AGL Annual Meeting

The AGL Annual Meeting was held Thursday–Friday, November 11–12, 2004, at the PRC Commons on the Pickle Research Campus in Austin. 05/18/04

Tim Dooley, Martin Jackson, and Mike Hudec all attended the Gulf Coast Section SEPM 24th Annual Research Conference in Houston on December 6–8. Mike and Martin each presented two talks, one talk by Mike was the keynote paper. Mike and Martin chaired different sessions. Tim presented a poster on modeling work conducted at Royal Holloway University of London. The five published papers were:

  

Dooley, Tim, McClay, Ken, Hempton, Mark, and Smit, Dirk, 2004, Basement controls on salt tectonics: results from analog modeling in Post, P. J., Olson, D. L., Lyons, K. T., Palmes, S. L., Harrison, P. F., and Rosen, N. C., eds., Salt-sediment interactions and hydrocarbon prospectivity: concepts, applications, and case studies for the 21st century: 24th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference, p. 1138–1174.

Hudec, M. R., and Jackson, M. P. A., 2004, Salt tectonics in the new millennium: navigating the information flood in Post, P. J., Olson, D. L., Lyons, K. T., Palmes, S. L., Harrison, P. F., and Rosen, N. C., eds., Salt-sediment interactions and hydrocarbon prospectivity: concepts, applications, and case studies for the 21st century: 24th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference, p. 1–13.

Hudec, M. R., 2004, Salt intrusion: time for a comeback? in Post, P. J., Olson, D. L., Lyons, K. T., Palmes, S. L., Harrison, P. F., and Rosen, N. C., eds., Salt-sediment interactions and hydrocarbon prospectivity: concepts, applications, and case studies for the 21st century: 24th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference, p. 119–132.

Jackson, M. P. A., and Hudec, M. R., 2004, A new mechanism for advance of allochthonous salt sheets, in Post, P. J., Olson, D. L., Lyons, K. T., Palmes, S. L., Harrison, P. F., and Rosen, N. C., eds., Salt-sediment interactions and hydrocarbon prospectivity: concepts, applications, and case studies for the 21st century: 24th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference, p. 220–242.

Jackson, M. P. A., Hudec, M. R., and Jennette, D. C., 2004, Insights from a gravity-driven linked system in deep-water lower Congo Basin, Gabon in Post, P. J., Olson, D. L., Lyons, K. T., Palmes, S. L., Harrison, P. F., and Rosen, N. C., eds., Salt-sediment interactions and hydrocarbon prospectivity: concepts, applications, and case studies for the 21st century: 24th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference, p. 735–752. 12/04

Mike Hudec and Martin Jackson attended a meeting at GX Technology on December 9 to discuss the interpretation of salt structures on GXT’s CongoSpan dataset. 12/04

Professor Peter A. Kukla (Director) and Markus Mohr (Research Fellow) from the Geologisches Institut der RWTH (Aachen, Germany) visited in December to discuss salt tectonics in Germany and other areas of mutual interest. 12/04

    

 

The 16th annual AGL Industrial Associates Meeting was held at the Pickle Research Campus Commons in Austin on November 11–12. 80 representatives from 15 member companies attended presentations describing AGL’s 2004 research results. Topics included emplacement mechanisms for allochthonous salt sheets, deep-water structural styles, structural and stratigraphic evolution of minibasins, behavior of salt in strike-slip systems, and reports of fieldwork on Axel Heiberg Island, Sverdrup Basin, Canada, and in Iran. The meeting closed with a discussion of research plans for 2005 and a tour of our remodeled physical modeling facilities. Please see the Members' Area for more details. 11/04

Professor Peter Cobbold, Director of Research CNRS at Université de Rennes (Rennes, France) presented a lecture on “Mechanical effects of seepage forces under sealing layers: exploring the implications for subsalt deformation.” His talk at AGL's Annual Review Meeting summarized the theoretical and modeling work by him and his students at Rennes. The topic complements AGL’s current research on advance mechanisms of allochthonous salt sheets. 11/04

  
 

ConocoPhillips continued their long-term support of structural geologic graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin by awarding one-year fellowships to AGL students, Patricia Montoya (PhD candidate) and Richard Kilby (Masters candidate). 11/04

On November 15–18 Mike Hudec visited the offices of Forest Oil International in Denver, Colorado. He taught a short course in salt tectonics and engaged in discussions with Forest Oil staff and partners on salt tectonics in West Africa. 11/04

Salt Domes Under the Midnight Sun

As part of the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory research program, Senior Research Scientist Martin P. A. Jackson spent 3 weeks in June and July on Axel Heiberg Island and adjoining northern Ellesmere Island in Arctic Canada, collaborating with Dr. Christopher Harrison of the Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary). They mapped some of the 40 diapirs of Carboniferous evaporites exposed at the surface. Click here for details and photos. 08/19/04

  


Martin Jackson at Otto Fiord at 9:30 p.m. local time.


Oblique photo of an analog model run at Royal Holloway showing the circular trace of the surface laser scanner as it scans the topography.

  

Bureau Post-Doctoral Fellow Tim Dooley spent 3 weeks in July and August in the physical modeling labs at Royal Holloway, University of London. Tim’s visit was part of an ongoing research project for the U.S. Navy Geothermal Program Office into the geometries and kinematics of transtensional pull-apart basins. Tim included some of these modeling results in his oral and poster presentation titled “Scaled Sandbox Modeling of Transtensional Pull-Apart Basins—Applications to the Coso Geothermal System” ,which he gave at the Geothermal Resources Council 2004 Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, California, August 29–September 1. 09/09/04

Mike Hudec spent June 30 and July 1 at the offices of BP in Houston as a participant in an in-house Salt Tectonics Symposium where he presented "Near-Salt Deformation: Formation of Subsalt Disturbed Zones during Salt-Sheet Advance".

During July 13-14, Mike visited the offices of Forest Oil International in Denver to discuss salt tectonics in offshore Gabon. 07/19/04

  

 

Pemex Salina Project Subject of Presentation

On May 11–12, Martin Jackson and Mike Hudec presented a 2-day salt tectonics short course to BEG researchers involved in the Pemex Salina project. Martin and Mike will continue to be involved with the project as advisors. 05/18/04

Salt Tectonics Course Presented in Madrid

AGL researcher Mike Hudec was in Madrid the week of May 3–7 working with consortium sponsor Repsol YPF. Mike presented a 1-day salt tectonics short course and spent the rest of the week working with the company's exploration group on interpretation of salt structures near the Canary Islands.05/18/04

 
 

New Rig in Physical Modeling Lab at AGL

Last week saw a maiden experimental run take place in the newly updated physical modeling labs at AGL. Tim Dooley designed the rig illustrated, with inputs from Martin Jackson and Mike Hudec; Roger Gary built it at the Department of Geological Sciences, UT Austin. A deformation rig, it is modular in design, and it can accommodate models at three different widths, 60, 100 and 150 cm, and as much

as 2 m in length. Models are recorded from above, by means of computer-controlled, time-lapse digital photography. The resulting high-resolution images form the basis for the evolutionary movies that are created of each model. On completion, the models are gelled and serially sectioned to generate isometric 3-D block diagrams of internal architecture. The maiden run was a success, with only minor problems popping up, and they are currently being addressed. Future improvements include installation of a cutting rig to allow scientists to section thicknesses of less than 5 mm. 04/20/04

Seven geoscientists from Amerada Hess visited AGL's offices in Austin April 15–16. The 2-day visit included a review of AGL's research in 2003, plans for 2004, and extensive discussions of salt tectonics in the South Atlantic. 04/20/04

 

AGL welcomes Amerada Hess to the Industrial Associates Program!
  On March 29–30, 2004, Martin Jackson visited ExxonMobil's offices in Houston to participate in a symposium on hydrocarbon exploration on passive margins. Martin delivered the keynote lecture “Contractional Salt Tectonics in Deep Water.” 04/20/04
Mike Hudec and Martin Jackson visited bp’s offices in Houston March 22–26, 2004. They spent the week evaluating Gulf of Mexico seismic data for the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (AGL) research project. Their visit ended with a seminar on allochthonous salt sheets. 04/20/04  

 

Mike Hudec was a visitor at ChevronTexaco's offices in New Orleans January 12–13. While in New Orleans, Mike taught a short course in salt tectonics and consulted with ChevronTexaco staff on salt structures in the Gulf of Mexico. 04/20/04

Long-time researcher and one of the founding members of the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (AGL), Dan Schultz-Ela, has left the Bureau to return to his roots in western Colorado. His new life will include raising horses, finishing his eco-friendly home, teaching high school science, and—good news for researchers in the AGL—continuing his valuable expertise as a consulting mathematical modeler now based at "Bureau West." We wish him and Lynea well. 03/12/04

 

Dan Schultz-Ela:
BEG employee

  

Dan Schultz-Ela:
Consultant
 

Senior Research Scientist Martin P. A. Jackson recently returned from a month of travel, research, and adventure in Sweden and Iran under the auspices of the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory. Martin was away from January 14 through February 15, 2004. Click here for details and photos. 02/24/04

An Era Ends – Bruno is Leaving…

AGL bids farewell to Bruno Vendeville after 15 years of service. Bruno will be joining the faculty of the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille in Lille, France starting on February 1. Bruno received a Ph.D. from the Université de Rennes in 1987, and a postdoc from Texas A & M in 1988. He then joined the Bureau of Economic Geology in 1988 as the first hire for the newly-formed AGL. Bruno built up the AGL modeling facilities, eventually becoming the Laboratory Manager. During his tenure he has completed more than 420 sand-silicone models on all facets of salt tectonics and related topics. Bruno’s many papers have given him a reputation as one of the

 

world’s leading experts in salt tectonics, and his models were the most important factor in the growth of AGL’s reputation as a center for salt tectonics research. We thank Bruno for his many years of service, and wish him well in his new endeavors.
 

…And a New Era Begins – Tim Dooley Arrives

Tim Dooley arrived at AGL in November from a position as Senior Researcher/Laboratory Manager for the Fault Dynamics Research Group, Royal Holloway University, London. Tim has more than 15 years experience in modeling strike-slip and extensional faulting, shale tectonics, salt tectonics, and inversion. He brings with him a record of innovative modeling techniques and striking graphics displays. We are very pleased to have gained his services, and look forward to working with him for many years to come. 01/07/04

Mike Hudec and Martin Jackson visited Marathon's offices in Houston on December 11. They presented a summary of the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory's (AGL) 2003 research and conducted workshops with Marathon teams working in several salt basins. The visit was a service provided to Marathon as part of their membership in AGL. 01/07/04

 

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