Svalex

UT SVALEX 2013

The UT Svalbard Expedition August 22-30, 2013

Hosted by Statoil and modeled on twelve previous, highly successful Norwegian SVALEX (Svalbard Expedition; see adjacent links) courses, this University of Texas field class brings together students, faculty and research scientists from the Jackson School of Geoscience and the Cockrell School of Engineering. Participants are grouped in multidisciplinary teams with backgrounds from geology, geophysics, drilling and petroleum technology. During daily geologic excursions and evening work sessions, these teams work to solve geology- and engineering-related problems. The class, which includes Spring semester preparatory sessions, departs Austin for Longyearbyen on August 22 and returns eight days later on August 30. It is the first such US class that Statoil has so generously hosted.

The geology of Svalbard is dramatic, varied and well-exposed. It provides an ideal teaching environment for introducing concepts that are important to petroleum systems worldwide. Whether it be sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology or structural geology, the accessible, large-scale rock exposures of Svalbard provide unique, world-class examples that can inform subsurface interpretations in sedimentary basins around the world, and further the education of students and researchers alike.

Statoil SVALEX links

Statoil Arctic Expedition
Statoil Svalex Student Site

News & Events

November 11: Rose Cahalan, the reporter who participated in the trip from the alumni magazine Alcalde, has published a wonderful article, “A Classroom At The Edge Of The World”, about the trip. See it at http://alcalde.texasexes.org/arctic/.
A Statoil YouTube video of the trip can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWnYew79cY

Trip photos at the UTBox account https://utexas.app.box.com/signup/collablink/d_1130214191/7d5f021778340 will be archived later this week to a DVD and then removed. Please download any that you want before then.

September 18: Professor Hans Arne Nakrem has posted photos of the trip at http://folk.uio.no/hanakrem/svalex-2013/. Our own photos of the trip are being collected at a UT Box site. Participants can contact M. Helper (helper@jsg.utexas.edu) for a link.

August 15: If you have not already read it, please see the latest email from Brit, copied and posted on the Announcements page. This contains all of the relevant travel details that you need to get to Longyearbyen and back!

August 2: This from Roman Shor: “I’ve been asked to pass along the info that the International Office does not want to see any paperwork from any Svalex participants – instead we just need to register with the UT international Travel Registry.” This supersedes an earlier announcement (no longer posted) about completing a UT International Travel Authorization. See details near the bottom of the Travel page.

July 10: A new paper on the structural geology of the Spitsbergen fold-thrust belt has been added to the readings.

Site Last Modified: November 11, 2013