AAPG Day 2: industrial seismologists get all the cool toys.

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Chris Rowan

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the industrial sector is out in force at AAPG; most of the main exhibition hall is taken up by exploration companies and consultancies showing off their technical and intellectual wares. And some of the stuff on display is enough to cause anyone’s inner geek to explode in paroxysms of techno-joy.
The coolest thing that I’ve seen so far was an entire wall of linked monitors, which could be used to display 3D seismic data sets in stunning detail. Even better, it was interactive: lasers scanning in front of the display could locate a reflective pointer placed anywhere on the screen, movements of which could be used to rotate or zoom in or out of the dataset, or even to trace reflective horizons on-the-fly.
The guy giving the demonstration also showed me and Jeanette how you could use image processing routines to pick out fault planes, or even different packages of rock – such as channels – with specific acoustic characteristics, within a particular 3D volume. The level of discrimination they are now achieving with these processing tools is pretty incredible- it’s a long way from picking out horizons with a colouring pencil – or even a mouse.
Anyway I was pretty much drooling, and I don’t even do seismic interpretation. It makes me wonder – how many geologists went into industry not for the money, but for all the wonderful toys you get to play with?

Categories: academic life, conferences, geology, geophysics

AAPG Day 1: rifting models, snowballs, and other miscellany

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Chris Rowan

It has to be said that it’s never been a particular ambition of mine to mix with the luminaries of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Still, lots of interesting research does get done in the name of finding and extracting oil: if you want to know where it is, and how much there is, and the best way to get it out of the ground, you need to understand the depositional systems that generate source and reservoir rocks, and how the tectonic development of particular regions has generated hydrocarbons and the structural nooks and crannies that allow them to accumulate. And sometimes, getting to grips with these questions forces you to look at some quite fundamental aspects of Earth Sciences.

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Categories: academic life, conferences, geology, tectonics

Trees growing on (or in) old rocks

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Chris Rowan

The latest meme to hit the geoblogosphere involves trees, of all things. Of course, vegetation changes can give important clues to changes in the underlying rock type (the acidity, mineral content and texture of soils will change significantly if you go from a shale to a granite, for example, and so will the sorts of things that like growing in it). But sometimes, they take a more active geological role. This fig tree is growing roots into the rock (2.5 billion year-old limestone, in this case), and breaking it apart:

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(why is the close-up is in black-and-white? I was obviously feeling arty that day)

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Categories: bloggery, photos

To Cape Town!

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Chris Rowan

Right, I’m off to Cape Town for an action-packed few days. First, Christie has persuaded me to give a talk at her home University, hopefully followed by a beer or seven – after being beaten over the head with paleomagnetic terminology, my audience will almost certainly need it.
Over the weekend, I’ll have the chance to do some sightseeing, which will hopefully include a view from Table Mountain, although the weather might scupper that. Then, from Monday to Wednesday, I’m attending the AAPG International Conference. By a convoluted route I’ve ended up with a poster to present in Wednesday afternoon’s ‘Advances in Gravity and Magnetics’ session. There’s a few other interesting-looking sessions in between, including a session devoted to everyone’s favorite mud volcano, where the “man-made” and “earthquake triggered” camps will face off against each other and turn the air mildly turquiose with cutting remarks. And, since it’s a while since I gave you the latest satellite image, here it is:

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Depending on the state of internet access, I might try some conference live-blogging. No promises, though.
As an added bonus, Jeanette from Ten Million Years of Solitude is also in town, so it looks like a small geoblogger meet-up is also on the cards. If any other readers happen to be in town, let me know.

Categories: academic life, bloggery, Lusi

It’s Earth’s Official Birthday!

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Chris Rowan

I say official, because, just like the Queen’s, the date does not actually mean much from a natal perspective. Nonetheless, the night preceding, or the morning of, October 23rd, 4004 BC is the date that Archbishop Ussher, after a bit of fudging around with Biblical genealogies, reportedly assigned as the moment in which our planet popped into existence.
For the full story, go read some Stephen Jay Gould. Or better yet, read this book. The take home message is that Ussher can be forgiven for treating the Bible as literal history, and indeed should be saluted as a fine scholar. His modern day contempories, on the other hand, are cut from an entirely different (anti-)intellectual cloth. Although they have to work quite hard at it nowadays (via Exploring Our Matrix):

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And, just for a sense of just how much these people are denying:

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Whilst I know that you should always err on the side of caution with a lady’s age, this is like telling a 35 year old they look they were conceived less than half an hour ago.

Categories: antiscience, geology, ranting