During May 2002, Senior Research Scientist Bob Hardage spent 12 days at sea as a member of a research group assisting Louisiana State University (LSU) and the Minerals Management Services (MMS) acquire ground-truth information across gas hydrate deposits in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Principal investigators of this project included Dr. Harry Roberts (LSU) and Jesse Hunt (MMS).

The research party used the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute vessel "Seward Johnson II" and its "Johnson Sealink" deepwater research submarine. The Sealink can accommodate four people and operate at water depths of 3000 feet. Bob made a traverse of approximately 1 km across a study area at a water depth of 2360 feet, videotaping seafloor features and collecting shallow sediment samples.
[more photographs] 06/19/02

Exposure of thin-bedded, basin plain turbidites at La Scalacce, in the Appenine Mountains near Bologna, Italy

Dave Jennette was invited to participate in a workshop titled "Deepwater Turbidite Reservoirs" preceeding the annual meeting of the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers. The workshop was held at the University of Parma, Italy, and hosted byDr. Emiliano Mutti. More than 30 researchers from around the world presented papers, attended a two-day field trip to the Appenines, and participated in a thematic discussion on the future of research in deepwater reservoirs. Dave presented "Slope and Basin-Floor Reservoirs from the Miocene and Pliocene of the Veracruz Basin, Southeastern Mexico" (coauthored by Khaled Fouad, Tim Wawrzyniec, Dallas Dunlap, Rafael Múñoz, Javier Meneses-Rocha, and Jorge E. Lugo) 06/06/02

Thirty K-12 teachers from Aldine ISD in Houston visited the Bureau on May 30, 2002, for a day of instruction and presentations by Bureau and UTIG scientists. The teachers enjoyed hearing about current research studies at the Bureau and UTIG and were provided with instruction on activities that they could perform in the classroom. 06/06/02.

Director Scott W. Tinker and Senior Research Scientist
Charlie Kerans held a 2-day short course on carbonate sequence stratigraphy for Bureau staff on May 23–24, 2002. The course was presented as a general introduction for Bureau geologists, geophysicists, petrophysicists, and engineers who are currently or may soon be involved with a growing number of Bureau carbonate reservoir studies. The course included lectures, exercises, and examination of core material from selected Cretaceous, Permian, and Pennsylvanian carbonate reservoir strata. Eleven BEG staff attended the course, which is the first in a series of internal courses designed to broaden the experience base of BEG researchers and to ensure a flow of information between areas of expertise. 05/28/02

The Bureau of Economic Geology is partnering with iReservoir.com to serve iProject, an internet-based integrated workflow process and data distribution system. At the Bureau this week for system setup and training were, from left to right, Dr. Kevin Godbey, Dr. Hai-Zui Meng, and Steve Hoye. To learn more about iProject, visit the iReservoir.com website. 05/17/02

Research Associate
Jim Gibeaut and Associate Director Eric C. Potter, through the efforts of the Bureau's Latin America liasion,
Luis Sánchez-Barreda, visited the offices of SEMERNAT (Secretariat of the Medio ambiente and Natural Recursos) in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 17, 2002, and met with the Undersecretary for Environmental Protection, Mr. Raul Arriaga Becerra. SEMERNAT is the agency responsible for protecting Mexico's environment and natural resources. 06/03/02

Associate Director Eric C. Potter recently traveled south of the border to participate in the annual Texas Trade and Investment Mission held in Mexico City on May 15–17, 2002. The mission, organized by the Texas Department of Economic Development and the Texas Railroad Commission, is designed for Texas companies interested in doing business with the upstream energy sector in Mexico. 05/31/02

Research Scientist Associate Randy Remington presented, "Identifying Fault Compartmentalization in the Middle Frio Sandstones, Redfish Bay, South Texas," at the Bureau's Friday Seminar series May 10, 2002 at 8:30a.m. [Abstract] 04/23/02

Delegates from the World Bank visited the Bureau on May 7 to discuss potential environmental research in Latin America. Pictured from left to right: (standing) Drs. Jeff Paine, Roberto Gutiérrez, Scott Tinker, Antonio Rocha Magathães, and
John Redwood; (seated) Bill White, Alan Dutton, and
Jay Raney.

Dr. John Redwood is the World Bank Director for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, Latin America and Caribbean Region (LCSES). Dr. Antonio Rocha Magathães is the Principal Country Officer of the World Bank in Brazil. The mission of LCSES is to support country clients in their quest for poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Senior Research Scientist Dr. Bridget R. Scanlon was the Bureau's Friday morning seminar speaker on May 3, 8:30 a.m., in the Main Conference Room. The title of her presentation was "Hydrologic Processes in Thick Vadose Zones in Interdrainage Semiarid Regions: Monitoring and Modeling Analysis." [Abstract] 05/01/02

Senior Research Scientist Robert G. Loucks was an invited speaker for the Mississippi Geological Society 2002 "Spring Symposium on Recent Activity and Trends in the Mississippi-Alabama Oil Patch" that was held on May 16 in Jackson, Mississippi. The title of Bob's presentation was "Characterizing the Three-Dimensional Architecture of a Coalesced, Collapsed-Paleocave System in Lower Ordovician Carbonates by Integrating Ground-Penetrating Radar, Shallow-Core, and Outcrop Data: Application to Potential Deep Knox Reservoirs in Mississippi." [Abstract] 05/28/02