1 Spring, 2017 (From left to right) Wesley Prater (OSU udergraduate), Kevin Vélez‐Rosado (University of Puerto Rico, Manyaguez), Amy Pritt (OSU udergraduate), and Alejandra Santiago‐Torres (University of Puerto Rico) say “Go Pokes” from the Shire River in the Liwonde National Park in southern Malawi. The students conducted research with Dr. Laó‐Dávila as part of the School’s International Research Experiences for Students program in Malawi funded by the National Science Foundation.
2 IN THIS ISSUE Page Department Head’s Welcome 3 Faculty Honors and Awards 4 Student Honors and Awards 4 Field Camp News 5 Freshmen and New Graduate Students Field Trip 6 Spotlight on International Research 7 News from Faculty 8 News from Staff 17 Spotlight on Students 19 Spotlight on Student Organizations 22 Congratulations to our 2016 Graduates 24 A Message from the Boone Pickens School of Geology Advisory Board 25 Focus: Alumni Awards 26 Focus: Upcoming Events at the School of Geology 26 Focus: A Final Message and Request from the Boone Pickens School of Geology 27 Geology fieldtrip to The Arbuckle Mountains: Students from the GEOL 1114 class sitting on the Woodford Shale (Hunton Anticline Quarry).
3 Greetings from the Department Head Estella Atekwana 2016 continued to be a difficult year for us due to the low oil prices. However, things appear to be looking brighter this year with the price of oil trading at ~$53/barrel, up ~30 % from this time last year. Nonetheless, we continue to move forward and we had another record year. We added one new faculty in seismic exploration, Dr. Ahmed Ismail who joined us from Schlumberger (please see article in this issue). Dr. Ismail has broad research interests in applied geophysics ranging from environmental and engineering geophysics to archaeological geophysics, and most importantly to exploration geophysics. Our students, faculty and alums continue to win honors on campus and at national meetings and publish groundbreaking research. This year, our students and faculty presented 100 papers at regional, national, and international meetings, with our students winning best poster awards. We published 43 peer‐reviewed papers in prestigious international journals and we saw record numbers of undergraduate students engaged in research. Of course the drop in oil prices is also affecting us and we are experiencing a drop in our grant production numbers. Nevertheless, our faculty continue to submit grants and although funding is down we had a record $3.7M in grant expenditure from faculty research activities. We continue to see declines in our undergraduate student enrollments which now stands at 101 down from 150 students in 2015. In 2016 we saw the smallest freshman class in almost a decade (9 students) but we are optimistic based on our fall 2017 applications and we have embarked on an aggressive recruitment effort. On the other hand, our graduate enrollments remain strong at 93 (23 PhDs and 70 MS) and we remain the second largest graduate program in the College of Arts and Sciences and the largest graduate program in STEM in the College. Graduate applications remain strong and we continue to receive applications from top tier geoscience programs nationwide and internationally (including Princeton!!). We again ran our Freshman Field trip this year with funding provided by Concho Resources Inc. Dr. Puckette led the two‐day trip to Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen and the students were introduced to the geology of the Wichita Mountains and the rifting and filling of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen. This year we graduated 38 BS, 16 MS students, and for the first time since the inception of our PhD program we graduated 4 PhD students. We spent $332,764 on undergraduate student scholarships and graduate student fellowships. Because of your generosity, students are able to have access to a world‐class education in the Boone Pickens School of Geology (Thank you!!). Our Mississippian Consortium is winding down and an AAPG Memoir detailing the results of the different projects completed under the consortium is in preparation and will be coming out soon. Watch out for this very special volume to see the excellent work that our students and faculty engaged in the consortium have done. Six companies recruited in the School this year, and for the first time in almost 8 years ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips came back to recruit. A major goal of the School was to bring back the majors. We are delighted that this finally happened. It took a lot of hard work from the faculty and students to turn our program around. Several students had offers and some had multiple offers. Our students are also seeing opportunities in the environmental industry and the USGS. Our hydrogeology course this fall saw its largest enrollment in a decade with ~44 students. Environmental geology this spring also saw an uptick in enrollment with 42 students in the class (even though the class meets at 7:30 am in the morning). Last year I indicated that we had gone online with some of our courses. I am happy to report that we taught four online courses in 2016 (Geology and Human Affairs; Earthquakes; Volcanoes and Disasters; Historical Geology; and National Parks). Geology and Human Affairs and National Parks are both in high demand and we now teach them every semester with total enrollments exceeding 200 students each semester. We are currently developing two more courses (Oceanography and Environmental Geology) to put online. Finally, the faculty and the advisory board worked on a strategic plan that will chart our course for the next ten years. We are preparing an abbreviated version to be put on the School’s webpage. We also had an external review in October. We are waiting for the final report which will tell us how well we are doing and where opportunities for growth exist. Be sure to stop by the department so we can show you around. We love to hear from you, so keep in touch.
4 Recognition and Awards Dr. John Bradford (left), President Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and Dr. Estella Atekwana receiving the 2016 SEG Outstanding Educator Award (photo courtesy, SEG). Dr. Claudia Mora (left), President Geological Society of America (GSA) and Dr. Estella Atekwana receiving the GSA Fellow (photo courtesy, GSA). Buddy Price (MS 2015): Awarded the A.I. Levorsen Award from AAPG for talk stemming from MS thesis. Advisor: Dr. Grammer Taylor Thompson (MS 2016): Awarded Best Poster Planalp Award from AAPG Mid‐ Continent for talk stemming from MS thesis. Advisor: Dr. Grammer Mercy Achang: Oklahoma Geological Foundation Davis, Foundation, Kate and Takken Fellowship, $5000. Advisor: Dr. Pashin Michelle Lutiker receives the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award and is currently pursuing a PhD and working with Dr. Natascha Riedinger to investigate uranium depletion in organic‐rich Devonian‐age shale and assist in determining depositional and diagenetic processes at work in ancient North American interior seaways. Mercy Achang: Society of Petrophysics and Well Log Analysis (SPWLA) Scholarship, 2016, $3000 Mercy Achang: US Science Support Program Travel Grant to the UK, $1500 Mercy Achang: National Association of Black Geoscientist (NABG), Award, $400 Georgina Lukoczki: Oklahoma Geological Foundation Davis Fellowship, $2500 Advisor: Dr. Gregg Ashley Dupont: 2016 AAPG Grants‐in‐Aid, $2500. Advisor: Dr. Grammer Aaron Prock: 2016 AAPG Grants‐in‐Aid, $3000. Advisor: Dr. Quan Yulun Wang: 2016 AAPG Grants‐in‐Aid, $2500. Advisor: Dr. Grammer Mchelle Lutiker: Tulsa Geological Society Foundation Outstanding Geoscience Student, $1500. Advisor: Dr. Riedinger PhD student Khemraj Shukla received the Best Graduate Student Poster Award at the 2016 XEDE (Extreme Engineering and Discovery Environment) conference. Khemraj is supervised by Dr. Priyank Jaiswal. Shawna Parks received the 2015‐2016 Best MS Thesis Award for her project titled: Remote sensing analysis and implications for groundwater resources in the Kharga Basin, Egypt and supervised by Dr. Jeffrey Byrnes. Her thesis manuscript was recently published in the Journal of African Earth Sciences. DEPARTMENT NEWS
5 The 2016 field camp was enjoyable and successful with 66 students attending. The contingent included 43 students from OSU and 23 students from 10 other schools. Outside institutions represented included Arkansas Tech, Southern Mississippi, Bloomsburg (PA), Wayland Baptist, Sam Houston State, Midwestern State, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Middle Tennessee State. Camp started cool and damp, but the summer was climatically mild without any excessively hot days. Precipitation patterns were normal, which allowed us to visit field areas rendered unreachable by the 2015 flooding. Field projects in 2016 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. In the Cripple Creek and Victor area, we visited the CC&V Gold Mine and stopped at the overlook to watch excavation of the new pit northeast of the Cresson pit. Afterwards, a group toured the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine and for some this was their first underground trip. Our motoring up Pikes Peak was uneventful and while we learned that the new vans have sufficient engine breaking for safety, female van drivers are the coolest as evidenced by the lowest temperature brakes at the Glen Cove safety check station. While in the Colorado Springs area, we hiked Pulpit Rock next to the University of Colorado‐Colorado Springs campus to see the ash‐rich early Tertiary sedimentary rocks. We visited Great Sand Dunes National Park on a beautiful cool and sunny day with little wind. In these ideal conditions, a group of about twenty climbed the tallest dune. The rest of us enjoyed wading in Medano Creek, relaxing in the cool climate of the San Luis valley and admiring the magnificent scenery of the Sangre De Christo Mountains. At Leadville, Newmont Mining gave a tour of their water treatment facility that removes metals from the acidic mine waters draining from the YAK Tunnel. Newmont personnel outlined the physical and chemical processes used to clean the water and restore the pH before it is discharged into the Arkansas River watershed. We also tested the pH of the water in one of the catchments below a sulfide dump, collected mineral specimens on the Irene dump, and toured the National Mining Museum. The 2016 faculty were George Bolling, Rick Hobbs, Jim Puckette and Chet Wallace. Teaching Assistants were Josh York and Bryan Clappe. Tim Sickbert and Andrew Fletcher were our medical officer and custodian, respectively. Michelle Leach and Jan Van Pelt were our wonderful cooks. Ms. Tiny Striegel of Canon City, an honorary alumnus of the Boone Pickens School of Geology and camp benefactor, enlightened us with her ninety three years of wisdom. Demand for field schools remains high and the 2017 OSU Field camp roster filled in late September. FIELD CAMP NEWS Participants of the summer 2016 Geology Field Camp.
6 FRESHMAN AND NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS FIELD TRIP The Freshmen and New graduate Student Field Trip was held October 22 and 23rd, 2016. This is the second year we are running this field trip and hope to make it an annual event. In addition, this year, we decided to include new graduate students as well. The weather was beautiful and the geology great, so what more could one ask? After we set up camp at Lake Murray, we drove close to Sulphur in the Arbuckle Mountains to collect fossils from the Bromide Formation. Next we went west on Goddard Youth Camp Road to the famous “Hunton Anticline” where we examined the Bois d’ Arc Limestone and the Woodford Shale. After that stop, we reversed our path and travelled to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. We visited the Travertine Nature Center, hiked to Antelope spring and Buffalo Spring and visited Vendome Well. Leaving Sulphur, we traveled west to U.S. Highway 77, which we took into the Arbuckle Anticline and the Turner Falls overlook. Following U.S 77 south, we joined I‐35 and made our last stop of the day to examine the Woodford Shale in the McAlister Cemetery shale pit at Overbrook, Oklahoma. We made it to camp after dark following a quick stop in Overbrook to buy a cigarette lighter so we could light a campfire. On this leg of the trip, we discovered that as smokers are rare these days, finding a lighter or matches is not as easy as it once was. That evening we enjoyed a nice fire and a meal of delicious hot dogs and fruit, followed by roasted marshmallows for dessert. The next morning, we broke camp and drove to Ardmore for breakfast. Leaving Ardmore we traveled west on U.S. 70 through Lone Grove and Ringling to Waurika. We left the highway in Waurika to make a circle around the Jefferson County Courthouse, to see if the building material had geologic significance to Oklahoma. From Waurika we traveled to Randlett and I‐44 a.k.a. the H.E. Bailey Turnpike. We traveled I‐44 to Ardmore for an early lunch and a break before entering the Wichita Mountains. In the uplift area, we first visited Medicine Park to view from a distance the contact between the Mt. Scott Granite and the Mt. Sheridan Gabbro, which weather differently and as a result, host different vegetation. From Medicine Park we drove up Mt. Scott and examined the different rock types evident from the summit. Next, we visited the Post Oak Conglomerate before stopping at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center. After relaxing bit and learning about the flora, fauna and geology of the refuge, we headed west on OK State Highway 49 to Panther Creek, where we stopped and examined the Glen Mountain Layered Complex. From Panther Creek we drove to French Lake, our last stop, to examine the intrusive contact between younger Quanah Granite and the older Glen Mountain Layered Complex. We made quick stops at the Visitors Center and Chickasha comfort station on I‐44 before returning to Stillwater tired, but satisfied, after two long days in the field in southern Oklahoma. We acknowledge support from Concho Resources Inc., for funding the field trip and other field trips in the School. Freshmen and new student field trip participants examining concretion in the Woodford Shale, Hunton Anticline, near Daughtery, Oklahoma. Left to right: Madahi Lozano, Xitong Hu, Michelle Lutiker, Dr. Natascha Riedinger and Chris Jones.
7 SPOTLIGHT ON INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH We are excited about our experiences in Malawi. Last year, Amy Pritt and Wesley Prater, two students from the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University, and Alejandra Santiago‐Torres and Kevin Vélez Rosado, two students from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, accompanied Dr. Laó Dávila in a 1‐month field excursion in southern Malawi to better understand the role of pre‐existing structures on the architecture of new faults created by rifting. They collaborated with colleagues of the Malawi Geological Survey Department and Malawi University of Science and Technology. Structural and geological mapping in the northern escarpment of the Shire Valley, was conducted to determine if current extension was being accommodated along the faults of the Jurassic Rift. In addition, the contacts between border faults and the ring complexes in the Zomba area were characterized to determine if the occurrence of the intrusions had an effect on the orientation of the faults. Preliminary results of this research were presented in the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting and Exposition in Denver, Colorado and in the American Geophysical Union Meeting in San Francisco at the end of the year. We will return this year to Malawi with 5 new students to the southern part of the rift to study the evolution of the Bilila‐Mkatakata Fault. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. II‐1358150. Left – right: Dr. Daniel Lao Davila, Patrick Chindandali (Malawi Geological Survey), Wesley Prater (OSU undergraduate), Alejandra Santiago‐Torres (University of Puerto Rico), Amy Pritt (OSU undergraduate), Elias Chikalamo and Lois Kamuyango from the Malawi University of Science & Technology with the Salimbidwe ring complex in the background (Kevin Vélez‐Rosado took the photo).
8 NEWS FROM THE FACULTY Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Professor; Boone Pickens Chair; Graduate Coordinator Hello everyone. I am starting my fifth 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. I am proud to see that my son Montasir has finished his BS degree in the Boone Pickens School of Geology. It is a great feeling. I taught the graduate course Spectral Signal Processing and Application in the spring of last year with 6 graduate students and Geomorphology in the fall of last year as well with 36 undergraduate students. Currently, I am teaching Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology with 51 students. This was my first time teaching Geomorphology and Igneous and metamorphic Petrology. It is a wonderful experience for me. As the graduate advisor of the School of Geology I am delighted to see the steady interest in our graduate program. We have received over 100 applications for the spring and fall semesters of 2016. This year we have received 85 applications for the fall semester 2017 admission. Many of these applications are of high‐quality and they 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. We had 63 theses defense since I became the graduate advisor in July 2013. The current enrollment in our graduate program stands at 24 PhD students and 64 MS students. The Tectonics Research Group at the School of Geology, which is a research collaboration between my colleagues Drs. Estella Atekwana and Daniel Dao Davila and me, is growing stronger with the involvement of 5 PhD students, 10 MS students and 5 undergraduate students. We have a proposals submitted to National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the Western Branch of the East African Rift System. It is great to see my Geodynamic and Geospatial Science Lab 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). Currently, we have 10 broadband seismic stations deployed around Stillwater, OK for active faults mapping as part of the research of PhD student Tim Sickbert. 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. Dr. Eliot Atekwana Professor; Stable Isotope Geochemistry; Hydrogeology Greetings to all alumni and friends! I report to you a successful 2016 in teaching and research. At OSU, I taught GEOL 5433‐ Isotope Geochemistry. I taught Geology and Human Affairs ‐ GEOL 1014, Special Problems in Earth Science ‐ GEOL 4990, Master's Thesis‐ GEOL 5000, Research Methods and Techniques in Geosciences‐ GEOL 5243, Advanced Studies in Geology ‐ GEOL 5990. My collaborators, students and I made four presentations at scientific meetings and published papers in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Hydrological Processes, and Science of The Total Environment. I continue to work with our students and collaborators to wrap up projects funded by Newfield Exploration Company, Chevron Energy Technology Company and the National Science Foundation. My MS student, Nicole Paizis successfully defended her thesis and is now gainfully employed with USGS. I continue to work MS students, Krystal Heibel, Charles Missi, and Chris Laviolette and two undergraduate students. I served on 2 MS thesis and 2 PhD dissertation committees during the year.
9 Dr. Estella Atekwana Department Head; Regents Professor and Sun Chair; Biogeophysics; Near Surface Geophysics; Tectonophysics I hope this newsletter meets you all in good health. As usual my life is always very hectic. I taught my electrical and electromagnetic methods in exploration and had a group of very lively students. The class culminated in a hands‐on project on the Norman landfill site in Norman, OK. The students applied their knowledge to the site and mapped the leachate plume. The students did an excellent job and will be presenting their results at the 2017 Symposium for the Application of Geophysics to Environmental and Engineering Problems to be held in Denver, March 20‐23, 2017. June 6‐8, 2016 I was in Aarhus, Denmark attending 4th International Workshop on Induced Polarization. I learned a lot about elucidating petrophysical properties from IP measurements. Following the meeting, I went to Dubai and spent a week with our daughter Kyra who is now working in Dubai and also visited with my former PhD student Dr. Khalid Saleh who is now the Chair of the Geology Department at the United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain. I had the chance to go up the Burj Khalifa which stands at 828 m. In September I attended the GSA Annual Meeting in Denver where I received the GSA Fellow and in October I was in Dallas at the SEG meeting to receive the 2016 Outstanding Educator Award. In December I attended the AGU meeting in San Francisco and gave an invited presentation and several other were made by my students and collaborators. We had a very good OSU showing at all the national meetings this year. In September there was some flurry of activity around here following the September 3, 2016 Mw 5.8 Pawnee earthquake. I went out with several of students to investigate liquefaction features associated with the earthquake. It turns out that the liquefaction features were all located in areas underlain by Quaternary alluvial sediments of the Arkansas River and the Black Bear Creek. We now know that areas underlain by Quaternary alluvial deposits in central Oklahoma are zones of potential surface deformation for any future large earthquakes. We also obtained a NSF‐ RAPID grant and acquired some magnetotelluric data to map any saline fluids associated with the seismicity. My research group continues to be very active and my PhD student Andrew Katumwehe successfully defended his dissertation. MS students Sundeep Sharma (MS now with Devon) and JK Harding (now with Chesapeake) and Emanuel Njinju (starting PhD at Virginia Tech) all defended their MS thesis. Two new students joined my research group David Beckendorff (Texas A&M) and Micah Mayle (Missouri State) joined my research group. I also have three undergraduate students working with me. On the home front, Kyra is in Dubai for another year. Kyle now works in North Carolina, Nissi my nephew is a sophomore at OSU and Fungtu is a sophomore at Georgia Tech. Please drop by to say hello when next you are in Stillwater. I hope to see many of you at the banquet on March 25th, 2016!! Dr. Michael Grammer Professor; Chesapeake Energy Chair of Petroleum Geology; Carbonate Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Petroleum Geology Greetings alumni and friends of the BPSG: The past year has been another one filled with lots of activitiy, research, travel and student engagement. Beth Vanden Berg (PhD) defended her dissertation on nano‐ scale pore systems in carbonate mud rocks in May of 2016 and is now down in Houston with BP. She has been asked to chair a technical session on carbonate pore systems at the SEPM/CSPG Mountjoy meeting this summer. Lara Jaeckel (MS, now with Chesapeake) and Keller Flinton (MS, now with American Energy Partners) both defended their theses last Spring on regional sequence stratigraphy and reservoir characterization of the Mississippian of the Mid‐Continent, and Scott Shelley (MS, now with Concho in Midland) defended his thesis this past summer on 3‐D reservoir modeling of the Meramec from quarry exposures. Former students Buddy Price (MS) Taylor Thompson both won best paper awards from the Mid‐Continent AAPG meeting last year. Taylor won the Planalp Award for Best Poster for her fracture work and Buddy won the A.I. Levorsen Award for the Best Paper of the entire conference. Current student Ibukun Bode (PhD student) continues with her work on NMR response in micro‐ to nano‐scale pore systems and won an award for a presentation at the NABG this past Fall. Yulun Wang (PhD student) has a paper that has been accepted in the AAPG MISS Memoir on his research into fracture characterization and contribution to reservoir quality in the MISS mudrocks Students acquiring GPR data at liquefaction sites in Pawnee
10 (with Taylor Thompson, OSU MS as a co‐ author). Ahmed El Belasy (PhD student on joint program with Mansoura University in Cairo) continues his work on the Cretaceous of the Sinai Peninsula, and has also gotten started on an additional project studying the tripolite reservoirs of the MISS along with Buddy Price (DVN, OSU MS). CJ Appelseth (MS) is starting to wrap up another regional sequence stratigraphic study of the MISS in a more distal position than previous workers. Elizabeth Elium (MS) is starting to work the MISS along with Matt Pranter at OU where we are doing regional correlations using Artificial Neural Networks and building 2D reservoir models on a sub‐regional scale. Jim Karsten, our most recent MS student in the group, will be starting a quarry‐ based 3D modeling study of exposed Silurian reef deposits on the edges of the Michigan Basin. We also had a former PhD student of mine join us for an 8 month post‐doc from Beni Suef University in Egypt. Dr. Yasser Salam continues to work the Cretaceous of the Sinai, as well as the Eocene of the Red Sea. In addition to the normal faculty activities, I also taught two Petroskills courses on carbonate reservoir characterization this year, one in London with 8 different companies and one in Venezuela for Repsol. It never ceases to amaze me how much the work being done here at OSU is being followed by folks from around the world, as I inevitably get questions on various things we are doing here at OSU, especially with respect to the Mississippian unconventional reservoirs. On that front, the AAPG Memoir we have in process stemming from our MISS Consortium as well as workers throughout the region should be finished up and in print by the end of the year. So far we have not been able to get a MISS Phase II underway, but we continue to modify our direction there and also to pursue other consortia ideas in and out of the region. The economy in the industry is still not back at a level where companies are funding these types of research programs, but with the potential to leverage other companies funding as part of a consortium, we remain cautiously optimistic in getting another consortium going soon. As always, please stop by and say hello anytime you are in Stillwater. Wishing everyone the best for the coming year. Dr. Jay Gregg Professor; V. Brown Monnett Chair of Petroleum Geology; Carbonate Petrology, Sedimentology and Sedimentary Greetings to all of the alumni and friends of the BPSOG! I have been busy this year with teaching and research as usual. Mostly I have been wrapping up work on the Mississippian Consortium. Sahar Mohammadi finished her Ph.D. degree and her dissertation is now with the OSU library. She has two papers that have been accepted for publication (and should be out later this year) based on her dissertation and a third that is in the works. I am also co‐authoring Mississippian papers with Drs. Jaiswal and Puckette and students. Most of the Mississippian papers will be coming out in an upcoming AAPG Memoir on the Mississippian. Last Fall I developed an on‐line version of our historical geology course with Ph.D. student Gina Lukoczki. She did most of the work. I also teach the face‐to‐face version of that course as well as my advanced graduate course in carbonate petrology and geochemistry. Last summer I took grad students Gina Lukoczki, Sahar Mohammadi, Gina Callaway, Britney Temple, and Jordan Ray to the XIII Pan American Conference on Current Research on Fluid Inclusions. This is an international conference held every 4 years. Britney, Gina, and Sahar all presented their research to a relatively stellar group of international fluid inclusion experts. Britney defended her thesis on the Arbuckle last Spring and is now working for Chesapeake Energy. I have one relatively new M.S. level graduate student who has started a project on the Arbuckle with me, Phillip Bailey, who is with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. He has finished his course work (this is why we offer most of our graduate courses in the evening). Phillip has started examining and collecting Arbuckle core and is getting ready to send out samples to have thin sections made. Gina Callaway is all finished with coursework too and has been doing petrographic work for her project on the Trenton in the Michigan Basin. She also is working full time for Continental Resources and is particularly busy because she was recently promoted. I am planning fieldwork with Gina Lukoczki in Western Hungary this coming summer. I am also hoping to spend some time with Mike Grammer in Bremen, Deutschland sampling IODP mudrock cores at the Oceanographic Institute there, if we get the funding. Then I am going on to Ireland for a week or two with Mickey. I have submitted a proposal with Mike Grammer to the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to begin a new study of calcareous mudrock reservoirs. This is what the trip to Bremen will be about if the funding comes through. The mudrock project will support Sahar on a postdoc so I really hope that it comes through. Some of you who know Sahar understand that her situation is particularly tenuous due to the actions of the current administration in Washington that are directed against her home country. I also am working on an NSF proposal with colleagues at University of Illinois, University of Indiana, and Western Michigan University to study a more theoretical study of the mineralogy and crystallography of dolomite. We expect to submit this proposal in the early summer. I do not know if I will have any new graduate students starting with me next Fall. Everything depends on the funding situation. If the grants that I have mentioned are not funded I probably will retire at the end of 2018. I am 66 now that will be 68 then. That is when Gina Lukoczki is hoping to have her dissertation finished. I will need to get all other graduate students out the door by then as well. If I get funding we can tack at least a year onto that date. Mickey and I plan to leave Oklahoma soon after retirement and are exploring several options for the next phase of our lives.
11 As always I am looking forward to seeing many of you when you visit. Best wishes to everyone. Dr. Todd Halihan Professor; Hydrogeophysics; Hydrogeology of Fractured and Karstic Aquifiers For Dr. Halihan, 2016 was a year of international variability. Work continued with Dr. Paulo Galvão of Brazil who got his doctorate from the University of Sao Paulo while at OSU before gaining a position as a professor in Brazil at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. Dr. Antonio Cardona Benavides of San Luis Potosi University spent the year at OSU working on carbonate flow and will be running a theme session at GSA South‐Central with Dr. Halihan on Petroleum and Water Interactions in Mexico’s South‐Central Region. Dr. Caitlin Barnes completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Halihan working on a systematic evaluation of the hydraulics of induced seismicity across USGS defined areas. Her work is in review and may impact how we look at the hydraulics of these areas. She continues her work as the program coordinator of the OSUTeach program. Jon Fields completed his M.S. working on the hydrogeophysics of lagoon effluent application in karst and is now working for OK DEQ. There are still a bunch of M.S. and undergrad students working on projects. Hope to send a few out in May! Dr Halihan’s company, Aestus, LLC (www.aestusllc.com), continues to evaluate contaminated sites using OSU intellectual property developed in the lab. Lauren Guidry, a former student of Dr. Halihan’s, now works for the company, along with the rest of the crew evaluating sites around the globe. Work also continues with the state of Oklahoma as part of the Coordinating Council on Seismic Activity. Things are much quieter on the seismic front, and the state has a new seismologist, so Dr. Halihan is expecting quieter times ahead. On the home front, the Halihan home continues to host parties for the department. Martha is still teaching over at OSU Chemistry and enjoying about 300 undergrads per semester. She will attempt an online chemistry course in the fall. Dr. Halihan’s son, Maclain, is taller at 11 than his father was when he went into high school; this could be trouble for the good doctor. Dr. Mary Hileman Visiting Assistant Professor; Sedimentology; Petroleum Geology The 2016‐2017 school year marks my ninth year as a faculty member of the Boone Pickens School of Geology. I started teaching one course each semester in the Spring of 2009 and began teaching full‐ time in the Spring of 2011. I am currently a full‐time Visiting Assistant Professor with responsibility for teaching 6 courses each year. This year I rewrote the Geology of the National Parks course (GEOL 3043) to take it online. This 3 hour basic Geology course is a popular elective for Junior and Senior non‐science majors. The focus for this course is to understand basic geologic concepts and scientific methodology, using 26 of the U. S. National Parks as examples. By moving the course online, the enrollment has increased significantly. In the Fall 2015, when this course was taught face‐to‐face, only 39 students were enrolled. The online enrollment for Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 has been a total of 150 students. Maximum enrollment of 75 students per semester is controlled by the fact that, as a Natural Science Distribution course, there is a required written component. Students write a 4 page research Term Paper on the geology of a National Park not covered in lecture. Use of grading rubrics enable equivalent grading for parks with geology as different as Gates of the Arctic, Lassen, Glacier, Arches and Everglades National Parks. October 2016: The School of Geology Hydrogeology course is a bit larger. The willing volunteers for the course fieldtrip did not include some of the approximately 45 students in the course. Wayne Pettyjohn (far left) is still providing his home wellfield for students to get trained.
12 Consequently, grading of 75 papers requires a significant time commitment. My primary teaching responsibility is to be the Geology faculty link to the Minor in Petroleum Engineering. I wrote and teach the initial required course for the Minor: GEOL 3413 – Petroleum Geology for Engineers. This practical course begins with mineral and rock identification and ends with a group term project presentation that recommends drilling 3 infill wells, giving project reserves, ROI evaluation and terms for participation in the project. Class size for this course has declined with oil prices and employment trends in the industry. For the 2016 – 2017 school year, with Petroleum Engineering concurring, it was determined that this course be offered once a year, in the Fall semester. In the Fall 2016, 29 engineers were enrolled. We anticipate that enrollment in the Fall 2017 will have 2 lab sections for a total of 50 students. The second Geology sequence course offered to Petroleum Engineering Minor students is GEOL 4323 – Applied Well Log Analysis for Engineers. This course was first offered to Engineering students who completed GEOL 3413, in the Spring 2010. Although this course was offered both semesters in 2014 and 2015, due to the decline in enrollment, it is now offered once a year, in Spring. Enrollment in the Spring 2017 is currently 23 engineering students. Lectures for GEOL 5353 (Advanced Well Log Analysis for Graduate Geology students) and GEOL 4323 are offered at the same time – once a week for 3 hours in the evening for lecture, discussion and problem solving. Topics in GEOL 4323/5353 cover evaluation of the standard suite of vertical hole wireline well logs, introduction to petrophysical evaluation, as well as modern microimaging logs run in lateral boreholes, and current BPSG research about unconventional reservoirs. Graduate students have parallel assignments with the Engineering students, but are given more challenging logs and problems for evaluation. In addition to weekly homework assignments, graduate students have four additional challenging homework problems. These include: (1) interpretation of an overturned and faulted fold (correlation problem), (2) proper Gamma Ray Shale Volume (Vsh) calculation of a glauconite‐rich sandstone, (3) porosity evaluation of an oomoldic carbonate reservoir, and (4) a short paper to evaluate log curve responses to natural fractures in a carbonate reservoir. There are currently 15 graduate students enrolled in this course. Finally, I teach GEOL 4313 – Introduction to Well Log Analysis for undergraduate Geology majors (spring semester). This course covers the fundamentals of standard wireline log interpretation to solve subsurface problems. Because this class meets twice a week, there is ample time for discussion and practice of techniques. This spring, there are 20 students enrolled in this course. I currently am the Thesis Advisor for 2 Master’s Degree students and I am a member of 12 Master’s Thesis Committees. I am also the Faculty Advisor for the OSU Student Chapter of SPWLA (the Society of Professional Well Log Analyists). Dr. Ahmed Ismail Assistant Professor; Exploration Seismology, Azimuthal Anisotropy, Fractured Reservoir Characterization, Near Surface Geophysics Greetings everybody! I joined the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University last fall. We moved to Stillwater from Denver, Colorado. It is my family’s third move in twelve years and we are all trying to adjust to our new Stillwater community. My wife and I are originally from Egypt. My four wonderful daughters are born in the United States; one in Missouri, two in Illinois, and one in Colorado. I am not sure if we will have a new family member in Oklahoma or not. I got my Bachelor and Master degrees in applied geophysics from Egypt and earned my PhD in geophysics from Missouri University of Science & Technology (MS&T). My PhD project focused on Luxor City in Egypt, (a place that hosts one‐third of the world’s archaeological monuments) integrating geophysical and hydrological techniques to investigate the causes of the rise in groundwater level and increase in salinity leading to deterioration of Luxor monuments. I was able to model the groundwater flow direction, locate the cause of the increase in salinity, and articulate a plan to resolve the problem permanently. I continued as a postdoctoral fellow at MS&T for a year and half with a shift in research focus to active and passive seismic surface wave inversion to derive shear wave velocity of the near surface. We used shear wave velocity to study the stability of highways and bridges to derive soil amplification/shaking maps used for seismic risk analysis. Following my postdoctoral employment, I joined the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champing as a seismologist leading their high‐resolution seismic program. During this time, I upgraded the land streamer seismic acquisition and the seismic analysis processes for better characterization of glacial deposits and groundwater aquifers. I spent the best time of my career, seven years, at ISGS, nonetheless my passion for learning more about seismic exploration drove me to move to the oil industry and I joined Schlumberger Inc. in Denver. I was fortunate to be part of the seismic multicomponent group that dealt mainly with time and depth imaging as well as joint inversion of compressional and converted mode seismic data for a better reservoir characterization. I enjoyed learning the leading technologies and interacting with world‐class geophysicists across the globe. Despite my great learning experience in Schlumberger over four years, my passion for teaching, research, interaction with students, and community service was never met. At that time of my career, I had a unique combination of research, teaching and industry experience, co‐ authored over 20 published articles and abstracts and was invited reviewer of numerous international scientific journals. All of these led me to think of another move to a place where I can better utilize all my previous experiences and fulfil most if not all of my passion. I moved from Schlumberger to OSU last fall. My research at Oklahoma State
13 University will focus on advancing the multicomponent seismic exploration for better characterization of anisotropic reservoirs. We will investigate the different mode‐converted seismic waves and the more information that can be derived from these modes for better reservoir characterization. Parallel to that, we will work on advancing the use of pure and mode‐converted shear waves in groundwater exploration, aquifer characterization, seismic hazards analysis and geotechnical site characterization. I have started working on establishing an exploration geophysics lab that will combine seismic acquisition system and analysis software. I started the work on designing a multicomponent seismic land streamer to speed up the acquisition of P‐and S‐wave seismic data for imaging the upper few hundred meters of the subsurface. I have acquired five workstations running industry‐standard software for seismic processing, interpretation and inversion including ProMax, Kingdom Suite, Petrel and HampsonRussell. I am in the process of acquiring the Omega software from Schlumberger mainly to analyze converted mode seismic data. I have recruited two MS students and they are both working on projects related to seismic processing and interpretation using ProMax and Petrel Software. During the past few months, I was able to submit three abstracts; the first one was presented at the NRIAG conference in Egypt, the second one was presented at the AGU annual meeting in San Francisco and the third one will be presented at the SAGEEP conference in Denver this March. I also submitted one peer reviewed journal paper and a book chapter. Regarding teaching, I taught my first class at OSU, Introduction to geophysical exploration with 17 students. It was a successful class and I received very positive evaluation from the students. Out of the seventeen students that attended the class, five students showed interest in undergraduate research with me and two other students showed interest in going for MS degree in geophysics under my supervision. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to join the OSU family and I look forward to working with our distinguished OSU students and scientists for many more years to come. Drop by when next you are in town for a tour of our new geophysics lab. Dr. Priyank Jaiswal Assistant Professor; Seismology, Inverse Theory, Petroleum Systems; Gas Hydrates Howdy folks. From Egypt to Pawnee, 2016 was exciting. Here is how it went. The highlight of 2016 was our data acquisition trip to Egypt. NSF and USAID had jointly funded a research project to look into their acquirers in Western Desert. We were supposed to use the same tools and techniques as in hydrocarbon exploration and look for water. We did exactly the same. 10 miles south of the city of Al‐ Kharga, we laid out the most advanced wireless equipment along a 4km long seismic profile. Field acquisition always has a curveball somewhere. This time it was our source. Nothing worked on sand. We had to improvise. We got a crane, took a 1Tonne weight 100ft high and aimed the drop precisely on a 1sq ft steel plate below. Bang! We collected the most awesome data and now we think we have found a new acquirer below what is currently known. Then in May, I headed over to Japan to sample sediments from 3km long core that we cut from the Indian ocean in 2014. This was to understand the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) in deep oceans. The contrasts in the two projects was as much as the cultures of their host countries, Japan and Egypt. Later in the year, the 5.8 Mw Pawnee Earthquake happened, which set many of us scrambling for data. OSU was lucky in that Bob Springman, an alumnus and a long‐time friend, let us look over the 3D volume acquired over Pawnee sometimes ago. The dataset opened my eyes to how amazingly full of character is the Oklahoma’s basement. Last year, I got tenured, which means I have really committed myself to this academician’s world for the rest of my life. Last fall I graduated my first PhD student. The near‐surface imaging tool that we developed through his thesis is now being considered by a few groups for commercial purposes. Being a co‐editor of the AAPG Memoir on the Mississippian Carbonates was another memorable experience. I hope 2017 turns out to be as productive and exciting if not more. Dr. Daniel A. Laó Dávila Assistant Professor; Structural Geology; Plate Tectonics; Fault Slip Analysis and Carribiean Geology Hello to all alumni and friends of the Boone Pickens School of Geology. This year has been very busy in the Structural Geology realm at the School. I have contributed in teaching 42 students from the Structural Geology course, and 23 students from the Plate Tectonics course. I also ran a Geologic Field Course to Puerto Rico in which 11 students participated. I am supervising two graduate students on research. Sam Dawson successfully defended his thesis on the effects of Precambrian structures on new rifting in northern Malawi and is now working in Austin, Texas with Drilling Info. Inés Barrios Galíndez is investigating active tectonics in western Puerto Rico, and Steven Johnson is working on border faults of southern Malawi. Research continued in East Africa. Four students and I travelled to Malawi for 4 weeks to conduct research of continental rift initiation in Malawi. The students learned about tectonics in one of the best places to study continental rifting and then presented their research at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, and at the Geological Society of America in Denver. We will return this year with 5 new students to the southern part
14 of the rift to study the evolution of the Bilila‐Mkatakata Fault. I am the co‐author of 2 published papers in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, and Tectonophysics. My students and I also presented 4 conference papers in national meetings American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting and the Geological Society of America. We look forward to continue to conduct high‐quality research, advanced education, and service to Oklahoma and the world. Dr. Jack Pashin Professor; Devon Chair of Basin Research; Sedimentary Geology; Coalbed Methane; Shalegas; Structural Geology, Basin Analysis This was an eventful year in which a variety of old activities were wrapped up, and new ones were begun. Last year I taught Basin Evolution, in which we explored the geological aspects of sedimentary basins, including tectonics, burial history, sedimentary architecture, hydrodynamics, and petroleum systems. I also taught the Geology of Unconventional Reservoirs, in which students learn about everything from coalbed methane and shale reservoirs to gas hydrates. A CO2‐enhanced shale gas and coalbed methane recovery project has been completed in the southern Appalachians, which was sponsored by DOE and Virginia Tech and hosted by CNX Gas. A highlight of the program was that injecting a small quantity of CO2 had a strong effect on the recovery of natural gas liquids from shale. A RPSEA project that was led by Jim Puckette also has been completed that critically assessed procedures for the evaluation of shale reservoirs. A CO2‐ enhanced oil recovery program in the Anadarko Basin is approaching completion that deploys unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring of oilfield operations. Last year I was awarded a new project on geological characterization and CO2 storage potential of the eastern Gulf of Mexico shelf. Currently I am developing a new program on a power plant in Mississippi that is using enhanced oil recovery and saline formation storage technology to develop what could be the world’s first zero emission coal‐fired power facility. The Unconventional Hydrocarbon Cooperative (UHC) is up and running and is a vehicle for collaboration among the diverse researchers in science and engineering at OSU and the development of cooperative programs with industry. Please visit our website at http://geology.okstate.edu/uhc for further information on UHC activities and membership. Several students completed theses on a range of topics. Kyrsti Cecil studied the sedimentology and petrology of Devonian chert in the Woodford Shale and the Arkansas Novaculite and defined an upwelling‐dominated sedimentary system that spanned the shelf‐ocean transition. Mark Jensen completed a thesis on the Anadarko Basin that challenges long‐held ideas on the stratigraphic expression of cyclicity in the Pennsylvanian System. And Justin Spears completed a study of the Goddard Shale that sheds new light on the depositional processes governing the deposition of mud‐rich petroleum source rocks and reservoirs. This was an exceptionally busy year for service activities, which include a range of committee activities around the university and various geological societies. I am a member of the U.S. delegation to an ISO committee that is developing standards for CO2‐enhanced oil recovery, and committee activities took me to a range of exotic destinations, including Oslo, Amsterdam, Laramie, and Sapporo. I also gave a series of workshops in Xuzhou, China and am developing a research partnership on unconventional coal and shale reservoirs with the China University of Mining and Technology. However, last year ended on a very difficult note with the unexpected passing of my wife, Janyth, and I appreciate the exceptional sympathy and support I received from everybody associated with the Boone Pickens School of Geology. Of course, feel free to stop by and say hello next time you are in town, and please don’t hesitate to call or e‐mail. Dr. Jim Puckette Associate Professor; Geoscience Education Chair; Petroleum Geology The year 2016 was different for me as I was on sabbatical leave for the spring term. Despite being on sabbatical, I did not travel, but reserved that for the summer following field camp and the fall. However, not teaching a semester allowed almost complete dedication to research and as a result, an opportunity to prepare manuscripts for publication. During the spring and continuing into the summer and fall, our research group, including students, OSU faculty and collaborating non‐OSU faculty and professionals worked on a number of manuscripts, mostly related to the Mississippian limestone in outcrop in the Ozarks and subsurface of northern Oklahoma. Students defending their theses in 2016 included Eli Reese and Joey Dineen. Eli examined the geochemical signature of the Woodford Shale in the western Arkoma basin, comparing it with the signature of the shale in the eastern Anadarko basin to determine the influence of local depositional processes on the regional signature. Joey examined the stratigraphy of the St. Joe Group in northern Arkansas to determine if the southward thinning of the Kinderhookian‐ lower Osagean carbonate section was the result of basinward deepening and condensation, or onlap of a forebulge associated with incipient Ouachita tectonism. Summer 2016 marked my twenty first year teaching field camp, so to celebrate, Jennifer convinced me to cruise to Alaska. As a result of that thoroughly enjoyable experience, students in introductory geology courses were exposed to a bit of glacial geology. In the fall, we traveled to
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