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
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