OUTCROP Newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Volume 71 • No. 8 • August 2022
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
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Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
OUTCROP Newsletter of 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
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2022 RMAG FIELD TRIPS Just 2 more trips this year! Detroit City Portal Rhodochrosite Mine Tour | August 19 | Alma, CO Trip leader: Dean Misantoni, Mine Geologist Limited registration - sign up for drawing to attend
Picketwire Dinosaur Trackways | October 22-23 | La Junta, CO Trip leaders: Martin Lockley & Bruce Schumacher Trip run in conjunction with Dinosaur Ridge
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
DEPARTMENTS 10 RMAG July 2022 Board of Directors meeting
16 Lead Story: Sedimentary Geothermal—A New Frontier in Subsurface Energy
12 President’s Letter
34 RMAG’s Newest Standing Committee: The Diversity and Inclusion Committee
28 Hybrid Lunch Talk: Riley Brinkerhoff
24 Hybrid Lunch Talk: Kurt Rudolph
30 Member Corner: Elijah Olusola Adeniyi 32 In The Pipeline 32 Welcome New RMAG Members! 54 Outcrop Advertising Rates 55 Advertiser Index 55 Calendar
40 An RMAG Adventure: Rafting the Upper San Juan River Canyon in Utah
ASSOCIATION NEWS 2 RMAG Summit Sponsors 4 2022 RMAG Field Trips 11 RMAG Geohike Challenge 13 RMAG Powder River Basin symposium 15 RMAG 100th Anniversary 25 Python Skills Series: Developing Data Pipelines 27 On-The-Rocks Picket Wire Canyonlands Dinosaur Trackway
COVER PHOTO On the final stretch of the float trip, the rafts pass through cliffs of the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone underlain by the Lower Cutler Formation redbeds enroute to our take-out point at Mexican Hat, Utah. Photo by Denise Stone.
RMAG Summit Sponsorship
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April 21, 2022 Geoscience Community: RMAG could not exist without the very generous support of our Summit Sponsors, and we greatly appreciate all the companies that have contributed over the years. Following two pandemic years the world has reshaped itself and faces new challenges. Here in RMAG’s 100th year we have continued to adapt to the changing environment to meet both the needs of our members and the greater geoscience community, as well as honor our sponsors’ commitment to RMAG. In the past few months, we have transitioned from solely online events to hybrid lunches, where local members can gather for lunch and the talk and our members across the country and around the world can tune in for the talk. We will continue to do a mix of online and in-person short courses as the year progresses, creating opportunities for learning and networking for all our members. Your generous sponsorship dollars are supporting seven field trips this summer, from a raft trip on the San Juan to a tour of Colorado’s Glaciology, and we’ve already had a behind-the-scenes tour of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and a virtual trip to learn about the soon-to-close CEMEX Niobrara Quarry. The RMAG Mentorship program is in full swing, connecting the next generation of geoscientists with veterans of the industry. As the weather improves and people return to the office, we look forward to many more events in person, from social to educational. Your sponsorship dollars continue to support 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 recognize 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 make our sponsors visible to the geoscience community for both virtual and in person events. If you are already a Summit Sponsor or are looking for a smaller way to financially support the organization, the 2022 Golf Tournament will be on June 7th with plenty of sponsorship opportunities, and later this year we will be throwing the 100th birthday party, with multiple opportunities to sponsor the celebration. Thank you to those who are already a Summit Sponsor, and if you are not already a sponsor, please look at the many complementary 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 720672-9898. We and the staff of RMAG thank you all for your continued support and look forward to seeing you in person this year.
Rob Diedrich
Bridget Crowther
2022 RMAG President
RMAG Executive Director
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RMAG Summit Sponsorship Platinum, Gold, & Silver Sponsors
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*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†
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Number of registrations for each type of educational event are suggested; however, you may use your registration points for any of RMAG’s 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
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Number of tickets for field trips and luncheons are suggested; however, you may use your tickets for any of RMAG’s 2022 day 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)
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RMAG Luncheon tickets
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†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: ________________________________________________________________________________
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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
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RMAG JULY 2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING By Sandra Labrum, Secretary slabrum@slb.com
Confluence Resources is an upstream exploration and production company Confluence Resources is an confluenceresources.com upstream exploration and production company confluenceresources.com
full swing. The Membership committee is also partnering with the Diversity and Inclusion committee to create a RMAG Women’s Group. Stay tuned for more info to come. The Publications Committee is continuing to do great work bringing us a full slate of articles to celebrate the 100th anniversary of RMAG. On the Rocks, has an amazing lineup for field trips for the year, see the calendar linked on the RMAG website for the full schedule. The next event is Detroit City Rhodochrosite tour on August 19! This trip is so popular that there will be a drawing to determine the 10 attendees. Finally, Diversity and Inclusion committee is continuing to work on increasing the diversity in RMAG. The booths at Pride and Juneteenth were huge successes, driving engagement in RMAG to over 800 attendees! I hope you all have a fantastic month, and don’t worry back to school is right around the corner. Until next time!
Hi everyone! Hopefully you are saying cool in this brutal summer heat and managed to check out the great talks at the AAPG RMS section meeting. The July Board of Directors meeting took place July 20th 2022 at 4pm via Microsoft Teams. All board members except one were present. The Finance committee provided an overview of the financials for May. RMAG had a net operating loss. The Board is currently exploring ideas to generate additional revenue so let us know if you have a great idea. The Continuing Education Committee is continuing to host hybrid lunches with great success. Be sure to join us in August for Kurt Rudolph’s talk The Assembly of Pangea, a view from Laurentia – Paleozoic Orogenies and their Impact on Basin Evolution and Petroleum Systems. The Membership Committee is making progress on increasing the membership and the mentorship program is in
Your next adventure awaits... 2022 RMAG Geohike Challenge July 1 - September 6 Join us for the 3rd annual Geohike Challenge, RMAG’s geological scavenger hunt & photo contest. List of items to find has dropped! Register today $20/person $30/person with hat Winners announced at RMAG Anniversary Party on Sept. 22nd
Scan for details and to register: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org 11www.rmag.org
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER By Rob Diedrich
The Last Time Gasoline Prices Were This High The summer of 1979 was an interesting time. Inflation was high and oil prices were soaring. This was the second energy crisis of the decade. The 1979 oil shock came in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Turmoil in Iran caused a decline in the country’s oil production. Fear of global oil shortages led to panic buying and gasoline hoarding in the United States. My home state of New York restricted gasoline sales to every other day based on the last digit of your license plate. We paid up to 90 cents/gallon, approximately $4/ gallon in today’s dollars. In the summer of 1979, I was between college and grad school and my plan was to explore the US. So, despite spiking gas prices and a meager budget, I loaded up
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Your president and his 75-year-old hiking partner after summiting Pikes Peak in 1979.
Well Log Digitizing • Petrophysics Petra® Projects • Mud Log Evaluation Bill Donovan
Geologist • Petroleum Engineer • PE
(720) 351-7470 donovan@petroleum-eng.com OUTCROP | August 2022
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Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists
Powder River Basin Symposium & Core Workshop
Sponsorship opportunities available!
Sept. 14-15, 2022 Sheraton Denver West, Lakewood Contact RMAG for details
Day 1: Oral Presentations
• Oral presentations on Mowry, Wall Creek, Turner, Sussex, Shannon, Frontier, and Muddy plays • Keynote by Michael Fairbanks, Enverus: “Post-Pandemic Re-Ignition of the PRB: Activity, Targeting, and Spacing Trends of an Awakened Basin”
Day 2: Core Workshop
• Core presentations & viewing: Mowry, Turner, Turner & Niobrara, Shannon • Geochem posters • Keynote by Keith Shanley, Oxy: “Understanding and assessing thermal maturity in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming”
Registration open $275 member $325 non-member Visit www.rmag.org or scan this QR code for more info & to register
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER practicing for the annual July 4th hill climb. Soon our hike became a scamper across a sea of jagged, uneven rocks broken apart by frost action (felsenmeer). The climb was steep, and cairns marked the pathway. Our pace slowed considerably, and we stopped frequently to catch our breath. I was impatient and wanted to stop less and hike faster. I later appreciated that my aged and experienced hiking partner’s method was the right one. We reached the summit tired but with gas left in our tanks for the return trip. We took in the amazing views and enjoyed a Pikes Peak staple, coffee and donuts from the mountain top visitor center. I had bagged my first fourteener with the help of a guide more than three times my age! I spent the remainder of my summer journey visiting geologic wonders of the west including Great Sand Dunes, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion and the Grand Canyon. My trip ended abruptly when my VW suffered a major breakdown. An $85 bus ticket brought me back home, dreaming that someday I might have the good fortune to live in the Rocky Mountain west. For this month’s centennial anecdote, we revisit the impact of the 1970’s oil boom on RMAG. It began with the ‘first oil shock’ in 1973 when OPEC imposed an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices jumped from $3 to $12/bbl. The 1979 oil shock drove prices even higher to nearly $40/bbl. Oil companies poured capital into exploration for new reserves and the ranks of geologists swelled. RMAG membership in 1973 was 1500. By 1984, membership soared to 4524, the highest number of all time and over three times our current membership ranks!
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my red 1963 Volkswagen Beetle and headed west. My first destination was Rocky Mountain National Park. I drove to the Longs Peak Trailhead, packed up my tent and gear and hiked about a mile up the trail to a campsite. The next morning, I followed a lateral moraine to Chasm Lake at an elevation of 11,760’. The views along the trail were spectacular, especially the lake front view of Longs Peak. However, I was not acclimated to the thin air. Between the altitude, bright sun and glare reflecting off the snow, I soon had a raging headache and decided it was time to head back down the trail. I felt better soon and spent the next few days exploring Rocky Mountain National Park’s glacial topography. Then I headed south and eventually ended up at the Crags Campground near Divide, CO, just west of Pike’s Peak. A family I met at the campground invited me to hike the mountain with them and their grandfather, a 75-year-old retired Lutheran minister who hiked the peak nearly every year. We began the next day at 4:30 am, walking among the Crags. These towers of pink granite from the Pikes Peak Formation (1.08 bya), are heavily jointed and weathered into hoodoo-like figures. Eventually we climbed above tree line through fields of tundra strewn with granite boulders. At the halfway point of the 4000+ ft ascent, family members began to drop out and turn back, despite the encouragement from Grandpa to “fight, fight, fight!” Before long it was just me and Grandpa continuing the trek. Eventually we crossed the Pikes Peak Toll Road, where car racers screamed by
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You are cordially invited to help RMAG celebrate its
100th Anniversary September 22, 2022 6pm-10pm Denver Athletic Club
1325 Glenarm Place, Denver, Colorado Doors open at 6pm Live Auction at 7:30pm Dress code: business casual to fancy-shmancy $65 per person $100 for 2 people Includes food, drink ticket, and cake! Register at www.rmag.org
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LEAD STORY
SEDIMENTARY GEOTHERMAL A New Frontier in Subsurface Energy By Ben Burke
is a new frontier in subsurface energy. The story of its development is one of technology innovation and evolution, a story that parallels the use of sedimentary basins for hydrocarbon resources. It starts with an analogy to an energy and waste problem of generations ago. The biggest transportation problem in the late nineteenth century was waste—horse manure, specifically. The first international urban planning conference was held in New York in to address the management of horse dung. It was everywhere on city streets in large quantities. The Times of London estimated in 1894 that by 1950 every city would have 9 feet of horse manure in the streets. In 1880, New York City removed 15,000 dead horse carcasses from the streets. Meanwhile, Carl Benz, Henry Ford, Rudolph Diesel and others were hard at work on their horseless carriages and engines to power them. Horseless carriages were notable not just because they did not have a horse attached which had to be fed but also because no horse meant no manure. Enter petroleum as a transport fuel. One hundred years on, that solution to the horse manure problem has becomes a problem in its own right for its contribution to climate change.
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The problem is dual: volatile hydrocarbons release vapors that are greenhouse gases and the combustion products of hydrocarbons—soot, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide—are also potent greenhouse gases. Enter renewable energy. The story of energy, not just renewable energy, on Earth starts at the beginning of the solar system. There are three forms of energy in the solar system: solar energy derived from our sun, relict heat from planetary accretion, and radioactivity from decaying elements. Relict solar energy metabolized by organisms and transformed by heat and pressure of tens of millions of years into liquid and gas hydrocarbons has transformed society with transportation, comfort, and work. However, the release of hydrocarbon combustion products as well as methane itself has led to an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere than exceeds past rates of change in climate— many of which are a result of the known cyclicity of Earth’s orbits, Milankovitch cycles. Wind and solar are really both solar—one directly and one indirectly through the Sun’s effects on the atmosphere. Nuclear power is a carbon-free form of power, however the highly concentrated waste and the careful conditions under which nuclear power is generated has caused problems in the past—notably Three Mile Island in
G
EOTHERMAL IN THE OILFIELD
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An aerial view of geothermal equipment at a field location in an oilfield in Nevada. Image courtesy of Transitional Energy.
United States in 1979, Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986, and Fukushima in Japan in 2011. Geothermal energy is a form of renewable energy that does not have the concentrated waste issues of nuclear power, that does not have any emissions like coal and oil and gas combustion, and does not have the intermittency issues of wind and solar. Geothermal is the only renewable energy that is also baseload power, meaning that it is always on. The ‘always on’ source of the heat beneath our feet is about a 50/50 ratio heat from the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in silicate rocks and relict heat of planetary accretion. The story of geothermal starts way back when the solar system was a spinning disc of gas and dust. The sun’s gravity was busy sorting
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elements by density, hence why the inner solar system are rocky planets made of heavier elements and the outer planets are gaseous, light elements. As the rocky chunk of material we now call Earth was accreting, it reached a size such that it had its own gravity. That mass and associated gravity reached a point which the heat in the system began melting the accreted material. Think of it as an astrophysical transition between no-bake brownies—those ill-formed balls of popped rice and chocolate—and homogenous chocolaty brownies from a mix, the ones that are a bit crusty out on the outside and a bit gooey on the inside. Once that melt started, it could not stop as elements of different masses began sorting by density. Soon, the Earth was sorting into the layers we all know and love: a metal
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LEAD STORY
An close-up aerial view of geothermal equipment showing the Sedna intermediate loop heat skid on the right and the box and cooling fans of an ElectraTherm organic Rankine cycle unit on the right. Image courtesy of Transitional Energy.
springs in the United States and Europe. His work noted the chemistry and temperature of the springs and discussed those properties in relation to their alleged medicinal properties. He followed that treatise with a more focused work in 1855 entitled “The Mineral and Thermal Springs of the United States and Canada” that noted 181 springs in North America. A number of medical doctors published papers and books on the medicinal effects of thermal springs, partially as medical science, partially as promotion. Meanwhile, in Scotland in the 1860s, mathematician and physicist William Rankine worked on the thermodynamics of how hot fluids can perform mechanical work as they move from heat source to sink, in what is now known as the Rankine Cycle. The two general paths of investigation—the science of thermal springs and the physics of work performed by thermal energy--had yet to intersect, but the investigation of the geology of thermal springs had just begun.
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inner core, the aesthenosphere, the lithosphere, the mantle, and the crust. As a result, the core of the Earth is incrementally younger than the Earth itself. Relict heat from the accretion of the Earth is literally only half the story of geothermal heat. A study published in Nature in 20111 found that roughly half, 54% to be exact, of geothermal heat was derived from radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium. The science of geothermal energy in the United States begins with interest in thermal springs not from geoscientists but from physicians. The first comprehensive paper on thermal springs of the United States was published by the pioneering female geologist Norah D. Stearns and her co-authors in 1937 as US Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 679B. The publication notes the first publication on thermal springs was a compendium by medical doctor John Bell in 1831 who published a book titled “Baths and Mineral Waters” that discussed and mapped 21 thermal
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1: The KamLAND Collaboration. Partial radiogenic heat model for Earth revealed by geoneutrino measurements. Nature Geosci 4, 647–651 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1205 OUTCROP | August 2022
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LEAD STORY
Historical Oil Production
State Currently Producing Oil and Natural Gas
Historical Natural Gas Production
Sedimentary Basins with Current Oil and Natural Gas Production
Montana
Washington Idaho Oregon
Wyoming
Utah
Colorado
Nevada California
Arizona
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The medium- and high-temperature geothermal resource locations shown as black dots in the lefthand map originally from USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3082. Above, a map from the US Department of Energy showing oil and gas fields in the United States. The land area available in oil and gas basins for geothermal in sedimentary basins is considerably larger than the locations of medium- and hightemperature geothermal resources.
New Mexico
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LEAD STORY at the close of the nineteenth century. Arthur Lakes, the namesake of the Colorado School of Mines library, published three papers in quick succession in 1905 and 1906, including one entitled “Geology of the Hot Springs of Colorado and Speculation as to Their Origins and Heat.” Much of this work had been made logistically feasible by the completion of railroads throughout the mountain starting with the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and furthered by other transcontinental and western regional railroad routes in the 1870s and 1880s. Power generation from thermal springs first occurred on July 4, 1904, at Larderello, in the Tuscany region of Italy, when Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested a 10 kW turbine generator on the dry steam emanating from the ground there and lit 5 light bulbs. Commercial power generation from that same steam source began in 1911 to power the surrounding region, including the that region of the Italian Railway. For the
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The first geological study of thermal springs in the United States, in Virginia specifically, was performed by geologist W. B. Rogers in the period 1840-1842, noting that geological structure had a relationship to the presence of hot springs. G. K. Gilbert of the US Geological Survey compiled a map and table of thermal springs in 1876 from the reports of exploration parties west of the one hundredth meridian. In 1883, Albert Peale published a detailed survey of thermal springs in the US Geological and Geographical Territory Survey, 12th Annual Report for 1878. The report was heavy on descriptions of what is now the Yellowstone National Park area in Wyoming and discussed the volcanic origins of the heat present at surface there. Three years later, in 1886, he followed up that descriptive work with a more quantitatively focused “List and Analysis of Mineral Springs of the United States,” USGS Bulletin 32. This work focused on mineral springs, both thermal and non-thermal. Work became state-specific
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Steam rises from an oil and gas production tank in Nevada.
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first six decades of the twentieth century, geothermal power generation throughout the world occurred exclusively in areas where dry steam was present or where liquid water at supercritical temperatures was produced and flashed to steam. This began the era of ‘Big Steam’ in geothermal. Throughout the twentieth century, the geothermal industry developed slowly in areas in the Ring of Fire, the boundaries between tectonic plates, particularly at active margins between oceanic and continental crust in places like Japan, Iceland, the western United States, and parts of the Mediterranean Basin. The first geothermal power generation in the United States occurred near Calistoga, California in 1912 when a thermal springs report used a small generator to power the resort. This area, known as The Geysers, is still a major source of geothermal power generation for the State of California, with a current capacity of about 1.5 gigawatts according to its operator, Calpine. The US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2008-3082 identifies all the known medium- and high-temperature geothermal resources in the United States on a dot map. These point sources of Earth’s heat near the surface as classified as medium-temperature (194-302° F) and high-temperature (>302° F). These point source locations are, by their nature, small in land area. The application of William Rankine’s thermodynamics research and geothermal power intersected with two Israeli scientists in the late 1950s. This work that ended up being applied to low-temperature geothermal power generation technology came not from an interest in geothermal but an interest by these two scientists, Henry Zvi Tabor and Lucien Bronicki, to create a power generation solution for countries with non-resilient power grids. Their 3 kilowatt organic Rankine Cycle engine prototype was displayed at the 1961 United Nations Conference on New Sources of Energy in Rome. The display failed to generate any commercial interest and the technology was deemed a failure from a commercial standpoint. Undaunted, the two founded Ormat Turbines Ltd in 1965. That company is still in existence today as Ormat Technologies, a publicly-traded vertically integrated geothermal company. Rankine cycle heat engines work use a turbine or Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
screw expander to generate electricity from a vaporized liquid. Instead of using vaporized water, this cycle uses an organic fluid that vaporizes at a lower temperature than water. Heat from a geofluid is heat-exchanged to an organic fluid such as a refrigerant, circulating in a closed loop. The refrigerant vaporizes. The associated volume increase creates pressure that is channeled to a turbine or screw to turn a generator and make electricity. The backside of the closed refrigerant loop has a cold-side heat exchanger to bring the fluid back to liquid phase. Round and round that closed loop circulates. The advent of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology allowed for power generation from lower temperature resources, including geothermal resources, than previously allowed solely using steam. ORC technology is sometimes referred to as binary-cycle technology—binary for its use of two fluids for power generation, the geofluid and the working fluid. ORC technology created the heat waste industry, where ORC units have been used for decades to generate electrical power in steel mills, foundries, factories, and engine rooms. The energy crises in the 1970s saw an explosion of interest in geothermal resource evaluations at the US Federal level and with several State geological surveys. In 1975, USGS Circular 26 and, in 1978, USGS Circular 790 presented the first nationwide evaluation of geothermal resources in a framework like their assessments discovered and undiscovered petroleum resources using the language of resources and reserves. Broadening the definition of heat waste and defining the rocks and fluids of sedimentary basins as geothermal resources significantly expands the land area that can be considered geothermal resources. In sedimentary basins, particularly when reservoir temperatures are near or below the surface boiling point of water, binary cycle technology takes the place of steam in electrical power generation from geothermal. The heat in sedimentary basins is present as a result of both the diffusion of heat up from the deep subsurface and the convection of geofluids in zones of crustal weakness along basement-involved faults from considerable depth. Taking a nod from traditional “big steam” geothermal, producing geofluids to the surface allows power generation to take place there. Reservoir
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temperatures of greater than 160° F at the ORC united are requisite, as well as fluid flow of greater than 1000 barrels per day for power production, depending on the size of the ORC unit. These operating specifications of modern ORC units touch off a search for geofluids produced in such a way to meet or exceed those power generation requirements. Conventional reservoirs are the best zones to find higher flow rates. In the Denver-Julesberg Basin, the Lyons Sandstone as well as the massive carbonates or the Paleozoic Mississippian and Pennsylvanian also can host significant fluid flow. In the Power and Bighorn Basins mostly in Wyoming, the Madison Limestone is the best example of a zone that has the requisite heat with depth in many places and can flow significant volumes of geofluids. The prodigious flow rates from Permian Basin pads, both on flowback, also present an opportunity for geothermal power generation. Parts of the Michigan basin, the Appalachian Basin, and the smaller basins of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada also present geothermal opportunities. Unlike geothermal that is developed in volcanic and igneous areas where little subsurface data is available, the temperature and flow requirements of sedimentary geothermal is partially derisked by the abundance of publicly available data from state oil and gas commissions and US Geological Survey databases. Temperature is derisked via bottomhole temperature data on wireline and cased-hole logs. Uncorrected, these bottomhole temperature data (BHT) or maximum recorded temperature (MRT) data on wireline logs represent a minimum or lower-end approximation of the true reservoir temperature. Various temperature correction methods have been developed to account for the cooling effect of drilling mud on the borehole. Temperature measurements from drill stem tests are considered to be better estimations of true reservoir temperature, although they are subject to data quality considerations on whether the one or two packers involved in the test set correctly and the duration time of the test. The flow that the reservoir is capable of has more uncertainty around it than does temperature. The geothermal industry is incentivized to maximize flow rate of geofluids, whereas the oil and gas industry generally optimizes flow rates that maximize oil and gas
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production rates. That optimization takes into account the relative permeability differences between oil and water, as well as the wettability of the reservoir—the preference of the reservoir to flow oil or water. Core studies on fluid sensitivity as well as core-based porosity and permeability, as well as maximum oil and gas production rates and injection tests, are part of the estimate on the maximum flow rate of a reservoir. Flow can also be aggregated from multiple wells and at surface aggregation points in the case that flow form individual wells is not sufficient for meeting the minimum power generation flow threshold. Whether a reservoir flows on its own to surface or needs artificial lift can affect the economics of sedimentary geothermal. The power involved lifting geofluids from several thousand feet in the case of electric submersible pumps or from several hundred feet in the case of line submersible pumps can be significant, sometime up to 50% of the gross power generation in a commercial-scale geothermal development. The chemistry of the geofluid matters, as pressure changes and phase changes can cause scale and precipitation of minerals in various parts of both and oil and gas and the production facilities. Where these geochemical changes occur, they can be simple to remedy in the case of sodium and magnesium salts that can be removed with freshwater washes or they can be difficult to remove in the case of barium sulfide and other scales that are more difficult to remove chemically and physically. Furthermore, precipitates that drop out in areas where they impede flow can cause facilities problems. Much like petroleum systems, geothermal systems are unique in both their technical aspects and economics. What can work in one area does not necessarily work in another area. Unlike the aspects of a petroleum system focused on the hydrocarbons, geothermal system are simpler in that they are solely concerned with the total fluid deliverability of the reservoir and its temperature. A final piece of the puzzle of geothermal in oil and gas basins is the marketing of electrons and the local to regional of electricity markets as opposed to the national and international nature of liquid hydrocarbon markets is another important differentiator of geothermal from oil and gas. Electricity sales are set
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A warning sign at a conventional oilfield in Nevada.
via contracts called power purchase agreements and can last for up to 20 years. The contracts can be flat or have escalators involving inflation, whether baseload power or dispatchable power is provided, and other contract provisions. With the growing momentum behind decarbonization of the energy sector and geothermal in general, recent policy action has further added proverbial heat to the fire. Most recently Governor Jared Polis of Colorado, Chair of the bipartisan Western Governors Association, announced Heat Beneath Our Feet (HBOF) initiative. HBOF is a geothermal energy initiative focused on jump starting the development of geothermal power generation and direct use across the Western United States. Recent legislative action in Colorado has also created an opportunity for geothermal research and development. Two bipartisan bills, HB22-1381 and SB22-118, passed and were signed into law by Governor Polis. Republican State Senator Rob Woodward led the effort to pass SB22-118 which gives geothermal energy the same benefits as solar developers in the planning and permitting process and directs the Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
Colorado Energy Office to develop educational materials on geothermal for homeowners. HB22-1381 is a grant program developed to facilitate the development of geothermal energy resources. Geothermal energy is quickly becoming a bipartisan rallying point for legislators looking to tackle climate change and grid reliability. The thermal energy of the earth will play an important role in decarbonizing the energy sector and making 100% renewable energy goals a reality. As organic Rankine cycle technology continues to innovate, and other technologies are developed to more efficiently turn the heat of the Earth to power, geothermal as a power generation source may become a more broadly exploited baseload renewable energy source in areas where oil and gas is the legacy subsurface energy source.
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Ben Burke is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Transitional Energy, a Denver-based geothermal development company. He is also President-elect of RMAG. Trained as a geoscientist, he spent 16 years working in the oil and gas industry prior to entering the geothermal industry. When not working, Ben enjoying gravel cycling and skiing. 23
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HYBRID LUNCH TALK Speaker: Kurt Rudolph Date: August 3, 2022 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
The Assembly of Pangea A view from Laurentia – Paleozoic Orogenies and their Impact on Basin Evolution and Petroleum Systems By Kurt Rudolph, University of Houston and Rice University
Paleozoic North America has experienced multiple mountain building events, from Ordovician to Permian, on all margins of the continent. These have had a profound effect on the resulting complex basins and their associated petroleum systems. Subsequent uplift, erosion and overprinting of these ancient systems impedes the direct observation of their tectonic history. However, the basin sedimentary records are more complete, and provide additional insights into the timing and style of the mountain building events. In this study, we employ ~80 1D basin models, ~30 inverse flexural models, isopachs, and paleogeographic maps to better understand the history of Laurentia. From this screening, four thematic learnings emerge: Constraints on the magnitude, timing, and location of collisional events. For example, the Salinic and Acadian Orogenies of the Appalachians
are restricted to the north; the southwestern end of the Siliurian and Devonian foredeeps are interpreted as indicators of the terminus of the colliding Ganderian and Avalonian microplates. For the Alleghanian event, onset of flexural subsidence becomes younger to the northeast, whereas the Ouachita Orogeny youngs to the southwest. These observations suggest the docking of Gondwana in the Pennsylvanian-Permian was diachronous due to complex plate geometries and/or trajectories. Kinematic linkages between continent margin and interior. “Sag” basins, whose origins remain cryptic, can be tied to adjacent orogenies. The Michigan Basin has synchronous timing, and a similar evaporite fill as the Salinic portion of the Appalachian foreland. And the Williston Basin appears tied to the north Antler (Liard) foreland with Middle Devonian to Early Mississippian subsidence and deformation (e.g., Nesson Anticline).
ABSTRACT
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KURT RUDOLPH received a B.S. in Geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.A. in Geology from the University of Texas. He began his career as an Exploration Geologist with Unocal in 1978, until he joined Exxon Production Research in 1981. He held a variety of positions at Exxon/ ExxonMobil, including Research Geologist, Chief Interpreter in Kuala Lumpur, Technical Advisor for the Africa and Middle East Region, and Hydrocarbon Systems Resource Manager. From 2002 until his retirement in 2015, he was Chief Geoscientist with ExxonMobil Exploration Company in Houston. Since then, Kurt has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston and Rice University. His interests include seismic attributes/DHI analysis, risking and assessment, sequence stratigraphy, and tectonics and sedimentation. Current research includes the Cretaceous Western Interior, Paleozoic orogenic systems of North America and northern Europe, and integrating subsurface uncertainty into assessment and economic analysis. He won Wallace Pratt Awards for the best AAPG Bulletin paper in 1994 and 2017, was an AAPG-SEG Distinguished Lecturer for 2001-2002, was the AAPG Michael Halbouty Lecturer for 2007, and won best paper award for the Mountain Geologist (RMAG) in 2015.
Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists Short Course
Python Skills Series: Developing Data Pipelines In person! October 13, 2022
9am-4pm Denver Earth Resources Library 730 17th St., Downtown Denver
with instructor
Matt Bauer, PG
Pricing: $175/members $225/non-members $100/students (limited number)
Registration open at www.rmag.org Rocky Mountain Association of25Geologists OUTCROP e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: www.rmag.org
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| August 2022
HYBRID LUNCH TALK Reconstruction of thick Permian basin fill in exhumed basins. Many of these basins have experienced significant post-Paleozoic erosion by vertical unroofing and/or subsequent deformation. This has made understanding of the latest Paleozoic basin history difficult. High vitrinite reflectance in outcropping or shallow strata indicate significant burial and ensuing removal. In most cases, this additional burial cannot be attributed to significant Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentation. Using calibrated basin models, significant upper Pennsylvanian and Permian section has been restored in a number of these basins. Estimates of the eroded latest Paleozoic section include the Appalachian (3.5 km), Black Warrior (3 km), Arkoma (3.0 km), and Fort Worth (2.5 km) basins. This burial was critical in the maturation of important source rocks/shale reservoirs in these basins.
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Eastern Ancestral Rocky Mountain (ARM) basins of the continental interior are coeval with the central segment (Arkoma-Fort Worth basins) of the Ouachita fold belt. But basins near the Val Verde – Marathon segment (Delaware, Midland, Orogrande, and Taos) share a later timing. Controls on sedimentary fill character. Often, the onset of rapid subsidence associated with orogenesis is marked by a rapid transgression and condensed section that is associated with marine source rocks and shale reservoirs. As sedimentation catches up to the increased accommodation, a thick sedimentary wedge progressively fills in the flexural basin. This pattern is observed for the Utica (Taconic), Marcellus (Acadian), Horn River (Liard), Wolfcamp (Delaware and Midland), and Gothic/ Cane Creek/etc. (Paradox) source rocks.
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Start reducing your costs @tracerco tracerco@tracerco.com tracerco.com
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S E-R OCK
2022 RMAG FIELD TRIPS
Picket Wire Canyonlands Dinosaur Trackway | Oct. 22-23 | La Junta, CO Trip leaders: Dr. Martin Lockley & Dr. Bruce Schumacher
ON
-TH
See the ‘mother’ of all dinosaur tracksites! Join the RMAG and Dinosaur Ridge for a tour of the “Mother” of all dinosaur tracksites at Picket Wire Canyonlands. Located in the Comanche Grasslands along the Purgatoire River, this tracksite (“Dinosaur Lake”) is considered the largest continuously mapped dinosaur fossil footprint assemblage known in the Jurassic Morrison formation and contains some of the world’s longest trackways. Roughly 1,300 tracks representing ~100 trackways were reported from a 5,600 m2 area in 1986. Extensive new excavations have revealed more than 800 additional tracks in a 2,600 m2 area. Time-permitting, we may have an added opportunity to see ruins from early Spanish and European settlers and get a rare glimpse at treasured Indigenous rock art found in this area.
$160/RMAG member, $200/ non-member Registration open! See details at www.rmag.org
Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 27 e: staff@rmag.org | p: 720.672.9898 | w: www.rmag.org
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HYBRID LUNCH TALK Speaker: Riley Brinkerhoff Date: September 7, 2022 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Losing at the Margins The Technical and Economic Boundaries of the Uteland Butte Horizontal Oil Play in the Uinta Basin By Riley Brinkerhoff, Wasatch Energy Management resulting organic porosity creates a marvelously effective reservoir up to two hundred feet thick. However, being a lacustrine system, the Uteland Butte pinches out on all sides into either sandprone deltaic deltas and marginal fluvial deposits or barren red-beds of the Wasatch Formation. Outcrop work associated with this study on the eastern and southern margins of the Uinta Basin show that as one moves onshore, high-TOC shales and carbonates are replaced by packstones, then progressively by grainstones and finally by red mudstones with minor interbedded sandstones. Subsurface work demonstrates that on the northern, deeply buried side of the basin, the Uteland Butte is rapidly replaced by marginal lacustrine sandstones. Although these sandstones are charged with oils from the Uteland Butte, existing vertical wells have created pressure sinks that make these wells difficult to economically develop with horizontal wells.
ABSTRACT: The Uteland Butte is far and away the most important target for oil and gas development within the Uinta Basin. Of the twelve rigs drilling in the Uinta Basin in July of 2022, nine are drilling Uteland Butte horizontal wells. Recent results have been impressive, with several Ovintiv, XCL, and Uinta Wax Uteland Butte wells producing at 2,000-3,000 bbls of oil per day for the first month of production, and well over 300,000 bbls of oil within the first year. With such strong production potential, operators must ask themselves how extensive the play can be. Utilizing over 2400 digitized well logs, core and outcrop measurements, this study maps the play boundaries based on current technical and economic factors. The Uteland Butte consists of bedded lacustrine carbonates and high TOC shales. Where these have been buried to sufficient depth to convert its ample kerogen to hydrocarbons the
RILEY BRINKERHOFF is the exploration manager of the Uinta-focused Wasatch Energy Management and has sixteen years of unconventional exploration and development experience. He has worked on projects across the Rockies and Midcontinent. He has a Masters and bachelor’s from BYU, and an MBA from the University of Utah. Specializing in opportunities in the Uinta Basin for the past five years, he has authored numerous papers and presentations on the Green River oil play. From a base of zero, he has grown his company to nearly 15K net barrels of oil per day from the Uinta. He is currently serving as secretary of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Geologists, on the Utah Geological Survey board of directors representing minerals (hydrocarbons) and as past president of both the Utah Geological Association and Montana Geological Society.
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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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MEMBER CORNER
Meet Elijah Olusola Adeniyi PhD Candidate, Montana State University, and Recipient of the 2019 and 2021 RMAG Foundation Norman Foster Scholarship It was in 2014, while living in South Africa, that I decided to go back to my first love—Geology. I never gave up on geology, it just so happened that the opportunity hadn’t yet presented itself. Fortunately, I was accepted into a Master’s program at the University of Johannesburg where my research focused on the shale gas potential of the Karoo Basin. After graduation, I relocated to the United States for a doctoral program at Montana State University, working on a basin evolution and carbon sequestration related project. Though I have accumulated some years in geoscience teaching, research, and short-term industry work in groundwater exploration, mining, and geologic nuclear waste disposal, I intend to have a long industry career in oil and gas.
HOW DID YOU END UP INVOLVED IN THE GEOSCIENCES? It started with a casual career conversation with my Dad when I was about 9 years old. He expressed that he wanted me to be a petroleum engineer, as oil and gas is the major revenue source in Nigeria and engineering is a popular career choice that many parents want for their kids. As it would happen, I ended up gravitating towards science rather than engineering. In high school I became close to my geography teacher who introduced me to the subject. It was from him that I first heard the word “Geology” and fell in love with its meaning. The study of the subsurface and boundless opportunities to discover its resources sparked my curiosity early on. This would later influence my love for petroleum geology and solving problems related to energy issues, which luckily isn’t too far from my Dad’s wishes. So, I started my journey by earning a Bachelor’s of Technology with a major in geology from the Federal University of Technology in Minna, Nigeria.
WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
I was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. Ibadan is located in the southwest region of Nigeria and is the third largest city in the country with over 3.6 million people, following Lagos and Kano. I also have lived in Minna (north central Nigeria), Port Harcourt (southern Nigeria), and in Johannesburg, South Africa for education and or career opportunities.
WHAT JOBS HAVE YOU HAD DURING YOUR CAREER?
The industry wasn’t favorable by the time I completed my first degree, which led to quite an interesting career path. I started as a high school science teacher for two years and later took a job in sales and marketing at a major telecommunications company in Nigeria. I also explored the film industry while in Nigeria and produced a number of films. This led me to a university in South Africa where I earned a second degree in screenwriting and producing.
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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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WHAT MADE YOU TO CHOOSE MONTANA STATE? While attending the 2016 International Geologic Congress hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, I presented my Master’s research project on the Karoo Basin’s shale gas maturation and resource estimation. Shale gas exploration and shale fracking in the Karoo was a hot topic within the geoscience and environmental communities as well as the oil and gas industry at that time, and my project’s findings were central to the debate. Fortunately, my current advisor at Montana State University, Dr. Mary Hubbard, was present during my presentation, and I believe she was impressed with my work and delivery. So, we connected during the conference and I followed up afterward expressing my desire to study in the US. A year later, I was offered admission to Montana State University, and I moved to Bozeman in 2017.
WHAT DOES YOUR CURRENT STUDY AT MONTANA STATE ENTAIL?
My doctoral study investigates the origin and timing of a natural CO2 resource reservoired in the Upper Devonian Duperow Formation at Kevin Dome, northwest Montana. I also am studying how the dome was formed in terms of its exhumation history and thermal evolution of its rocks and fluids. The goals of my project are to unravel the origin and geologic conditions that favor natural CO2 generation, migration, and storage at Kevin Dome, as well as create a temporal understanding of uplift with CO2 emplacement at the dome. My study will help us to better understand natural CO2 accumulations, as well as provide insight on how best to mimic such natural analogues in CCUS projects or explore CO2 as a viable resource for Enhanced Oil Recovery and other industrial usages. My research techniques include stable and noble gas isotopic geochemistry, low-temperature thermochronology, carbonate clumped isotope thermometry, and geothermobarometry proxies. This work relies on a suite of sampling strategies from outcrops to cores, including core cuttings, bulk natural gas, oil samples, and fluid inclusions from Kevin Dome as well as from the adjacent Sweetgrass Hills igneous complex and the Ferguson Gas Field, southern Alberta, Canada.
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WHAT 3 TRAITS BEST DESCRIBE YOU? Cool headed, conscientious, tenacious.
WHAT TV SHOW/MOVIE IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE? The Good Doctor on Hulu.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE? “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela
HOW WOULD YOUR FRIENDS DESCRIBE YOU? I believe my friends would describe me as adventurous, passionate, and supportive. 31
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WELCOME NEW RMAG MEMBERS!
Brianna Alcorn
is a student and lives in Aurora, Colorado.
Kristy Buettner
Tony Moss
Brian Varacchi
is an Exploration Manager at Continental Resources Inc. and lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
is an Exploration Supervisor at Continental Resources Inc. and lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.
IN THE PIPELINE AUGUST 11, 2022
JULY 1- SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 RMAG 2022 Geo Hike Challenge.
WOGA Lean In Circle. Speaker Lia Fields. “Strategically Developing Your Network and Personal Brand”. DERL, 730 17th Street, B-1, Denver, CO.
AUGUST 3, 2022 RMAG Luncheon. Speaker: Kurt Rudolph. “The Assembly of Pangea, a view from Laurentia – Paleozoic Orogenies and their Impact on Basin Evolution and Petroleum Systems.” Online or In-person at Maggiano’s, Denver. 12:00 PM1:00 PM.
AUGUST 19, 2022 RMAG On the Rocks. Detroit City Portal Rhodochrosite Mine Tour. Alma, CO. AUGUST 23-24, 2022 COGA- The Energy Summit. Denver, CO.
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WE ARE GREAT WESTERN AND WE ARE COMMITTED TO:
PEOPLE
EXCELLENCE
TEAMWORK
GROWTH
STEWARDSHIP
RESILIENCE
WE ARE #CommittedtoColorado Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
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RMAG’s Newest Standing Committee: The Diversity and Inclusion Committee By Jeff May, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair
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May, Kajal Nair, Rebecca Johnson Scrable, and Cam Uribe, plus Bridget Crowther and Kathy Michell-Garton, our Executive Director and Operations Manager, respectively. Why did RMAG turn its attention to issues of diversity and inclusion? In addition to the moral imperative, our demographics will be changing as we move into the organization’s second century. Plus, we represent a science that relies on innovation and creativity. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1 found that
A number of committees, run by a large cadre of hard-working volunteers, help keep RMAG operating smoothly, deliver service to its members, and provide outreach: the Membership, Continuing Education, Publications, Educational Outreach, On The Rocks, and Finance committees. In 2021, championed by then incoming President Cat Campbell and Counselor Jeff May, a new ad hoc group, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, was approved by the RMAG Board, and became a standing committee this year. It presently is composed of RMAG members Dan Basset, Luis Escobar Arenas, Ginny Gent, Jeff
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ON LEFT: RMAG Diversity and Inclusion Committee member Rebecca Johnson Scrable (left) and Dinosaur Ridge Outreach Coordinator Libby Prueher (right) staffing the joint Juneteenth booth (photo by Jeff May). ABOVE: The excitement of discovery at PrideFest (photo by Jeff May). RIGHT: The Dinosaur Ridge stickers for PrideFest were a huge hit!
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ABOVE: PrideFest booth volunteers (left to right): David Randolph, Luis Escobar Arenas, Libby Prueher, Katie Bradley, Jeff May, and LaShawn Randolph (photo by Kristen Kidd). LEFT, BELOW: During the Juneteenth celebration, kids had a blast “digging” for fossils, which they got to keep along with other small geology-related giveaways. Kids also enjoyed coloring their very own T. rex and Triceratops masks. (photos by LaShawn Randolph).
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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE fields. Our goal is to break down systemic barriers that inhibit full inclusion within our geoscience community. We encourage you to participate in our initiatives that strive to increase active involvement of underrepresented groups. We welcome further suggestions and actions.
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a diverse team will typically outperform a more homogenous team, even when the homogenous team is considered to have “relatively greater ability” as individuals than the more diverse group. People with dissimilar backgrounds have varied experiences and perspectives, and thus approach problems differently, ask unique questions, and develop more original solutions. Companies with gender-diverse executive teams were 25% more likely to have above average profitability and value creation2. And those with an ethnically diverse C-suite were 36% more likely to have above-average profits. Obviously, by being more inclusive, the likelihood of scientific AND economic success of an organization is much higher. However, the U.S. STEM workforce is anything but diverse, made up of 77% white and 66% male employees as of 20193. The concentration of white employees in the Earth Sciences is even more pronounced, accounting for 85% of the workers4. The oil and gas industry alone encompasses almost 900,000 people, but only about 8% are Black and 22% are female5. Yet, in the U.S. today there are currently more non-white children than white children and nearly half of all children born are female. STEM fields, and geoscience in particular, do not reflect the growing diversity of our country. Clearly, for the continued health and advancement of our industry, we need to activity support and enhance the pipeline of students choosing geoscience careers from underrepresented groups. Our organization must overtly become an open and welcoming space, grow beyond dominantly oil and gas, provide lifelong learning for students and young professionals, and collegially share in members’ professional and personal growth. As part of this effort, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s first task was to update RMAG’s Statement on Diversity, sharing a vision for our association: RMAG is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences. We will promote diversity through outreach and education. Diverse classrooms, workplaces, and professional societies that foster inclusion benefit with increased creativity, a diversity of ideas, and enhanced scientific inquiry. Earth sciences are one of the least diverse STEM
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WHAT ARE DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION (DEI)? Diversity involves characteristics that make one group or individual distinctive from another. It includes, but isn’t limited to, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical and mental ability, religion, political views, socioeconomic status, language, marital status, and veteran status. Diversity may also include personal beliefs, perspectives, and values. Equity aims to ensure fair treatment, access, and equality of opportunity and advancement for everyone while also attempting to identify and remove the barriers that prevent anyone’s full participation. Equity promotes impartiality within the processes, procedures, and distribution of resources of a system or organization. Inclusion builds a culture where everyone feels welcome by supporting and embracing differences and offers respect to everyone in words and actions. An inclusive environment is respectful and collaborative, allowing all to freely participate and contribute. An inclusive organization endeavors to remove all barriers, discrimination, and intolerance.
RMAG’S DEI INITIATIVES
This year, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee instigated and continues to work on a variety of initiatives. One goal is to provide diverse students and communities greater exposure to the Earth sciences. We also began working toward expanding the range of geoscience disciplines represented within RMAG. Ultimately, we are striving to educate and inspire individuals of all backgrounds and identities, and provide a respectful and convivial community. Starting in January of 2022 our first major initiative got underway with the monthly Member Corner in the Outcrop. One purpose of this monthly feature
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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE
is to expose our membership to the wide mixture of people and specialties in RMAG. We also want to help a diversifying audience, especially students and young professionals, feel welcome within the geosciences and our organization in particular. In order to grow and remain relevant during the next 100 years, our membership must expand beyond dominantly oil and gas into geothermal, CO2 sequestration, hydrogeology, mining, geochemistry, geologic engineering, environmental, and paleoclimatology, among others. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee also began working with the Membership Committee to present guest lectures for area college geoscience clubs on non-oil and gas topics. Ben Burke, RMAG President-Elect, gave the first talk covering geothermal energy for the CSU geoscience club on April 25. We hope this effort will raise student awareness of what we offer, such as the mentorship program, field trips, short courses, and luncheon talks, and encourage them to become members. In addition, we reached out to historically Black colleges and universities with Earth science programs, advertising the RMAG Foundation scholarships and offering virtual presentations, field trips, contacts with local professors and geologists, help with job and graduate school prospects, or just a place to crash when in the area. A major endeavor this summer was collaborating with Dinosaur Ridge on a kids activity booth at the Juneteenth and PrideFest celebrations. Our goal was to help generate geoscience awareness within these marginalized communities. With generous funding from the RMAG and RMS-AAPG foundations we were able to provide visitors with geology-related giveaways, the opportunity to dig for fossils, color dinosaur masks, and examine rock and fossil samples. Over the course of the two weekends, we interacted with almost 1000 youth and their parents. Plus, we made connections that will allow the RMAG to expand our outreach to alternative communities, including Strive Prep, GOAL High School, and The Center on Colfax. Special recognition goes to Libby Prueher, Dinosaur Ridge’s Outreach Coordinator, who provided the activities and coordinated numerous volunteers
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from her organization to staff the booths, and Rebec-
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ca Johnson Scrabble, who spearheaded our funding requests. Thanks, too, to the RMAG members
who helped in the booths: Cam Uribe, Rebecca Johnson Scrable, Mike Fairbanks, Rachael Hoover, Mike Tischer, Christophe Simbo, Luis Escobar Arenas,
and Jeff May (Juneteenth) as well as Larry Rasmus-
sen, Katie Joe McDonough, Rob Diedrich, Luis Esco-
bar Arenas, and Jeff May (PrideFest). Of singular note is the two graduate student volunteers from CSU,
Christophe and Luis, who were recipients of RMAG
Foundation scholarships and already are giving back to the organization!
Now in the works is an informal RMAG Wom-
en’s Group in collaboration with the Membership
Committee. This likely will entail a monthly drop-in
gathering over coffee, to provide networking opportunities, mutual support, and exposure to RMAG activities. If you are interested in more information or helping get this activity off the ground, contact Sandra Labrum at SLabrum@slb.com.
As move forward, we could use YOUR ideas, ex-
perience, energy. We need and welcome new Committee members and volunteers! If interested, please contact staff@rmag.org.
REFERENCES
• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/ pnas.0403723101
• https://www.mckinsey.com/business-func-
tions/people-and-organizational-performance/ our-insights/delivering-through-diversity
• https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20221/u-s-andglobal-stem-education-and-labor-force
• https://www.americangeosciences.org/
geoscience-currents/diversity-geosciences
• https://energyfuturesinitiative.org/wp-content/
uploads/sites/2/2022/03/2020-US-Energy-and-
38
Employment-Report-Full.pdf
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RMAG ON THE ROCKS
Group photo of the happy RMAG and Fort Lewis Geology students that were on the trip.
An RMAG Adventure: Rafting the Upper San Juan River Canyon in Utah On the Rocks Field Trip, June 14-16, 2022 By Denise M. Stone
Is there a river in the world that has more geology packed into a 27-mile course than the Upper San Juan River in UT? I doubt it. RMAG and Fort Lewis on the Water (FLOW) teamed up this summer to offer a 3 day- 2 night raft trip on the Upper San Juan River Canyon. Floating through world class exposures of the Paradox Basin in southeastern Utah, participants saw spectacular geology, delicate river eco-systems, petroglyphs, and abundant wildlife. There was continuously something to see in every direction. Passing through the entrenched meanders of the OUTCROP | August 2022
San Juan we saw the stratigraphic section from Jurassic through Pennsylvanian in age. We saw a monocline, anticlines, synclines, faults, fractures, mega-fossils, sedimentary structures, bioherms, red beds and even a diatreme! Strata are both clastic and carbonate, bedding is exposed at all different angles. All this was viewed from the comfort of rafts, piloted by energetic FLOW river guides. The weather was great, although a bit hot, but a dip in the river fixed that right away. Professor of Geology, Dr. Gary Gianniny of Fort
OVERVIEW
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LEFT: Location Map of the Four Corners area of southeastern Utah showing the San Juan River flowing from east to west. The RMAG group launched at Bluff and took out at Mexican Hat, floating 27 River Miles (RM). This map is from the San Juan River Guide by Lisa Kearsley. BELOW: Annotated Google Earth Image showing the 27 River Mile (RM) journey of the RMAG rafters from Bluff (RM 0) to Mexican Hat, both in Utah. Structural features that stand out aerially are the Comb Ridge Monocline and the Lime Ridge and Raplee Anticlines. Comb Ridge Monocline divides the Paradox Basin (east/right) from the Monument Uplift (left/west) Structure and uplift of the Colorado Plateau have influenced the course of the highly down cut San Juan River (G. Gianniny & S. Hawthorne, River Miles in yellow after Whitis and Martin, 2009).
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Lewis College in Durango, Colorado led the trip. He emphasized to everyone that our primary goal was to arrive at the end of the trip safe, healthy, and happy after having seen some amazing geology. That goal was met. Attending was 10 RMAG members, two geology students, six FLOW river guides, and Gary. That made 19 attendees, in a flotilla of 5 rafts and 4 inflatable kayaks. The kayaks were great for those wanting to paddle, get closer to the outcrops and navigate water shallower than the rafts could manage. Armed with hat, sunscreen, water shoes and wearing personal flotation devices, we set out to explore the river. We launched at Bluff, and took out at Mexican Hat, both in Utah. Over the rafting route we experienced a few Class 2 rapids, but most of the time the water was flat. Class 2 (out of 6 Classes) refers to moderate to medium quick water with clear and open passages between rocks and ledges. The higher the class number the greater the difficulty. Discharge rates during our trip were 500-600 cubic feet per second (cfs), considerably lower than the 10,000 to 140,000 cfs that has been recorded during floods and monsoon rains. The source of the San Juan River is in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Its flow is controlled by the Navajo Dam at Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico. At its termination, the San Juan River flows into Lake Powell joining the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
NAVAJO SANDSTONE (LOWER JURASSIC) – DAY 1
Cliff exposures of eolian Navajo Sandstone (Jurassic) lined the channel for the first six river miles (RM) of the journey. From our launch point at Sand Island in Bluff to the strike of the Comb Ridge Monocline we could see large-scale cross-bedded ancient red dunes. Stop 1 for the day was at Butler Wash, RM 5.5, there Fort Lewis College geology major Chandler La Duke spoke to the group about his current study of eolian facies in the Navajo. He said the town of Bluff gets its water from the Navajo aquifer. Understanding the permeability is important to the water supply and production. Recently, there has been concern about arsenic contamination in the local OUTCROP | August 2022
Regional Stratigraphic column for the Paradox Basin with red arrow showing the age range of strata exposed along the route of the RMAG rafters (modified from Stevenson and Wray, 2009). water which may also have a facies component. Eolian sandstone permeability is a function of bedding and the nature of bed boundaries. Laterally extensive sub-horizontal surfaces in the Navajo, or “Stokes Surfaces” are permeability boundaries caused by wind scour, some continue for miles. Impressive transverse and barchan dune cross-bed sets 30 to 100 feet
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A smooth eroding cliff face of the Navajo Sandstone (Jurassic) along the Upper San Juan River Canyon. The top of the white area is the high-water level mark. The white is due to minerals deposited as the water level dropped. Angular lines through the white are cross beds formed by dunes. Vertical black stripes are deposits of manganese oxide, also known as desert varnish.
Rafters in San Juan River Canyon are taking a closer look at the Pennsylvanian Horn Point Limestone at water-level which is compacted and “draped” over subsurface phylloid algal mounds in the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation (Pennsylvanian). Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
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have gradually increased their presence along the channel stabilizing the sandy banks. Fragile cryptobiotic soils are also present, and we carefully avoided trampling them. Lizards, birds, bighorn sheep, feral donkeys, wild turkeys, and night bats kept an eye on our group as we floated down the river. Our experienced river guides reported occasionally seeing snakes and scorpions, but we didn’t see any on our trip.
thick could be seen up close by kayak. At RM 5.5 we left the rafts for a side hike up to River House Ruin, an ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling with room-blocks, pictographs, and a kiva. This site also exposed the lowest horizontal permeability boundary in the Navajo Sandstone which aided in forming the alcove in which the ancestral Puebloan was built. The ruin was about 25-30 feet above the river level.
FORT LEWIS ON THE WATER (FLOW) HISTORY
VEGETATION, ARCHEOLOGY AND WILDLIFE
FLOW was founded in 2020 as an experiential educational program for all students at Fort Lewis College wanting to learn and experience the outdoors. Each year it enriches learning for a diverse spectrum of students in many majors including Geology, Biology and Adventure Education, as well as Philosophy and English! Each fall, all geology majors raft the river to study the better-than-text book
The San Juan River is a ribbon of green carved through an otherwise dry tan-to-red desert landscape. The delicate green ecosystem that exists on the riverbanks is thick with vegetation and contrasts against the red sandstone. Trees and grasses dominate, some are native, Cottonwood and Willow are abundant. Also abundant are Tamarisk and Russian Olive which are invasive, over the last 45 years they
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Rafters stop to take a closer look at a secondary black chert layer on a bedding plane exposed in the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation (Pennsylvanian). Trapped in the chert are impressive fossils including crinoid stem impressions, Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org rugose corals, and sponges.
An outcrop of the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation exposed along the San Juan River bank contains a fan of white colonial rugose corals. Best seen when wet, the river water came in handy.
An exposure of the chert-replaced sclerosponge Chaetetes along the banks of the San Juan River in the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation.
A group of 6 River Guides from Fort Lewis on the Water (FLOW) piloted our rafts, cooked meals and organized our campsites during the 3-day float trip. They were all enthusiastic about geology, helpful to our group and safety minded.
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geomorphology, stratigraphy, and structural in the canyons. The FLOW program was initiated when river permits (launches) and rafting equipment were purchased from a Grand Canyon outfitter that went out of business. FLOW has 34 river trips scheduled this summer alone. They also run trips for scientific societies (like RMAG!), environmental and outdoor groups. River trips are offered from early May to late October depending on the weather. In addition to the Upper San Juan River trip, FLOW takes rafters on the Lower San Juan, normally 5 days, through the famous “Goosenecks.” They also take groups for 3-day trips on the Chama River in New Mexico. After seeing lots of Navajo Sandstone, in the afternoon of day one, the geology began to change. At RM 8, Mule Ear came into view, which is a tooth-like promontory of the Wingate Sandstone with stronger cementation. In less than a mile, the Wingate beds had become almost vertical and next to the Mule Ear there was an anomalously dark body of rock on the horizon; the 25-million-year-old Mule Ear Diatreme. These features signaled our approach to the eastern side of Trip leader Dr. Gary Gianniny, Professor of geology at Fort Lewis College, points to Comb Ridge Monocline; a north-south a fault in an outcrop of Navajo Sandstone (Jurassic) on the Upper San Juan River in trending regional feature. Nearly 80 southeastern Utah. miles long, this Laramide flexure was produced by the reactivation of a remarked that geologists just love rocks, they even deep-seated Pre-Cambrian fault zone. talk about them in their downtime. We spent the first of two nights at nearby Big Dinner was perfectly seasoned chicken curry Stick Camp at the base of the dip slope of Lower Cutover rice, delicious after the long day. We gathered ler Formation (Permian) red beds of Comb Ridge. around a circle of camp chairs to eat with a propane Big Stick is on a sandy floodplain deposit with large, fueled “fire pit” flickering in the center. Seasonal shady, and billowing Cottonwood trees. It offered lots fire restrictions were in place along the river due to of space for camping. Before dinner, a spirited game dry conditions. Following dinner an energetic game of “cobble-ology” took place. Fist-sized cobbles from of “rock bocce” ensued, two teams of three geoloalong the riverbank were collected and described. gists joined in. They claimed the rules were fluid and Natural groupings were made by their age and origin which prompted great discussion. The river guides
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Fort Lewis College, Professor of Geology, Dr Gary Gianniny (ever the well-prepared field geologist) pulled out a tape measure to show the length of a 5-foot-long crinoid stem exposed in an outcrop of the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation (Pennsylvanian).
The flotilla of rafts and kayaks approach the Raplee Anticline around a tight meander of the San Juan River Canyon, southeastern Utah.
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there was plenty of laughing and cheering when someone scored. The full moon came up from behind the cliff across the river at 11pm. It lit up everything.
DAY 2
We were awakened at 5:30 am by the loud braying of feral donkeys. When that finally stopped, there was a “mashup” of birdsongs, each bird singing their unique song at the same time. Clear and uninterrupted there were no other sounds; no car engines, no background noise, just birds singing. It was a glorious message that you were not at home, you were waking up on the river. I was downwind from the kitchen and around 6:30 am I smelled fresh coffee. After breakfast, a “fire line” of all campers loaded our gear back on the rafts. Since this would be the day with the most white water, we had a brief discussion on river safety and then got going. The flotilla followed the channel’s sharp turn to the west and entered the mouth of San Juan River Canyon. The walls were now tall and more enclosing, the amount of visible sky had shrunk. At the mouth of the canyon, we stopped for Secondary black chert preserves the impression of a crinoid stem in the Lower a brief look at the exposed section. There Ismay Sequence of the Paradox Formation. were several things to note: the red beds were disappearing, carbonates, increasing downsection had been introduced, into older and older rocks. Below the Honaker Trail and the depositional environment was changing we entered the Lower Ismay Sequence of the Parafrom terrestrial to marine. We had left the red beds dox Formation, also Pennsylvanian. Its claim to fame of the Permian Cutler and stopped to see low stand is phylloid algal mounds. These are on display on strata in the Pennsylvanian Honaker Trail Formaboth sides of the canyon, the rafts stop and tie up so tion which had channel fill carbonate clast conglomwe can have a closer look. The onlapping intermound erates. Fist to golf ball size clasts were impressively beds contained beautiful sponges (Chaetetes), coloimbricated. Down the river a bit further we saw rhinial rugose corals, and the tabulate coral Syringopzoliths or fossilized plant roots, tidal grainstones and ora. Thirty miles east in the subsurface near Aneth, shallow water carbonates. There was herringbone phylloid mounds and oomoldic grainstones form excross-stratification indicating tidal influence. The cellent reservoirs hosting the largest oil field in Utah. cross strata were both siliceous and calcareous. Secondary black chert was abundant as We’re floating down section on the river now
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The RMAG and FLOW flotilla of rafts and kayaks heading toward Raplee Anticline in the distance. The town of Mexican Hat, and the Mexican Hat Syncline got their names from Mexican Hat rock in the upper right.
RMAG rafters and kayakers passing below huge cliffs of eroding Navajo Sandstone (Jurassic) along the San Juan River in southeastern Utah.
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RMAG ON THE ROCKS
LEFT: Fist to golf ball size clasts are impressively imbricated in the conglomerates of the Honaker Trail Formation (Pennsylvanian). The imbrication suggests current flow towards the basin center to the northeast. BELOW: Fort Lewis College, Professor of Geology, Dr Gary Gianniny sits in an inflatable kayak on the San Juan River in southeastern Utah. Behind him, on the horizon to the left is the Mule Ear Diatreme. Cutler Formation (Permian) redbeds in the foreground of the diatreme, are almost vertical and fold gently, decreasing in dip on the horizon to the right. This is the structural expression of the Comb Ridge Monocline.
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A rhizolith, or fossilized plant root coating in the Pennsylvanian Honaker Trail Formation on the banks of the San Juan River. A white halo almost 2 feet in length, shows the vertical path of the now-lithified root trace.
Fist to golf ball size clasts are impressively imbricated in the conglomerates of the Honaker Trail Formation (Pennsylvanian). Some clasts have dark gray caliche rims from alteration on the late Pennsylvanian landscape. The elongate black clasts are transported rhizolith fragments.
Tidal influenced shallow water carbonates with bidirectional current ripples and possible herringbone crossstratification in the Honaker Trail Formation (Pennsylvanian).
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concretions and in thin layers along avenues of permeability. The chert is interpreted as a diagenetic product originating from the devitrification of siliceous sponge spicules. Trapped in the chert were impressive fossils including crinoid stem impressions and corals.
STRUCTURE
Structural geology is responsible for the most dramatic largescale geological features along the river. We passed through the Lime Ridge Anticline, the Raplee Anticline, and the Mexican Hat Syncline. With no vegetation to obscure the rocks, the folded sedimentary layers red and tan of the Paradox, Honaker Trail and overly Permian formations were clearly visible. For the non-geologist, the dipping layers are easy to see and traceable at the surface. As the flotilla followed tightening river meanders through dipping River guides from Fort Lewis on the Water (FLOW) prepare dinner for the group on beds of the Raplee Anticline, it bethe first night of the trip. We set up camp at Big Stick point bar under a grove of giant came easy to get disoriented. The cottonwood trees. Dinner was a warm and tasty curried chicken over rice. Google Earth image in our guidebook helped us stay clear on our location by both river mile and straCommittee is working with FLOW and Dr. Gianniny ta exposed. on the idea. In conclusion, the Upper San Juan offers spectacThanks to the FLOW program for teaming up ular geology. It is only possible to see it up close and with RMAG and to Dr. Gary Gianniny, an exceptional safely by raft. You cannot get to this extraordinary trip leader. He has been studying the area and leadlandscape any other way and better yet, the rocks ing raft trips on the San Juan for 32 years. His knowlcome right to you. The scenery in every direction is edge and enthusiasm for the area geology is evident. constantly changing. Rafting provides an appreciaThanks also goes to David Schoderbek for servtion for the river, the geo history and the peace and ing as Trip Coordinator for RMAG, he made the artranquility of flowing water. rangements necessary for this successful float trip to Next summer, RMAG On the Rocks (OTR) happen. arrangements necessary for this successfieldtrip committee would like to launch a follow-up ful float trip to happen. float trip to Lower Canyon of the San Juan River, from Mexican Hat to Clay Hills Crossing, Utah. This would continue our exploration of the Pennsylvanian strata through the Goosenecks and beyond. RMAG’s OTR OUTCROP | August 2022
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A set of impressive vertical fractures in the Cutler Formation (Permian) redbeds along the Upper San Juan River Canyon, just before the Mexican Hat, Utah take-out point and the end of the trip.
To the right, the rafts approach a sandy point bar full of cottonwood trees, it was the campsite for the first of two overnights on the river. To the left on the skyline is Mule Ear, a tooth-like promontory of almost vertical beds of red Wingate Sandstone (Triassic). The lower orange sandstone ridge in left foreground is formed by steeply dipping beds of the Permian De Chelly Sandstone. The 25-millionyear-old Mule Ear diatreme is the dark rock in the distance behind the rafts. Vol. 71, No. 8 | www.rmag.org
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Call for papers for…
A Special Issue: Topics available within: • To commemorate 100 years of RMAG, The • Stratigraphy, mining, structure and Mountain Geologist will publish a special issue tectonics, hydrogeology, this summer. paleontology, geophysics, organic • Seeking historical overview papers that illustrate geochemistry, petroleum geology, a century of advances in the subdisciplines of and many more! Rockies geoscience (or in Rockies study areas). • Manuscripts due June 1, 2022. For more info or ideas, email: mgeditor@rmag.org https://www.rmag.org/publications/the-mountain-geologist/
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CALENDAR – AUGUST 2022 SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
1
WEDNESDAY
2
3
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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5
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11
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RMAG Luncheon.
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WOGA Lean In Circle.
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RMAG On the Rocks, Alma, CO.
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COGA- The Energy Summit.
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RMAG GeoHike Challenge: Continues thru Sept. 6, 2022
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