On Core: The Houston Museum of Natural Science Visits the Bureau’s Research Center

Earlier this summer, the Houston Museum of Natural Science offered a behind-the-scenes field trip to the Bureau’s Houston Research Center. The Bureau operates two facilities dedicated to studying core—the cylindrical tubes of rock removed when wells are drilled—one in Austin, and another, larger building in Houston.

Over 20 people turned out for “Excursion – Core of the Earth,” which, while the wordplay is appreciated, requires clarification: These rocks are not from the Earth’s core; they are from the crust, and while they can be many miles deep, they are not anywhere near the 1,800 miles needed to reach the outer core. Pressure and temperature become too great to drill any deeper than about 8 miles down.

“Cores are packed with information that gives us insight into our planet from climate to energy to water resources and beyond,” Bureau geologist Beverly Blakeney DeJarnett explained to the group—a mix of all ages, and from the geologically experienced to complete neophytes.

Blakeney DeJarnett showed cores that captured different environments in the deep past like Cretaceous-aged barrier bars, tidal inlets and peat swamps from Wyoming, reefs from south-central Texas, an Ordovician-aged cavern fill from Alabama, oil shale, and Permian-aged carbonate buildups from West Texas. She guided visitors through the physical and biological signatures in the rock that allow geologists to reconstruct these environments millions of years after the fact.

These rocks have been keeping records of our planet’s evolution for a long time— records we use today to solve modern energy and water challenges and build into the future.