AAPG's Distinguished Lecture program, which in the past decade has become a truly global effort, is adding another new twist for the 1999-2000 speaker season -- including full support by the AAPG Foundation to keep the costs low.
This year, in addition to offering a speaker slate that goes to many corners of the earth, AAPG and SEG are combining for the first jointly sponsored Distinguished Lecturer.
Alistair R. Brown, author of a best-selling book that was itself a first joint AAPG-SEG publishing effort, will be devoting four weeks to the tours during the upcoming speaker season.
His speaking dates are intended to "promote cooperation among the local SEG geophysical sections and AAPG geological societies, and to strengthen the integration of diverse technical disiplines."
Brown's AAPG-SEG lecture topic is "Let the Data Speak To You: How to Improve Your 3-D Seismic Interpretation."
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is one of 12 Distinguished Lectures being offered this year by AAPG, which also includes six North American speakers and six international speakers -- reflecting a more extensive international program offered by AAPG.
This year the talks cover a diverse range of topics, ranging from global climate change to 3-D seismic interpretation to Tibetan Plateau.
The six international speakers will offer a total of 13 divergent subjects, ranging from Depositional Systems to Paleocaves -- and the origins thereof.
AAPG's Distinguished Lecture program was developed to expose students, young geologists, college faculty members and members of geological societies to current information, research and thinking.
The nine 1998-1999 Distinguished Lecturers provided a total of 137 -- visits, 66 in the eastern section and 71 in the western part of North America -- and reached an audience of 10,352 (58 geological societies and 79 universities).
Additionally, the international sub-committee fielded five speakers that delivered 44 lectures in Australasia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East to an audience of 2,568. The total for both domestic and international was 12,920.
As in past years, support for five of the tours -- including the newly established J. Ben Carsey Distinguished Lecture -- comes from the AAPG Foundation's Distinguished Lecture Fund. They are:
♦ The Allan P. Bennison Distinguished Lecturer -- International Distinguished Lecturer, provided by contributions from Tulsa geologist Allan Bennison.
The Allan P. Bennison lecturers will be presented this year by Knut Bjørlykke, University of Oslo, Norway.
His topics are:
- "Clastic Diagenesis and Porosity Prediction in Sedimentary Basins"
- "Relationships Between Sediment Compaction, Fluid Flow, Overpressures and Oil Migration: Examples from the North Sea and Haltenbanken, Offshore Norway"
♦ The J. Ben Carsey Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions from J. Ben Carsey Jr., of Houston, to establish this new named lecturer in memory of his father, who served as president of AAPG in 1967-68.
This year's inaugural J. Ben Carsey lecturer will be presented by Kevin Bohacs, Exxon Exploration, Houston.
Bohacs will be offering two lectures:
- "Sequence Stratigraphy of Lake Basins: Unraveling the Influence of Climate and Tectonics."
- "Lake-Basin Type, Source Potential and Hydrocarbon Character: An Integrated Sequence-Stratigraphic-Geochemical Approach."
♦ The Haas-Pratt Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions from Merrill W. Haas, in honor of famed geologist (and Haas' mentor) Wallace Pratt, and granted for emphasis on a specific case history application of geology in the discovery of oil and gas reserves.
The Haas-Pratt series will be presented this year by Mark Cooper, PanCanadian Petroleum, Calgary, Canada.
His topics are:
- "Exploring for Hydrocarbons in the Cambro-Orodovician of Newfoundland and Quebec."
- "Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs in the Foothills of the Canadian Rockies."
- "Drilling for Oily Elephants in the Andean Foothills of Colombia."
- "Oil and Gas Fields Associated With Inverted Extensional Faults: A Global Review."
♦ The Roy M. Huffington Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions from the Huffington family in honor of the oilman-geologist.
The Roy M. Huffington lectures will be presented this year by Kenneth R. McClay, Royal Holloway, University of London, U.K. - Australasia tour.
McClay will be offering three lectures:
- "4-D Analysis of Extensional Fault Systems in Rift Basins."
- "3-D Analogue Modeling of Releasing and Restraining Stepovers in Strike-Slip Fault Systems."
- "Tectonic Evolution of the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez Rift Systems."
♦ The Dean A. McGee International Distinguished Lecturer -- provided by contributions from Kerr-McGee Corp., which annually supports international speaking tours.
This year's Dean A. McGee lecturer is Robert Loucks, Arco E&P Technology, Plano, Texas, who will be making a Middle East tour.
His topics are:
- "Paleocaves: Origins, Burial-Depth Modifications, Spatial Complexity and Reservoir Implications."
- "Regional Depositional Setting and Diagenesis of Larger Foraminifera Deposits."
This year's list of domestic Distinguished Lecturers also includes:
♦ Robert C. Balling, Office of Climatology, Arizona State University, Tempe, who is this year's Division of Environmental Geosciences Distinguished Lecturer.
His topic is "A Climate of Doubt About Global Warming."
♦ Clark Burchfiel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
His topic is "Origin of the Tibetan Plateau as Viewed from Eastern Tibet."
This year's International Distinguished Lecturers includes:
♦ Mary Ford, Ecole National Supèrieure de Gèologie, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France, who will be making a Western Europe tour.
She will be offering two topics:
- "Significance of Growth Structures in of Foreland Orogenic Systems."
- "Interaction of Folding, Sedimentation and Erosion in Three Dimensions -- A Study of the Sant Llorenà de Morunys Fault Propagation Fold, SE Pyrenees Using gócad: Initial Results."
♦ Lee Krystinik, Union Pacific Resources, Fort Worth, who will be making a Latin American tour.
He has three topics to offer:
- "Influence of Synsedimentary Tectonics and Sediment Supply on Sequence Stratigraphy and Reservoir Preservation in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway."
- "Depositional Systems, Stratal Architecture and Reservoir Characteristics of a Transgressive Sequence Set, Cretaceous Almond Formation, Wyoming."
- "Sedimentology and Reservoir Architecture in Valley Fill Successions: A Comparison of North American and Eastern Venezuelan Examples."
♦ Frank J. Picha, retired from Chevron Overseas Petroleum, San Ramon, Calif., who will making an Eastern Europe and Central Asia tour.
His topics are:
- "Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Systems in Terms of Global Tectonic Cycles."
- "Exploration for Hydrocarbons Under Thrust Belts -- A Challenging Frontier."
- "Paleogene Valleys of Northern Tethyan Margins and Their Hydrocarbon Potential."
♦ Henry Posamentier, Arco International, Jakarta, Indonesia, who will be making an India/China tour.
His topic is "Beyond the Sequence Stratigraphy Paradigm: Learning to Exploit High-Resolution Data."
For more information on the tours or the program contact Barbara Davis in the AAPG education department.