2014 Annual Joint Convention

Here is an overview of PSSEPM’s technical activities in 2014

 

Field Trips:

 

FT 1 – Depositional Environments of Oligocene and Miocene Rocks of the Cuyama Basin: A Trip in Commemoration of Dr. Gene Fritsche

 

Join us for a day in the field to commemorate the life of Gene Fritsche. The Cuyama Basin was a favorite area for Gene and was the site of his PhD dissertation research as well as the location for several of his students’ MS projects. Our trip will focus on the mid-Tertiary transgression that is so prominent in many of California’s coastal basins. Outcrops we plan to examine include the Simmler, Vaqueros, Monterey and Branch Canyon Formations. We’ll discuss sedimentary structures and their depositional significance. We will view outcrops on hikes of moderate difficulty and that are up to 2 miles in length.

 

FT 3 – Westside Turbidite Systems

 

Turbidite sandstones are one of the more important reservoir types of the San Joaquin Valley oil province, and for more than a hundred years turbidites have contributed to a significant amount of the production coming from fields in the southern San Joaquin. The westside of the basin provides a unique setting where it is possible to study turbidite outcrops that are located in some cases less than two miles from the very fields where these same rocks produce. This field trip will visit some of the classic westside turbidite outcrops and will include examples from the Miocene Stevens and Carneros sandstones, and the Eocene Point of Rocks. Excellent exposures that include some of the type areas for these units will provide us with opportunities to review terminology, identification, and the mechanics of deposition, and to discuss depositional models, provenance and some of the controversies surrounding these fascinating rocks. The field trip will include a lunch stop at some historic oil seeps and tar pit workings that have been known and exploited since the days of the pioneers.

 

Short Courses:

 

SC 3 – Sequence Stratigraphy for Students

 

This two day short course, for students only, provides a historical perspective on the development of stratigraphy in general and focuses on the development of sequence stratigraphy in particular. Sequence stratigraphy is a methodology that uses stratal surfaces to subdivide the stratigraphic record. This methodology allows the identification of coeval facies, documents the timetransgressive nature of classic lithostratigraphic units, and provides geoscientists with an additional way to analyze and subdivide the stratigraphic record. We provide a mix of lectures and hands-on exercises utilizing datasets that were instrumental in formulating concepts of sequence stratigraphy.

 

SC 5 – San Joaquin Siliciclastic Reservoirs Core Workshop

 

In this interactive workshop, cores from several different formations encountered in San Joaquin basin oilfields will be presented and discussed. These discussions will focus on facies and reservoir quality signatures, in the context of clastic depositional systems analysis. Logs will be provided, in order to calibrate facies and vertical profiles to downhole data. This workshop will take place at CoreLab in Bakersfield.

 

Technical Sessions:

 

Special Session: Fine-Grained Biosiliceous Rocks; the Monterey and Beyond – Chico Martinez

 

Session No. 8 – Cenozoic Geologic History of Southern California – Dedicated to the Memory of A. Eugene Fritsche

 

SEPM Reception – Follows the special session