A LOOK BACK
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By MARLAN DOWNEY

Great Paper, Great Field Trips

Perhaps a review of the past may make us better geologists in the future.

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"Bahamian Calcareous Sands," by Leslie V. Illing; AAPG BULLETIN, 1954.

"It is the purpose of this paper to call attention to the large areas of the Bahama Banks that are covered with calcareous sand composed of these rounded grains, to show that they were not derived from pre-existing rocks, and to present some evidence of the process by which they formed and are now forming."

An excellent piece of work, conducted over two field seasons, that has significant value as a pioneering study. It encouraged a great deal of further work; notably Bob Ginsberg's establishment of Shell's long-running research project on processes governing patterns of recent carbonate sedimentation.

Over the many years of its existence, the Shell Recent Carbonate Models research group benefited from the contributions of full-time researchers Bob Ginsberg, Mike Lloyd, Gene Shinn, Bob Dunham, Ron Perkins, Mahlon Ball, Paul Enos and John McCallum. In addition, numerous operations geologists benefited from assignments to the group; names such as Jerry Lucia, Bob Walpole, S.D. Kerr, Pete Lucas and Jim Rogers come to mind.

I had the brief honor of being the manager of Shell's Recent Models group, and -- as rank hath its privileges -- benefited from several of the world's greatest field trips before returning to operations in 1967.