Explorer Article
By Heather Saucier
Electric vehicles have been targeted as an important transition toward a greener planet. Yet the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries is creating a significant environmental impact. As it stands, most large volumes of lithium-bearing rocks and brines mined in Australia, Chile, Argentina and other countries must be shipped to China, which controls 65 percent of the supply chains for battery-ready lithium chemicals and 73 percent of the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries. While carbon emissions from shipping is substantial, the greatest environmental impact comes from the actual processing of lithium and the manufacturing of its end products. The United States could play a significant role in solving this problem.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 January, 2021
Explorer Historical Highlights
By Henry S. Pettingill,Paul Weimer
During the 1980s, early prospecting in deepwater margins was the simple extension of prolific updip producing basins that were charged. However, the migration of petroleum exploration and development into deepwater was fraught with challenges. For engineers and geologists, one of our biggest challenges was to overcome our collective lack of understanding about the geology of deepwater. We had to revisit everything we thought we knew, one paradigm shift after another.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020
Explorer Article
By Heather Saucier
As companies work toward developing alternative sources for a world with ever-increasing energy demands, energy minerals are moving to the forefront of the conversation. AAPG’s Energy Minerals Division finds itself in the spotlight these days for its work in prospecting alternative energy sources, such as geothermal and hydrates, for commercial use. “We’ve got good momentum right now with interest in alternative energy,” said Ursula Hammes, AAPG Member, EMD president and president at Hammes Energy and Consultants.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 December, 2020
Bulletin Article
By Hugh Daigle,Kehua You,P. Kevin Meazell,Peter B. Flemings,Stephen C. Phillips,Yi Fang
The Néquen Basin of Argentina has all the elements to be considered a super basin. It contains a sedimentary sequence more than 6000 m thick, proven superimposed petroleum systems that resulted in numerous plays, a large number of trapping configurations, and many conventional fields.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 23 November, 2020
Bulletin Article
By Hugh Daigle,Kehua You,P. Kevin Meazell,Peter B. Flemings,Stephen C. Phillips,Yi Fang
The Sureste Basin meets the requirements to be classified as a super basin with respect to seven proposed criteria, four of which are geological. It contains a multitude of wolrd-class mature oil source rocks capable of charging available structural and stratigraphic traps.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 23 November, 2020
Learn! Blog
By Susan Nash
We are thrilled that our members are eager to share photos and descriptions of outcrops they know and love. In this interview, Nuri Uzunlar of South Dakota School of Mines shares a few of his favorites.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 10 November, 2020
Explorer Historical Highlights
By Jorge Navarro Comet
In the early exploration days, petroleum geologists were required to take field trips to inspect, map and collect geological data in remote locations, sometimes inaccessible except by foot, horse, mule or boat. Geological publications and maps of these hard-to-reach regions were almost non-existent, and the first geologists had to start from scratch, without any of the geological information that present-day geologists take for granted. They faced hazardous and unsafe situations, including heavy rains, flash floods, rockfalls, landslides, sunstrokes, mosquito bites, venomous snakes and spiders, attacks from natives and wild animals, and endemic diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. Our story here is about a strange encounter with an enigmatic creature during a geological fieldwork expedition for oil exploration in western Venezuela, close to the Colombian border. The encounter was years later revealed to be one of the most notorious scientific frauds.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2020
Explorer President’s Column
By Rick Fritz
As I am writing this column, AAPG has just completed its first fully virtual annual meeting – ACE 2020. By most accounts it was very successful. The technical program committee provided a great slate of talks, posters and core studies. The staff placed it on a platform that was easy and fun to use. The whole meeting was a unique virtual experience.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 01 November, 2020
Bulletin Article
By Hugh Daigle,Kehua You,P. Kevin Meazell,Peter B. Flemings,Stephen C. Phillips,Yi Fang
The Morro Vermelho karst system, Brazil, provides a case study of cave formation in which the interplay between tectonics, hydrochemistry, karstification, precipitation, dolomitization, and silica deposition resulted in a unique cave that has no parallel in Brazil and beyond.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 22 September, 2020
Bulletin Article
By Hugh Daigle,Kehua You,P. Kevin Meazell,Peter B. Flemings,Stephen C. Phillips,Yi Fang
The petroleum systems of the Malargüe fold-thrust belt, Argentina, are the subject of extensive modeling to reconstruct the evolution of its petroleum systems. In the outer regions and areas to the east, half of the initial source potential has been spent. Thermal maturity increases with stratigraphic age.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Added on 22 September, 2020