Spring, 2014 1 Students in GEOL 5990 (Regional Stratigraphy of the Midcontinent) examining an outcrop. Dr. Darwin Boardman who directed the field trip is in the blue shirt in the far right. A Message from the Head: Dr. Estella Atekwana Greetings to all alumni and friends of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University! After a national search, I was named the new Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology. As many of you may already know, I joined the Boone Pickens School of Geology in the fall of 2006 after spending seven years at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) and ten years at Western Michigan University where I began my academic career. In 2011, I became a Regents Professor of Geology. At OSU, I served as the graduate coordinator for six years before becoming the new head. I am honored to be serving in this position and hope to build upon the foundation laid by Dr. Jay Gregg. I want to take this opportunity to salute Dr. Gregg for a job well done. My vision is to continue where Dr. Gregg left off and to increase the visibility of the School nationally and internationally by growing and strengthening our academic programs, increasing scholarly productivity, improving student performance/success, increasing interaction/partnerships with industry and working with the school’s alumni advisory board to increase participation of our alums and friends in school activities. Such a partnership is necessary in making the Boone Pickens School of Geology one of the top tier geosciences programs in the nation. We have turned the corner and are now poised to do great things as a school with your support. This has been another great year for the Boone Pickens School of Geology. Our students, faculty and alums (see articles in this issue) continue to win honors on campus and at national meetings; publish ground breaking research and bring in record funding in the history of the School. We also successfully launched the Mississippian Consortium (see article in this issue).We are in the final stages of launching an
2 unconventional hydrocarbon research center in collaboration with the College of Engineering. We saw record numbers of our faculty and students attend national meetings. We took the national GSA meeting by storm and had 21 presentations authored and co-authored by students and faculty; 11 presentations at AAPG mid-Continent; 4 presentations at SEG; and 8 presentations at AGU. With the talented faculty that is now in place, the recruitment of talented students and the resources to carry out our research and teaching mission, we are definitely a department on the rise! Thanks to the support of the alumni and friends and the university our School has experienced tremendous growth in faculty (14 plus undergraduate advisor), students (213), and research grant awards in 2013. Also, for the first time ~60% of graduate student support was raised through faculty research grants and alumni donations in the form of scholarships and fellowships. With the three new endowed chairs (Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam, the Pickens Chair of Geophysics, Dr. Michael Grammer the Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair of Petroleum Geoscience and Dr. Jack Pashin the Devon Chair of Basin Research) now in place we are experiencing record numbers of applications and inquiries to our graduate program. We are essentially bursting at the seams. This has allowed us to be more selective bringing in top graduate students into our program. Our graduate students come from 25 different states and from 17 different countries; we are presently able to admit only 26% of applicants into our graduate program. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 Number of Students Calender Year Undergraduate Masters Doctoral Enrollment Through Fall 2013 Undergraduate enrollment stands at 135, a slight drop from 140 in 2012. However, we saw the largest graduate class we have had in the last decade – 77 students - up from 66 in 2012. By the fall of 2013, we had 16 PhD students and 61 MS students enrolled in the School. We continue to improve the quality and caliber of our graduate students and expect them to be successfully integrated into the work force or continue on to graduate school. This year, applicants to our graduate program came from many different States and several countries aboard. The completed applications number more than 125 at the moment of this writing. Many of the applicants have excellent credentials; however, we are limited by funding and may only admit about 15%. The number of B.S. degrees awarded in Geology was 17. We graduated 7 students with M.S. degrees which is down from 21 in 2012. We graduated 1 PhD student in 2013 and we have 2 Ph.D. students expected to graduate in 2014. Geology faculty were awarded about $1.9M in new grants between January 1 2013- December 31 2013. The $1.9M in research grants in 2013 stands as the largest ever in the history of the School (Please see article on research award abstracts). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Degrees Granted Calender Year BS Degrees MS Degrees Ph.D. Degrees Degrees Granted Through Summer 2013 After several years of petitioning for a professional undergraduate advisor, we were finally awarded a position that is shared with Chemistry and Physics (however, Geology has the majority of the students). In August Ms. Sheri Orr joined the department as the new undergraduate advisor and is housed on the 4th Floor in NRC right next to Dr. Puckette’s office. For the first time in decades Dr. Puckette does not have 135 students to deal with and can finally spend more time on projects and courses. Ms. Orr has been a tremendous addition and asset to our program (read more about Ms. Orr in this issue). 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 Dollars Fiscal Year Grants Awarded Grant Expenditures Grants Through FY 2013 We are currently in the process of recruiting two new faculty in the areas of sediment/organic geochemistry and geofluids/hydrogeology at the assistant professor level. With the geochemistry position we hope to bring in a candidate who will support the petroleum and environmental parts of our program. With the geofluids position we hope to identify a candidate who will help expand and increase our strength in this area. The expectation is that we will have these two faculty in place by fall 2014. Finally 12 companies participated in our fall recruitment program. These companies included Chaparral, Chesapeake Energy, Concho, Denbury Resources, Devon Energy, EOG, Laredo Petroleum, Linn Energy, Noble Energy, QEP, Samson and SM Energy. We thank these industry partners for their continued support of our program. In addition students participated in the SEG Student Expo in Houston and in Rocky Mountain Rendezvous in Laramie, Wyoming. In summary, we had a great year, thanks to the hard work of the students and faculty and generous support of our alums.
3 GEOLOGY FIELD CAMP, MAY & JUNE 2013 By Jim Puckette Field Camp 2013: The Year of the Fire The 2013 field camp was unforgettable in that this was the first time that we were forced from the field by fire. As a result of the prolonged drought in the southern Rockies, we have been aware of the dangers of fire. In past years, smoke from fires in New Mexico, Arizona and southern Colorado created air-quality issues, but this year the Royal Gorge Fire resulted in an evacuation order along Temple Canyon Road and forced us to leave the Mixing Bowl. The Gorge Fire as it came to be called started south of the Royal Gorge and quickly moved northward on gusty winds, jumped the canyon and burned most of the buildings in the park. Luckily, the animals were spared and fire was stopped in the Priest Canyon mapping area by the change in wind direction and the dumping of large volumes of flame retardant. From the Mixing Bowl, which is located approximately 5 miles to the east-southeast of Royal Gorge, we watched the smoke column grow as the fire expanded. Though we were never in danger from the Gorge Fire, the evacuation area included the Bowl and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Department requested we leave the area. The OU students were in the Bowl at the same time and vans from both camps were used to shuttle students to the safety of the parking area at the Cañon City Eco Park, known to many vintage geologists as the Cañon City Dump and the entrance to the Grape Creek section. Fortunately, the Gorge Fire was stopped before it reached U.S. Highway 50 and Twin Mountain. Though we were not allowed to return to the Bowl due to the closure of Temple Canyon Road, the rest of camp was completed without difficulty. Enrollment in 2013 was fifty-eight students. Students from fifteen different colleges and universities attended including twenty-one from OSU, and thirty seven from the other fourteen schools included Angelo State, Central Michigan, Georgia Southern, Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, James Madison, Midwestern State, Rutgers, Sam Houston State, Texas A&M Kingsville, TCU, Temple, University of Colorado, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, West Texas State. Our outstanding teaching assistants were Chris Geyer and Andrew Katumwehe. Our camp maintenance man was Rawlings Akondi, who also assisted with field trips and the geophysics project. Tim Sickbert served again as our capable medical officer and fortunately only had to deal with minor complaints. Our two capable cooks, Ms. Michelle Leach and Ms. Jana Van Pelt, kept the kitchen running smoothly and provided tasty, healthy and filling meals. Michelle and Jan were assisted by Rawlings and Jon Fields, who have added dishwasher to their lists of many talents. Fulltime faculty were Chester Wallace, a retired Colorado mapper, Rick Hobbs from Amarillo College, George Bolling from University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and Jim Puckette. Ms. Tiny Striegel of Canon City visited her camp family each week and entertained all with her poetry and camp history. Tiny welcomed the students to camp and assured them that they would be successful and enjoy the experience. Field projects in 2013 included Phantom Canyon/Gnat Hollow, Grape Creek, Mixing Bowl, Big Orange, Red Canyon Park, Blue Ridge and Twin Mountain. Field trips included Cripple Creek and Victor, Pikes Peak, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Leadville. Under the guidance of Andrew, Rawlings and Tim Sickbert, the geophysical exercise concentrated on imaging the alluvial aquifer along Eightmile Creek where it crosses the camp property. Due to high demands for water early in camp, we purchased water from town and filled the cisterns. Our hope is that a wet spring will cause Eightmile Creek to flow again and fully recharge the aquifer. Thanks to a generous contribution from Mr. Terry Clay, a new commercial side by side refrigerator was added to the kitchen serving area. These improvements are necessary and welcome as we filled the 2013 camp in October 2012. Field Camp Reunion The summer of 2014 will mark the 65th anniversary of field camp. Visitors are always welcome anytime camp is in session, but this summer we will host a reunion Friday June 6 and Saturday June 7. Activities will include a cookout on Friday evening, a tour of selected field areas during the day Saturday and a program of reminiscing and feasting that evening.
4 2013 RECOGNITION & AWARDS Mr. Rick Fritz, wins Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. Pictured from left to right is Dr. Bret Danilowicz, Dean of Arts & Sciences, Mr. Rick Fritz and Dr. Estella Atekwana (Head of BPSoG). Dr Jim Puckette was awarded the Excellence in Advising Award. The award is being given by Dr. Shiretta Ownbey, Associate Dean, Academic Programs and Service, College of Human Science. OSU PhD student Khemraj Shukla paired with Brandon Lutz (University of Alabama) came in 3rd overall and 1st place in the US at the SEG 2013 Challenge Bowl. Congratulations Raj! Best Poster - Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, New Orleans. Asmus, J.J. and G.M. Grammer, (2013), Characterization of Deep-Water Carbonate Turbidites and Mass Transport Deposits (MTDs) Utilizing High-Resolution Electrical Borehole Image Logs: Late Leonardian (E. Permian) Upper Bone Spring Limestone, Delaware Basin, Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. Best Paper - Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Environmental and Engineering problems, Denver, CO March 1720, 2013. Atekwana, E.A., Mewafy F., Abdel Aal, G. Z., Atekwana, E.A., Beaver, C., Rossbach, S., Slater, L., Ntarlagiannis, D., Revil, A., and Werkema, D. Biogeochemical controls on magnetic susceptibility variations across a hydrocarbon contaminated site. Best Paper – Batelle’s Second International Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies Symposium, Jacksonville, FL, 10-13 June. Beaver, C., S. Rossbach, E. Atekwana, E. Atekwana, F. Mewafy, G. Abdel Aal, L. Slater, D. Ntarlagiannis, and A. Revil. Microbial communities within zones of elevated magnetic susceptibilities. Best Poster - Batelle’s Second International Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies Symposium, Jacksonville, FL, 10-13 June. Heenan, J.W., L.D. Slater, D. Ntarlagiannis, E.A. Atekwana. Electrical resistivity imaging for long term monitoring of contaminant degradation NEWS ABOUT THE MISSISSIPPIAN CONSORTIUM The Mississippian Consortium, evaluating the stratigraphy and reservoir distribution in the Mississippian Lime of the MidContinent, has made great progress in the first year. In addition to myself (Grammer), we had 4 other faculty members (Jay Gregg, Darwin Boardman, Jim Puckette and Priyank Jaiswal) involved in Year 1 of the project and will be incorporating help from Daniel Lao Davila in Year 2 with work utilizing LIDAR for modeling of outcrop. We currently have 12 sponsors (Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy, Marathon Oil Company, Newfield Exploration, SandRidge Energy, Longfellow Energy, Red Fork Energy, Tip Top Energy (Sinopec), Chaparral Energy, Unit Corporation, SM Energy and Maverick Brothers Energy), and are hoping to get additional members for Year’s 2 and 3 of the project. At this time, we have 18 graduate students (7 PhD and 11 MS) and 6 undergraduates working on the project. We had a strong showing at the Mid-Continent AAPG Meeting in October up in Wichita. The Mississippian group (faculty and students) from the BPSoG gave 9 presentations and 2 core workshops. In December, we had our Year 1 Annual review where more than 50 participants were present. Faculty and students gave a total of 22 presentations to the consortium members can conducted a core workshop overviewing our approach and initial
5 findings. Year 1 was focused on enhancing our understanding of the biostratigraphic control through incorporation of additional core and outcrop data sets, regional and field scale paleogeography and depositional environments, regional and field scale high resolution (i.e., below biostratigraphic resolution) sequence stratigraphy and reservoir characterization, 3D seismic analysis at the field scale and physical rock properties to evaluate susceptibility to fracturing, pore system architecture and relationship to permeability and how we might predict from sonic velocity response. In Year 2, we will continue this work and we will integrate diagenetic work fully with the facies and sequence stratigraphic data sets. In addition to the field and laboratory work, we will be leading a members-only multi-day field trip to the outcrops utilized in our study towards the end of April or early in May, then have a modern carbonates trip to the Bahamas and South Florida planned for next September. In March of 2014, the Mississippian group will be presenting some 8-10 technical papers on non-proprietary aspects of our work, and we also will be presenting at this year’s AAPGACE meeting in Houston (2-3 papers) and again in August at the AAPG Unconventional Expo in Denver. SPOT LIGHT ON INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH By Eliot Atekwana Front left to right are OSU students Kyle Obenberger and Mary Niles and Gift Tsokonombwe from the Malawi Geological Survey and in the back row are three local guides making observations at a spring location in Northern Malawi. In summer 2013, Dr. Estella Atekwana and Dr. Eliot Atekwana, along with undergraduate students Landon Lockhart and Kyle Obenberger and graduate students Kathleen Robertson, Khumo Leseane and Mary Niles, conducted fieldwork in Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. Also participating in the field program were Dr. Kevin Mickus from Missouri State University and scientists and individuals from Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. The fieldwork was conducted under our National Science Foundation project on Integrated Studies of Early Stages of Continental Extension: From Incipient (Okavango) to Young (Malawi) Rifts, for which OSU is the lead institution in collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Lamont Doherty Observatory, Missouri University of Science and Technology and University of Texas El Paso. We spent eight weeks in the field conducting research that should provide us with greater understanding of the nature of coupling between deep crustal processes (continental rifting) and with surficial processes. We formed two groups headed by Dr. Eliot Atekwana (Geochemistry crew) and another group headed by Dr. Estella Atekwana (Geophysics crew). The geochemistry crew included Kyle Obenberger and Mary Niles and was supported by locals and by the Zambia Wildlife Authority support staff and field officers. The geochemistry crew investigated hot springs, cold springs and streams for chemical and isotopic constituents in an attempt to figure out if material, especially gases from deep crustal sources, were released to the near-surface environment. The overarching goal was to provide evidence for the coupling between deep and shallow crustal processes. We anticipated that this connection will be found in hot springs, since surface water that flow deep underground to be heated may likely pick up material released from the deeper crust. A comparison with cold springs and surface water is expected to allow us to tell which chemical constituents unique to hot spring can be associated with deep crustal processes. At each sampling location, we measured water temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, alkalinity and silica. We collected water that was later used to make measurements of major and minor anions, cations and metals, and stable oxygen, hydrogen and carbon isotopes in our laboratory at OSU. The hot springs we investigated were located in all kinds of terrain: from the rift valley floor, along faults, along river valleys, and along the beaches of Lake Malawi. This survey took us deep into the wild in Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. For about 5 days a week, the geochemistry crew drove for about 8-10 hours a day, sometimes covering as little as 50 miles in the wild with virtually no roads and sometimes as far as 400 miles between major towns. By the end of the survey, it is estimated that the geochemistry crew travelled about 10 thousand miles. OSU students in South Luangwa National Park with hippos in the background. Khumo Leseane (left), Landon Lockhart (center) and Kat Robertson (right). The Geophysics crew consisted of Landon Lockhart, Kathleen Robertson, Khumo Leseane and Kevin Mickus. In Zambia, they were supported by locals and in Malawi they were supported by scientists from the Malawi Geological Survey. The Geophysics crew conducted global positioning satellite (GPS) enabled topographic survey along with magnetic and gravity surveys along three transects in Zambia and two transects in Malawi. In each of the transects, three sets of measurements were taken about every
6 mile. We covered on the average 100 miles per day and in all, covered total distance of more than 2000 miles, which we covered by working 5 days a week from about 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening. In both the geochemistry and geophysics surveys, we got to see extensive parts of this portion of subtropical Africa. The geology was amazing, the topography was highly varied, and the vegetation especially in the valleys was lush. Even the air was fresh. The trip was extremely enjoyable and the people were very friendly. We were exposed to varied cultures and the multitudes of activities going on, especially in the markets in the many places we visited. We found it strange especially in Zambia that there were fires all over the place. For the most part, people did not seem to care as they walked past raging fires. On questioning some of the locals, they indicated that fires were set during the dry season to avoid the bigger fires that may result in the main dry season; thus a preventative measure. Preliminary results of the geochemistry and geophysics surveys were presented at the Geological Survey of America Annual meeting in Denver, CO and at the American Geophysical Union Annual meeting in San Francisco, CA. ALUMNI COMMITTEE CREATES PETROLEUM WATER RESOURCES COURSE By Todd Halihan The 2013 IPWRM students visit Dr. Wayne and Phyllis Pettyjohn’s home along with the guest speakers, Jerry and Mike Thornhill. While visiting Mr. Pickens’ ranch in 2012, a group of alumni and Dr. Halihan saw a need for a petroleum water resources course. A committee was formed consisting of Barrett Cieutat, Kyla Coker, Bart Gaskill, Mary O’Kelley and Mike Thornhill. After a few rounds of discussion and organizing, the Integrated Petroleum Water Resources Management (IPWRM) course was born. Thanks to the support of the alumni in supporting speaker travel and accommodations, the course trained 18 graduate students in petroleum water management. The students acted as hosts for the speakers and many courses went past the allotted time as people were interested in learning as much as possible. Dr. Pettyjohn hosted several after class functions for the speakers and students to continue the educational process. Thanks once again to all of the students and instructors that made the course great. Due to tremendous demand, the course will be offered again during the spring of 2015. . NEWS FROM THE FACULTY Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Hello everyone. I am starting my second year in the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University and I am looking forward to many years to come. I joined the School as the Boone Pickens Chair of Applied Geophysics and Professor of Geology in the fall of 2012 coming from the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. My family and I have settled down nicely in Stillwater and we enjoy being part of the School’s family. Last year I taught four classes: Physical Geology with ~250 students, Plate Tectonics with ~40 students, Structural Geology with ~35 students and Spectral Signal Processing with 6 students. I have enjoyed teaching these courses, especially going back to teaching Structural Geology after seven years. It is great to see that the enrollment in the School of Geology is growing and that there is an increasing interest in geology. The interest in geology finally reached my family. My daughter Hala is now taking courses at Oklahoma State University preparing herself to enroll in the MS program at the School of Geology. I became the graduate advisor at the School of Geology starting July 2013 and I think I have passed the steeper part of my learning curve. We are seeing an amazing increase in the interest in our graduate program. We have received over 100 applications for the fall 2013 and spring 2014 admission. Many of these applications are of high-quality and the students come from schools in all parts of the US as well as other countries. Currently, our enrolled graduate students are from half of the states in the US in addition to 20 other countries. I couldn’t be more excited about my research than now. My colleagues Drs. Estella Atekwana and Daniel Laó Dávila and I formed a Tectonics research group that involves 4 PhD and 5 MS students. We have funding to keep us going in the next two years, but we have also been very active in trying to secure future funding. So far we have a number of proposals submitted to National Science Foundation (NSF) to study different tectonic processes, especially continental rifting. My Geodynamic and Geospatial Science Lab is now almost complete. It is great to see it is now populated with active graduate and undergraduate students. We have been working on enabling the lab for new technologies including SeroVision (for three-dimensional capture of geological outcrops using terrestrial photogrammetry) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) (for mm scale surface change including crustal deformation using Satellite RADAR data). We are currently in
7 the process of acquiring 6 broadband seismic stations. Please come over and visit. I would love to hear from you regarding research ideas and how my lab and expertise can be of use to you. On the family front, my wife Mahasin and our 4 children have adjusted nicely to life in Stillwater. Dr. Eliot Atekwana Greetings to all alumni and friends! I report to you a successful 2013. I served as the Interim Head of the School until June 2013. During my tenure, I enjoyed serving the students and the faculty and working closely with the Alumni Advisory Board to advance the agenda of the School. In all, I believe the School made important advances in 2013 (see the report from the Head). I continue to teach, maintain an active research program and supervise students. This year, I taught Geology Colloquium in the spring and Geochemistry and Research Methods and Techniques in Geosciences in the fall. I also supervised MS thesis and Doctoral Dissertation in the spring and fall semesters. This year, our hands-on laboratory/field component to the Geochemistry course involved investigating the quality of bottled vs. tap water. The students were attempting to answer the simple question: “Should I drink bottle or tap water?” Tap water was collected from Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, Denver and Huston. Bottled water included distilled, reverse osmosis water, spring water and carbonate water from various companies which were purchased within the State of Oklahoma. The data collected this year was combined with data collected in 2007 in the same course. The students who were divided into groups measured the pH, nitrate, chloride, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium concentrations in our geochemistry laboratory in the HBRC. The students compared their results with the drinking water standards and found that all the tap water samples were of high quality and comparable to the bottled water except for one bottled water sample with high nitrate. This exercise culminated into insightful reports about the project findings; the conclusion was that there was no advantage to drinking bottled water over tap water and based on the cost and environmental degradation (energy use, plastic material needed, plastic to be disposed, etc.) tap water was better for the environment. The report was designed to fulfill the writing component of the course. Eliot Atekwana helping Kyle Obenberger to get out of mud at a hot spring sampling location in Kasane, Botswana. In international research, I worked with graduate student Mary Niles and undergraduate Kyle Obenberger on investigating the chemistry and stable isotopic composition of hot springs, cold springs and streams in Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. This is part of our National Science Foundation funded research “Collaborative Research: Integrated studies of early stages of continental extension: From incipient (Okavango) to young (Malawi) rifts”. In all, the field campaign was very successful (see spotlight on international research). This year, I was one of two members of the Joint Technical Program Committee of the Hydrologic Division of the Geological Society of America. We helped put together the hydrology program for the GSA's 125th Anniversary Annual Meeting & Exposition in October 2013 in the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO. The entire meeting including the sessions sponsored by the Hydrology Division was very successful; the meeting as a whole was a blast. I published a paper with my PhD student Pride Abongwa in the Journal of Hydrology and with my MS student Eric Akoko in the journal Biogeochemistry. My students, collaborators and I presented six abstracts at the GSA annual meeting. My students Pride Abongwa, Scott Meier and Morgan Ostroski presented their research at the Oklahoma State 24th Annual Research Symposium on February 20-22, 2013. Dr. Estella Atekwana and I along with our students and collaborators continue to work on our projects funded by Chevron Energy Technology Company and the National Science Foundation. I continue to work with and mentor my students Pride Abongwa (PhD), Eric Seeger, Rawlings Akondi, Christopher Geyer, Stephanie Wisler, Mary Niles (MS) and Wes Rutelonis (undergraduate). I served on several MS and PhD thesis committees throughout the year and I graduated MS degree student Morgan Ostroski. Please drop by to say hello when next in Stillwater or send me email if I can be of assistance to you. Dr. Estella Atekwana Greetings to all alumni and friends! I hope this newsletter meets you all in good health. I keep saying that this is the year that I slow down. However, this never seems to happen especially now that I have added on the responsibilities of the School Head. 2013 continued to be an extremely busy year for me as usual with lots of travelling to distant parts of the world. It was also a very exciting and productive year for me. We shut down our activities related to the BP Deep Horizon Oil spill project after Hurricane Isaac demolished our geophysical monitoring system. We finished processing the data and submitted a paper for publication which is currently under review in the journal Geophysics. Work continues on our Chevron grant and we have some very important discoveries that have resulted in the publication of two papers and three best paper awards. In August we presented the results of Year 2 activity to the remediation group at Chevron in Houston Texas. Chevron continues be very impressed with the work we are doing and this year our grant was renewed for another $300,000 for the third year. This is also the last year of the project. However, we hope that Chevron will continue the funding after year 3. This project has given us the opportunity to critically examine biogeophysical signatures at organic rich contaminated sites. We now have some ideas on how to extend this work to examining microbial induced
8 geochemical changes in reservoirs as well as for exploration in frontier basins. In March I convened a session on biogeophysics at the Symposium for the Application of Geophysics to Environmental and Engineering Problems (SAGEEP 2013) in Denver. I also presented a paper on some of our results from the Chevron project on the role of biometallic magnetic minerals. This paper was very well received and won the best paper award. As a result I was asked to present the work at the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) Near Surface meeting in Bochum Germany. So I spent a week in Germany in early September to present this paper. In June the students working on our Chevron project presented at the 2nd International Symposium on Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies (Batelle Conference) in Jacksonville Florida. Both students won a “Best Paper Award” for their research presentation. My research scientist, Dr. Gamal Abdel Aal also presented his work on the “Influence of oil wettability (biodegraded and fresh) upon spectral induced polarization of oil-bearing sands” at the Batelle Conference. This work was recently published in Geophysical Journal International. Our PRIDE project is going well. PRIDE is a 4-year project to understand fundamental geodynamic processes that initiate continental rift zones. To learn more about PRIDE visit the project website: http://seismo.device.mst.edu/PRIDE/. This summer we spent eight weeks in three different countries (Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia) conducting field research. This was one of those trips that almost everything that could go wrong went wrong. Our initial plans were to go to Botswana first and work with our collaborators from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to complete a large scale seismic refraction experiment across the Okavango rift. We had our bags packed and ready to go when we got a message from Botswana that the experiment had been halted by the government of Botswana because we did not have all the required permits for working in the Okavango Delta. The drilling crew was already in Botswana ready to drill the holes for the seismic shots. In addition, a day before we left for Botswana we got an email from the Zambian Geological Survey that they will not be participating in our project. This put a monkey wrench in our plans because they were supposed to provide us with logistical support such as helping with customs and providing transportation. Well, we still continued with our plans and approached the University of Zambia who saved the day and agreed to help us with the logistics. Eliot and I accompanied by five OSU students (Landon Lockhart, Mary Niles, Khumo Leseane, Kyle Obenberger and Kat Robertson) continued with our travel plans. We got to Atlanta only to find out that our plane to Johannesburg had a problem and had to be changed. This delay caused us to miss our flight from Johannesburg to Botswana and we had to spend the night at the airport. In the end, we got to Botswana after three days of travel and after a couple of days headed to Zambia to begin fieldwork. The fifth student Kyle Obenberger had to join us in Zambia because he had to complete field camp. Well, we got a call from Kyle indicating that he had missed his flight and Sandy had to scramble to find him another flight to Lusaka. To make matters worse about 200 km after we left Gaborone, Botswana heading for Zambia, one of our cars broke down and Eliot had to return to Gaborone to repair the car. I stayed behind with the students wondering if with the string of bad luck we were ever going to acquire any data. Despite all the hiccups we completed more than 4,000 km of gravity, GPS and magnetic measurements across the Luangwa and Malawi rifts. We spent four weeks in Zambia and another two weeks in Malawi before heading back to Botswana to catch our flight back to the US. Malawi Rift was breath-taking and Malawi is truly the warm heart of Africa. If your travels ever take you to this part of Africa, Malawi is a must see and the South Luangwa National Park is a must for wildlife viewing. The Tanzanians and Kenyans may not like to hear this but I believe that Serengeti pales in comparison to the South Luangwa National Park. I continue my duties as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical ResearchBiogeoscience. This has kept me busy. I continue my work on the Advisory Board of the NSF sponsored Science and Technology Center "C-DEBI", The Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations at the University of Southern California and the NSF Funded program in Forest Ecosystems at Alabama A&M University. In October I spent two days at Monterey Bay attending a C-DEBI all hands workshop hosted by the University of Southern California as part of my Advisory Board duties. I have also been appointed a member of the GeoPRISMS (Geodynamic Processes at Rifted and Subducting Margins) Steering and Oversight Committee (GSOC). In December I attended the fall AGU meeting where I convened a session on continental rifting. We received more than 90 abstracts and had two full days on rifting talks and posters. My graduate student Khumo Leseane presented a paper on some of our first results from the PRIDE project. During the winter semester 2012, I taught a course on Gravity and Magnetic Methods in Exploration. I had a great group of students and we capped the course with a 2 1/2 day short course on Geosoft Oasis Montaj – An Integrated Exploration Platform for processing gravity and magnetic data with applications for oil and gas, mineral exploration and tectonic studies. We are now well settled in our new state-ofthe-art biogeophysics facilities in the Henry Bellmon Research Center. It is a fantastic facility and I encourage you all to drop by for a visit so that we can show you around. I now have two PhD level research scientists (Dr. Igor Brown and Dr. Gamal Abdel Aal) working in the lab. My graduate students are all doing well. My MS student Cameron Ross defended in February. Farag Mewafy, my PhD student graduated in May and is the third student to graduate from our PhD program. I have three new graduate students: Kitso Matende, Vincent Somwe and Kat Robertson. I am enjoying my position as the School Head and yes, my research has had to take a back seat as I focus on the affairs of the School. I have a fantastic group of faculty who are doing a marvelous job with committees that help to make the School run efficiently. On the home front, our kids continue to grow. Our oldest son Kyle will be graduating this May from OSU with a degree in Geology. Kyra is now a senior at Harvard University. She spent some time in Europe this summer doing research for her thesis. Kyne is now an 11th grader at the Stillwater High School. My nephew, Nissi is also an 11th grader at the Stillwater High. Please drop by my office to say hello when next you are in town or send me an email if you have any questions regarding my research. Dr. Darwin Boardman My research over the past year has revolved around Carboniferous conodont and ammonoid biostratigraphy and high
9 resolution sequence stratigraphy. Included in my research include three papers on Mississippian stratigaphy and biostratigraphy. This past year I also continued to publish articles in Pennsylvanian stratigraphy and biostratigraphy. Currently, work on both fronts continue, and along with departmental colleagues, we are in the initial stages of adding a Pennsylvanian Consortium to the research mix. Additionally, I am supervising for masters theses and three doctorate students on projects related to the Mississippian. All of these are directly applicable to our research in the Mississippian Consortium. During the spring, 2013 semester I taught Paleontology and Sequence Stratigraphy. I offered a new class Regional Stratigraphy of the Midcontinent in the Fall 2013 semester. This course combined, lectures, paper discussions, and three weekend field trips. These included a survey of Paleozoic Stratigraphy of the Ozark Mountains, Paleozoic Stratigraphy of the Arbuckle Mountains and Pennsylvanian Stratigraphy of the Northeast Oklahoma Platform. Oil and Gas Field applications were a primary focal point of the papers and field work. I served on numerous thesis committees, while having one student Austin McMabb successfully defend his thesis. Three other students are on course to defend this spring including Beth Stevenson, Jared Morris and Joey Dineen. Among doctoral students Cory Godwin is on track to complete his dissertation on Middle Mississippian surface stratigraphy of the Ozarks this spring. I will be leading a GSA Field Conference at the South-Central GSA meeting from March 14-16, followed by a Mississippian Field Conference for Consortium Members in May, 2014. Dr. Jeffrey Byrnes Over the past year, I have been continuing developing my courses, research program, and collaborations with external colleagues in industry and academia. In addition to my standard teaching responsibilities, I also helped develop and teach a course through a special program of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The program paired me with the Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at Indiana University, Dr. Lisa Pratt, for an interdisciplinary class entitled “Life on Mars?” that was open to students from any of the universities and colleges under the purview of the Board of Regents. Students representing a wide range of backgrounds participated and made for a rich educational experience for everyone involved. My research efforts related to petroleum interests continued to increase over the past year. Notably, I spent three months in Houston at the ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company helping them develop some new capabilities. Although it was difficult being away from Stillwater and my family for such an extended period, I had an excellent experience in which I interacted with many exceptional scientists, learned a lot, and was able to conduct research that I otherwise do not have the resources to undertake. I have also had the opportunity to continue working with a small Texas-based exploration company, for which I get to synthesize geophysics, geochemistry, and geomorphology. Within the department, I currently am formally advising 1 PhD, 4 MS, and 2 BS students in research projects ranging from hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir rock characterization to volcanology and geology of Mars. On the home front, my son and daughter continue to impress me with their abilities in science and math, music and graphic arts, and language and sport. Both are in preschool and have more interests than time and energy allow. Best of all, they are always able to make me smile at the end of the day. Dr. Joseph Donoghue I have been busy over the past year establishing a sedimentology program and the sedimentology research lab. My research examines sedimentary processes and products in marine and aquatic environments, Quaternary paleoclimate, the sedimentologic effects of sea-level change, and environmental geology. Along with my colleagues and students, I published two journal papers on these topics in the past year, with two currently in revision, plus two articles in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Estuaries. I’ve also served as co-PI on two NSF proposals submitted in the past year. At OSU I have been teaching the Stratigraphy-Sedimentology course for our undergraduate majors (GEOL-3034), the Marine Geology grad/undergrad course (GEOL-5513/4413), the Quaternary Geochronology course (GEOL-5093) and the large lecture course Geology and Human Affairs (GEOL-1014). We are currently reconfiguring the GEOL-1014 labs for next fall to take advantage of the many new interactive geoscience materials available on the Web. We applied for and received an OSU Technology Fee grant to purchase two dozen new laptops and associated hardware to facilitate the GEOL 1114 lab upgrade. I’ve been continuing the advisement of some remaining students at Florida State University, from which I arrived nearly two years ago. One of the PhD students graduated last year. A second one is due to finish at the end of 2014. A third should finish in 2015. One of the master’s students graduated this past December, and another one should finish next spring. I am currently also advising two master’s students at OSU, Tyler McNabb, and Mark McCollum, and have joined several graduate student committees in Geology and Geography. Both Tyler and Mark have made good progress on their thesis projects, both of which involve extracting paleoclimate proxies from the Quaternary sediment record. In the fall I assembled ten faculty investigators from five departments (BPSG, Physics, Geography, Sociology, and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering) to resubmit a proposal to the OSU Core Facilities Support competition. The proposal was for the development of an optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating facility at OSU. The lab would serve OSU researchers and students who utilize this new dating tool, and would provide dates for external users on a fee basis. There is a strong need for such a facility in this region of the country. The proposal was well reviewed but funding was again hampered by the lack of a mechanism to support a dedicated technician. We are hopeful of trying to resolve the technician issue and develop the lab.
10 I served this past fall as the Geology PI on the successful UTeach proposal, which was funded this past fall for $1.4 million for five years. The UTeach program is a joint project between the Colleges of Education and Arts and Sciences. The program will develop teachers in the STEM fields, including geosciences, who are better prepared for the classroom. The students will receive a degree in their chosen science or math field along with a teaching certificate. The aim is to improve the quality and quantity of STEM teachers for Oklahoma schools. Dr. Michael Grammer It has been a very busy and rewarding year here in the School of Geology. The majority of my research lab is now in place with our research microscopes, photographic capability, computers, etc. already in, and an Ar-beam micro-polisher to be added in the near future. I have 5 active graduate students (1 Ph.D. and 4 M.S.) working with me, plus 2 undergraduates, all working on various aspects of carbonate sedimentology and reservoir characterization. Next year looks like another strong crop of students as I have received to date more than 70 queries from potential M.S. and Ph.D. students from numerous very strong programs both here in the U.S. and from around the world, about joining our group for Fall of 2014. My graduate students and I continue to be heavily involved with work related to the Mississippian Carbonates Industrial Consortium (more detail on the Miss Consortium elsewhere in the newsletter). Beth Vanden Berg (Ph.D. student) is testing the relationship between pore type and permeability in micro- to nano-scale pores using ultra high resolution Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (this is where the ion-beam polisher will come into play). Beth’s main goal is to test whether the relationship between porosity, permeability and sonic velocity response can be used to help predict permeability in carbonates from wireline logs and ultimately shed new insight into high resolution seismic interpretation. Buddy Price and Miranda Childress (M.S. students) are both working outcrop sections, utilizing a combination of high density vertical and lateral stratigraphic analysis for facies stacking patterns and high frequency sequence stratigraphic interpretation along with high resolution Gigapan imagery to map out bed geometry. The Gigapan allows us to measure beds on the cm scale from multi-gigabyte photographic images that have been “stitched” together – no more of the taping individual photos together to try and get a panorama that many of you will remember. On one of our outcrops, you can actually see ripple cross lamination from over 200 meters away with this technology! Stephanie LeBlanc and new student Taylor Thompson (both M.S. students) are focusing on subsurface data sets. Stephanie is working on developing a 4th and 5th order sequence stratigraphic hierarchy (i.e. below biostratigraphic resolution) and trying to develop a reservoir scale model for reservoir flow units and seals. Taylor is evaluating the distribution of fractures in these rocks and determining if fracture density is related to either facies type and/or sequence stratigraphic positioning. In June, I took 12 students on a week-long field seminar looking at modern and recent carbonates in Florida and the Bahamas, supported in part by funding from the College of Arts and Sciences. The highlight of the trip was the 4.5 days we spent on the R/V Coral Reef II, an 80 foot research vessel owned by the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The R/V CRII is based in Miami and makes for an outstanding platform from which to study modern carbonates in the Bahamas with excellent snorkeling and small boat facilities. We took the CRII from Miami to Bimini, visited the ooid shoal bars south of Bimini and the Cat Cays and evaluated the formation of carbonate grains, effects of wind and tidal currents and resulting sedimentary structures then related our findings to what a potential reservoir might look like in the subsurface. This approach was continued as we examined modern tidal flats on the west side of Andros Island, followed by numerous stops in the Joulters Cays ooid sand complex as well as patch and barrier reefs. Joulters is an outstanding place to examine field scale variability in carbonate sand bodies. It is a 400 km2 complex of tidal channels, tidal passes, subtidal bars, islands, dunes etc. that provides the students a chance to see and understand many of the common features associated with carbonate sand plays in the subsurface. After returning to Miami, we then looked at Pleistocene equivalents of the ooid sands and reef deposits in Miami and the Florida Keys. This would be a great “alumni”; trip if any of you are ever interested. Just let me know. In addition to working on the Mississippian project with my students and faculty colleagues and taking trips to the Bahamas, I taught courses in Earth History/Historical Geology, a graduate and senior undergraduate course in Carbonate Depositional Systems and am currently teaching a graduate course in Integrated Carbonate Reservoir Characterization. I also taught two one week short courses in carbonate reservoir characterization for Petroskills, one in Muscat, Oman for PDO and the other in London with participants from 10 different locations around the world. I feel this is a great way to get the word out on what is happening here at OSU and has led to a number of student applications who are coming from companies in the Middle East and Europe. In June of this year I will be running a Paradox Basin trip for Chevron and Petroskills, and then doing other reservoir characterization courses in London as well as possibly in Calgary this summer. Other news of note: Two of my former MS students won Best Poster Awards for their presentations (in the Professional Sessions) at meetings this year. Seth Workman for his work on the Eagleford at the Eastern Section AAPG, and Jason Asmus for his work on the Bone Springs in the Permian Basin that we presented at the GCAGS meeting in New Orleans. Both Jason and Seth have accepted full time employment with EOG Resources, in Midland and Tyler respectively. We continue to get a lot of interest from several petroleum companies for the type we are doing, and I hope that our group is successfully integrating with and adding to the overall expertise of the School. As an example, my current students have either already done (at least one) internship or will be doing internships this summer. Companies they are working with include ExxonMobil, Chesapeake, Devon, Occidental and Linn Energy. I have also been talking with several colleagues here in the BPSoG about additional consortia ideas, so keep a look out for next year. Lastly, after a trip orchestrated by the OSU foundation (Lisa Capone and Lauren Kidd) to visit alums in Houston this past Fall, we were able to obtain a $500K submarine AUV data set from the Gulf of Mexico for research and teaching purposes (many thanks to Gary Humphrey and Dan McConnell of Fugro for helping us with this donation from a BP consortium). As always, if you are visiting OSU and Stillwater, please stop by if you have a few minutes. I would love to meet ore alumni
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