events to register.
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MINERAL OF THE QUARTER By Ronald L. Parker Senior Geologist, Borehole Image Specialists, P. O. Box 221724, Denver CO 80222 | ron@bhigeo.com
WOLFRAMITE The Mineral that Illuminated the World
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Beautiful, striated ferberite euhedra with prismatic quartz crystals from Ayopaya Province, Cochabamba, Bolivia. Photo by Annette Slade. Used with permission from Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc.
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Wolframite, iron-manganese tungstate, (Fe,Mn)WO4, is really an isostructural mineral series formed from a complete solid-solution between Ferberite (FeWO4) and Hübnerite (MnWO4). Pure Fe2+ and Mn2+ end members are scarce. Wolframite minerals are rare, but important, because they are, along with Scheelite (CaWO4), the principal sources of the element tungsten. Tungsten is a critical mineral of high economic significance with unique properties that is widely used in the modern world for metallurgy, electronics and telecommunications. The technological leap that led to tungsten filaments in incandescent light bulbs was responsible for lighting the path of human progression into the Surface completely coated with bladed-, wedge- and chisel-shaped, ferberite civilized world. Wolframites are monocrystals from the Nederland District, Boulder County, Colorado. Picture 6 cm in long clinic and occur as black, brown or reddimension; some minerals are ~1 cm. Used with permission from John Betts fine dish brown tabular, bladed or prismatic Minerals, Inc. crystals that form in high-temperature hydrothermal quartz veins and pegmatites associated with granitic plutons. known as wolfram in Europe and many other counThe element tungsten was proposed in 1781 by tries, which led to it being assigned the atomic symbol 18th-century Swedish scientist Karl Wilhelm Scheele W (Schneider, 2006; Rooney, 2019). after he discovered that a new acid, he named it tungBoth end-members of wolframite belong to the stic acid, could be prepared from scheelite. (Scheelite 2/m monoclinic crystal class. Crystals of the wolfram- CaWO4 - didn’t have a formal name at the time; it ite-series are often prismatic, occurring in columnar was named for Scheele later, in 1821). Tungsten groups and they can be blocky, flattened, or elongate. comes from the Swedish from tung - “heavy” and sten Clusters of bladed knives are observed, as are rosettes, -“stone”, a reference to its unusual density. In 1783, and druses of acicular crystals or encrusting or mastwo brothers, Juan Jose and Fausto Fermin de Elhusive habits (Ford, 1957). Prism faces are often striyar isolated tungsten from tungstic acid and named it ated parallel to the c-crystallographic axis. Wolfram“wolframium” in deference to older usage. Tin minite-series minerals are dense, with a specific gravity of ers in medieval (1500s) Saxony knew of tungsten as 7.3 to 7.5, increasing with an increase in Fe2+ content a heavy material that corrupted tin extraction during (Johnsen, 2002). Wolframite hardness is ~4 to 5. Wolrefining. (Note: See my article on tin mining history framites cleave readily along (010) and cleavage facin “Cassiterite – The Catalyst for Human Technologies display a mirror-like adamantine luster. Wolframcal Advance” in the January 2019 “Outcrop”). Miners ite-series minerals display a range of colors. Hübnerite saw that this unknown heavy material interfered with is yellowish brown, reddish brown, blackish brown, tin yield, observing that the tin was consumed by this black, and rarely, red with blood-red internal reflecmaterial like a “wolf eating a sheep.” The end product tions (Mineral Data Publishing, 2005). Ferberite is of the reaction was a dirty tin impurity called “rahm” usually darker – blackish brown to black. Wolframite CONTINUED ON PAGE 38 the German word for soot or dirt or froth. Tungsten is
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MINERAL OF THE QUARTER: WOLFRAMITE
streak is brown to pale brown. Several of the characteristics of wolframites (streak, color, perfect cleavage) are similar to those displayed by sphalerite. Wolframites are easily discriminated from sphalerite, however, because sphalerite has cubic {111} cleavage in 4 directions, forms isometric (not elongate or tabular) crystals and has a much lower density (Wenk and Bulakh, 2004) Wolframite minerals are typically found in latestage, highly-evolved granitoid intrusions associated with orogenesis. Wolframites occur in high-temperature hydrothermal quartz veins and highly-altered granites (greisen) that usually have complex metal contents, including molybdenum, copper, lead, tin, iron and bismuth (Kessler, 1994). The association with molybdenum is especially common, one reason that “molybdates” and “tungstates” are found together in every Mineralogy textbook. (Wolframite is an important by-product of the Climax porphyry molybdenum mine in Colorado, for instance). Minerals associated with wolframite include: cassiterite, scheelite, siderite, muscovite, bismuth, quartz, pyrite, pyrrhotite, galena, sphalerite and arsenopyrite, molybdenite, tourmaline, topaz, rhodochrosite, lepidolite, zinnwaldite, beryl, garnet, biotite, calcite, apatite, and fluorite (Cook, 1998; Mineral Data Publishing, 2005). One special characteristic of wolframites is they can uptake uranium during crystallization, while excluding lead. This property permits U-Pb chronological dating of wolframite mineralization (Romer and Lüders, 2006). Tungsten is a rare metal that has many, many applications in modern civilization. The USGS National Minerals Information Center (NMIC) has identified tungsten as a critical mineral due to its significance in the aerospace, defense, energy and telecommunications industries and for commercial and consumer applications. This classification is amplified by a high import reliance, primarily from sources in China, Bolivia, Germany and Spain (Karl, et. al, 2020). Pure tungsten has the distinction of having the highest melting point (3,422°C or 6,192°F) and the highest boiling point (5,555°C or 10,031°F) of any metal (Schneider, 2006; Lemus and Venezia, 2015; Still, 2016). (Incidentally, that boiling point is the temperature of the plasma in an ICP-MS. Also…the
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Astonishing display of gemmy pink-red rhodochrosite rhombohedra crazed with quartz needles and sporting striated beams of dark red-brown hübnerite crystals. From the Clay Pocket, Main Stope Drift, Sweet Home Mine, Alma District, Park County, Colorado. Annette Slade photo. 7.5 cm in long dimension. Used with permission from Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc. temperature of the surface of the sun)! This high-temperature stability recommended tungsten for the lead role it would have in the lives of billions of human beings. The most recognizable form of tungsten, to most people, is the mysterious coil that is the filament in an incandescent light bulb. The incandescent light, now vilified for being an inefficient waste of energy, is being phased out its prime position as our best choice for lighting up our nights. Even though incandescent lighting is diminishing, tungsten filaments remain in abundance (think of the multiple lights on an automobile). Let’s not forget that the tungsten filament transformed the daily life of human beings and brought civilization out of the darkness and into the light. Before the incandescent light bulb, illumination was conducted by candles, oil and kerosene lamps and manufactured (coal) gas. These sources generated light from a source of dangerous fuel combusted by an open flame.
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MINERAL OF THE QUARTER: WOLFRAMITE brighter light with greater durability, especially when the bulb was filled with an inert gas. GE became the market leader in incandescent light bulbs by 1914. The tungsten-filament light bulb made homes safer and more well-lit than ever before (Chaline, 2012). I would also posit that this one invention, made possible by the wolframite-series minerals, brought about an exponential increase in the realization of human potential. Think about how different YOUR world would be without safe and reliable lights in your home, workplaces, buildings, cars! Incandescent lights are now being replaced (and rightly so) with more efficient lighting technologies. These replacements would never have been sought, or achieved, without tungsten precursors. Beyond the incandescent light
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The result was poor lighting, indoor air pollution and frequent fires and explosions. Although Thomas Alva Edison is often credited with inventing the incandescent light bulb, Chaline (2012) makes clear that there were at least 20 inventors and scientists who contributed to this invention. Edison’s light bulb used a carbonized bamboo filament that worked well, but it was fragile and often short-lived. In 1904, a Hungarian company produced the 1st tungsten filament, which was an improvement over the carbonized version. In 1906, William Coolidge of General Electric devised a mechanism for making tungsten ductile by a process swaging and sintering. This innovation permitted the tungsten to be tightly coiled, resulting in a much
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 40
Arresting large, lustrous black ferberite crystal with minor siderite from the Panasqueira Mine, Couto Mineiro da Panasqueira, Panasqueira, Covilha, Castelo Branco District, Portugal. Prism faces are decorated with striations that highlight the orientation of the c-axis. Annette Slade photo. 8.7 cm in long dimension. Used with permission from Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc.
Captivating array of translucent, elongated hübnerite prisms with dark, blood-red internal reflections from the Huayllapon Mine, Pasto Bueno, Pampas District, Pallasca Province, Ancash Department, Peru. Annette Slade photo. 6.0 cm in long dimension. Used with permission from Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc.
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Two parallel prismatic black ferberite crystals with well-developed terminations partly coated with white calcite and pyrite microcrystals. Used with permission from John Betts fine Minerals, Inc.
bulb, tungsten filaments are used widely in TV vacuum tubes, in X-ray tubes (both as the filament and as the target) and in those super-bright headlights on your Tesla Model S, where the filament glows brighter when the inert gas surrounding the filament is a halogen. Another significant use of tungsten is achieved by mixing it with carbon atoms to manufacture tungsten carbide, one of the hardest synthetic substances known. It is widely used in applications that require high-hardness and extreme wear resistance, particularly in high-temperature applications. Examples include tool steel for valves, springs, chisels, abrasives and high-speed machinery drills (Klein, 2002). Although tungsten carbide has been used in drill bits for oil and gas wells for decades, the proliferation of newer hard materials, like boron nitride, titanium carbide
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and polycrystalline synthetic diamonds has impacted tungsten carbide use in these applications (Kesler, 1994). Yet, tungsten carbide is tougher than diamond (more resistant to fracturing) (Gray, 2009). Beyond filaments and super hard steel, tungsten is also used as electrodes in welding, as an alloying agent in other metallurgical mixes, and as an industrial catalyst (Lemus and Venezia, 2014). Its special properties make tungsten carbide the perfect material for the tip of a ball-point pen (Still, 2016). The density of tungsten makes it useful in armor piercing bullets and as weighting material in recreational darts. Tungsten is effective at shielding radiation – just like lead – and finds application as a container for radioactive medicines. With a density very close to gold, a gold-plated tungsten ingot is a very inexpensive,
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Lustrous, translucent dark-red hübnerite crystal(s) with prismatic quartz crystals. Striations demarcate the orientation of the c-crystallographic axis. From the Black Pine mine, Granite County, Montana. 11 mm in long dimension. Used with permission from John Betts fine Minerals, Inc.
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and a very convincing, fake (Gray, 2009). If you still need a reason to like tungsten, consider that tungsten oxide is one of the few substances that is electrochromic – it changes color in a changing electric field (Still, 2016). Important localities for wolframite-series minerals include: China (Nanling Mountains), Japan (Yamanashi), Romania, South Korea (Tong Wha), Myanmar, Russia, Thailand, Australia, Rwanda, Bolivia (Llallagua), Peru (Cerro de Pasco), Czechia (Zinnwald and Schlaggenwald), Germany, Portugal (Panasqueira), England (Cornwall), Spain (Sierra Almagrera) and Canada (NW Territories). In the United States, A large, euhedral black ferberite crystal with delicate quartz needles from wolframite minerals are found in Fairfield the Ayopaya Province of Bolivia. The largest face of the euhedral crystal is County, Connecticut, in Madison Coundecorated with crystal molds from former quartz crystals. Annette Slade ty, Missouri; in the Black Hills of South photo. 7.5 cm in long dimension. Used with permission from Collector’s Edge Dakota; in Luna and Lincoln Counties, Minerals, Inc. New Mexico and in the Mammoth District in Nevada. Hübnerite.pdf In the Rocky Mountains, ferberite is best-known • http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/ferfrom the occurrences in Boulder and Gilpin Counties, berite.pdf Colorado (Cook, 1998), and hübnerite from Silverton, • https://webmineral.com/data/Wolframite.shtml San Juan County, Colorado (Ford, 1957; Klein, 2002; • Tungsten Deposits in the United States, ver Farndon and Parker, 2011). Voynick (1994) describes 2.0 https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/data/ the Boulder County Tungsten Belt in Colorado as ocUSGS:5e3dce84e4b0edb47be3d6a6 curring within a thin,10-mile-long zone extending from just west of Boulder to Tungsten Mountain, just REFERENCES southeast of Nederland. CO-119 cuts right through Chaline, Eric, 2012, Tungsten, in Fifty Minerals that the middle of the tungsten belt. Ferberite production Changed the Course of History, Buffalo, New York, boomed from this region during World War I, when Firefly Books, Inc., pp. 214-215. the demand for tungsten-strengthened steel skyrockCook, Robert B., 1998, Connoisseur’s Choice: Fereted. Until California and Nevada began to produce berite Panasqueira, Portugal, Rocks & Minerals, tungsten around the 1940s, the 100+ mines from 73(4): 282-284. Boulder County, Colorado were the most significant source of tungsten in the United States. Farndon, John and Steve Parker, 2011, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Minerals, Rocks & Fossils of WEBLINKS the World, Leicestershire, U.K.: Anness Publishing, • https://www.minerals.net/mineral/wolframite. Ltd, 512 pp. aspx Ford, William E., 1957, A Textbook of Mineralogy • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolframite with an Extended Treatise on Crystallography and • https://www.mindat.org/min-4305.html Physical Mineralogy, 4th Ed., New York, John Wiley • http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/ CONTINUED ON PAGE 42
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& Sons, Inc., 851 pp. Gray, Theodore, 2009, Tungsten, in The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, pp. 168-171. Johnsen, Ole, 2002, Minerals of the World: Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 439 pp. Karl, N.A., Carroll, T.R., Burger, M.H., Knudsen, L.D., Long, K.R., Reyes, T.A., and Schmeda, G., 2020, Tungsten Deposits in the United States (ver. 2.0, August 2020): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P97NJLI4. Kesler, Stephen A., 1994, Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment, New York: MacMillan College Publishing Company, Inc., 391 pp. Klein, Cornelis, 2002, The 22nd Edition of the Manual of Mineral Science: New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 641 pp. Lemus, Ranulfo and Carmen F. Venezia, 2015, An Update on the Toxicological Profile of Water-Soluble and Sparingly Soluble Tungsten Substances, Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 45(5): 388-411. Mineral Data Publishing, 2005, Hübnerite, http:// www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/Hübnerite. pdf Accessed 3/20/2022. Parker, Ronald L., 2019, Cassiterite – Catalyst of Human Technological Advance, Outcrop, Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, 68(1): 28-35. https://issuu.com/rmagdenver/ docs/january_outcrop_60eb624e8ae030/28 Romer, Rolf L. and Volker Lüders, 2006, Direct Dating of Hydrothermal W Mineralization: U-Pb Age for Hübnerite (MnWO4), Sweet Home Mine, Colorado, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 70(18): 4725-4733. Rooney, Anne, 2019 How the World Works: The Periodic Table from Hydrogen to Oganesson, London: Sirius Publishing, 208 pp. Schneider, Stuart, 2006, The World of Fluorescent Minerals, Atglen, Pa; Schiffer Publishing, LTD.192 pp. Still, Ben, 2016, Tungsten, in The Secret Life of the Periodic Table: Unlicking the Mysteries of all 118 Elements, Buffalo, New York, Firefly Books, Inc., pp. 85.
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A large, mass of black hübnerite crystals with quartz from the Huayllapon Mine, Pasto Bueno, Pallasca Province, Ancash Department, Peru. 9.5 cm in long dimension. Used with permission from John Betts fine Minerals, Inc. USGS, 2020, Tungsten Deposits in the United States, ver 2.0, https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/data/ USGS:5e3dce84e4b0edb47be3d6a6 accessed 3/20/2022. Voynick, Stephen M., 1994, Rockhounding Colorado: A Guide to Minerals, Gemstones and Fossils, Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 372 pp. Wenk, Hans-Rudolf and Bulakh, Andrei, 2004, Minerals – Their Constitution and Origin: New York: Cambridge University Press, 646 pp. 42
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