STUDENT PROJECTS

Our research on structural diagenesis is supported by Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy with initiation funding from JSG Structural Diagenesis Initiative of the Geology Foundation, John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences (2005-2008).

Research on all aspects of subsurface fractures is supported by Industrial Associates of the Fracture Research and Application Consortium and by Jackson Research Fellowships.

The Fracture Research & Application Consortium supports a wide range of student projects focused on fractured shale, sandstone, and carbonate rocks. Major studies are underway in Colorado, Wyoming, East Texas, and Argentina.

For information on student and postdoctoral opportunites see the Structural Diagenesis page.

For completed thesis and dissertation work see the Archive.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

Steve Becker | Fluid inclusion records of fracture opening histories

Andras Fall | Fracture system petrology

Department of Geological Sciences

Brandon Barber | Fracture pattern development: systematic comparison of outcrop maps and geomechanical model results

Magdalena Ellis | Fracture pattern evolution and diagenesis in fault zones, Torridonian sandstone, NW Scotland

Luke Fidler | Fracture characterization in the New Albany Shale

Peter Hargrove | Fracture spatial scaling and pattern development under the influence of quartz precipitation, Cambrian Eriboll sandstone, NW Scotland

John Hooker | Fracture scaling and spatial scaling, with examples from Argentina and Colorado

Juan Inigo | Fracture pattern evolution and diagenesis, Bolivia and Argentina

Autumn Kaylor | Fractures and diagenesis of Cretaceous sandstones, Western Canada basin

Faustino Monroy-Santiago | Diagenesis of fractures in dolostone

Frank Morgan | Fracture size and spacing patterns in gentley folded sedimentary rocks

Aysen Ozkan | Regional diagenesis, fracture petrology, and fracture opening histories, Piceance Basin, Colorado

Xuecheng Ouyang | Fracture systems in Marcellus shale

Alex Urquhart | Faults and CO2 storage

Celia Xu | History of fracture system evolution from fluid inclusion data

Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program

Libsen Castillo | Integrated analysis to improve hydraulic fracturing treatments in carbonate and clastic Reservoirs in Torunos Hydrocarbon Field, Barinas Basin, Southwest Venezuela

Laura Pommer | Engineering and geological analysis of hydraulic fracture treatment design in the context of new fracture evaluation methods and models

Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering

Hamid Adefashe | Determining the fracture mechanics properties of sedimentary rocks using double torsion testing

Arash Dahi | Geomechanical modeling of fracture diagenesis

Raushan Kumar | Subcritical to critical crack growth: applications to natural fracture and hydraulic fracture growth

Atif Mohammed | Piceance basin hydraulic fracture performance

Namsu Park | Discrete element modeling of rock fracture behavior: fracture toughness and time-dependent fracture growth

Jennifer Reese | Simulating gas production from hydraulic fracture networks: A case study of the Barnett Shale

Rudy Reynolds | Analysis of production patterns in fractured rocks

For information about current thesis and dissertation work, see Student Projects.

Completed Work

Postdoctoral Fellowships

Steve Becker | 2007-2009 | Fluid inclusion records of fracture opening histories

Virginio Neumann | 2003-2006 | Fracture systems in fine grained carbonate rocks

Department of Geological Sciences

Tim Gibbons | MS 2007 | Spatial scaling of compaction bands

Leonel Gomez | PhD 2007 | Characterization of the spatial arrangement of opening-mode fractures | [pdf]

Edgar Pinzon | MS 2007 | Fracture pattern prediction using geomechanical models incorporating diagenesis, with comparison to outcrop data, Cambrian Eriboll sandstones, Northwestern Scotland and core observations, Tertiary Mirador Formation sandstones, Llanos foothills Colombia

Ankur Roy | MS 2007 | Geomechechanical and diagenetic modeling of fracture pattern evolution and spatial scaling

Kira Diaz-Tushman | MS 2006 | Fracture tectonics, fracture porosity evolution and structural diagenesis, Cambrian Eriboll sandstones, Northwest Scotland | [pdf] | [html]

Meghan Ward | MS 2005 | Opening history and porosity evolution of fractures in sandstone, Triassic to Jurassic La Boca Formation, Northeast Mexico | [pdf]

Astrid Makowitz | PhD 2004 | The genetic association between brittle deformation and quartz cementation elucidated by scanned cathodoluminescence imaging

Petro Papazis | MS 2004 | Petrologic characterization of processes controlling fracture evolution in the Barnett Shale and their financial implications, Fort Worth Basin, Texas

John N. Hooker | MS 2004 | Fault timing in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Northeastern Mexico

Orlando Ortega | PhD 2002 | Fracture-size scaling and stratigraphic controls on fracture intensity

Christopher Hare | MS 2002 | Analysis of fracture clustering using the continuous wavelet transform: An example from the Marble Falls Limestone

Aysen Ozkan | MS 2001 | Diagenesis and porosity evolution of the Flathead Sandstone (Middle Cambrian), Wyoming and Montana

Javier Geovanni Moros | MS 1999 | Relationship between fracture aperture and length in sedimentary rocks

Orlando Ortega | MS 1997 | Prediction of macrofracture properties using microfracture information, Mesaverde Group sandstones, San Juan basin, New Mexico

Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering

Peggy Rijken | PhD 2005 | Modeling naturally fractured reservoirs: From experimental rock mechanics to flow simulation

Zeno Philip | PhD 2004 | Modeling fracture-matrix flow in geomechanically simulated fracture networks

Myeong Noh | PhD 2003 | Reactive transport modeling in fractures and two-phase flow

Yuan Qiu | PhD 2002 | Natural fracture characterization and modeling

Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program

Chris Wilson | MA 2004 | Predicting fracture degradation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado: Can a surrogate measurement guide the way to open fractures and highly productive wells? A geology, engineering and value-of-information study

Natalia M. Kalitynska | MA 2007 | Economic and engineering evaluation of hydraulic fracture completion practices in the Piceance Basin, Colorado, USA

Walaa Ali | MA 2009 | Lithofacies, Depositional Environment, Burial History and Calculation of Organic Richness from Wireline Logs: A study of the Barnett Shale in the Delaware Basin, Pecos Co., West Texas, and comparison with the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin