AAPG Eastern Section Annual Meeting 2010
"Perseverance — the Pipeline to Prosperity"
Field Trips
Kentland, Indiana Impact Site Quarry
Friday, September 24, 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Main Lobby, Radisson Plaza Hotel
Fee: $105 (pre-registration) $130 (late registration)
Trip Leader: John Weber, Grand Valley State University
This structural feature was discovered about 1880 when two farmers began to quarry crushed rock there. The presence of shatter cones and deformed bedrock led geologists to conclude by the late 1960s that the Kentland structure is an impact crater rather than volcanic in origin. Deformation at the site is so great that vertical contacts between normally horizontal rock formations of different ages are common. The crater itself is a circular dome, about 7.24 km (4.5 miles) in diameter, deeply eroded and buried in glacial debris. Its age is estimated to be less than 97 million years (Cretaceous or younger). The Shakopee dolomite at the center of the structure is about 450 million years old (Ordovician period) and is uplifted about 2,000 feet higher than the level of the same rock in the surrounding area. The entire disturbed area is about 13 km (8 miles) in diameter.
Silurian Salt Mine Tour
Saturday, September 25, 7:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Main Lobby, Radisson Plaza Hotel
Fee: $95 (pre-registration) $120 (late registration)
Field Trip Leader: E.Z. Manos
A great opportunity to visit, examine and collect in a working underground salt mine that has been in operation for over 100 years. The Silurian Salina salts have been mined in the Michigan Basin since the late 1800’s. Both underground mines and deeper solution salt mining has taken place. The Detroit Salt mine is in the Salina F salt bed, whereas most of the solution mining has taken place in the Salina A and B units.
Pennsylvanian Fluvial-Deltaic Depositional Systems in Central Michigan Basin
Sunday, September 26, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Main Lobby, Radisson Plaza Hotel
Fee: $85 (pre-registration) $110 (late registration)
Field Trip Leaders: Dr. David A. Barnes and Niah Venable
Outcrops and quarries in the Grand River Valley show excellent examples of the Pennsylvanian Grand River and Saginaw Formations. The Grand River Sandstones are a major freshwater bearing aquifer in central Michigan. The field trip will look at all the facies in this Fluvial-Deltaic depositional system. Sandstone facies are well exposed in outcrop, but their relationship to other facies in the succession is less well understood based on outcrops alone. This trip will be paired with a core workshop on the same formations in the nearby subsurface. Cores preserve the shales, coals and mixed lithology facies much better than exist in outcrop. Facies types and depositional systems will be discussed using observations from outcrop and cores.Workshops
Saturday, September 25, 9:00am-5:00pm
Workshop #1: Quality Control of
Subsurface Mapping
Great Lakes Room Radisson Plaza Hotel
Lower Level at 8:30a.m.
Fee: $200 (includes Lunch and Course Notes)
Instructor: Dan Tearpock
Course Length: 1 Day
Course CEUs: 0.8
Course Description
Don't be too quick to drill that next dry hole. Success is not the result of serendipity, but is based on solid scientific work. This course addresses the need for a systematic approach for quickly screening interpretations, maps, prospects and potential resources or reserves and identifying fundamental interpretation, mapping and estimating errors. The reverse application of methods and techniques as presented in our courses such as Applied Subsurface Geological Mapping and Advances Structural Geology is the core of this course. The most common errors found on subsurface interpretations and maps are illustrated with numerous examples from around the world.
The course begins with a review of examples of interpretation and mapping errors that led to poorly located wells that are uneconomic or dry, as well as inaccurate reserves or resources estimates. Methods used to address the risk factors that can cause dry holes are reviewed. The participants are then challenged with a series of real exploration and development prospects. The participants are to evaluate each project. After their evaluation, the projects are reviewed and the QC techniques that are applicable to evaluate each project are discussed. A course manual, including the challenging projects with solutions, is provided for this course.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Develop an understanding of how to evaluate a variety of subsurface maps including fault, structure, and isochore maps.
2. Understand the types of questions to ask when reviewing interpretations, maps and prospects.
3. Evaluate the 3-D viability of an interpretation, map or prospect.
4. Evaluate whether the resources or reserves attributed to a completed interpretation or map are under or over estimated.
5. Determine whether an interpreter has applied sound, industry accepted, geoscience principles and methods to generate an interpretation, map or prospect.
Who Should Attend:
Prospect generators, exploration and development geoscientists, property and prospect evaluators, supervisors, managers, bankers, investors and anyone involved in preparing, reviewing or evaluating subsurface interpretations, prospects, fields and reserves or resources.
Course Info
* Quality Assurance/Quality Control overview with examples
* Philosophical doctrine of subsurface interpretation and mapping
* Dry hole analysis
* Effect of hand and computer contouring methods in generating maps
* THE PROJECT CHALLENGES — A series of projects are presented for the participants to evaluate the following aspects of geology dealing with interpretations, maps and prospects.
- Fault surface maps
- General structure maps
- Faulted structure maps
- Directional wells
- Isochore maps used for resources or reserves estimates
- An introduction to seismic and structural geology Quality Control Techniques
Saturday, September 25, 9:00am-5:00pm
Workshop #2: Trenton and Black River Core Workshop
Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE)
5272 West Michigan Ave.
Fee: $150 (includes Lunch and Course Notes)
Instructors: Dr. G. Michael Grammer and Dr. William B. Harrison, III
Course Length: 1 Day
The Ordovician platform carbonates of the Trenton and Black River Formation in the Michigan Basin have long been the target of oil and gas exploration. The discovery of the only Michigan giant oil field, Albion-Scipio Field in the late 1950’s really focused attention on Michigan. These are fractured, hydrothermal dolomite reservoirs with limited areal extent, but with significant volumes of hydrocarbon reserves. Over 140 million barrels of oil and 250 BCF of natural gas have been recovered from Michigan Trenton-Black River reservoirs. Recently, 3-D seismic exploration in and around Albion Scipio has delineated new, untapped compartments of the field. Additionally, a new field Trenton-Black River field has also been discovered. This core workshop will describe facies and reservoir properties of several cores from Albion-Scipio and other Michigan Fields. We will discuss historic data from these reservoirs and update the production history of recent discoveries.
This workshop will be held at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education, part of the Geosciences Department at Western Michigan University. Go to our web page for directions to the Laboratory:
http://wsh060.westhills.wmich.edu/MGRRE/maps.shtml
Wednesday, September 29, 9:00am-3:00pm
Workshop #3: Organic Shales and Fine-grained Organic Carbonates of the Michigan Basin Core Viewing Workshop (Collingwood Shale, Antrim Shale, and A-1 Carbonate)
Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE)
5272 West Michigan Ave.
Fee: $75 (includes Lunch and Course Notes)
Instructor: Dr. William B. Harrison, III
Course Length: 1 Day
Collingwood/Utica Shale. The Collingwood/ Utica Shale is current the hottest play in the Michigan Basin. A discovery well in Missaukee County and a recent record-setting State lease sale has generated great interest in this horizon. All known production from the Trenton Formation has historically been from the platform carbonate facies in southern Michigan; however, recent drilling in the central Michigan basin suggests potential in the uppermost Trenton (Collingwood) and the overlying Utica Shale. The upper Trenton in the central Michigan basin is a fine-grained organic-rich facies. Additionally, organic shales of the lower Utica Shale formation have productive potential. We will examine several cores from the Central Michigan basin that cover the Utica-Trenton contact. TOC and Rock-Eval data suggest moderately high organic carbon content and thermal maturity.
Antrim Shale. Nearly 10,000 wells have been drilled into the Antrim Shale of Northern Lower Michigan since the mid-1980’s. The Antrim Shale is predominately producing biogenic gas from this shallow reservoir. We will look at several cores from around the State of Michigan from both productive and non-productive areas. This play has already produced over 2.7 TCF of gas from the current development area.
Salina A-1 Carbonate. Limited historic production is known from this unit, however more widespread opportunities may exist throughout the Michigan Basin. High pressure gas has been encountered in numerous central basin wells, with very limited completion attempts/successes. Oil has also been produced in limited quantities from shallower regions near the basin margins. We will look at several cores around the Michigan Basin in this restricted, laminated, organic-rich facies.
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