2009 Abstracts
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January 2009 - Emmons Lecture
The Future of Electricity: Future Trends in Electrical Delivery, Demand and Generation Systems
By Tom Plant, Director, State of Colorado Governor’s Energy Office
This month’s talk is the 47th annual S.F. Emmons Lecture of the Colorado Scientific Society. The first Emmons Lecture was given in 1962, in honor of Samuel Franklin Emmons, founder of the Colorado Scientific Society. This annual lecture is a highlight of the year’s program and has in the past featured speakers who are recognized nationally or internationally as being in the forefront of research in some important facet of Earth science.
This year’s S.F. Emmons Lecture will be given by Tom Plant, Director of the State of Colorado Governor’s Energy Office.
The focus of Tom’s talk will be about the future of electricity.
Tom will address the changing nature of our electrical delivery,
demand and generation systems, and the resulting necessary changes in
our electricity infrastructure. Tom will review some of the current developments at the State and Federal level to push us toward the envisioned changes. Tom’s discussion of the future of electricity is very timely due to the new administration’s inauguration two days prior to the talk and the debate that will be raging throughout January on the economic stimulus bill, as well as the potential re-opening and authorization of the Energy Act of 2005.
Tom Plant is the Director of the State of Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. In 2007, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., re-created the Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation (originally created in 1977 to promote energy conservation in Colorado) as the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). The GEO’s mission is to lead Colorado to a “New Energy Economy” by advancing energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy resources. The GEO works with communities, utilities, private and public organizations, and individuals to promote renewable energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal, and energy-efficient technologies in commercial and residential buildings. The New Energy Economy embraces a broad mission to meet the goals of expanding renewable and clean energy resources and opportunities for the state’s economy, environment, and energy independence.
February 2009
Structural and Tectonic Evolution of the Douglas Creek Arch, Northwestern Colorado: Implications for Petroleum Accumulation in the Uinta and Piceance Basins
By Jeff Bader, Consulting Geologist
The Douglas Creek arch is a north-south trending, faulted anticline that separates the Uinta Basin of Utah,
from the Piceance Basin of Colorado. The arch is postulated to have initially formed during the Laramide
orogeny as part of a broad, regional north- to south-trending uplift that extended from northwest Colorado
into southern Wyoming and included the Rock Springs uplift. The axis of this structure was offset sinistrally
and truncated by the late-Laramide uplift of the Uinta Mountains, thus contributing to the present orientation
of the arch. Concurrently with the uplift of the Uintas, the axis of the “newly formed” Douglas Creek arch
is postulated to have been offset and rotated due to sinistral-slip on an east-west trending, steeply dipping,
basement-seated fault (Douglas Creek fault). Northwest-trending fractures in the Uinta and Piceance basins
indicate that dextral wrenching may have occurred along the Douglas Creek shear zone during post-Laramide
tectonism.
A variety of data were evaluated to assess the aforementioned hypothesis. These data were used to evaluate
the genetic relationship between interpreted Precambrian basement structures and shallower structures
formed in the sedimentary cover above the basement-centered shear zone during interpreted periods of lateand
post-Laramide wrenching.
Results of this study indicate that the Douglas Creek fault likely has a Precambrian ancestry and has been
reactivated during the Phanerozoic. Structures in the study area are consistent with periodic sinistral slip, dominantly
along the Douglas Creek fault, during late-Laramide tectonism. Northwest-trending fractures flanking
the Douglas Creek arch and extending into the surrounding basins are likely synthetic strike-slip faults related
to dextral-slip on the Douglas Creek fault. This deformation is probably due to northwest translation of the
Colorado Plateau and opening of the Rio Grande rift during Tertiary extension.
Wrenching has created enhanced permeability and numerous structural traps for petroleum accumulation
across the Douglas Creek arch and in the surrounding basins. Wrench structures are identified by their distinct
geometries and, using supporting subsurface data, genetic relationships regarding the fundamental origins of
these features can be discerned. Knowledge of the genesis of the wrench system allows for better understanding
of structures related to wrenching and thus a better potential for success in the search for oil and gas.
and
LUSI - Long-lived mud extrusion near Surabaya, Indonesia
By Thomas J. Casadevall, USGS Emeritus
East Java, Indonesia, is an area of active volcanism, long-term oil and gas production, and rapid urban
growth near the city of Surabaya, the second largest city in the island nation. On May 29, 2006, hot,
dark gray mud appeared from a fissure about 150 m distant from a gas exploration well being drilled
near the village of Porong, approximately 30 kilometers south of Surabaya. Extrusion of this mud has
continued for more than 32 months with average extrusion rates of between 50,000 m3 to 120,000 m3/
day. The mud has covered a populated area of more than 10 square kilometers and displaced more than
30,000 people. In addition to the direct human impacts, the mud extrusion has also damaged or broken
important transportation infrastructure, fiber-optic cable infrastructure, displaced an oil pipeline, and
caused the closure of numerous small factories and impacted agricultural development. The mud extrusion
and the resulting mud edifice is referred to locally as LUSI (Lumpur Sidorajo).
Controversy surrounds the cause of the mud extrusion. Is it related to a well blow-out owing to
inadequate drilling precautions, or is it related to a M 6.3 earthquake in Central Java, on May 27, 2006,
several days before extrusion began? This controversy has slowed the delivery of relief services and
resettlement efforts resulting in civil protests and unrest as displaced residents seek restitution. Addressing
the problems caused by the mud extrusion include so-far unsuccessful attempts to shut off
the extrusion at the source and attempts to manage the extrusion of mud so that residents can live with
future mud production.
April 2009
Colorado and the Four Great Geological Surveys of 1867 to 1878
By Emmett Evanoff, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley
After the Civil War, the United States shifted its attention to the development of the West. Not only was the
transcontinental railroad built, but mining districts were discovered and eventually agriculture spread throughout
the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Along with this expansion was a need to learn the distribution and
amounts of geologic resources such as mineral ores, coal and eventually oil. The science of geology had also
developed through numerous state geological surveys, so that new techniques in mapping and geologic interpretations
were available. Four geological surveys were funded by Congress in the late 1860’s and 1870’s to describe
the geology of the West. They included the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories led by Ferdinand
Vandeveer Hayden, the Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel led by Clarence King, the Geological and
Geographic Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region led by John Wesley Powell, and the U.S. Survey & Explorations
West of the 100th Meridian led by Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. These Four Great Surveys are known as
the Hayden Survey, King Survey, Powell Survey, and Wheeler Survey.
Colorado benefited from all of these geological surveys. All four surveys overlapped somewhere in Colorado,
but Colorado was the main focus of the Hayden Survey between 1873 and 1876. The Hayden Survey was
divided into 4 groups that made topographic maps and outlined the geologic features of the entire state. The
topographic mapping of Colorado by Hayden’s surveyors was so good that their work was not superseded until
after World War II. When the Colorado Atlas was published by the Hayden Survey in 1877, Colorado became the
only state that had a detailed geologic map published on a topographic map base. The King and Powell surveys
overlapped with the Hayden Survey in northwest Colorado, but the greatest overlap was with the Wheeler Survey
that extended into the southwest and south-central part of Colorado. Conflicts arose between the Hayden and
Wheeler surveys, both in the field and in Congress.
From the conflicts of the overlapping Surveys in the 1870’s, and the great expense of supporting 4 geologic
surveys, Congress combined all four surveys into the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879. The first Director
of the USGS was Clarence King, who served for one year and then was replaced by John Wesley Powell.
Hayden was shunted to an administrative role in the early USGS, but his Colorado Atlas became the guide for the
USGS maps published after 1879. The USGS set up a Rocky Mountain Division that was based in Denver. This
division was headed by Samuel Emmons, who was a member of the King Survey and became one of the founding
fathers of American economic geology. Emmons described the geology of the Leadville mining district, and
many other mining districts throughout Colorado. He was the first president of the Colorado Scientific Society,
founded in 1882.
May 2009
3D Modeling and Visualization in the Cripple Creek Mining District
By
Timothy R. Brown, Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company
Nearly 24 million ounces of gold have been produced from the Cripple Creek Mining District since it was discovered in 1891. Over 3 million of those ounces were produced since 1995 from the current open-pit, heap leach operation that continues to produce around 300,000 ounces of gold each year. The recent mining began by producing 10 million ore tons each year, and in 2003, increased ore production to 20 million tons per year. This rate of production has presented significant challenges to the Exploration Department to replace this depletion.
Fortunately, exploration activities have successfully replaced reserves for several years. These efforts have been successful for several reasons, but one of the most important is the strong understanding of the district’s ore controls, geology, mineralization and alteration that has been developed over the past several years. This understanding comes, in part, from the 3D modeling and visualization tools that are used on a daily basis.
Several years of work were invested by the Exploration Department to create the 3D model that is used today. Numerous data sets were compiled to create our model that included hundreds of historic maps, thousands of drill holes and numerous scientific publications, geologic maps, theses and dissertations. The result is a robust, geologic model that is easily updated with new data and is available to our geologists and engineers.
The nearby image shows a perspective view of the geologic model that is approximately 4 miles north-south (towards top of image), 4.3 miles east-west and 5,000 feet thick. The central portion of the image, outlined in red, shows rocks of the diatreme-intrusive complex that have erupted through and intruded into the Precambrian basement rocks that are shown in lavender. Drill holes, geophysical data, underground workings, block models and air photos can all be displayed and used to generated and evaluate exploration targets.
September 2009
October
2009
November 2009
December 2009