AAPG Asia Pacific is proud to host two new AAPG Asia Pacific Presents talks, featuring Dr. Rachelle Kernen and Ms. Amanda Barlow.

AAPG Asia Pacific Presents is a collection of online presentations being offered free of charge. This 60-90 minute session will be conducted through Zoom, and will be followed by a short Q&A period, handled by a moderator.

To register for one or both of these talks, click on the link(s) below. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come basis.

Lithostratigraphy and Chemostratigraphy of Salt Diapir Sedimentary Inclusions:

Unraveling Ediacaran Salt Tectonics in the Flinders Ranges, Australia

Patawarta Diapir, approximately 2-6km2 located in the Central Flinders Ranges, South Australia, has been interpreted as a single allochthonous salt sheet containing Tonian-aged igneous and layered evaporite sedimentary intrasalt inclusions derived from the Callanna Group. Using detailed field mapping, petrographic analysis, and lithostratigraphic correlation within Patawarta Diapir, five primarily silty limestone inclusions (0.5-2km2) are re-interpreted as Ediacaran-aged Wonoka Formation and Patsy Hill member of the Bonney Sandstone (Wilpena Group). The Ediacaran-aged inclusions are concentrated on the diapir’s south side, where they are juxtaposed against a 1-2 km2, approximately 300-million-year older Tonian-aged Curdimurka Subgroup (Callanna Group) inclusion. The Ediacaran-aged silty carbonate inclusions in the Patawarta Diapir represent a suprasalt condensed section forming a carapace composed of Wonoka Formation and lower beds of the Patsy Hill member (Bonney Sandstone). Based on this geometric configuration, the Patawarta Diapir is composed of two separate salt bodies that encase the suprasalt carapace in an allosuture zone. This encasement process could have been driven by many factors, including regional shortening during the Delamerian Orogeny, high sedimentation patterns forming local depocenters, or down-dip gravity sliding on the low-angle regional shelf. Using modern concepts in salt tectonics, this study represents the first documented example of salt tectonic encasement and the diagenetic alteration of the Ediacaran Shuram Excursion in the suprasalt strata in a diapir in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Bio

Dr. Rachelle Kernen

Rachelle Kernen holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and an M.S. in Geology from New Mexico State University and a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Texas at El Paso where her focus was to integrate salt tectonic fieldwork, seismic data, physical modeling, and geochemistry to answer complex petroleum-related questions about geological processes within salt diapirs and along the salt-sediment interface (drilling hazards). She has extensive salt tectonic seismic interpretation experience in the oil industry working for Royal Dutch Shell and BP Americas. Rachelle is passionate about the Energy Transition and DEI where she is actively changing and re-shaping organizations (volunteering for non-profits at the moment). Currently, she is Co-chair of AAPG's Women's Network, Co-Founder of AAPG's Salt Basins Technical Interest Group, and an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Australia's School of Petroleum and Energy Resources at the University of Adelaide.

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My Unconventional Career as a Female Wellsite Geologist

Adapting to Family Life and Industry Challenges in a Male-Dominated Industry

Amanda will be giving a rundown on the progression of her career from working in mineral drilling roles to working as a wellsite geologist in offshore oil and gas drilling operations. Being a female in a male-dominated industry can present obstacles but Amanda will cover this, as well as such topics as:

• Deciding what field of geology to study at university.
• What role options there are for graduate geologists and how to choose what's right for you.
• Taking a career break to start a family.
• Resuming your career when the time is right.
• Making the decision to cross industries from minerals to oil and gas.
• What a wellsite geologist actually does.
• Navigating the ever-increasing shift from full-time employment to contractor employment.
• Evaluating your suitability to field-based work compared with office-based work.
• Deciding if you should stay in the industry or look elsewhere for work during a downturn in the O&G industry.
• Ideas for surviving a downturn in the industry.
• Becoming a published author and how to share your knowledge and experience with the world through writing and publishing your own books.

Bio

Amanda Barlow

Amanda Barlow is a contract geologist who has worked within the minerals, coal seam gas, and offshore oil and gas industries. After graduating from Ballarat University in 1984 with a B.Sc. in Geology, she began her career in the central Victorian goldfields with Western Mining. After having a career break to have three children she resumed working as a geologist in Mt Isa in 1995 and then continued to work in other near-mine drilling programs in Northwest Qld locations, such as Osborne and Cannington mines, working in FIFO roles most of the time, while managing to bring up three children. Her interest then turned to working offshore, where she decided to pursue an entry-level mudlogging job. She later turned to wellsite geology work in the Qld coal seam gas industry, which then led to working as an offshore wellsite geologist within Australia and Southeast Asia. Amanda is also a recreational marathon runner and has run over 60 marathons in 18 different countries and is also a published author of three books.

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