Contact Theresa Scott with any questions regarding Short Courses. 

All course registration needs to occur through AAPG .

SEPM #3
Seismic Expression of Structural Styles: A Modeling Approach

Date: Sunday, April 20
Time: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Location: Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
Instructors: Martha O. Withjack (Rutgers University) and Rolf Ackermann (Landmark/Halliburton)
Fee: Students $30 (limited number available)
(includes course notes and refreshments)

Structural geometries are distorted on seismic-reflection profiles. These distortions can obscure critical structural relationships and, consequently, can affect tectonic interpretations and hydrocarbon exploration and production strategies. During this course, you will interpret several synthetic time-migrated seismic profiles. The synthetic profiles are seismic models of geologic cross sections representative of several structural styles.

Comparisons of your seismic interpretations with the geologic cross sections will reveal the seismic characteristics and interpretational pitfalls for each structural style. The recognition and accurate delineation of structural traps on seismic data depend on the application of this knowledge together with structural concepts and seismic modeling.

SEPM #9
Sequence Stratigraphy for Graduate Students

Dates: Saturday, April 19 - Sunday, April 20
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel
Instructors: Vitor Abreu and Jack Neal (ExxonMobil Exploration Company)
Fee: Students - $10 (includes course notes, a $20 SEPM book coupon, lunches and refreshments)
Limit: 40 persons
Content: 16 PDH, 1.6 CEU

This course is designed to teach graduate students the principles, concepts and methods of sequence stratigraphy. Sequence stratigraphy is an informal chronostratigraphic methodology that uses stratal surfaces to subdivide the stratigraphic record. This methodology allows the identification of coeval facies, documents the time-transgressive nature of classic lithostratigraphic units and provides geoscientists with an additional way to analyze and subdivide the stratigraphic record.

Using exercises that utilize outcrop, core, well log and seismic data, the course provides a hands-on experience to learning sequence stratigraphy. The exercises include classic case studies from which many sequence stratigraphic concepts were originally developed. The main objectives of the course are to review:

• Basic concepts and terminology of sequence stratigraphy
• The stratigraphic building blocks of depositional sequences
• Recognition criteria for the identification of depostional sequences and their components in outcrops, cores, well logs and seismic
• The application of sequence stratigraphy in non-marine, shallow marine and submarine depositional settings.

SEPM #10
3-D Seismic Interpretation for Geologists

Dates: Saturday, April 19 - Sunday, April 20
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel
Instructor: Bruce Hart (McGill University)
Fee: Students - $10; Professionals - $300 (includes course notes and refreshments)
Limit: 40 persons
Content: 16 PDH, 1.6 CEU

This course teaches participants about the principles of 3-D seismic interpretation. The content and level of instruction are scaled to participants' level of familiarity with the technology. By the end of the course, participants will understand:

• The physical basis of the seismic method
• The differences between 2-D and 3-D seismic acquisition, processing and interpretation workflows
• How choices made during acquisition and processing affect data interpretability
• How 3-D seismic data are interpreted and integrated with other data types

This course includes lectures, in-class problems and live demonstrations of interpretations. Some of the topics to be covered are:

• The 3-D seismic revolution - history and methods
• Physical basis of reflection seismology - seismic waves, reflectors and rock properties
• 2-D seismic acquisition and processing
• 3-D seismic acquisition, processing and display property information from 3-D seismic data and time-lapse ("4-D") seismic methods

Selected case studies including:

• Hydrothermal dolomites - Appalachian Basin
• Fracture-swarm sweet spots in tight-gas sandstones - San Juan Basin

SEPM #11
Core Workshop on Developing Models and Analogs for Isolated Carbonate Platforms - Holocene and Pleistocene Carbonates of Caicos Platform, British West Indies

Dates: Sunday, April 20
Time: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Location: Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
Instructors: William A. Morgan (ConocoPhillips) and Paul M. (Mitch) Harris (Chevron Energy)
Fee: Student - $50 (limited number available) Professionals - $150 (includes course notes, lunch and refreshments)
Limit: 100 persons
Content: 8 PDH, 0.8 CEU

Caicos Platform, located at the southeast end of the Bahamian Archipelago, is an ideal setting for studying modern carbonate sedimentary processes. It is also widely used as an analogue for ancient carbonate systems in general and large, isolated, ancient platforms in particular, including hydrocarbon-bearing platforms in the North Caspian basin and southeast Asia. Studies of Holocene and Pleistocene sediments of the Platform began in earnest in the 1980s and have been ongoing since.

The purpose of this workshop is to share information among workers from academia and industry who are studying depositional systems of the Caicos Platform, as well as provide an educational opportunity for geoscientists interested in Holocene and Pleistocene carbonates and their use an analogs for understanding ancient carbonate platforms and their reservoir potential.

Presentations will include introductory oral interviews of Holocene depositional systems on the Platform to provide a regional understanding and context, but most presentations will be in poster format to facilitate discussion among participants. Poster presentations will incorporate cores and seismic profiles that illustrate the sedimentology, depositional facies and diagenesis of both Holocene sediments and Pleistocene rocks.

SEPM #12
Siliciclastic Shelf Margins Revisited

Dates: Sunday, April 20
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Grand Hyatt Hotel
Instructors: Ron Steel, Andy Petter, and Cornel Olariu (Dept of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin)
Fee: Student - $75 (limited number available) Professionals - $175 (includes course notes and refreshments)
Limit: 40 persons
Content: 8 PDH, 0.8 CEU

This short course will present new ideas on morphology, architecture and accretion of shelf and shelf margin prisms. The course will focus on (1) shelf transit principles and the importance of supply, sea-level, shelf width and shelf/coastal plain gradient, (2) shelf and shelf-slope break variability; shelf morphology in high- and low-supply conditions, (3) evolution and architecture of sediment-delivery systems (deltas) on the shelf, (4) slope channels, sediment deposition vs. by-pass on the slope and hyperpycnal flow as a new slope-delivery mechanism, (5) sea-level driven lowstand vs. supply-driven highstand mdoels for shelf margin accretion and fans and (6) rules of thumb for predicting deepwater sands. Lectures will be interspersed with well-log and seismic exercises.