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Explorer Article By Heather Saucier

Demands for Geoscience Beyond Oil and Gas

While it is evident that the world will rely on oil and gas for years to come, some industry geoscientists are paving a path toward a future in alternative energy and other geoscience-related careers. Geoscientists are needed for research and development in areas of geothermal science, minerals and mining, and carbon and energy storage. They also are needed for projects that require knowledge of geology, subsurface imaging, reservoir development, satellite mapping, geotraining, multiphysics and smart data solutions.

Added on 01 May, 2022

Explorer Emphasis Article By David Brown

Upstream Oil and Gas: Now Hiring

What seemed like excellent news for the oil and gas jobs outlook turned into something less positive for companies in the first months of 2022. Hiring increased, but a few areas saw more openings than applicants. However, job hunters and even those already employed in oil and gas got some welcome security and relief, as recent cycles of industry layoffs finally turned into a round of rehires and new hires. Analysts expect this job growth to continue for the foreseeable future.

Added on 01 May, 2022

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

New Discoveries Tease Namibia’s Hydrocarbon Potential

Located in the Orange Basin, along the passive west coast of the continental margin that straddles the borders of South Africa, there has been a discovery of an oil province in Namibia – the offshore Graf and Venus fields – that likely contains billions of barrels of oil resources. That’s according to Robin Sutherland, an exploration manager for Monitor Exploration, a UK-based private exploration company involved in oil and gas exploration in Africa. Of equal importance, he said, is the recent drilling by ReconAfrica, which “clearly proves” that the Ovambo Basin, a large pre-Cambrian basin in the far north of Namibia, is oil bearing with very significant potential. “Both of these events represent major changes to our understanding of the potential of Namibia,” said Sutherland.

Added on 01 May, 2022

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

Geoscientists Protect Vulnerable Populations Against Natural Disasters

This is the story of two tragedies – one in Nepal, one in India – but more importantly, how humanitarian projects by Geoscientists without Borders may help prevent the devastation of the next two. And the tragedies after that. In 2015, an earthquake struck near Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu, which is in the central part of the country. Almost 10,000 people were killed, many thousands more injured and more than 600,000 structures in Kathmandu and other nearby towns were either damaged or destroyed. Václav Kuna, a postdoctoral geophysics researcher was moved to do something about it.

Added on 01 May, 2022

Explorer Foundation Update By Vern Stefanic

Foundation Supports ‘The Ocean on Top of Our Mountain’ Animated Series

An innovative animated series aimed at young children that tells the story of the Indian subcontinent’s epic tectonic history in creative and even entertaining ways is now closer to reality, thanks to the AAPG Foundation. Trustees have approved initial support for “The Ocean on the Top of Our Mountain,” which graphically tells the story of the region’s 5,000-mile migration northward from Gondwana to its collision with Asia.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Explorer Historical Highlights By Brent Greenhalgh

Frontier Exploration in the Rocky Mountain West

There are times when national and local forces combine in such a way that the entire hydrocarbon value chain is realized in a frontier area over the course of only a few years. Such was the case for the natural gas fields in southwestern Wyoming over the decades of the 1920s to the ‘40s.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Explorer Geophysical Corner By John Castagna,Kenneth Bredesen,Ritesh Sharma,Satinder Chopra

Phase Decomposition: a Reservoir Management Tool?

Phase decomposition is an interesting technique that can decompose a composite seismic signal into different phase components, and which in turn can help with the characterization of thin target sandstone or carbonate reservoirs. Here we discuss the application of phase decomposition as a reservoir management tool, with the odd phase component (sum of plus 90 degrees and minus 90 degrees phase components) showing better correlation with the wells that control the injection and withdrawal of a natural gas storage reservoir in Denmark.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Explorer Article By Barry Friedman

Is It Time to Resurrect the Lost Art of Conventional Exploration?

These days, more uncertain than the price of gas, especially with the announcement last month from the administration to ban the import of Russian oil and gas, combined with the European Union’s decision to cut imports by 80 percent, is the question of whether the world will get the energy it needs – and who will provide it. To that end, it’s worth considering what conventional oil and gas reservoirs here in America can be drilled and placed online quickly to help fill that need.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Explorer Emphasis Article By David Brown

A Bond Forged in Road Trips and Geoscience

Here’s one sign of change in university- level geoscience education: This year, for the first time, both recipients of AAPG’s Grover E. Murray Memorial Distinguished Educator Award are female geology professors. Their careers have followed different paths and include contrasting professional interests, but the stories of their respective educational histories share several common links. That story starts with James Taylor. And chocolate chip cookies.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Explorer Article By Emily Llinás

AAPG’s ICE is Back

Geoscientists and industry leaders throughout the world are preparing for the International Conference and Exhibition Cartagena 2022, AAPG’s flagship international event taking place in Cartagena, Colombia, April 19-22. Held for the last time in Buenos Aires in August 2019, ICE returns to Latin America after a three-year break imposed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Added on 01 April, 2022

Workshop

Muscat, Oman

Monday, 6 April – Wednesday, 8 April 2026, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

3rd Edition: Structural Styles of the Middle East

The AAPG Structural Styles of the Middle East is back! This exciting and highly anticipated Geoscience Technology Workshop will take place from 6 – 8 April 2026, in Muscat, Oman. This workshop aims to explore the diverse structural styles resulting from the different deformation phases on the tectonostratigraphic framework of the Arabian Plate and adjacent regions.

Added on 07 January, 2025

DL Abstract By Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce

Reconstructing a Late Pleistocene East African Paleolandscape using the Footprints of our Ancestors

Fossil hominin footprints offer a unique and immediate snapshot of our ancestors' lives, capturing their ecological, environmental, and behavioral contexts over remarkably short time scales. This presentation delves into the discovery and analysis of over 400 human footprints from Engare Sero, Tanzania, located on the southern shore of Lake Natron.

Request a visit from Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce!

Added on 19 August, 2024

DL Abstract By Isabelle Moretti

The Natural H₂ Exploration Started: Why, Where and by Who?

Why H₂ is generated in subsurface? Which are the reactions and the promising geological setting? Example in countries where H₂ have already been found: Australia, Brazil. Kinetic reactions: i.e., Is the natural H₂ renewable? What we don't know yet about this resource and about the H₂ systems (generation/transport/accumulation). Overview of the current landscape (subsurface law, permitting, E&P activity)

Request a visit from Isabelle Moretti!

Added on 13 September, 2023

DL Abstract By Alex Simms

Interactions Between Ice Sheets and Relative Sea Levels: Lessons From Antarctica and NW Scotland

Local sea-level changes are not simply a function of global ocean volumes but also the interactions between the solid Earth, the Earth’s gravitational field and the loading and unloading of ice sheets. Contrasting behaviors between Antarctica and Scotland highlight how important the geologic structure beneath the former ice sheets is in determining the interactions between ice sheets and relative sea levels.

Request a visit from Alex Simms!

Added on 21 July, 2022

DL Abstract By Fernanda Raggio

Shaping New Leadership in an Evolving Energy Business

The Energy sector is a changing business environment. Throughout the 20th century fluctuations of oil supply and demand produced changes in the barrel price that pushed the growth or shrinkage of the industry. In this 21st century, new challenges such as diversification of the energy mix, boosting gas demand, require the exploration of critical minerals and development of new technologies as well.

Request a visit from Fernanda Raggio!

Added on 19 August, 2024

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

How Orogens Could Collapse Forming Sedimentary Basins: The Case of the Betic-Rif Orogen

The Betic hinterland, in the westernmost Mediterranean, constitutes a unique example of a stack of metamorphic units. Using a three-dimensional model for the crustal structure of the Betics-Rif area this talk will address the role of crustal flow simultaneously to upper-crustal low-angle faulting in the origin and evolution of the topography.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By Lesli Wood

The Future of Geoscience: Your role in saving the Earth

The Earth is not a fragile place, but our place on the Earth is very fragile. Geoscience offers a pathway to understand how the Earth has evolved and the role of biological life forms in that evolution.

Request a visit from Lesli Wood!

Added on 19 August, 2024

VG Abstract By Juan I. Soto

Salt versus Shales in Continental Margins and Orogens

In comparison with the known boundary conditions that promote salt deformation and flow in sedimentary basins, the processes involved with the mobilization of clay-rich detrital sediments are far less well established. This talk will use seismic examples in different tectonic settings to document the variety of shale geometries that can be formed under brittle and ductile deformations.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

Added on 26 June, 2019

DL Abstract By Kurt W. Rudolph

Tectonic Controls on Source Rock Deposition

While there are many habitats that are associated with the deposition of organic-rich marine and lacustrine source rocks, one important pathway is linked to the onset of increased basin subsidence associated with major tectonic events. A key aspect is that this subsidence is spatially variable, with the uplift of basin flanks contemporaneous with the foundering of the basin center, resulting in a steeper basin profile.

Request a visit from Kurt W. Rudolph!

Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By John Castagna

Beyond Physics in Geophysics

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address.

Request a visit from John Castagna!

Added on 14 September, 2023

DL Abstract By John Suppe

Probing What Makes the Crust Strong (or Weak): Insight from Boreholes, Earthquakes, Active Fault Systems, and Toy Models

For well over a century there have been conflicting indications of the strength of the crust and of faults and what controls them. Much of our ignorance comes quite naturally from the general inaccessibility of the crust to measurement--in contrast with our understanding of the atmosphere, which is much more accessible to observation as well as more rapidly changing. Crustal strength is best understood in deforming sedimentary basins where the petroleum industry has made great contributions, particularly in deforming petroleum basins because of the practical need to predict. In this talk we take a broad look at key issues in crustal strength and deformation and what we can learn from boreholes, earthquakes, active fault systems, and toy models.

Request a visit from John Suppe!

Added on 14 September, 2023

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