December 2008 - HGS

Volume 51 Number 4

HGSBulletinHouston Geological Society

December 2008

A Pictorial Look at theDaisetta Sinkhole,N.E. Liberty County,TexasPage 23

A Pictorial Look at theDaisetta Sinkhole,Northeast LibertyCounty, TexasPage 23

December 2008

December 2008 Houston Geological Society Bulletin 1

Volume 51, Number 4 December 2008

Houston Geological Society

The

In Every Issue5 From the President

by Kara Bennett

7 From the Editor by Michael Forlenza

30 GeoEvents Calendar

55 HGS MembershipApplication

56 HGA/HPAC

57 Professional Directory

Technical Meetings

18 HGS General Dinner MeetingModern Turbidite System Depositional Patterns asAnalogs for Subsurface Petroleum Plays in theNorthern Gulf of Mexico

23 HGS Environmental & Engineering Dinner MeetingA Pictorial Look at the Daisetta Sinkhole, NortheastLiberty County, Texas

28 SIPES Luncheon MeetingWind Energy—It’s up in the Air

Other Features13 Letter to the Editor

15 Pictures from Galveston—November 2008After Hurricane IkeAlison Henning

33 Geologic Website of the MonthGeology.com www.geology.comMichael Forlenza, PG

37 Help Put Earth Science Back into Texas PublicSchools!

37 Fall Community Outreach

39 Scouts Select Smoking Volcano Cake for FirstPlace Prize Earth Science Week Cake ContestIanthe Sarrazin, Ralph Baird, and Daniel Molina

43 Government UpdateHenry M. Wise and Arlin Howles

51 HGS Holiday Party

Houston Geological SocietyOFFICERSKara Bennett PresidentGary Coburn President-electArt Berman Vice PresidentJohn Tubb TreasurerMatt Boyd Treasurer-electMike Jones SecretaryMichael Forlenza Bulletin EditorGordon Shields Editor-elect

DIRECTORSAlison Henning Richard HoweIanthe SarrazinWalter Light

HGS OFFICE STAFFSandra Babcock Office ManagerLilly Hargrave WebmasterKen Nemeth Office Committee

Chairman

EDITORIAL BOARDMichael Forlenza EditorGordon Shields Editor-electJames Ragsdale Advisory EditorCharles Revilla Advisory EditorLilly Hargrave Advertising EditorLisa Krueger Design Editor

The Houston Geological Society Bulletin (ISSN-018-6686) is published monthly except for July and August by the HoustonGeological Society, 14811 St. Mary’s Lane, Suite 250,Houston, Texas 77079-2916. Phone: 713-463-9476; fax: 281-679-5504Editorial correspondence and material submitted for publica-tion should be addressed to the Editor, Houston Geological SocietyBulletin, 14811 St. Mary’s Lane, Suite 250, Houston, Texas 77079-2916 or to [email protected]: Subscription to this publication is included inthe membership dues ($24.00 annually). Subscription price fornonmembers within the contiguous U.S. is $30.00 per year. Forthose outside the contiguous U.S. the subscription price is $46.00per year. Single-copy price is $3.00. Periodicals postage paid inHouston, Texas.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Houston GeologicalSociety Bulletin, 14811 St. Mary’s Lane, Suite 250, Houston,Texas 77079-2916

About the Cover: Aerial view of Daisetta sinkhole in Liberty County, Texas. The view is to the north.Photo courtesy of Richard G. Howe. © 2008 Copyright Richard G. Howe. All rights reserved.

Bulletin

page 23

page 15

December 15HGS

HolidayParty

page 51

page 18

page 7

2 Houston Geological Society Bulletin December 2008


Board of Directors 2008–09http://www.hgs.org/about_hgs/leadership.asp

President (P) Kara Bennett Consultant 832-452-3747 [email protected] (PE) Gary Coburn Murphy Oil 281-675-9210 [email protected] President (VP) Art Berman Labyrinth Consulting Services 713-557-9076 [email protected] (S) Mike Jones Scout Petroleum 713-654-0080 [email protected] (T) John Tubb INEXS 713-805-5649 [email protected] (TE) Matt Boyd Southwest Energy 281-618-7379 [email protected] (E) Michael Forlenza Malcolm Pirnie Inc. 713-960-7421 [email protected] (EE) Gordon Shields Fugro Gravity and Magnetics Services 713-369-6132 [email protected] 07-09 (D1) Alison Henning H2B, Inc. / Rice University 832-203-5016 [email protected] 07-09 (D2) Richard Howe Terrain Solutions 713-467-2900 [email protected] 08-10 (D3) Ianthe Sarrazin Petrobras America 713-808-2775 [email protected] 08-10 (D4) Walter Light Thunder Exploration 712-823-8288 [email protected] Chairperson Phone Email Board Rep. AAPG HOD Foreman Sharie Sartain 281-382-9855 [email protected] PAcademic Liaison Brad Hoge [email protected] D3Ad Hoc Constitution & Bylaws Steve Earle 713-328-1069 [email protected] PAdvertising Lilly Hargrave 713-463-9476 [email protected] EArrangements Matt Boyd 281-618-7379 [email protected] TEAwards Mike Deming 281-925-7239 [email protected] VPBallot Paul Hoffman 713-783-7880 [email protected] SCalvert Memorial Scholarship Carl Norman 713-461-7420 [email protected] PECommunity Outreach Walter Light 713-529-2233 [email protected] D1Continuing Education Ken Schwartz 281-690-0995 [email protected] D1Directory Michael S. Benrud 713-785-8700 x104 [email protected] EEEarth Science Week Martha McRae 713-869-2045 [email protected] D1

Jennifer Burton [email protected] D1Engineering Council Claudia Ludwig 713-723-2511 [email protected] D4Environmental & Eng Geologists Matthew Cowan 713-777-0534 [email protected] VPExhibits Paul Carter 713-826-0540 [email protected] D3Field Trips Gary Moore 713-466-8960 [email protected] D4Finance Joe Lynch 281-496-9898 x134 [email protected] TFoundation Fund John Adamick 713-860-2114 jada@tgsnopec .com PEGeneral Meetings Art Berman 713-557-9076 [email protected] VPGolf Tournament Mark Dennis 281-494-2522 [email protected] D1Government Affairs Arlin Howles 281-808-8629 [email protected] D4

Henry Wise 281-242-7190 [email protected] D4Guest Night Bill Osten 281-293-3160 [email protected] D2Houston Energy Council Sandi Barber 713-935-7830 [email protected] D4HGA/HPAC Norma Jean Jones 281-497-3857 [email protected] S

Daisy Wood 713-977-7319 [email protected] SInternational Explorationists Justin Vanden Brink 281-877-9400 [email protected] VPAd Hoc Int'l Year of Planet Earth Sandi Barber 713-935-7830 [email protected] D3Membership Steve Levine 713-624-9723 [email protected] SMembership Growth Linda Sternbach 281-679-7333 [email protected] D2Museum of Natural Science Inda Immega 713-661-3494 [email protected] D3NeoGeos Cecelia Baum 713-268-5238 [email protected] S

Rachael Czechowskyj 713-609-4406 [email protected] Publications Bill Rizer 281-392-0613 [email protected] D1Nominations Linda Sternbach 281-679-7333 [email protected] PNorth American Explorationists Steve Getz 713-871-2346 [email protected] VPNorthsiders Tony D'Agostino 832-237-400 [email protected] VP

David Tonner 713-516-6894 [email protected] VPOffice Ken Nemeth 713-689-7605 [email protected] PEPersonnel Placement Peter Welch 713-862-2287 [email protected] PEPublication Sales Tom Mather 281-556-9539 [email protected] EEShrimp Peel Lee Shelton 713-595-5116 [email protected] D1Skeet Shoot Tom McCarroll 713-353-4728 [email protected] D1Technofest Deborah Sacrey 713-468-3260 [email protected] D1Tennis Tournament Ross Davis 713-659-3131 [email protected] D1Vendor’s Corner Paul Babcock 713-859-0316 [email protected] TEWeb Site Manager Tarek Ghazi 713-432-4562 [email protected] PEWeb Master Lilly Hargrave 713-463-9476 [email protected] PE

HGS Office Manager Sandra Babcock 713-463-9476 [email protected]



From thePresidentKara Bennett

[email protected]

From

the President

Recently, the HGS completed an audit of our books. I am

pleased to be able to say that the HGS is fiscally sound. As a

501-c3 organization, we are classified as a non-profit, but it is still

a good idea to stay in the black, particularly in financial times

such as these. The good news is that this year we can expect a

substantial income from the proceeds of the joint meeting of

GCAGS/GSA, the Africa Conference, and the Mudstone

Conference (scheduled for February 2009). The bad news is that

the audit turned up a substantial number of unpaid accounts

receivable, most of which comes

from advertising in the Bulletin

which was not paid to us, and that

the Shrimp Peel, usually held in the

late fall, was cancelled because of

Hurricane Ike damage and use of the

racetrack facility as a staging ground

for incoming electrical service

vehicles. Another issue has been an

ongoing dispute with Schwab, by

whose counsel the HGS placed some

of our cash cushion in an investment

which was billed as a conservative,

safe vehicle, but turned out to be

much more risky than we were aware.

After a great deal of negotiation with them, we have decided to

settle with the recovery of about half of our loss on the investment.

On the whole, though, HGS is doing very well. We tend to run

in a cycle of about 3-4 years; when we host the AAPG annual

meeting, we earn a cash influx, and on years when we do not

have that meeting, we break even or sometimes run a bit into the

red. As a non-profit, that’s okay, as long as we are providing the

services we want to provide to our members. We do have a

substantial cash cushion, so that if the industry falters, we can

still continue our programs through the hard times. We are looking

into rescheduling the Shrimp Peel in the late spring, and the

conferences and continuing education courses we offer this year

should provide enough income to comfortably finish the year.

We are grateful to the companies that sponsor many of our

events. I was invited recently to accept a donation of over $5000

to the HGS Foundation from the TGS Charity Golf Tournament,

which will be used to provide undergraduate scholarships for

geology students. TGS/A2D has been a long-term sponsor and

donor to the Foundation, and we would like to thank them and

companies like them that provide ongoing funding for our

events and scholarship programs.

December brings us two talks and a party. Dr. Hans Nelson will

speak at the General Dinner about modern turbidites and mini-

basin pathways in the northern Gulf of Mexico and their use as

Miocene depositional analogs. At the

Engineering and Environmental

meeting, Richard Howe will be showing

some spectacular photos of the

Daisetta sinkhole. The International

Explorationists have organized a

holiday party December 15, with live

music and a prime rib buffet. That

sounds like a great way to finish the

year!

For anyone who missed it last month,

I will buy a drink ticket for use at any

HGS dinner or lunch event for the

person who comes closest without

going over in predicting the price of oil at the close of business

on March 31, 2009. Last day to enter will be December 31, 2008.

Email your picks to me at [email protected].

Do not forget the Public Comment period for input to the new

earth science 4th year high school science curriculum. This is our

opportunity to show the Texas State School Board that earth sci-

ence is an important part of the education of high school

students in our state. Only three public comments had been

received as of the November HGS board meeting! Since then, I

have sent my comments by email to [email protected]

(put “SCIENCE FEEDBACK” in the subject line). You can find

the proposed curriculum at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/

scienceTEKS.html. It’s easy, takes only a few minutes, and it is

very important for our kids, both for general education, and to

introduce them to the geosciences as a profession.

May you have a wonderful holiday season. �

HGS Finances are Sound

John Adamick (TGS and Chairman of HGS FoundationCommittee) and Kara Bennett accept donation from TGSCharity Golf Tournament.



It is an occasion of some note when civic leaders from earliercenturies can be credited with foresight

and vision in the service of their cities

by implementing and funding successful

projects. Successful projects can provide

tremendous benefits to citizens more than

100 years later. Among these are:

• Construction of the city walls that saved

Vienna from the Ottoman invasion in

1683.

• The late-1800s planning and develop-

ment of New York City’s huge water

system that brings fresh water from

mountain reservoirs to the city through

underground aqueducts.

• Baron Haussmann’s urban redesign of Paris between 1852 and

1870 that included wide, straight boulevards to cut through the

medieval street grid.

Construction of the Galveston Seawall is also noteworthy for

its enduring service to the city. The

Galveston Seawall may seem modest now,

but its construction is considered

an astonishing feat for that era, not to

mention for a city that was all but

destroyed by a hurricane.

On the night of September 13 and the

morning of September 14, 2008, Hurricane

Ike tore into southeast Texas. Galveston

Island and the Bolivar peninsula suffered

the brunt of the tempest when winds

exceeding 100 miles per hour and the

storm surge blasted ashore. The eye of

Hurricane Ike passed directly over

Galveston Island. The storm surge associated with the hurricane

was most powerful on the “dirty side” of the storm, that is, the

right side, or north side, in relation to track of the eye. Coastal

communities and low-lying barrier islands from Galveston

northward to the Louisiana border and beyond were devastated.

A full accounting of the damage in

these coastal communities from the

hurricane will not be known for

many months, but in some areas

90 percent of the structures were

damaged or lost. Galveston suffered

extensive damage from storm-driven

flood waters, but the city, protected

behind its seawall survived and

has begun to recover. The lives that

sheltered there were spared.

The storm surge at Galveston was

fortunately less than the 18 to 22 feet

that was forecasted. Hurricane Ike’s

10 to 12 foot storm surge from the

Gulf of Mexico was largely blocked

by the 17-foot high seawall. To many,

the seawall may be an ugly concrete

monstrosity, but it worked. The seawall

From theEditor

From

the Editor

Homage to a Seawall

The Galveston Seawall may

seem modest now, but its

construction is considered

an astonishing feat for that

era, not to mention for a city

that was all but destroyed

by a hurricane.

Michael Forlenza, [email protected]

From the Editor continued on page 9Construction of the Galveston Seawall



From the Editor continued from page 7 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From

the Editor

performed as promised and protected the city from the full

fury of the Gulf. The foresight of Galveston’s early civic leaders

paid off.

When Galveston was founded in 1839, the natural topography of

the island included very little land with an elevation higher than

five feet above sea level. In hindsight, the establishment of a city

in such a vulnerable position seems unwise. In the following

years, the island endured several strong storms including the hur-

ricane of 1886. Still, Galveston grew and by the late 1800s, was the

largest city in Texas and the commercial engine of the region,

dubbed the “Wall Street of the South.”

The city’s luck changed in September 1900 when the Great

Galveston Hurricane roared out of the Gulf of Mexico. The storm

surge submerged the island and claimed 6,000 to 8,000 lives, still

the greatest natural disaster in United States history. The city

leaders resolved to stay and restore the city to prominence, but

protection was needed to prevent a future cataclysm and to give

the business owners and residents the

confidence to rebuild.

Galveston formed the Deep Water

Committee to oversee the task of

protecting the city and appointed

three engineers to develop a plan.

These engineers were Henry M.

Robert, retired from the Army Corps

of Engineers; H.C. Ripley, formerly

with the Army Corps of Engineers;

and Alfred Noble from Chicago.

Interestingly, while Henry M. Robert

is honored in Galveston for his work

with the Deep Water Committee, he

is more widely known for developing

Robert’s Rules of Order. After attend-

ing an unruly church meeting in Massachusetts in 1877, Mr.

Robert took on the duty of authoring and self-publishing a set of

procedural rules to maintain order during meetings. Henry M.

Robert was featured in an episode of Dr. John Lienhard’s Engines

of Our Ingenuity on Houston public radio [http://www.uh.edu/

engines/epi1099.htm].

The engineers devised a plan for the coastal protection of

Galveston that featured a 17-foot tall reinforced concrete seawall

and raising the entire elevation of the island behind the seawall.

The seawall design involved placing a foundation in an excava-

tion three feet deep and 16 feet wide. Into this space, pine pilings

were driven into the sand to a depth of 40 to 50 feet. Protection

for the pine pilings was provided by planking driven to a depth of

24 feet. On top of this foundation, forms were placed for the con-

struction of the concrete seawall. These forms were 15 feet thick

at the base, five feet wide at the top, and 17 feet high. The Gulf

side of the concrete sections were constructed with a concave face

to allow the force of the waves striking the seawall to be deflected

upwards and to dissipate. Large rip-rap blocks of Texas granite,

were placed at the base of the seawall, on the beach, to help break

up the force of the wave action and to protect the foundation

from being undercut.

Raising the grade of the area of the island behind the seawall was

a monumental task that involved trucking, dredging, and placing

a ten foot or more layer of fill. Every part of the infrastructure of

the city had to be raised. Roads, sidewalks, water lines, and sewer

lines had to be replaced. Any structure that survived the storm

had to be jacked up to the new ground level.

The design also called for the fill behind the seawall to slope

upward for a distance of 200 feet to a point where it was eventually

Construction of the Galveston Seawall. Granite rip-rap is visible on theseaward side of the wall.

From the Editor continued on page 11

Drawing by M. Forlenza

Conceptual design of seawall.



From the Editor continued from page 9 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From

the Editor

four to five feet

higher than the top

of the seawall. This

slope was intended

to further break the

action of any water

that over topped

the wall. The grade

on the northern

part of the raised

island was con-

structed with a

gentle northward

slope to allow

storm water that

topped the seawall to drain into Galveston Bay.

As with many construction projects, the finished product varied

somewhat from the design. The upward slope of the fill behind

the seawall actually extends only about 100 feet and tops out at an

elevation somewhat less than the full planned height. Also, the

height of seawall is closer to 15 to16 feet due to confusion

between whether to the top of the wall should be positioned rela-

tive to mean sea level or to mean low tide.

Work on the original segment of the seawall began in October

1902 and was completed in July 1904 for a total cost $1.6 million.

Several subsequent extensions of the seawall were constructed

between 1905 and 1961 bringing the total length to more than

ten miles.

Galveston never fully recovered from the 1900 hurricane.

Following the devastating storm, the center of the region’s

population growth and the seat of financial power retreated

from the coast to the Houston area. Construction and

expansion of the ship channel in 1914 secured Houston’s

place as the principal port and center of commerce in

southeast Texas. Galveston clung to a lower status as a his-

torical interesting town and a seaside resort.

But the seawall gave citizens confidence to restore the city

and build homes and businesses. The Galveston Seawall was

tested during ten hurricanes between 1909 and 1983. Some

accounts report that the 1915 hurricane was more powerful

Automobiles, buggies, and pedestrians circa 1910.

Completed portion; Fort Crockett extension (1905) From the Editor continued on page 13



From the Editor continued from page 11 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From

the Editor

than the 1900 hurricane. Yet, in testament to the faith put into the

seawall, only eight lives were lost in the 1915 hurricane.

Reporting in the aftermath of the 1983 Hurricane Alicia, the

Army Corps of Engineers estimated that $100 million in damage

was avoided because of the seawall.

The seawall itself sustained damage from Hurricane Ike when

areas of the foundation were badly eroded. In October 2008, Jerry

Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office,

announced an emergency beach renourishment project to pro-

tect the Galveston Seawall. “This emergency project will protect

the city's greatest asset,” Patterson said. “The Texas General Land

Office is going to save what saved Galveston.” The emergency

project is expected to cost at least $6 million.

Many coastal experts and researchers of beach processes say that

barrier islands are not a suitable place for extensive development

because of the disruption of the natural movement of sand. In a

natural state, sand is constantly redistributed on a barrier island

by currents, long-shore drift, and storm overwash. This move-

ment allows the barrier island to be maintained in a state of flux.

Permanent structures and hardened beach defenses disrupt this

sand movement and will ultimately fail experts say, often hasten-

ing erosion and environmental deterioration.

The concrete seawall is not a very attractive feature and considered by

many experts to be a crude approach to coastal management. But

when the objective is to protect Galveston from violent storms, the

seawall is crude, but effective. �

Letter to the Editor

I read with interest the article in the

November Bulletin decrying the influ-

ence of politics in science. I think

everyone in HGS supports scientific

“objectivity,” but after tracking down the

main references cited it seems clear to

me that they are even guiltier of mixing

the two than the outgoing administra-

tion. The Waxman diatribe is full of

insults, mis-characterizations, guilt by

association, prejudicial attribution of

motives and sneering denigration of

industry scientists who make up most of

the membership of HGS. Here is the sole

Waxman report on Oil and Gas:

“…Administration has changed scientif-

ic data or suppressed scientific

information to favor an oil and gas prac-

tice called ‘hydraulic fracturing.’ The

leading provider of hydraulic fracturing

is the energy company Halliburton, pre-

viously led by Vice President Cheney”

(page 24). In other words, they uncon-

scionably asked somebody who actually

knows something about fracing for

comments. And because the unholy

Halliburton does fracing, the practice

must perforce be an evil that needs to be

stamped out.

The 2005 book The Republican War on

Science is even worse. The author of this

left-wing screed, Chris Mooney, is not a

scientist but a Washington journalist for

“Seed” magazine, not exactly a peer

reviewed journal, which specializes in

political attacks on those who disagree

with the party line of the far left. The

book is full of insinuations that any sci-

entist working for industry must be an

evil accomplice of the “far right,” nefari-

ously colluding to destroy the health and

safety of innocent American families.

Here is Mooney: “During its rise,

the…conservative movement has relied

heavily on two key constituencies with

an overriding interest in the outcomes of

scientific research in certain areas:

industry and the religious Right.

Companies subject to government regu-

lation regularly invoke ‘science’ to thwart

federal controls and protect the bottom

line” (page 5). Outside of Hollywood,

since when did American industrial sci-

entists become so automatically

untrustworthy and contemptible? And I

actually think attention to the bottom

line is a fiduciary responsibility and not

a character defect. These zealots are

arguing fringe group policy opinion and

camouflaging it by calling it “science.”

Science thrives on competitive discourse;

listen to any two good geologists on an

outcrop. The scientific way to advance

an idea is to convince, not to muzzle

your opponents or question their

motives. I have personally never found

the argument, “Shut up, I’m a govern-

ment scientist,” very persuasive. And as a

recovering academic myself, I’m well

aware of the appalling anti-industry

mindset that passes for objectivity on

many of our best campuses until

research support is needed. The laudable

HGS objective of promoting advance-

ment in the geosciences and supporting

the teaching of geosciences does not

include systematic trashing of either the

right or the left; let’s leave politics out of

it entirely.

David J. Hall, Ph.D.

15 Twelve Pines Court

The Woodlands, TX 77381

Letter to th

e EditorLetter to the

Editor



Pictures from Galveston—November 2008After Hurricane Ike

Alison Henning

Washout and detour of County Road 257 west of San Luis Pass on Follet’s Island.

House at the surf line on Pirate’s Beach on Galveston Island that was formerly located approximately 100 feet from the shoreline. Note the bottomof the painted areas on the piers that indicates the former level of the top of the driveway and ground surface. The broken piers on the right are allthat remains of another house which was significantly farther seaward than its neighbors. The exposed remains of a geotube are visible in the surf.

View looking west from Pirate’s Beach subdivision on Galveston Island. Note the concrete driveways attached to the piers of the houses formerly atground level. Several feet of sand were eroded away during Hurricane Ike. The concrete structure in the foreground is the retaining wall for thewalkway that used to lead to the beach.




HGS General Dinner Meeting

Monday, December 8, 2008Westchase Hilton • 9999 WestheimerSocial Hour 5:30–6:30 p.m.Dinner 6:30–7:30 p.m.

Cost: $28 Preregistered members; $35 non-members & walk-ups

To guarantee a seat, you must pre-register on the HGS website and pre-paywith a credit card. Pre-registration without payment will not be accepted. You may still walk up and pay at the door, if extra seats are available.

Several analogs of known ancient depositional patterns are

observed in modern turbidite systems

of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Bryant Canyon/Fan feeds through a

chain of mini-basins (2 to 15 kilometers

in diameter) that exhibit seismic facies of:

1) mass-transport deposit (MTD)

wedges of chaotic mud and sheets of

chaotic mud and sand, 2) incised, pond-

ed, and perched turbidites, and 3) bypass

channelized facies. The mini-basin pathway of Bryant Canyon,

which traps mud, has resulted in non-bifurcated aggrading chan-

nels that extend 200 kilometers across the

sand-rich Bryant Fan to feed single distal

depositional lobes which are approxi-

mately 30 kilometers in length. The

Bryant mini-basin and fan patterns pro-

vide analogs for the Miocene systems in

the Mississippi Canyon area. In contrast,

the mud-rich Mississippi Delta and its

associated 20-kilometer-wide gullied

canyon sediment source have resulted in multiple mid-fan chan-

nel bifurcations and outer fan chan-

nel splays in 200-kilometer-long

lobes of the mud-rich Mississippi

Fan.

Extensive MTDs, ranging in size

from 400-kilometer-long debris

sheets to 10-centimeter thick MTD

beds, were deposited during lower-

ing and rising sea level episodes and

are intermixed with the channel and

lobe turbidite deposits. Similar to

Bryant Canyon and Mississippi Fan,

the intermixing of turbidites and

extensive MTDs is found in some

subsurface turbidite systems of the

GOM margin. The Rio Grande Fan

is a contrasting braided fan analog

for some Paleogene subsurface

The Bryant mini-basin and

fan patterns provide analogs

for the Miocene systems in the

Mississippi Canyon area.

C. Hans NelsonCSIC University of Granada and Department of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences, University of Texas at ArlingtonJohn E. DamuthDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences,University of Texas at ArlingtonHilary Clement OlsonInstitute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences,University of Texas at AustinDavid C. TwichellU. S Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA Carlota EscutiaCSIC, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universityof Granada, Spain

Modern Turbidite System Depositional Patterns asAnalogs for Subsurface Petroleum Plays in the Northern

Gulf of Mexico

HGS General Dinner continued on page 21Seafloor relief map by Lui and Bryant

HGS Gen

eral D

inne

r Meeting




petroleum plays in the northwestern GOM. Multiple canyons

provide coarse-grained sediment from adjacent mountain

sources to deposit the fan on a continental-slope plateau. The

seismic facies relatively steep fan gradient (1:250) and incised

channels, rather than leveed channels, throughout the surface

and subsurface show that the Rio Grande Fan is a braided sand-

rich fan. �

Biographical SketchDR. HANS NELSON has a BA from

Carleton College, an MS from the

University of Minnesota, and a PhD

from Oregon State University in geo-

logical oceanography. He spent 32 years

studying continental margins as a

Research Marine Geologist for the U. S.

Geological Survey. His studies of

resource, geologic hazards, and envi-

ronmental assessment have focused mainly on turbidite systems

and have resulted in nearly 200 refereed books, articles, and tech-

nical reports and approximately 160 abstracts. He has served as

Chief Scientist for 30 scientific expeditions, mainly studying in

Alaskan and Pacific NW seas, but also in the Atlantic, Gulf of

Mexico, Mediterranean, and deep lakes such as Crater Lake,

Oregon, and Lake Baikal, Russia. Dr. Nelson also has been a

Visiting Professor for Stanford University, and the universities of

Barcelona, Utrecht, Brest, Aberdeen, and Granada in Europe. He

has given short courses in turbidite systems around the globe for

professional scientific societies, universities, and petroleum com-

panies. Dr. Nelson’s current research interests as Principle

Investigator focus on turbidite paleoseismology of the Cascadia

subduction zone and San Andreas fault system, Gulf of Mexico

intraslope basin and abyssal basin turbidite systems (GIB

Project), and Antarctic turbidite systems. He also is a consultant

for the Turbidite Research Group at the University of Leeds in

England and for several petroleum companies.

HGS Gen

eral D

inne

r MeetingHGS General Dinner continued from page 18 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mini-basin depositional patterns, mass transport deposits

Northern Gulf of Mexico submarine fansBryant – Sand-rich, fed by canyon with mini-basins that trap muds;single sinous channel and lobe; limited MTD’s & splaysRio Grande – Sand-rich from mountain sources: multiple canyons &braided channels; lacks lobes & MTD’sMississippi – Mud-rich, gullied canyon, meandering channels; multiplesplays & lobes; half turbites and half MTD’s

Seismic Line across Beaumont Basin along the Bryant Canyon Pathway



Sinkholes are geological hazards associated with salt domes

along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. These features are

the surface expression of collapse structures that originate from

solution cavities within the cap rock

and/or the stock of salt domes. A sink-

hole’s manifestation may be entirely nat-

ural or can be exacerbated or induced by

anthropogenic activity.

The Daisetta sinkhole, which collapsed

on May 7, 2008, is located along the northwest flank of the Hull

salt dome within a band of densely spaced petroleum wells that

ring the dome. The presence of at least four other previously

existing sinkholes within this band of active and abandoned wells

suggests that their occurrence, like that of the Daisetta sinkhole,

may be a result of oilfield operations begun in the early 1920s.

Initial collapse of the ground surface at the

sinkhole was likely a vertical displacement of

the substrate by an upwardly migrating cavi-

ty. Subsequent widening of the hole at

ground level appears to be a result of mass

wasting processes such as earth fall, topple,

and slumping. Away from the edge of the

hole are open cracks bounding slump blocks and minor cracks within

the blocks. These features suggest lateral spreading of the adjacent sedi-

ment mass into the hole.

Richard G. Howe,Vice-PresidentTerrain Solutions, Inc.

HGS Environmental & EngineeringDinner Meeting

Tuesday, December 16, 2008Black Lab Pub, Churchill Room • 4100 Montrose Blvd.

Social 5:30 p.m., Dinner 6:30 p.m.

Cost: $25 Preregistered members; $30 non-members & walk-ups

The HGS prefers that you make your reservations on-line through theHGS website at www.hgs.org. If you have no Internet access, you can e-mail [email protected], or call the office at 713-463-9476 (includeyour name, e-mail address, meeting you are attending, phone number andmembership ID#).

A Pictorial Look at the Daisetta Sinkhole,Northeast Liberty County, Texas

HGS Env

ironm

ental &

Eng

ineerin

g Dinne

r Meeting

The view of this low-oblique aerial photo is to the southeast with Daisetta High School visible at the upper right edge of the photo. State Highway770 is visible next to the sinkhole and runs north and south. Hull swamp is below and left of the sinkhole. The photo was taken on May 09, 2008 with a hi-resolution (10.3 megapixels), digital SLR.

HGS Environmental & Engineering Dinner continued on page 25

The photo presentation will provide a preview of the HGS/AEG Daisetta

Sinkhole seminar and field trip which is scheduled for January 17, 2009.See page 40 for more information.



With an average diameter of approximately 620 feet, the Daisetta

sinkhole is among the largest sinkholes associated with Gulf

Coast salt domes. Whereas the depth from the rim of the sinkhole

to the bottom of the water standing in it is about 75 to 80 feet, the

actual depth to the bottom of the collapse column is unknown

but could be more than 1,000 feet.

Several groups have been investigating the sinkhole from different

perspectives using a variety of field instrumentation and methods.

The United States Geological Survey performed a horizontal

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of the walls of the

collapse last May in an attempt to provide a 3-D image of the

sinkhole. Additionally, the USGS has placed a horizontal

extensometer at the eastern edge of the sinkhole to measure rates

of lateral spreading of the adjacent soil/sediment mass into the

hole. The University of Texas at Dallas has performed two sets of

horizontal LIDAR scans with an intervening time of several

months that will be used to attempt to show changes in hole

morphology through 3-D imagery. The Texas Spatial Reference

Center at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi has placed at

least two benchmarks in Daisetta with one located near the eastern

edge of the sinkhole. The purpose of the benchmarks being the

detection of elevation changes across the dome. Robert Traylor

with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been

studying subsurface information to determine the collapse

mechanism and believes the sinkhole is a result of liquefaction at

depth rather than ceiling collapse. The Center for GeoInformatics

at Lousiana State University is

monitoring ground movements

at the nearby Hull-Daisetta High

School using GPS technology.

The Texas Bureau of Economic

Geo log y h a s conduc t ed a

micro-gravity study to identify

gravity anomalies across the Hull

salt dome.

Dr. Carl Norman, Professor

Emeritus of the University of

Ho u s t o n D e p a r tm e n t o f

Geosciences, and Richard G. Howe,

of Terrain Solutions, Inc. have

monitored elevation changes

along Highway 770, approximately

100 feet east of the sinkhole, in

an attempt to see if the sinkhole

may be expanding in the subsurface

and thus posing a threat to highway

traffic and nearby buildings.

Additionally, they have been

mapp ing the s inkho l e and

surrounding ground deformation with a Total Station. During

their numerous visits to the sinkhole since its appearance, Mr.

Howe has made an extensive photographic survey of the sinkhole

in an effort to document changes in the sinkhole and adjacent

ground surface. The spectacular nature of the sinkhole and some of

the changes that have occurred since its inception will be shown

through aerial and ground photography. �

Biographical Sketch For more than 32 years, Richard G. Howe

has practiced geology in various fields

of application which include petroleum

geology, engineering geology, environmental

geology, and hydrogeology. Over the years,

Mr. Howe has followed the water-related

issues that impact the Houston Metropolitan

Area and has been an advocate for sound

water resource management. In the course

of his professional work, he has conducted studies of many of the

surface faults that cross the upper Gulf Coast which have

occurred as a result of geologic process that can cause extensive

damage to buildings and other structures.

He graduated from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas with a

BS in geology and received his MS in geoscience from Texas A&M

University in College Station, Texas where much of his course

HGS Environmental & Engineering Dinner continued from page 23 ________________________________________________________________________________

HGS Env

ironm

ental &

Eng

ineerin

g Dinne

r Meeting

This photo is looking to the south-southeast across the crown, main scarp, and head of a slump block locat-ed along the southeast quadrant of the sinkhole. Dr. Carl Norman is sitting on the crown of the slump withhis legs dangling across the block's main scarp and his feet hanging a few inches above the head of theslump.

HGS Environmental & Engineering Dinner continued on page 27



work concerned engineering geology, hydrogeology, and environ-

mental geology.

Mr. Howe is Vice-President of Terrain Solutions, Inc., an environ-

mental and geological services firm. He is a Licensed Professional

Geoscientist in Texas (No. 27) and is a Certified Professional

Geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists

(No. 5191). Mr. Howe is a Past-President of the Engineering,

Science, and Technology Council of Houston (ECH) and is a

Past-President of the Science Engineering Fair of Houston. Mr.

Howe is a long-time member of the Houston Geological Society

(HGS), He serves on the Board of Directors for the Society and is

on the Society’s Environmental and Engineering Geology

Committee and Field Trip Committee. He represents HGS to

ECH as one of its Councilors. Additionally, Mr. Howe is on the

Advisory Committee for the Earth & Space Sciences Department

at Lamar University and the Advisory Committee for the

Geosciences program at the University of Houston Downtown.

He is a member of the Texas Association of Professional

Geologists, Association of Engineering and Environmental

Geologists, the Environmental Division of the American

Association of Petroleum Geologists Environmental Division,

and the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM). Mr. Howe

serves as President of Charterwood Municipal Utility District

where he has been a director on its board for more than 20 years.

HGS Environmental & Engineering Dinner continued from page 25 ________________________________________________________________________________

HGS Env

ironm

ental &

Eng

ineerin

g Dinne

r Meeting

View southeast across the southern portion of the Daisetta sinkhole.


Paul Strunk and Patrick Nye will present an overview of the wind energy business

and a discussion of the company’s current wind farm projects in North America.

Some of the topics to be covered will include wind measurement, electricity transmis-

sion, birds and permitting, local issues and property rights, construction and develop-

ment, and future challenges.

Biographical SketchesPAUL STRUNK, President of American Shoreline, Inc., earned an MS in geology from

Kansas State University. He has been actively involved in oil and gas exploration for

over 40 years and has held numerous offices in both the Corpus Christi Geological

Society and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, having served as presi-

dent of both organizations. Mr. Strunk has also served as treasurer of the American

Association of Petroleum Geologists and as

chairman of the AAPG Trustee Associates.

He is an active member of SIPES and has

served as a past director.

PATRICK NYE, Vice President of American

Shoreline, Inc., has more than 27 years experience in oil and gas exploration and develop-

ment on nearly every major geological producing trend throughout South Texas. He holds

a BS in zoology from Texas Tech University. He earned a BS degree in geology from Texas

A&I University in

K i n g s v i l l e , n ow

known as Texas A&M

Kingsville. Mr. Nye

has served as chair-

man on numerous

commi t t e e s w i th

the Corpus Christi

Geological Society and has served on the board as treasurer, vice

president, president-elect, councilor, and president. He is a mem-

ber of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, South

Texas Geological Society, and the Coastal Bend Geophysical

Society. Mr. Nye currently serves as chairman of the Corpus

Christi SIPES chapter.

SIPES Luncheon MeetingWind Energy—It’s up in the Air

Paul Strunk and Patrick NyeAmerican Shoreline, Inc., Corpus Christi, Texas

SIPE

S Lun

cheo

n Meeting

Thursday, December 18, 2008Houston Petroleum Club in the Discovery Room, 800 Bell St. (down-town Houston). Social 11:15 AM, Luncheon 11:45 AM

Reservations Required: Make reservations by telephone (713-651-1639), fax (713-951-9659), website (www.sipes-houston.org), ore-mail [email protected] to B. K. Starbuck-Buongiorno by 12:00 noonon Tuesday preceding the meeting. You can now sign up for the meet-ing online at www.sipes-houston.org, but payment is still required byregular mail or at the door.

Cost: $30 for SIPES Members and Chapter Affiliates who register by12:00 Noon Tuesday; $35 for new registrations at the door. The pricefor guests, non-members and walk-ins is $35. No-shows will be billed.



HGS Environmental &Engineering Dinner Meeting “A Pictorial Look at the Daisetta Sinkhole,

Liberty County, Texas” Richard G. Howe., Page 23

HGS Holiday PartyHosted by the International

Explorationists Sullivan’s Steakhouse

Page 51

GSH Technical Luncheon “Seismic Attributes for Stratigraphic Feature

Characterization,” Satinder Chopra, Omni Palace

HGS General DinnerMeeting

“Modern Turbidite System DepositionalPatterns as Analogues for Subsurface

Petroleum Plays in the Northern Gulf ofMexico,” C. Hans Nelson, Westchase

Hilton, Page 18

S u n d a y M o n d a y T u e s d a y

December 2008W e d n e s d a y

21

7

14

3

10

15

23

302928

17

[email protected] 24-hour wellsite service hotline: 713-328-2121

NO ONE HAS MORE WAYS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR RESERVOIR.

8 9

22 24

30

31

16

21

NOWyou can make

your reservations on-line at

www.hgs.org

Gulf Coast Section of SEPM- 28th Bob F. PerkinsResearch Conference

Houston, TexasPage 50


Members Pre-registered Prices:General Dinner Meeting . . . . . . . . .$28Nonmembers walk-ups. . . . . . . . . . . $35Env. & Eng. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$25Luncheon Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . .$30Nonmembers walk-ups. . . . . . . . . . . $35International Explorationists . . . . . .$28North American Expl. . . . . . . . . . . .$28Emerging Technology . . . . . . . . . . . .$25

T h u r s d a y

4 5 6

12

19

GEOEVENTS

27

S a t u r d a yF r i d a y

1311

Collarini Energy Staffing Inc.Full–Time and Temporary Exploration and Production Personnel

Geoscience � Facilities � Drilling � Production � Reservoir Engineers � Landmen � ManagementProcurement � Information Technology � Health and Safety � Accounting � Administrative Support

11111 Richmond Avenue, Suite 126 www. collarini.com 4200 South I-10 Service Road, Suite 230Houston, Texas 77082 Metairie, Louisiana 70001Phone (832) 251-0553 Phone (504) 887-7127Fax (832) 251-0157 Connecting the Industry ’s Exper ts Fax (504) 887-7162

Upcoming GeoEventsJanuary 1 – 7HGS Trans-Pecos Field Trip Page 43

Wednesday, January 7SIPES Luncheon – Joint Meetingwith SPEE The New SEC GuidelinesDr. John Lee, SEC

Saturday, January 17HGS/AEG Daisetta Sinkhole Seminarand Field Trip Page 40

January 27-29Texas Ground Water AssociationAnnual Convention and Trade ShowGalveston, Texas

February 5 – 62009 NAPE Expo Houston, Texas

February 9 – 13AAPG 6th Annual Winter EducationConferenceNorris Conference Center, HoustonTexas

February 19SIPES LuncheonCasing Drilling Reduces FormationDamage, Enhances ProductionBob Tessari, Turnkey E&P, Inc.

March 29 - April 2, 200922nd Annual Symposium on theApplication of Geophysics toEngineering and EnvironmentalProblems (SAGEEP 2009)www.eegs.orgFort Worth, Texas.

Saturday, April 4 HGS Guest NightDowntown Aquarium[Note the earlier date and the newvenue]

2018

25 26

HGA/HPAC HolidayLuncheon

Pine Forest Country Club

Page 56

SIPES Luncheon “Wind Energy – It’s Up in the Air,” Paul

Strunk and Patrick Nye, Petroleum Club

Page 28

Reservations:The HGS prefers that you make your reservations on-line through the HGS website atwww.hgs.org. If you have no Internet access, you can e-mail [email protected], or call theoffice at 713-463-9476. Reservations for HGS meetings must be made or cancelled by thedate shown on the HGS Website calendar, normally that is 24 hours before hand or on thelast business day before the event. If you make your reservation on the Website or by email,an email confirmation will be sent to you. If you do not receive a confirmation, check withthe [email protected]. Once the meals are ordered and name tags and lists are prepared, nomore reservations can be added even if they are sent. No shows will be billed.



Typing the word “geology” into the Google Internet search

engine will return more than 25 million results. Typing

“geology” into the Yahoo search engine will return more than 87

million results. At the top of both of these lists is the link to

Geology.com.

Geology.com is a lively website with a broad approach to the

earth sciences and related subjects and presents material drawn

from many sources. The Geology.com homepage has a clean,

straightforward, newspaper-type layout. A header bar allows

access to areas of the website such as News, Articles, Careers, and

World Maps. The body of the homepage is arranged in four

columns with lists on the left and right and introductions to arti-

cles in the middle two columns. Each article introduction has a

title, a brief summary, and thumbnail photograph. Larger photo-

graphs of featured articles are located at the top of the columns.

The list of articles provided on the homepage is quite extensive

with more than 45 selections displayed.

The articles are the heart of Geology.com. These articles cover a

wide range of geological topics and timely subjects including

such items as: Hurricane Ike damage photographs, the Phoenix

Mars Lander, the geology of bottled water, blood diamonds, and

the Marcellus shale. The articles are accompanied by high-quality

illustrations, graphics, and photographs. The interesting article

on East African rifts has several excellent maps and beautiful

photographs [http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtml].

The homepage is dense with hundreds links in the lists that con-

nect to the extensive resources throughout Geology.com. The

most popular links are listed on the left and the constantly-

updated list of geology items in the news is on the right. The

well-organized access to a wide selection US and World maps and

satellite images on the website is useful.

The Careers page on Geology.com does not list job openings but

provides articles on the job market for geologists and links to

employers that typically hire geoscientists. The links are grouped

into several categories including: headhunters, oil and gas com-

panies, oil field services companies, environmental/engineering

companies, government agencies, mineral companies, and aca-

demic institutions. The online Geology.com store sells the

Geo

logic W

ebsite of the MonthGeology.com

www.geology.comMichael Forlenza, PG

Geologic Website of the Month continued on page 35


Geologic Website of the Month continued from page 33 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

popular Roadside Geology books, other earth science texts, and

some supplies for field geologists such as waterproof notebooks

and pens.

Geology.com is published by Dr. Hobart King. Dr. King holds a

BS in geology from California University of Pennsylvania and an

MS and PhD in geology from West Virginia University and is a

licensed professional geologist. He worked as a geologist at the

West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey from 1980 until

1994 where he held positions as a coal geologist, economic geolo-

gist, and head of the Economic Minerals and Geologic Hazard

Section. In 1994, he joined the faculty of Mansfield University

and taught the school’s first online course. He was the director of

Mansfield University's Center for Effective Teaching and is the

author of Hazard City: Assignments in Applied Geology, a CD that

accompanies geology textbooks published by Prentice Hall.

According to Dr. King, the content for the articles on

Geology.com comes from three sources in approximately equal

proportions: guest authors, republication of public domain con-

tent, and articles that he writes himself. “Most of the content on

the site is written for the non-geologist and entry-level geology

student,” said Dr. King. “The goal is to provide content that they

will find interesting and hopefully useful, presented at a level that

they will understand.”

Geology.com, which has thousands of visitors each day, tries to

provide content that is of interest to both the layman and the

professional. “I have two hopes,” said Dr. King. “First, I hope that

many people who are not geologists arrive at the site and find

something that deepens their interest in the subject. Second, I

hope that the site offers some resources that geologists use regu-

larly. Many practicing geologists have subscribed to our daily

news email.”

Dr. King acquired the Geology.com domain in an auction in

2005, which, at that time, was a domain with about six pages of

content. He retired from Mansfield University in 2008 to work

full time on Geology.com. “The main reason that I started

Geology.com is that I enjoy learning about geology and sharing

that information with other people,” said Dr. King.

The content of the website is continually adjusted based on the

popularity of the articles. The continuous maintenance and

updating of the website represents a significant level of effort by

the limited staff at Geology.com. In addition to Dr. King, the

website has a full-time webmaster and cartographer, and a half-

time artist and researcher.

Geology.com is a commercial website supported by advertising.

However, the advertisements themselves are unobtrusive. On the

homepage there are no advertisements. Most of the linked pages

have several small sponsored areas along the side or at the bot-

tom. The entire website is thankfully free of banner ads, pop-up

ads, or flashing and dancing advertisements.

While Geology.com will not be a primary source or a last stop for

technical information for professional geoscientists, there is plenty

of interesting information to browse through. The website is well

organized with straightforward navigation. One of most useful

features of Geology.com is being able to find links to related earth

science websites and materials all in one place. For example, in

addition to the geologic dictionary on the website, Geology.com

provides links to outside sources for 17 geological dictionaries.

Go ahead, type “geology” into your browser and click away. �

Geo

logic W

ebsite of the Month




Texas students need your help! After a long hiatus, earth sci-

ence may soon be taught again in Texas public schools. A

new high school course called Earth and Space Science (ESS) is

currently being developed by the Texas Education Agency. A

draft of the new course curriculum is available for public review

on their website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/

scienceTEKS.html.

We need you to share your

comments on the new curricu-

lum by email, fax, or regular

mail according to the instructions on the website. Other science

courses included in this draft curriculum have received hundreds

of public comments, but the ESS course has received only five!

Show your support for the teaching of earth science by sending

your comments to the Texas Education Agency.

Houston Geological Society members were instrumental in lob-

bying the state for the return of earth science to the Texas public

schools, so let’s see these efforts through to implementation. The

study and practice of earth science is vital to the Texas economy

and to our livelihoods, so

please share your enthusiasm

for earth science with the Texas

Education Agency. For more

information, please contact Alison Henning at

[email protected]. �

Help Pu

t Earth Scien

ce Back into Texas Schools!Attention Geoscientists!

Help Put Earth Science Back into Texas Public Schools!

Nine volunteers and friends of the Houston Geological

Society worked Saturday, November 1, 2008 at the

Montgomery County Food Bank in Conroe, Texas. They sorted

and packed 4,000 pounds of canned and dry goods for future dis-

tribution to charities, food kitchens, and food pantries. The

Montgomery County Food Bank distributes over one million

pounds of goods each year, of which 60 percent goes to families

with dependent children.

Pictured are Jim Noser, Hans and Joyce Blixt, Maynard Smith,

Debbie Steele, Gregg Evans, Bob Choate, and Tarek Ghazi.

Thanks to Paul Babcock, another hard-working volunteer, for

organizing the event and taking the photos.

Upcoming Community Outreach events include the Christmas

Bike Build at Reliant Center (with Elves and Moore) and Tree

Planting Day in January. Specific dates for both will be

announced shortly. � Fall Community Outreach

Fall Community Outreach


AS GO O D AS OU R WO R DTAP INTO OUR RESERVOIR

EXPERIENCE For over a half-century Dawson has helped its clients succeed. In bothseismic acquisition and processing, we deliver high quality data that gets clear-cut results.From field equipment to software, we put the latest technologies into the hands of seasonedprofessionals who have geophysical knowledge specific to all major U.S. basins. Decades ofacquiring data and imaging objectives to provide total subsurface picture. That's what ourexperience gives you.practice every day.

www.dawson3d.com508 West Wall, Suite 800

Midland, Texas 79701432-684-3000

800-D-DAWSON

Houston, Texas 713-917-6772

Denver, Colorado 303-409-7787

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 405-848-7512

Michigan 248-446-9533

P l a n n i n g • D e s i g n • A c q u i s i t i o n • P r o c e s s i n g • R e s u l t s


Afantastic volcano cake with orange lava frosting, brown sugar

sand, and dry ice "smoke" stole the show at the Houston

Museum of Natural Science on October 11, 2008 and earned its

creator, the Cake Lady Bakery of Friendswood, a check for $1,000.

The cake contest, in which elaborate designs illustrated various fea-

tures of planet earth, was a highlight of the many lively events con-

ducted during a very successful 2008 Earth Science Week. There

were many smiles of amazement as children and adults marveled,

not just at the grand prize cake contest winner, but

also the other entries. The winner of the second

place prize of $500 was a rendition of Glacier Lake

in Alaska. The Glacier Lake cake, featuring sugar

polar bears and steam rising off of the blue Jell-O

frozen lake. The Glacier Lake cake was the creation

of Sweet Delight Wedding Cakes of Houston.

The Houston Geological Society was delighted to

join with the Geological Society of America and the

United Nations-chartered International Year of

Planet Earth (IYPE) organization to host these

Earth Science Week events. IYPE, truly international

in scope, currently has 74 member nations bringing

Earth Scien

ce Week 2008Scouts Select Smoking Volcano Cake

for First Place PrizeEarth Science Week Cake Contest

Ianthe Sarrazin, Ralph Baird, and Daniel Molina

Smoking Volcano Cake Earth Science Week 2008 continued on page 41


together a global spirit of progress and vigor within the geo-

sciences for today and tomorrow.

The goal of the cake contest was to excite young people, and of

course adults too, while teaching about the immense forces which

continue to shape our planet and affect our lives. Our master of

ceremonies for the cake contest was former NBC News corre-

spondent Dan Molina. Mr. Molina, speaking side by side with

geologist Janet Combes, told the crowd of Houstonians, who had

just been through Hurricane Ike, how important it was that geo-

scientists were studying the effects of this tragic storm so that we

can be better prepared the next time. Mr. Molina and Ms.

Combes even got those on hand to brightly cheer, “Geosciences!’

The Boy Scouts who were selected to be judges for the cake con-

test stood tall and strong as they went about their duties. The

organizers of the event were gratified by the delight of the chil-

dren as they dug into the cakes and gave the confections a “yum

yum!” endorsement. The cake contest created happiness for the

participants and caught the curious attention of passerbys.

We are glad to see that geologic organizations are using public

outreach and new ways to excite people, young and old, about

geology and their companion studies of math and basic sciences.

Hopefully, through these efforts, more students will enter into

studies of math and science and the general public will become

more aware of the contributions of scientists. We look forward to

hearing more cheers of “Geosciences!”

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our sponsors dur-

ing Earth Science Week. For the cake contest, we had the support

of New Dominion LLC of Tulsa, ETROA Resources of Covington,

Louisiana, Ralph Baird of Baird Petrophysical of Houston,

PetroDevelopment Partners LP of Houston and Beverly Hills,

California, and the Houston Geological Society. Thank you. �


Glacier Lake Cake

Earth Scien

ce Week 2008Earth Science Week 2008 continued from page 39 _________________________________________________________________________________________________

David Childers, ph: 281-872-5022, e-mail: [email protected] Northchase, Suite 1600, Houston, TX 77060


A clearer image www.pgs.com

Some species of shrew, like this Northern Short-tailed Shrew, emit calls out to the environmentand listen to the echo of those calls that return from objects in the environment. This form ofecholocation, also called biosonar, allows them to locate, range and identify objects. While someanimals use echolocation to pinpoint food, the shrew uses it to investigate its terrestrial habitat.

PGS develops and deploys the highest fidelity imaging and data processing tools to providea clearer image of the subsurface. The ability to honor true azimuth in 3D SRME and state-of-the-art signal processing capabilities, coupled with versatile velocity model-building workflowsand a com prehensive suite of pre-stack depth migration algorithms, deliver consistent results to reduce drilling risks and lower finding and development costs. Find out more about our unmatched turnaround time, data quality and image clarity by calling Frank Dumanoir at (281) 509-8354.

The Government Update provides information on rules, regula-

tions, policy, and meetings of interest to professional geoscientists.

If you would like the most up-to-date information, refer to the HGS

website to review the Wise Report. The Wise Report is posted as

needed, but not more often than once a week.

TBPG Meeting NotesThe Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists (TBPG) met on

September 5, 2008. The complete video of the meeting is available

at: http://www.texasadmin.com/cgi-bin/txgeo.cgi. The more

interesting portions of their agenda were:

Compliance and Enforcement Committee Report – The TBPG

is slowly investigating companies who are practicing geoscience

without a license. One of the lists they are investigating is the Texas

Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) licensed

Registered Corrective Action Specialists (RCASs). The general

opinion is that, if you are a RCAS, your company should be registered.

Oil and Gas Activities and Jurisdiction – The TBPG has had a

number of requests for from PGs and one (informal) from the

SEC regarding whether oil and gas records should be sealed by a

PG. Oil and gas geologists are exempt by law, but there have been

repeated questions about PGs sealing reports. If the documents

are used in-house, then no seal is required. The questions are in

regard to documents delivered to the Texas Railroad Commission

or documents used by the general public for such things as

reserve estimates. No decision has been made at this time. The

TBPG is considering establishing a public advisory committee to

help with this issue. Members of the oil and gas, and minerals

industries would be invited to participate, should this happen.

TBPG Sealing Requirements Guidance Document – At the

request of a number of Groundwater Management Districts,

the TBPG is developing a guidance document to help PGs

understand when a document needs to be sealed. This guidance

should be available in a few months.

Amending the Texas Professional Services Procurement Act –

The Texas Professional Services Procurement Act (1993),

Government Code Chapter 2254 Subchapter A specifies which

professionals and licenses are required for various contracts. PGs

are not on their list, so the TBPG is making a recommendation

for an amendment to the law to include PGs. This will be done

during the next legislative session in 2009.

AGI Government Affairs Monthly Review (September 2008)Congress Unable to Clean-up the Air Between States

The House of Representatives was unable to complete work on a

bill to revise the EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The rule,

issued in 2005, allows the EPA to deal with emissions from electric

utilities in 28 states and D.C. through a cap and trade system.

In July 2008, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C. told the

EPA it was wrong to use a cap-and-trade program to deal with air

pollutants, rather than forcing


Gov

ernm

ent Update

Government Update continued on page 45

Government UpdateHenry M. Wise, P.G. and Arlin Howles, P.G.

This HGS field trip is based on the recent, highly successful GSA

field trip to Trans-Pecos, Texas with the addition of a night in the

Davis Mountains and a visit to McDonald Observatory.

Tentative itinerary includes travel in 15-passenger vans from

Houston to Del Rio followed by a day of roadside geology from

Del Rio to the Davis Mountains and a night at the historic Prude

Ranch ("Star Party" at McDonald Observatory!). The third day

participants will examine the geology along the scenic route from

Ft. Davis to Marfa to Presidio to Lajitas to Terlingua. The next two

nights will be in Big Bend country examining the Buda, Boquillas

(Eagle Ford and Austin equivalent), Aguja, and Javelina

Formations in Big Bend National Park including the

Cenomanian-Turonian and Turonian-Coniacian stage bound-

aries. Other units that will be visited briefly include the Early

Cretaceous Santa Elena, and Del Rio Formations as well as

Tertiary igneous and sedimentary units and Paleozoic units in the

Marathon Basin and Davis Mountains.

Trip is limited to 24 participants maximum!

Cost: $596 per-person cost includes all transportation, all

lodging, three full breakfasts, two continental breakfasts, four

lunches, three dinners, field guide and all entry fees.

Participants will earn 30 professional development hours.

Planned departure is on January 1 (complimentary in-van

Alka-Seltzer) with a return on January 7.

Interested parties should contact Dee Ann Cooper at

[email protected] for more details.

Further details will be posted on the HGS webpage.

Start the New Year with a Field Trip to West Texas!



emission reductions. The court advised the EPA against revising

the program, saying, "No amount of tinkering with the rule or

revising of the explanations will transform CAIR, as written, into

an acceptable rule."

With no relevant legislation coming from Congress to resolve the

issue, an unusual alliance of the Bush administration, industry,

and environmental groups have asked a federal appeals court to

reconsider the circuit court’s decision. A petition (05-1244) was

filed on September 24, 2008 by the state of North Carolina and others.

House Concerned about Lack of Oversight in “Preventable”

Oil Spills

Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), chairman of the

Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation,

stated, “We cannot have oil spills all over our waterways. I'm

sorry, we can do better than that.” Cummings comments were in

reference to poor oversight of the shipping industry by the U.S.

Coast Guard, resulting in an oil spill near New Orleans in July.

The July spill resulted from an unlicensed tugboat operator

pulling a huge barge, who cut in front of an oil tanker.

The Coast Guard has the authority to tighten and check license

requirements, but has not taken steps to do so. Rear Admiral

James Watson, director of prevention policy, guaranteed that the

Coast Guard would publish a rulemaking notice by the end of

2009. Congress has pledged to boost funding if it would assist in

lowering the number of spills. The National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration, Office of Response and

Restoration, which is involved in cleanup efforts, has experienced

a 30 percent cut in funding since 2004, limiting its ability to act in

response to multiple spills.

Yucca Mountain Proposal Enters Review Phase

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced on

September 9, 2008 that it has deemed Department of Energy’s

(DOE) license application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca

Mountain “sufficiently complete.” This is the go-ahead for a full

technical review of the document. There is a three-year deadline

for the review process with a possible one-year extension. The

NRC warns that its ability to complete the review is contingent

on receiving the adequate funding – an extra $40 million in the

2009 budget year – from Congress. There is no guarantee that the

project will be approved.

The DOE predicts the Yucca Mountain repository could open

by 2020 at the earliest. The United States’ nuclear waste, which is

currently stored at 121 sites in 39 states around the country, would

Gov

ernm

ent Update


Government Update continued from page 43 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Day One: 3 March 2009�Regional: NW European Session�Prospect Forum�Lunch�Prospect Forum�Finance Forum�Sponsored Reception

Day Two: 4 March 2009�Theme: Unconventionals Session�Prospect Forum�Lunch�Prospect Forum�Regional: Far East Session�Sponsored Reception

Day Three: 5 March 2009�Theme: Global Carbonate Potential�Regional: Africa/ME Session�Lunch (exhibition closes)�Short Courses/Seminars�Farmout Presentation�Conference Closes

www.appexlondon.com

The revised 3-day program includes:�More Prospect Forum sessions �More networking opportunities with longer breaks

�New themed speaker sessions to complement focused regional sessions

Mark your calendar to attend the 8th annual APPEX London Prospect and Property Expo, 3-5 March 2009, at the Business DesignCentre in London.APPEX is the perfect place to meet and network with a truly international audience of key industry senior managersand government representatives. APPEX brings together a who’s who of host governments,NOCs and independent oil companies tospeak and exhibit, so why make cold calls when you can network in person to form mutually beneficial business relationships?

If you’re looking for globalE&P opportunities or JV partners

you’ll find them here.

APPEX 2009 � 3-5 March � London

Fa r m -O u t s • N e w Ve n t u r e s • N e w R e g i o n s • A s s e t S w a p s

REGISTRATION IS OPEN • WWW.APPEXLONDON.COM


be consolidated at the Yucca Mountain site, about 100 miles

northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The proposal is highly controversial.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) warned that Yucca

Mountain is a “dangerous proposition” not only for Nevadans, but

“for every community in the country that would have the waste

transported through their cities and towns.”

In contrast, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman described the

move to the review phase as “a significant step forward,” saying he

is confident the NRC's review will confirm that the Yucca

Mountain repository will safely store nuclear waste “in a manner

that is most protective of human health and the environment.”

He recognized that “the expansion of commercial nuclear power

will be the key to providing the large amounts of emissions-free

base load power we need, and the establishment of the Yucca

Mountain repository is an important step toward enabling that

expansion to occur."

Experts Suggest New Polar Laws in Face of Change

On September 7, 2008, legal experts met in Iceland to discuss the

ability of current law, the United Nations Convention on the Law of

the Sea, to address growing concerns in the Arctic region associated

with the melting of sea ice. In a released statement, experts said, “A

new coordinated international set of rules to govern commercial

and research activities in both of Earth’s polar regions is urgently

needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper

pressure building on these highly fragile ecosystems.”

The Law of the Sea Convention covers a range of topics from

fishing to resource development and territorial boundaries, but

many experts feel the current regulatory framework is not clear

enough to handle the expected increase in disputes as the Arctic

would provide a convenient shipping channel between the Pacific

and Atlantic oceans. During the symposium, experts analyzed the

capacity of the Law of the Sea Convention to address potential

problems associated with increased economic activity in the

Arctic, specifically, overfishing, pollution from heavier ship traffic

and resource extraction, oil spills, and the spread of invasive

species in ballast water. Organizers anticipate that an agreed

upon set of recommendations resulting from the conference, will

be sent to governments, international organizations and other

stakeholders by the year end.

For more information on the Polar Law Symposium visit:

http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=8&ddlID=620

Draft of Texas Education Standards Strengthens Teaching

of Evolution

Proposed drafts of state science education standards were

released by the Texas Education Agency on September 22, 2008.

The new science standards strengthen the teaching of evolution


Gov

ernm

ent Update




by eliminating language requiring students to be taught about the

“strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories. The Texas

Education Agency is soliciting public comment on and expert

review of the draft standards before submitting a revised copy to

the state board of education for approval. Texas Citizens for

Science's Steven Schafersman predicts the “public debate and

approval will be contentious."

To view the draft science education standards visit:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/scienceTEKS.html .

Louisiana School System Issues Guidelines for NewSupplemental Education LawThe Louisiana Department of Education sent a letter with general

guidelines to their public schools in August about how to deal

with the new supplemental education law entitled, “Louisiana

Science Education Act.” The law allows teachers to bring in

supplementary materials related to science. The law states: "The

state... shall allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school

administrators to create and foster an environment... that

promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and

objective discussion of scientific theories being studied, including,

but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming,

and human cloning.”

The city, parish, or local school district is suppose to approve of

the supplementary materials before they are used in any classes,

but they have no guidelines about such materials. The letter is

meant to provide some general advice until the department can

formulate more formal guidelines through the Louisiana

Handbook for School Administrators. The letter states that

“Religious theories cannot be advanced under the guise of critical

thinking. Written materials or oral presentations that teach

creationism or intelligent design or that advance the religious

belief that a supernatural being created humankind or that state

that evolution is only a theory are prohibited.”

There is concern that this law is meant to challenge the teaching

of evolution and science and to allow religious and other non-

scientific materials to be brought in as supplements. The legislative

language is similar to arguments and language prepared by the

Discovery Institute, a private religious-based institution that

promotes the teaching of religious concepts, such as intelligent

design and creationism in public schools.

The legislation went from introduction to law in a few months

and has caught the school system unprepared to deal with the

requirements. Administrators and schools will now have to spend

time and resources on developing guidelines for this unfunded

mandate and will also have to deal with any lawsuits brought by

any individuals about any supplementary materials that might

be used.

There is concern that similar laws might be implemented in other

states. Similar legislation has been introduced in Florida,

Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Alabama and other

states may consider supplementary material bills.

Key Reports and PublicationsClimate Change: Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability

of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option.

[http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1080] September

30, 2008.

In this report, the GAO examined (1) key economic, legal, regulatory,

and technological barriers impeding commercial-scale deployment

of CCS technology and (2) actions the DOE, EPA, and other

agencies are taking to overcome barriers to commercial-scale

deployment of CCS technology.

China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions and MitigationPolicies. [http://opencrs.com/document/RL34659] Posted September 17,

2008.

This background report describes Chinese GHG emissions and

some of its mitigation efforts. It touches briefly on China's inter-

national cooperation. �


Gov

ernm

ent Update



HGS

Holiday PartyHosted by the International Explorationist Group

Join us for an evening of fun, food and friends at one of Houston’s premiere steakhouses.The party starts at 5:30 pm and your ticket includes

a great buffet dinner with Sullivan’s signature Prime Rib.

Live music by the DarDans

This is an HGS-wide event and a chance for you to network with fellow geoscientists in the Houston area. All HGS members and non-members are welcome.

Tickets are $45/per person and money raised helps support HGS activities throughout the year.

When: Monday, December 15th, 5:30pm start

Where: Sullivan’s Steakhouse 4608 Westheimer, Houston Texas (inside the Loop)

RSVP online at www.hgs.org as soon as possible to make this year’s party a great one.

JOB OPPORTUNITYAn Independent E&P Company having affiliates actively engaged inpetroleum exploration operations in North America, Africa, CentralAsia, Middle East and Far East is seeking experienced geoscientists.The Group has offices in USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Theselected candidates will be based in Houston, Texas. Job dutiesinclude interpretation of Gulf of Mexico 3-D seismic data and

prospect generation for drilling and review and evaluation of 2-Dand 3-D seismic data for joint ventures in Gulf Coast Region.

The applicant must have 5+ years offshore Gulf of Mexico experience and knowledge of latest geophysical methods and tools.

Desired qualification is a degree in geology or geophysics.

Salary is competitive with excellent package of benefits includingoverrides and a chance to share in success of the Company.

Send resume to: [email protected]

Tauber Exploration & Production Co.

Seeking Ready to Drill Prospects

Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast

Contact: Tim Tade or David Voight

(O) 713-869-5656 (F) 713-869-1997

55 Waugh Drive, Suite 601 • Houston, Texas 77007


ENDEAVOR NATURAL GAS, LPSeeking Drill-Ready Prospects

Texas and Louisiana Gulf CoastEast Texas • North Louisiana

Large working interest and operations preferred but not required.

Contact: Bruce Houff(O) 713 658-8555 • (F) 713 658-0715

(Email) [email protected] Louisiana, Suite 3350 • Houston, Texas 77002

Contract and Full Time Exploration and Production StaffGeoscience, Management, Reservoir Engineers, Landmen,

Information Technology, ProductionWe can provide you with the RIGHT people with the RIGHT skills and

the RIGHT experience at the RIGHT price, time and location!Why spend all your scarce management time looking for staff when we

can do it for you? Founded in 1999, GeoExperts is staffed and led by E&Pprofessionals with decades of experience in the worldwide oil industry

Tel: 713-953-0823, ext. 13, Fax: 713-2953-1642(we also have offices in Canada, London and West Africa)

www.geoexperts.com


HGS Welcomes New Members

ACTIVE MEMBERSThomas LapinskiHermann LebitLaura UnverzagtMasayoshi SuzukiJeffrey PorterStephen ChungJames SeefeldtSuchit HartTom SwisherMolly MayerEric PotterLars HubertMeissa HarperChristopher VandewaterHarvey DeutschAdrian DigbyJason McClainJoseph Wyszynski

James HartBarry WawakScott BurnerMargaret WilliamsThomas HarrisCarrie CazesEric RhodenMichael PickellMary KaiserMark MiyaokaDavid Drowley

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSFernando ZieglerAaron Van DolahZachary WessellPatrick WallStephanie YurchykLuke Olsen

Wesley IngramDipankar DwivediBhavna AroraCecilia RamirezChris CassleKelsey MosleyDaniel FingoldBrice MabryJustin MaxwelllAlex BarnardBlair StanleyBoris RadosavljevilSeth RobinsonDean SnidowKelli McGuireDev MaharjanKristopher FarmerCory RedmanJoshua Wilkins

Shelby BatesZheng HuangMaggie ZhaoJena NoltingJames MarkinAnierobi EkweogwuMichael ZahlerJoanna CamposJessica-Ann DillonCharles SniderAlfredo MartinezRandy MooreCarl McCutcheonKelly LimbaughAlba WillisLance Cole

Effective November 3, 2008

Welcome New Members


HGS Bulletin Instructions to AuthorsAll materials are due by the 15th of the month, 6 weeks before issue publication. Abstracts should be 500 words or less; extendedabstracts up to 1000 words; articles can be any length but brevity is preferred as we have a physical page limit within our current publishing contract. All submissions are subject to editorial review and revision.

Text should be submitted by email as an attached text or Word file or on a clearly labeled diskette in Word format with a hardcopy printout to the Editor.

Figures, maps, diagrams, etc., should be digital files using Adobe Illustrator, Canvas or CorelDraw. Files should be saved and submittedin .eps (Adobe Illustrator) format. Send them as separate attachments via email or CD if they are larger than 1 MEG each, accompaniedby figure captions that include the file name of the desired image. DO NOT EMBED them into your text document; they must be sent as separate files from the text. DO NOT USE POWERPOINT, CLIP ART or Internet images (72-DPI resolution) as these do not have adequate resolution for the printed page and cannot be accepted. All digital files must have 300-DPI resolution or greater at the approximate size the figure will be printed.

Photographsmay be digital or hard copy. Hard copies must be printed on glossy paper with the author’s name, photo or figure numberand caption on the back. Digital files must be submitted in .jpg or .eps format with 300-DPI or greater resolution at the printing size andbe accompanied by figure captions that are linked by the file name of the image. The images should be submitted as individual email attach-ments (if less than 1 MB) or on CD or zip disk.

AdvertisingThe Bulletin is printed digitally using QuarkXPress. We no longer use negatives or camera-ready advertising material. Call the HGS office foravailability of ad space and for digital guidelines and necessary forms or email to [email protected]. Advertising is accepted on a space-availablebasis. Deadline for submitting material is 6 weeks prior to the first of the month in which the ad appears.

Be a web page SponsorEffective May 4, 2008 you can now have your company logo picture posted on every page (including Calendar, Articles, Events, JobBank, etc.) of theWebsite and not just the Entry page like it was before the redesign. To have an ad posted, you must provide us with the graphic and give us the URL itshould link to when clicked.

All ads appear in the “Our Sponsors” box in the upper left of the page. Each ad is displayed for a short time and replaced by the next ad in the list. Eachad will be randomly displayed on each page.

All Sponsor logo images must be 55 x 166 pixels and be no more than 8 bits per pixel with a maximum of 256 colors. The format can be either GIF orJPG, preferably interlaced or progressive. It is important to make the image file size as small as possible so that it will transfer to the users' browserquickly.

Home Page Website Business Web and Bulletin Newsletter Sponsor Personal Resumes GeoJobBankLogo 165x55 Card (with link) Business Card Banner Ad (with link) (Members only) Posting

One year $1000.00 Free to members $135.00 $2000.00 $2,000.006 months $525.00 Free to members NA $1200.00 $1,150.003 months $270.00 Free to members NA $650.00 $600.001 month NA Free to members NA $250.00 Free $100.00

No. of Random*Random*Random*Random*Issues Eighth Quarter Half Full Full Full Full Half Full Quarter10 $823 $1,387 $2,488 $4,734 $5,680 $7,830 $7,560 $6,858 $6,750 $2,700 9 $823 $1,387 $2,488 $4,734 $5,680 8 $750 $1,260 $2,242 $4,307 $5,169 7 $665 $1,123 $2,014 $3,834 $4,600 6 $590 $990 $1,782 $3,392 $4,069 $1,890 5 $497 $837 $1,503 $2,860 $3,432 $4,698 $4,536 $4,104 4 $405 $683 $1,223 $2,326 $2,792 3 $327 $550 $990 $1,886 $2,262 $1,080 2 $232 $392 $704 $1,339 $1,607 1 $146 $246 $443 $842 $1,010 $1,404 $1,296 $1,080 $810

Random Inside(B l a ck & Wh i t e )

Page 2(B&W)

Inside FrontCover

(Full Color)

Inside BackCover

(Full Color)

OutsideBack Cover(Full Color)

CalendarBack

(Full Color)

CalendarPage

(Full Color)

BUSINESS CARD$135 per 10 Issues – Send two cards

($30 for each additional name on same card)

FULL COLOR AD* add 30% to B&W charge for full (4) color ad

Full Colo

r Ads

Now Ava

ilable!


Qualifications for Active Mem

bership

1)

Hav

e a

deg

ree

in g

eolo

gy o

r an

all

ied g

eosc

ience

fro

m a

n a

ccre

dit

edco

lleg

e or

univ

ersi

ty;

or

2)

Hav

e a

deg

ree

in s

cien

ce o

r en

gin

eeri

ng f

rom

an a

ccre

dit

ed c

oll

ege

or

univ

ersi

ty a

nd h

ave

bee

n e

ngag

ed i

n t

he

pro

fess

ional

stu

dy o

rpra

ctic

e of

eart

h s

cien

ce f

or

at l

east

fiv

e (5

) yea

rs.

Qualifications for Associate M

embership (including students)

1)

Be

involv

ed i

n t

he

appli

cati

on o

f th

e ea

rth o

r al

lied

sci

ence

s.2)

Be

a fu

ll-t

ime

studen

t en

roll

ed i

n g

eolo

gy o

r in

the

rela

ted s

cien

ces.

Apply on

line at www

.hgs.org and

clic

k on

Join HGS

Annual D

ues Expire Each June 30. (Late renew

als – $5 re-instatem

ent fee)

Annual dues are $24.00; full-tim

e students and em

eritus mem

bers pay $12.00.

Application to Become a Member of the Houston Geological Society

To the Executive Board:I

her

eby a

pply

for

�A

ctiv

e o

r �

Ass

oci

ate

mem

ber

ship

in t

he

Hou

ston G

eolo

gic

al S

oci

ety a

nd p

ledge

to a

bid

e by

its

Const

ituti

on a

nd B

yla

ws.

�C

hec

k h

ere

if a

full

-tim

e st

uden

t.

Nam

e: __________________________________________________________________

Address:__________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Hom

e Phone:

__________________

Spouse’s Nam

e:__________________________

Email:

__________________________________________________________________

Job Title:________________________________________________________________

Com

pany:________________________________________________________________

Com

pany Address:________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Work Phone:______________________Fax N

umber:

__________________________

Circle Preferred M

ailing Address:

Hom

e

Off

ice

Professional Affiliations:______________________________________________

�A

AP

G m

ember

No.:

______________________________________________

Professional Interest:

�E

nvir

onm

enta

l G

eolo

gy

�N

ort

h A

mer

ican

E&

P (

oth

er t

han

Gulf

Coas

t)

�In

tern

atio

nal

E&

P�

Gulf

Coas

t E

&P

(onsh

ore

& o

ffsh

ore

)

School

________________________________________________________

Degree____________Major

________________________Year________

______________________________________________________________

School

________________________________________________________

Degree____________Major

________________________Year________

______________________________________________________________

Earth Science W

ork Experience

__________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Applicant’s Signature____________________Date__________________

Endo

rsem

ent

by H

GS

mem

ber

(not

requ

ired

if

acti

ve

AA

PG

mem

ber

)

Nam

e:________________________________________________________

Signature______________________________Date

__________________

Mem

bership Chairman

________________________________________________

HGS Secretary

____________________________________________

rev.08/11/2008

Mai

l th

is a

ppli

cati

on a

nd p

aym

ent

to:

Houston G

eological Society

14811 St. M

ary’s Lan

e, Suite 250 • Houston, T

X 77079-2916

Tel

ephone:

713-4

63-9

476

Fax

: 281-6

79-5

504

Pay

men

t m

ethod:

�C

hec

k,

�V

ISA

, �

Mas

terC

ard,

�A

mer

ican

Expre

ss,

�D

isco

ver

Car

d #

______________________________________________

Expir

atio

n D

ate:

____________

Car

d I

.D.

__________________

(Card I.D. –

3 or 4 digit number on front or back of card )


December is the end of the calendar year and the month of

excitement and expectation. Families will be gathering and

celebrating Christmas. Friends will be giving parties and gifts

and ushering out the old year and welcoming in the uncertain

New Year.

Foremost on the hearts and minds of most Americans has been

the dramatic downtown of the economy which caused the erratic

and often extreme devaluation of personal assets, IRAs and pen-

sions. Now we must place our hope in our newly elected officials

to fulfill campaign promises and move quickly to bring confi-

dence and stability back to the market and to the economy. The

United States is known for its integrity, determination, strength

and resilience, and we pray that these qualities will be evident as

we move forward in hope.

The HGA/ HPAC holiday event on Friday, December 5, will be a

lunch at the Pine Forest Country Club. We will be entertained

with Reviews of Great Books for Gift-Giving by Valerie Koehler,

Owner of Blue Willow Bookshop, plus Holiday Music by Mario.

Nan Pye and Lynn Schoenberg are Co-Chairs for this event. We

are anticipating a really large turnout of members and guests.

Hope to see you there.

If you have not yet joined HGA/HPAC, please fill out and submit

the membership form in this Bulletin and then, as members of

HGA/HPAC, consider joining Geowives for additional activities

by calling Daisy Wood at 713-977-7319. �

The year 2008 is almost a memory, so see you at something

Geological in 2009!

Hou

ston

Geo

logical A

uxiliary/Hou

ston

Petroleum

Aux

iliary Cou

ncilNews Houston Geological Auxiliary/Houston Petroleum

Auxiliary Council NewsNorma Jean Jones, HGS Liaison

You are invited to become a member of

HGA/HPAC2008–2009 dues are $20.00

Mail dues payment along with the completed yearbook information to Nan Pye, 18219 Longmoor, Houston, TX 77084

YEARBOOK INFORMATION

Last Name First Name Name Tag

Spouse Name Name Tag HGS Member’s Company

Home Phone Business Phone Business Fax

Street Address City Zip

Email Address Home Fax

Please choose a committee assignment if you are interested.

� Fall Event � Yearbook � SOS � Membership

� Christmas Event � Spring Event � Notification � Game Day

� May Luncheon � Courtesy


ProfessionalDirectory

Where is your card?$135 per year

10 issues713-463-9476


[email protected]

Seismic Data Processing SeisUP©

Systems

Sales

Norm StagerDave SpauldingWilliam Zepeda

Wavefront LLC Oil & Gas Consultation since 1996

Steven “Eric” GetzIT Support Consultation (Geophysical &

Geological)Network, Workstation, and Software Support

Seismic Data LoadingSeismic Modeling

Synthetic Seismogram Construction

(713) 305-5089 SMT [email protected] Microsoft Certified


10 issues713-463-9476


10 issues713-463-9476


811 Dallas Suite 1020

Houston, Texas 77002

JAMES B. BENNETTGeology

RANDALL SCHOTTGeophysics

Bus. (713)650-1378

3-D Seismic Interpretation, FTG Gravity Modeling,Seismic Inversion and AVO analysis

6001 Savoy, Suite 110 • Houston, Texas 77036 (713) 981-4650 • (281) 242-0639

E-mail: [email protected]: www.hunter3dinc.com

P.O. BOX 140637BOISE, ID 83714

BUS. 208-854-1037RES. 208-854-1038FAX. 208-854-1029

JAMES S. CLASSENLooking for close-in deals

ARK-LA-TEX LOG LIBRARY400 TRAVIS, SUITE 500 • SHREVEPORT, LA 71101-3113

(318) 227-1641 • FAX (318) 227-1642 WWW.ARKLATEXLOGLIBRARY.COMELECTRIC LOG AND COMPLETION CARD COVERAGE:

LOUISIANA • EAST TEXAS • MISSISSIPPI • SOUTHERN ARKANSAS SOUTHEASTERN STATES

• PRIVATE WORK ROOMS • LOG & MAP COPIER• IHS/DWIGHTS - CD/ROMS PRODUCTION DATA • COMPUTERIZED LOG DATA BASE

• CALL IN OR FAX DATA RETRIEVAL SERVICE • EXTENSIVE INDUSTRY REFERNCE & TECHICAL MATERIAL

• BAR CODED CHECKIN/OUTCALL FOR INFORMATION ON CORPORATE AND INDIVIDUAL

MEMBERSHIPS OR DAILY USER RATESMARILYN KILBOURNE, MANAGER

Large acreage blocks available for leasein Goliad and Karnes Counties, Texas. On trend with Wilcox and other producing

horizons. Re-entry opportunities. Contact Yanta Cattle Company at

[email protected] for additional information.


10 issues713-463-9476


10 issues713-463-9476


7500 SAN FELIPE, SUITE 250HOUSTON, TEXAS 77063


10 issues713-463-9476

H O U S T O NG E O LO G I CA L S O C I E T Y14811 St. Mary’s Lane, Suite 250 • Houston, TX 77079

PeriodicalsU.S. Postage

PAIDHouston, Texas

INTERPRETATION MODELING SIMULATION PRODUCTION & PROCESS

Maximum reservoir performance

Roxar’s integrated technology solutionsand services help companies of all sizesrealize the full economic potential oftheir oil and gas resources.

• Innovative modelingand simulation software

• Downhole monitoringand control systems

• Reservoir productionmultiphase metering

• Reservoir and productionconsultancy

Roxar’s leading-edge technology solu-tions from reservoir interpretationthrough to production & processmeet the changing needs of users inmanaging the entire reservoir lifecycle.

Want to make themost of your valuableoil and gas reserves?

WELL & COMPLETION

Documents

December 2008 - HGS