On 5-7 June 2015, AAPG Student Chapter members traveled to Colombia’s Eastern Cordillera to learn about depositional environments and their role in hydrocarbon exploration.  The trip was organized by the Universidad Nacional Colombia – Medellín (Unalmed) Chapter’s Executive Committee and sponsored by AAPG Latin America & Caribbean Region and the National University of Colombia-Medellín Campus.

The field trip guide was Germán Bayona, PhD, AAPG Latin America & Caribbean Region Delegate and Director of Corporación Geológica Ares.  Bayona specializes in basin analysis and tectonics and has an extensive knowledge of the Eastern Colombian basins. He has worked as a consultant in the petroleum industry for more than 10 years.

Our trip participants included 14 members from the AAPG Unalmed Chapter and 2 members from the AAPG Unal Bogotá Chapter, and the Unalmed Faculty Advisor Agustín Cardona, PhD.

We visited the Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, reviewed seismic lines and worked with impressive outcrops. Our field work focused on the following topics: studying the transport mechanism, accumulation environment and provenance; identifying how the rocks form part of conventional or unconventional the petroleum system, and; understanding the regional basin’s evolution.

At the end of each stop, team members communicated what they have observed, and the guides made contributions.

Our final field exercise took place in the western flank of the Eastern Cordillera, near the town of San Juan de Rio Seco. The field analysis concluded that the sedimentation took place in a meandering river associated to a lake system.

Participants thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as seen is some of their comments shared below.

 “Apart from the great academic learning, I found the trip to be a socially beneficial experience because students from several years of study participated. All of them had different thoughts, knowledge and abilities, and those with more knowledge helped people with less experience to find geologic characteristics and solve different geologic problems.”   - Mauricio Arboleda, AAPG Unalmed Chapter Vice President

“I am pleased that we were able to accomplish this excellent field trip, which was one of our main goals for this period. It was an unforgettable experience because in addition to learning about sedimentary rocks and sedimentary environments, we learned how to organize this kind of activity. We integrated with students from another university. That was pretty important. We are very thankful to people those who helped us.” -Melissa Lasso Muñoz, AAPG Unalmed Chapter President

“The Field trip was a very nice experience because it helped us see the relationship between petroleum and geology. We expect to organize more activities like this one to learn more and to invite new classmates to be part of the chapter”  -Carlos Posada, AAPG Unalmed Chapter Member

 “For me it was really a learning experience about how to deal with this kind of trip” PhD.  -Germán Bayona, Field Trip Leader

“I enjoyed the field trip because I met new people and we worked together. We also worked with a geologist involved in the petroleum industry, which incentivized me to keep learning about petroleum geology.”-Santiago Otero, AAPG UNAL Bogotá Chapter Member

The Unalmed Chapter Executive Committee expresses deep appreciation to the AAPG Latin America & Caribbean Region, the National University of Colombia – Medellín, Germán Bayona, Agustín Cardona and all the students who made this trip possible. Without you this would not have happened. We hope to continue organizing similar activities alike with your unconditional support.