2013 News
December 2013
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New publication:
Carruthers, D., Cartwright, J., Jackson, M. P. A., & Schutjens, P. (2013). Marine and Petroleum Geology. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 48(c), 130–148. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2013.08.001
On December 9, Mike Hudec visited Shell’s Houston office to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of Shell’s membership in the AGL consortium.
Mike Hudec visited the Houston office of TGS on December 10 to discuss salt interpretation in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of TGS’ membership in the AGL consortium.
November 2013
Mike Hudec visited ExxonMobil’s Houston office on November 20 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of ExxonMobil’s membership in the AGL consortium.
Mike Hudec visited the Houston office of Maersk Oil on November 19 to discuss salt tectonics in West Africa.
Mike Hudec visited Baylor University in Waco, TX on November 15 to give a presentation on the geologic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico. Mike’s youngest daughter is currently a senior at Baylor.
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More than 360 delegates from 36 companies registered to attend the 25th annual AGL Industrial Associates Meeting, held in Austin on November 12–13. Attendees heard 20 presentations on salt tectonics from around the world, as well as physical, analytical, and numerical modeling. AGL’s Dan Carruthers, Tim Dooley, Mahdi Heidari, Mike Hudec, Chris Jackson, Martin Jackson, Gang Luo, Maria Nikolinakou, and Ruud Weijermars all gave presentations, along with George Burg of Condor Petroleum and Charlie Kergaravat of Université de Pau et des Pays de L’Adour.
October 2013
Mike Hudec received two awards for a presentation given at the 2012 GCAGS annual meeting. Mike won the 2012 A. I. Levorsen Memorial Award, recognizing the best paper presented, with particular emphasis on creative thinking toward new ideas in exploration. Hudec also received the 2012 GCAGS/GCSSEPM Thomas A. Philpott Excellence of Presentation Award for his paper, "Explanation for Differences in Deepwater Salt Tectonics between the North-Central and Northwestern Gulf of Mexico."
On October 9, Martin Jackson visited the Houston office of Cobalt International Energy to discuss salt tectonics in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of Cobalt’s membership in the AGL consortium.
Mike Hudec visited Woodside’s offices in Perth, Australia on October 7-11. During the visit Mike taught a short course in salt tectonics, and discussed salt tectonics in a variety of African salt basins. Portions of the visit were provided as part of Woodside’s membership in the AGL consortium.
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New Publications:
Hudec, M. R., Norton, I., Jackson, M. P. A., and Peel, F., 2013, Jurassic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico salt basin: AAPG Bulletin, v. 97, no. 10, p. 1683–1710.
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New Publication:
Hudec, M. R., Jackson, M. P. A., and Peel, F., 2013, Influence of deep Louann structure on the evolution of the northern Gulf of Mexico: AAPG Bulletin, v. 97, no. 10, p. 1711–1735.
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New Publication:
Dooley, T. P., Jackson, M. P. A., and Hudec, M. R., 2013, Coeval extension and shortening above and below salt canopies on an uplifted, continental margin: Application to the northern Gulf of Mexico: AAPG Bulletin, v. 97, no. 10, p. 1737-1735.
September 2013
Mike Hudec led a Paradox Basin field trip for CGGVeritas on September 21–23.
Ruud Weijermars visited AGL in Austin on September 30-October 2 to discuss ongoing collaborative research. Ruud's work is focused on analytical models for salt-sheet emplacement, and will be presented at the 2013 AGL annual meeting.
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Maria Nikolinakou attended the MIT Leadership Conference September 27-28, 2013. Sessions included topics on volunteering for regional high school students as well as training for interviewing and guiding local students interest in attending MIT.
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Tim Dooley attended the 1st International Workshop on Advances in Quantitative Analog Modeling at GFZ Potsdam, Germany from September 22-26th. He visited the tectonic modeling laboratories at GFZ with lab director, Matthias Rosenau, and Juergan Adam from Royal Holloway.
Repairing a washed-out stream crossing on the road into Onion Creek. Photograph by Mike Cogan.
Mike Hudec led a Paradox Basin field trip for Statoil on September 16-20, along with Statoil geoscientists Rob Hunsdale, Jamie Vinnels, Scott Young and Mike Cogan. Heavy rains washed out some of the field stops, but all involved adjusted to the conditions and enjoyed the trip.
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On September 12-22, Martin Jackson visited the Sivas basin in central Turkey for a field trip of well-exposed evaporite diapirs and minibasins. The trip was sponsored by Total and led by Ph.D. students, Charlie Kergaravat and Charlotte Ribes (Université de Pau et des Pays de L’Adour) and by Haluk Temiz (University of Sivas), and joined by Jean-Claude Ringenbach (Total) and Jean-Paul Callot (Université de Pau et des Pays de L’Adour).
Mike Hudec visited Maersk Oil’s Houston office on September 11–12 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. Portions of the visit were provided as part of Maersk’s membership in the AGL consortium.
Mike Hudec visited Marathon’s Houston office on September 9–10 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico.
August 2013
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On August 22, Martin Jackson joined 75 other faculty, researchers, and graduate students from UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences and Department of Petroleum Engineering on a Statoil-sponsored field trip to the fjords of Spitsbergen, the principal island in Svalbard. This six-day multidisciplinary trip was ship-based on the MS Expedition and featured daily excursions to outcrops and to a sumptuous ship’s dining room. See here for more details.
Mike Hudec visited the Houston office of WesternGeco on August 13 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of WesternGeco’s membership in the AGL consortium.
July 2013
On July 9-12, 2013 Maria Nikolinakou attended the 5th Biot Conference on Poromechanics, in Vienna, Austria, and presented the talk: "Pore pressure and stress around dipping structures". The conference was a big reunion for the poromechanical community, as it celebrated 50 years from Terzaghi's death, and featured a visit to Terzaghi's laboratory, which includes his original device on measuring pore pressure during triaxial loading, and his original notes on the theory of consolidation.
Maria Nikolinakou became a member of the MIT Educational Council for Central Texas.
Ruud Weijermars visited AGL in Austin on July 8-10 to discuss ongoing collaborative research. Ruud’s work is focused on analytical models for salt-sheet emplacement, and will be presented at the 2013 AGL annual meeting.
June 2013
Mike Hudec visited the Houston office of BHPBilliton on June 27 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of BHPBilliton’s membership in the AGL consortium
Maria Nikolinakou attended the 47th U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, in San Francisco, CA; and presented the talk: Geomechanical modeling of the Mad Dog salt, Gulf of Mexico (paper 13-234, downloadable from the one-petro website). Maria was member of the organizing committee for ARMA 2013, chair of the paper awards committee, and co-organizer for the career center and student trivia contest events. She also participated in "The Geysers" technical tour.
On June 5, the Geological Society of London awarded the William Smith Medal (for "Outstanding research in applied geology”) to Martin Jackson and the Bigsby Medal (for "Work of great merit”) to Chris Jackson at Burlington House, London.
Mike Hudec, Rod Graham, and Jean Letouzey eating lunch in the field.
Mike Hudec participated in a field project in the Sivas Basin, Turkey, from May 31-June 14. The field party was organized by the University of Pau and Total, and featured as many as 15 faculty, students, Total geoscientists, and consultants. The fieldwork is aimed at understanding the salt tectonics, minibasin stratigraphy, and compressional deformation affecting a spectacularly exposed but hitherto-unknown salt basin in central Turkey.
May 2013
Mike Hudec led a salt-tectonics field trip to the Paradox Basin, Utah on May 21-25. The trip was attended by representatives from Apache, Maersk, Marathon, Nexen, Nobel, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, and Statoil.
On May 8th Maria Nikolinakou visited Schlumberger in Houston and presented her work on "Modeling stress evolution around a rising salt dome". She later gave a late-night webminar on the same topic for the Far-East Schlumberger offices.
Mike Hudec visited CGGVeritas’ Houston office on May 7 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of CGGVeritas’ membership in the AGL consortium.
Peter Flemings and Maria Nikolinakou visited Anadarko in Houston. Maria presented her work on "Modeling stress evolution around a rising salt dome".
April 2013
Mike Hudec presented a salt-tectonics short course and led a Paradox Basin field trip to staff from Cairn Energy on April 26-May 3. Cairn is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
March 2013
Mike Hudec presented a short course on seismic interpretation of salt structures in CGGVeritas’ Houston office on March 25-26.
Mike demonstrates the law of superposition, in preparation for using a leaf-blower to demonstrate erosion. Kudos to Tim Dooley for the colored sand!
Mike Hudec gave a presentation on volcanic eruptions and other geologic processes at Blazier Elementary School on March 6. The presentation was attended by more than 200 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade students.
February 2013
Mike Hudec visited Marathon’s Houston office on February 25-26 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. Parts of the visit were provided as part of Marathon’s membership in the AGL consortium.
Chris Jackson began his tour as an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in February, visiting Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, California and Nebraska. He returned in one piece.
Ruud Weijermars visited AGL in Austin on February 18-20 to discuss ongoing collaborative research. Ruud’s work is focused on analytical models for salt-sheet emplacement, and will be presented at the 2013 AGL annual meeting.
Dan Carruthers began his postdoctoral position at AGL on February 18 after graduating with a Ph.D. from Cardiff University in January 2013. Dan worked with Joe Cartwright and Tiago Alves in Cardiff University’s 3D Seismic Lab where he studied salt-related fault families in the UK Central Graben and Espírito Santo Basin (SE Brazil). Dan is currently working on salt tectonics in the deepwater Campos basin, offshore Brazil. The project is focused on; 1) structural styles and origin of mini basins within fallen diapirs, and 2) complex evolution and zonation of salt-related structural domains.
Mike Hudec visited the Houston office of Noble Energy on February 1 to discuss salt tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit was provided as part of Noble’s membership in the AGL consortium.
January 2013
In January Martin Jackson spent a week in Rabat, presenting a short course and consulting on salt tectonics in offshore Morocco for the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM).
Mike Hudec presented a talk entitled “Explanation for differences in deepwater salt tectonics between the north-central and northwestern Gulf of Mexico” for the New Orleans Geological Society on January 7. The talk was part of the Society’s monthly luncheon series.
