JSG Events

BEG Friday Seminar: Dr. Michael Pope Assoc. Professor, TX A&M

Video Streaming Link: http://mediasite.beg.utexas.edu/Media/Viewer/?peid=e5eb4a8f8f4f40bb89b949d562012f63

Speaker: Dr. Michael Pope
Professor & Interim Director
Berg-Hughes Center
Texas A&M University
http://geoweb.tamu.edu/profile/MPope

Title: “Berg-Hughes Center for Petroleum and Sedimentary Systems: Outcrops of the Eagle Ford Formation in west Texas as a “Natural Laboratory” for Unconventional Reservoirs”

The Board of Regents for The Texas A&M University System established the Berg-Hughes Center in 2009 to ensure continuation of the legacy of excellence in education and research in sedimentary and petroleum systems at the University. The goal of the center is to establish and maintain an integrated geology, geophysics, and engineering education and research program that produces students and supports faculty who are prepared to solve current and future problems facing the petroleum industry and society through integrated solutions. I will show examples of both undergraduate and graduate research projects that are trying to meet the goals of the Berg-Hughes Center. Some of the examples will be of Paleozoic carbonate rocks in the Permian Basin, Mesozoic and Cenozoic carbonate rocks of Alabama, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. The last part of the talk will outline ongoing and future research on the Eagle Ford Formation in west Texas.

**PARKING: Any visitor, without a UT Parking Permit, must obtain a PRC “Pay & Display” parking permit upon entering the campus. Please be sure to clearly display the permit on the dashboard of your vehicle. Link to maps and additional instructions: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/info/maps.php

Engineering Career Expo

All UT students are welcome with a current ID. Event Link: https://apps.engr.utexas.edu/ecac/events/expo/Students/index.cfm
Strict dress code enforced.
Wear a suit
Professional shoes
No visible piercings
Hair color cannot be neon or bright colored

UTIG Seminar Series: Cliff Frohlich, UTIG

"Emerging Results Concerning Human-Triggered Earthquakes in Texas"

Abstract:

For more than 30 years it has been recognized that some earthquakes in Texas might be caused by various activities associated with oil and gas development. However, detailed investigations were hampered because there were only a handful of continuously operating seismograph stations in Texas, and only occasional local network deployments. Then, the 2009-2012 passage of the NSF EarthScope seismograph array through Texas made it possible to locate and analyze regional earthquakes in more detail. This presentation will summarize what is known about possibly human-caused earthquakes in Texas, including an update on in-progress, not-yet-published investigations concerning recent earthquakes in East Texas, in the Eagle Ford of south Texas, and in the Cogdell field in west Texas.

Hydro Brown Bag: Dr. Bridget Scanlon, BEG

Soft Rock Seminar: Danny Stockli, DGS

"New insights into basin evolution and tectonic controls on the Northern Alpine Foreland (Molasse) Basin, Switzerland"

Tech Session

Ryan Lester: JGB 2.324
"TBA"

Chris Maupin: JGB 3.222
"TBA"

Tech Session

Axel Schmitt
"TBA"

BEG Friday Seminar: Dr. Christopher Jackson, Sr. Research Fellow BEG

Video Streaming: http://mediasite.beg.utexas.edu/Media/Viewer/?peid=b9c2919d786f41d7807586ed04ae1e83

Speaker:
Dr. Christopher Jackson
Statoil Reader in Basin Analysis*
Basins Research Group
Department of Earth Science and Engineering
Imperial College
London
UK
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/c.jackson

*Currently visiting Research Fellow in the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (AGL) at BEG.

Title: “Seismic reflection imaging of igneous intrusions in sedimentary basin and implications for the development of petroleum systems.”

The emplacement of shallow-level igneous intrusions in sedimentary basins may impact significantly on the development of petroleum systems. For example, the circulation of related hydrothermal fluids, which may reduce the porosity and permeability of host rock reservoirs, and associated host rock deformation may result in the formation of ‘forced fold’ traps. Understanding the geometry and evolution of sub-volcanic intrusive networks in volcanogenic basins is thus of interest to the petroleum industry. Whilst field based studies permit a detailed investigation of magma properties and localized host rock relationships, outcrops are often too small to fully characterize the three-dimensional geometry and size of large igneous complexes. Furthermore, ancient volcanic edifices, and their relation to the sub-volcanic ‘plumbing system’, are typically obscured at outcrop due to post-emplacement erosion or caldera collapse. In contrast, seismic reflection data, although typically limited in terms of their vertical resolution, can provide spectacular images of the intrusive and extrusive components of igneous networks.

In this study we use 2D and 3D seismic reflection and borehole data from the offshore Bight Basin (southern Australia) and Exmouth sub-basin (north-western Australia), to illustrate the seismic expression and range of geometries associated with sill-dominated, intrusive igneous networks connected to submarine volcanoes and vents. Three main types of sill are documented: (i) tabular sills; (ii) saucer-shaped sills; and (iii) transgressive sills. Seismic data resolution restricts a detailed analysis of sill volume, but our analysis indicates that the sills are up to 150 m thick, 16 km wide and 208 km2 in map-view area. In both basins, forced folds, which may represent hydrocarbon traps, are developed above a range of sills. In the Bight Basin, the fold amplitudes are consistently less than the thickness of the underlying intrusions. We interpret that this discrepancy reflects fluidisation and ductile flow of coal or carbonaceous clay stones during sill emplacement at relatively shallow depths. In both study areas the sill-dominated networks are overlain by large (13 km wide by 800 m high), sub-circular mounds, the majority of which occur above the tips of sills; these mounds are interpreted as extrusive volcanic vents, adjacent to which pinch-out traps, which are related to stratigraphic onlap, may be developed.

From an applied perspective, the sill-dominated networks, although really quite extensive, are not anticipated to impact the vertical migration of hydrocarbons, due to the presence of pervasive normal fault networks that may allow shallow level reservoirs to access deeply-buried source rocks. Although the sills may locally impact the reservoir quality of the host rock successions, forced folding, which is associated with sill emplacement in the shallow sub-surface, can result in the formation of viable hydrocarbon traps.

**PARKING: Any visitor, without a UT Parking Permit, must obtain a PRC “Pay & Display” parking permit upon entering the campus. Please be sure to clearly display the permit on the dashboard of your vehicle. Link to maps and additional instructions: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/info/maps.php

UTIG Seminar Series: Britney Schmidt, UTIG

"Getting Under Europa’s Skin: Ice Dynamics and Habitability from Terrestrial Analogs"

Abstract:

In the past few decades the debate about habitability of Europa has been focused strongly on the thickness of its ice shell. However an arguably more critical question is: how does the ice shell really work? Even now, ten years after the end of Galileo and without the ability yet to see below Europa’s icy surface, there is still progress to be made by studying its surface. And in particular, we are just scratching the surface of what we can learn from terrestrial analogs.

Galileo-era analyses indicated that Europa has undergone geologically recent resurfacing, and implied that near-surface water was likely involved. However the amount of water and the details surrounding its interaction with the surface were not well constrained. We address this question with a new approach: we use process analogs from Earth’s cryosphere—subglacial hydraulics, hydrofracture and brine infiltration—to gain insight into the behavior of dynamic water-ice interactions. With these as a foundation, our reanalysis of the morphology of Europa's enigmatic "chaos terrains" indicates that chaos features form in the presence of a great deal of liquid water, above large lenses trapped within 3km of Europa's surface. The detection of shallow subsurface "lakes" implies that Europa is currently active, and that rapid ice shell recycling could form the downward component of a conveyor belt between the ice and ocean. Hydrologic modeling suggests that material is also transferred horizontally through the upper ice shell.

The upward component of the conveyor belt whereby ocean material could be delivered to the near surface will be mediated by ice-ocean exchange. Here, terrestrial processes such as accretion, melt and redistribution will form the foundation of our understanding of ice-ocean interactions on Europa. And while microbial life within ice and below glaciers has been studied for decades, the ice-ocean interface has remained largely unexplored…until now. Project SIMPLE (Sub-Ice Marine and Planetary analog Ecosystems) is an extensive three-platform assault on the McMurdo Ice Shelf to characterize the environment at the ice-ocean interface and processes within the shelf, where the geophysical evolution of the ice will be coupled to its habitability. The results from SIMPLE will provide a basis for characterizing habitats and interactions between the ocean and the ice shelf via remote sensing and in situ analyses, revolutionizing our understanding of ice-ocean dynamics and ecosystems on both Earth and Europa.

While we wait for the opportunity to send a new mission to Europa, looking to our own cosmic backyard, Antarctica, provides a solid foundation for understanding Europa’s dynamics and habitability and affords us the opportunity to develop techniques to explore this ice covered world not so unlike our own.

Hydro Brown Bag: Dr. Ofer Dahan, ZIWR

Tech Session

Ying Sun: JGB 2.324
"TBA"

Tricia Alvarez: JGB 3.222
"TBA"

Schlumberger Info Session

Info session prior to interviews tomorrow.

Tech Session

"TBD"

UTIG Seminar Series: Joseph Levy, UTIG

"Going Fast: Vanishing Ice, Flowing Brine, and the Intersections of Geology, Hydrology, and Climate from McMurdo to Mars"

Abstract:

What does shallow groundwater in Antarctica tell us about "recurring slope lineae" groundwater seeps on Mars? What does the sudden collapse of ground ice in the Dry Valleys indicate about landscape evolution on Mars over the recent Amazonian? New results from Antarctic field research will be presented that examine the interactions between polar soils, shallow hydrological systems, deliquescent salts, and buried ice masses in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Surface-atmosphere-biosphere interactions will be explored from the hillslope to the continental scale with applications to understanding the evolution of water/ice features on Mars.

Hydro Brown Bag: Kehua You, TAMU

Soft Rock Seminar: Dr. Erik Sperling, Harvard University

Faculty search candidate
"Oxygen, ecology, and the Cambrian radiation of animals"

Tech Session

Mohammed Alhussain: JGB 2.324
"TBA"

Jennifer Flidewell Graf: JGB 3.222
"TBA"

Tech Session- Distinguished Guest Speaker

Edwin Allday Lectureship in Geological Sciences

Bill Schlesinger
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

"TBA"

BEG Friday Seminar: Dr. Tip Meckel, Research Science, BEG

Video Streaming Link: Pending

Dr. Timothy “Tip” Meckel
Research Associate
Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/personnel_ext.php?id=56

TITLE: To Be Announced

UTIG Seminar Series: Joe MacGregor, UTIG

"Insights into Ice-Sheet Dynamics from Radar Sounding"

Abstract:

Several decades of ground- and air-based geophysical exploration of the subsurface of Earth’s ice sheets has resulted in a broad understanding of their thickness, internal structure and the subglacial controls upon ice flow. Radar sounding in particular has proven immensely valuable in illuminating the nature of ice sheets far from ice core sites, and we are presently in the midst of a golden age for radar sounding that includes advances in both technical capabilities and spatial coverage. In this talk I will describe recent examples of novel and anticipated insights into radar-inferred controls upon ice-sheet dynamics. High radar reflectivities suggest that seawater infiltrates upstream of some Antarctic grounding zones and hence that ice-shelf tidal flexure can reverse subglacial water flow there. While radar investigations of subglacial beds often focus on the search for water there, contrasts in small-scale bed roughness are also common and are related to sharp transitions in ice flow. With increasing data coverage, we can expect that similar methods will be applied at regional and continental scales, bridging the present gap between localized radar observations and numerical models of entire ice sheets. For example, we are presently mapping the radiostratigraphy of the whole of the Greenland Ice Sheet. This approach should yield fundamental insights into the evolution of strain in an ice sheet and the subglacial and internal controls upon its flow.

Soft Rock Seminar: Mauricio Perillo, DGS

Tech Session

Mingjie Shi: JGB 2.324
"TBA"

Eugenio Santillan: JGB 3.222
"TBA"

Tech Session

Edwin Allday Lectureship in Geological Sciences

Robert Talbot
University of Houston

"TBA"

Jobs in Federal Government

Sarah Lynch with the Department of Energy will speak to students on jobs with the U.S. government. Networking afterward with refreshments.