BEG Friday Seminar Series

John R. Dribus
Global Geosciences Advisor
Schlumberger

Abstract:
Since the Macondo incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry has been diligent in following a three-step approach to addressing various drilling hazards that may be encountered in deep water: Identification, Prevention, and Mitigation. This presentation focuses on the important step of understanding the geologic origin of various hazards in deep water and around salt by reviewing the geologic origin, characteristics, and behaviors of the three deep water hazard types:

1. Man-made surface hazards including linear geometry and single site geometry hazards.
2. Sea-floor hazards including pockmarks, mud volcanoes, and mass sediment movement.
3. Sub-surface geologic hazards including shallow water flows, reactivated faults, and gas chimneys.

In addition, various potential drilling hazards may also be encountered when drilling massive salt and layered evaporates to reach prospective targets below. These challenges may occur when drilling:
1. Into the top of an allochthonous salt canopy (cap rock issues),
2. Through massive salt and layered evaporite complexes (including sediment inclusions, salt-to-salt sutures, and mobile layered evaporates), and
3. Emerging from salt or evaporites (including rubble zones, feeders, mobile bitumen) and other potential hazards.

BEG Friday Seminar Series

John R. Dribus
Global Geosciences Advisor
Schlumberger

Abstract:
Since the Macondo incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry has been diligent in following a three-step approach to addressing various drilling hazards that may be encountered in deep water: Identification, Prevention, and Mitigation. This presentation focuses on the important step of understanding the geologic origin of various hazards in deep water and around salt by reviewing the geologic origin, characteristics, and behaviors of the three deep water hazard types:

1. Man-made surface hazards including linear geometry and single site geometry hazards.
2. Sea-floor hazards including pockmarks, mud volcanoes, and mass sediment movement.
3. Sub-surface geologic hazards including shallow water flows, reactivated faults, and gas chimneys.

In addition, various potential drilling hazards may also be encountered when drilling massive salt and layered evaporates to reach prospective targets below. These challenges may occur when drilling:
1. Into the top of an allochthonous salt canopy (cap rock issues),
2. Through massive salt and layered evaporite complexes (including sediment inclusions, salt-to-salt sutures, and mobile layered evaporates), and
3. Emerging from salt or evaporites (including rubble zones, feeders, mobile bitumen) and other potential hazards.

UTIG Seminar Series: Brandon Schmandt, University of New Mexico

"Seismic Structure beneath EarthScope’s USArray and the Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot"

Abstract:

The seismic component of the EarthScope program includes >2500 broadband seismographs progressively deployed across the contiguous United States since 2005. The resulting data facilitate seismic imaging from the crust to deep within the mantle and are providing new insights into convective processes beneath North America such as the sinking and fragmentation of the Farallon slab and mantle upwelling beneath areas of intraplate volcanism such as the Yellowstone hotspot. Recent imaging indicates that the heat source for Yellowstone magmatism is rooted in the lower mantle and a buoyant plume is rising through a gap between fragments of the Farallon slab. A relatively local increase in broadband seismograph coverage near Yellowstone has also improved imaging of the crustal scale magmatic system, which shows two concentrated low-velocity anomalies thought to represent melt reservoirs in the shallow and deep crust.

BEG Friday Seminar Series

John R. Dribus
Global Geosciences Advisor
Schlumberger

Abstract:
Since the Macondo incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry has been diligent in following a three-step approach to addressing various drilling hazards that may be encountered in deep water: Identification, Prevention, and Mitigation. This presentation focuses on the important step of understanding the geologic origin of various hazards in deep water and around salt by reviewing the geologic origin, characteristics, and behaviors of the three deep water hazard types:

1. Man-made surface hazards including linear geometry and single site geometry hazards.
2. Sea-floor hazards including pockmarks, mud volcanoes, and mass sediment movement.
3. Sub-surface geologic hazards including shallow water flows, reactivated faults, and gas chimneys.

In addition, various potential drilling hazards may also be encountered when drilling massive salt and layered evaporates to reach prospective targets below. These challenges may occur when drilling:
1. Into the top of an allochthonous salt canopy (cap rock issues),
2. Through massive salt and layered evaporite complexes (including sediment inclusions, salt-to-salt sutures, and mobile layered evaporates), and
3. Emerging from salt or evaporites (including rubble zones, feeders, mobile bitumen) and other potential hazards.

UTIG Seminar Series: Brandon Schmandt, University of New Mexico

"Seismic Structure beneath EarthScope’s USArray and the Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot"

Abstract:

The seismic component of the EarthScope program includes >2500 broadband seismographs progressively deployed across the contiguous United States since 2005. The resulting data facilitate seismic imaging from the crust to deep within the mantle and are providing new insights into convective processes beneath North America such as the sinking and fragmentation of the Farallon slab and mantle upwelling beneath areas of intraplate volcanism such as the Yellowstone hotspot. Recent imaging indicates that the heat source for Yellowstone magmatism is rooted in the lower mantle and a buoyant plume is rising through a gap between fragments of the Farallon slab. A relatively local increase in broadband seismograph coverage near Yellowstone has also improved imaging of the crustal scale magmatic system, which shows two concentrated low-velocity anomalies thought to represent melt reservoirs in the shallow and deep crust.

Soft Rock Seminar - Eric Petersen

BEG Friday Seminar Series

John R. Dribus
Global Geosciences Advisor
Schlumberger

Abstract:
Since the Macondo incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry has been diligent in following a three-step approach to addressing various drilling hazards that may be encountered in deep water: Identification, Prevention, and Mitigation. This presentation focuses on the important step of understanding the geologic origin of various hazards in deep water and around salt by reviewing the geologic origin, characteristics, and behaviors of the three deep water hazard types:

1. Man-made surface hazards including linear geometry and single site geometry hazards.
2. Sea-floor hazards including pockmarks, mud volcanoes, and mass sediment movement.
3. Sub-surface geologic hazards including shallow water flows, reactivated faults, and gas chimneys.

In addition, various potential drilling hazards may also be encountered when drilling massive salt and layered evaporates to reach prospective targets below. These challenges may occur when drilling:
1. Into the top of an allochthonous salt canopy (cap rock issues),
2. Through massive salt and layered evaporite complexes (including sediment inclusions, salt-to-salt sutures, and mobile layered evaporates), and
3. Emerging from salt or evaporites (including rubble zones, feeders, mobile bitumen) and other potential hazards.

UTIG Seminar Series: Brandon Schmandt, University of New Mexico

"Seismic Structure beneath EarthScope’s USArray and the Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot"

Abstract:

The seismic component of the EarthScope program includes >2500 broadband seismographs progressively deployed across the contiguous United States since 2005. The resulting data facilitate seismic imaging from the crust to deep within the mantle and are providing new insights into convective processes beneath North America such as the sinking and fragmentation of the Farallon slab and mantle upwelling beneath areas of intraplate volcanism such as the Yellowstone hotspot. Recent imaging indicates that the heat source for Yellowstone magmatism is rooted in the lower mantle and a buoyant plume is rising through a gap between fragments of the Farallon slab. A relatively local increase in broadband seismograph coverage near Yellowstone has also improved imaging of the crustal scale magmatic system, which shows two concentrated low-velocity anomalies thought to represent melt reservoirs in the shallow and deep crust.

Soft Rock Seminar - Eric Petersen

Tech Sessions Speaker Series: PhD Talk