Student Research symposium
RMS-SEPM holds a student poster symposium to provide geology students (undergrad and graduate) the opportunity to showcase their work to industry and working professionals. Our goal is for students and professionals to share ideas, network and have fun! This event will be held virtually over 1 or 2 days (2nd day if needed); March 6th 2024, and March 8th 2024 from 3-5pm MTN.
Applications are due by February 23rd 29th, 2024.
Meet LAST year’s (2023) Student Presenters
Tuesday, February 28, 2023:
Nicholas Ferry
3:00 - Nicholas Ferry-”Late Triassic Source-to-Sink Sediment Routing and Paleodrainage of the Chinle Formation, Colorado Plateau, USA”
Sarah Rysanek
3:30 - Sarah Rysanek-"Evaluation of fluvial package amalgamation in medial DFS deposits, Angel Peak Area, Nacimiento Formation."
Shaskia Putri
3:30 - Shaskia Putri-"Submarine lobe deposits of the Permian Wolfcamp XY Formation (Central Delaware Basin, Texas): High-resolution core study relating chemofacies to reservoir quality"
Tuesday, March 7, 2023:
Luke Gezovich
3:00 - Luke Gezovich-”Distinguishing deltas from fluvial fans on Mars”
Maya Yamei Bradford
3:30 - Maya Yamei Bradford-"Continental saline environments interpreted from bedded gypsum of the Triassic Red Peak Formation (Chugwater Group), northcentral Wyoming"
Jake Slawson
4:00 - Jake Slawson-”Lessons from the past: Reconstructing global hydroclimatic change during the Early Paleogene hyperthermals“
Read through 2022’s presentation abstracts below.
A Note on the 2022 Student Research Symposium:
We at RMS-SEPM would like to congratulate and give huge thank you to the presenters at the virtual RMS-SEPM Student Research Symposium this year – Haley Thorson from the University of Idaho and Eric Stautberg from Colorado School of Mines! Although we saw a smaller group of speakers than previous years, this allowed for far more discussion and engagement from attendees.
Haley’s talk on the “Eocene Basin Record of Extensional Deformation in Southwest Montana” was filled with field photos of fascinating outcrops with complex stratigraphic relationships. Haley is continuing to decode this extensional zone with new geochronologic and stratigraphic data with support from RMS-SEPM funding, including the 2020 Donald L. Smith Research Grant.
Eric’s talk on the “Identification, Characterization and Classification of Hot Sedimentary Aquifers and Sedimentary Geothermal Play Types on the Texas Gulf Coast” provided a thorough, well-compiled review of a rising new energy source – sedimentary geothermal. We look forward to seeing this research evolve as he continues his PhD, and hopefully presents at future symposiums!
If you missed the talks or would like more information, write us at information@rmssepm.com and we’d be happy to get you in contact with the students.
RMS-SEPM is a proud sponsor of student research in the geosciences and we hope that you join us for the next event.
-Patrick Sullivan
RMS-SEPM Student Outreach Coordinator
@3:30 Haley Thoresen, a PhD candidate at the University of Idaho presents:
Eocene Basin Record of Extensional Deformation in Southwest Montana
Extension is a fundamental tectonic process in the formation and subsequent collapse of orogenic belts, the development of ocean basins, and the breakup of supercontinents. Extensional tectonics has dominated the western United States Cordillera for most of the Cenozoic, but it has proven difficult to reconstruct the earliest record and distribution of extension. Eocene sedimentary strata in southwest Montana record a period of widespread basin formation and filling linked to metamorphic core complex exhumation (Deer Lodge Valley) and episodic collapse of structural culminations (Muddy Creek Basin). The timing and structural style of basin formation are fundamental to understanding the processes that drove extension. We address these questions through stratigraphic and geochronologic data. Deer Lodge Valley strata adjacent to the detachment fault coarsen up from basal mudstones to sandstones to conglomerate with quartzite and limestone clasts, likely derived from the footwall. Distal strata consist of traction-structured pebble to cobble conglomerate with interbedded organic-rich mudstone and siltstone. Detrital zircon signatures are dominated by locally exposed sedimentary Jurassic and Cretaceous strata, Belt Supergroup, and Boulder Batholith. Muddy Creek strata consist of Eocene Challis volcanic rocks overlain by an interval of volcaniclastic sandstone with granule-pebble conglomerate lenses fining up into organic, lacustrine mudstones. Detrital zircon grains in the lower Muddy Creek are predominantly Challis grains. Stratigraphy within these two basins both record fluvial-lacustrine deposition within extensional basins with different provenance patterns. This may indicate a link between the magnitude of extension and the catchment size, possibly due to the degree of surface lowering
@4 pm-Eric Stautberg, PhD candidate at the Colorado School of Mines presents:
Identification and Classification of Sedimentary Geothermal Play Types on the Texas Gulf Coast for Power Generation
Sedimentary geothermal is an emerging energy sector with the potential to provide reliable base load electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial markets above sedimentary basins. Recent advances in subsurface technologies and surface facilities have made these hot sedimentary aquifers available for power generation and direct use applications and have put sedimentary geothermal on the threshold of becoming a major energy sector. However, as of 2021, only one project has successfully drilled into a sedimentary formation and used hot brine to produce electricity. Consequently, exploring for these resources in the United States can be considered frontier exploration. In 1978, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored a sedimentary geothermal project on the Texas Gulf Coast near Houston, aimed at producing electricity from a geopressured geothermal aquifer in the Frio Formation. One vertical well was drilled to approximately 14,500’ and completed in the Frio C sand, ultimately producing about 19,500 barrels per day of 300 Fahrenheit brine and was used to produce 1 MW of electricity (John et al., 1998). This test proved that geothermal sedimentary aquifers could be used to produce electricity (John et al., 1998). One way to begin characterizing these resources would be by identifying and classifying the major sedimentary geothermal play types across the Texas Gulf Coast. Our research is focused on the identification of these play types to help de-risk the exploration process and encourage further exploration of sedimentary geothermal resources on the Gulf Coast and in other sedimentary basins.
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