38th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Perkins-Rosen Research Conference
The Cenomanian-Turonian Stratigraphic Interval Across the Americas: Argentina to Alaska
Dates: 5-7 December 2022
Location: Houston, Texas
The Cenomanian-Turonian (C-T) is a stratigraphic interval significant for the widespread occurrence of carbon-rich sediments, especially organic-rich mudstones (ORMs), resulting in sequestration of large volumes of organic carbon, and the deposition of major hydrocarbon source rocks and unconventional reservoirs. The coincidence of ORMs with a dramatic carbon isotopic excursion (Oceanic Anoxic Event - OAE-2) and the highest sea-levels of the Phanerozoic, have led to hypotheses that these attributes are produced by complex interactions between the bio-, hydro- and geospheres unique to this period. One common assertion is that high nutrient availability caused high primary productivity in the oceans, resulting in large volumes of organic carbon being fluxed to the sediment-water interface. This carbon input contributed to low oxygen concentrations, which, coupled with reduced water column circulation and reduced coarse clastic inputs, resulted in organic-rich rocks being coincidentally deposited across the globe. But is this the whole story?
The aim of the 38th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Perkins-Rosen Research Conference is to understand the drivers for the observed C-T record and what this tells us about the carbon cycle and the Earth system. To do this we will (1) examine the C-T sections preserved across the Americas (Argentina to the Arctic); (2) provide a review of the climatic and oceanographic processes that drive the carbon cycle and C-T geological record; (3) provide the latest ideas on the tectonic and paleogeographic context in which these processes operated during the C-T; (4) provide the most recent research on the stratigraphic record of the C-T and how well constrained, or not, this is. The meeting will target successions in diverse depositional basins with varied tectonic histories and different oceanographic settings along this south to north transect. This examination of how the fundamental stratigraphic controls interact to influence facies variability, including organic carbon enrichment, should shed light on this exceptional and important period of the geological record when large volumes of organic carbon were being sequestered, at least locally, from the biosphere into the geosphere. This will provide an excellent opportunity to apply learnings and data from the petroleum industry to better understand the Earth system, especially the carbon cycle.
Call for Abstracts
We are soliciting contributions for oral and poster presentations from individuals in academic, industry, and governmental organizations with experience in the structural, stratigraphic, oceanographic, climatic, and geochemical characteristics of Cenomanian-Turonian rocks or petroleum products from different locations across this wide-ranging geographic area. These foundational contributions will provide a basis for linking the underlying controls to the rock record, and ultimately the prospectivity of these basins. We intend that these contributions will lead to a more robust understanding of the fundamental mechanisms controlling the global deposition and variability of organic-rich rocks in this exceptional succession, and how this affects our understanding of the carbon cycle. Our goal is that the 38th Annual Perkins-Rosen Conference becomes known as a key milestone in achieving this understanding.
Abstract Submission Details
Abstract Submission Deadline is May 6, 2022, now extended to May 31st!
Please complete the form below by downloading and and submitting it with your abstract. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words and one figure is allowed. Please send your abstract form as a Word document to mtomlinson@sepm.org. Do NOT send PDF versions of your abstract submission for formatting purposes.
Perkins-Rosen 2022 Abstract Submission Form.docx
Themes and Topical sessions may include:
Tectono-stratigraphic context
- Stratigraphic framework
- Distribution and character of ORMs from Terra De Fuego to Alaska.
- Paleogeography and depositional systems of the C-T
- Tectonics and plate reconstructions
- Large igneous provinces (LIPS) and the role of igneous activity
Physical and chemical processes
- Paleoclimatology and atmospheric chemistry
- Oceanic circulation and ocean chemistry
- The role of Milankovitch cycles and oceanic gateways as the drivers of the C-T record.
- Weathering, erosion, and source-to-sink
Biochemical processes
- The carbon cycle
- Nutrient cycling
- Biogenic production and the role of auto-dilution
- Diagenesis and burial
ABSTRACT AND PAPER SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS/DEADLINES
(Prelimilnary, subject to change)
| Preliminary title abstract submitted to: mtomlinson@sepm.org |
May 27, 2022 | Preliminary Program Announced |
July 1, 2022 | Full papers and extended abstracts due. |
September 23, 2022 | Final edited manuscript and illustrations due. |
December 5-7, 2022 | Conference in Houston |
December 8-9, 2022 | Core Workshop in Houston |
Key questions we aim to address
- Does our understanding of the C-T carbon cycle and Earth system provide us with clues for carbon management in the Anthropocene?
- What does the preserved record of organic carbon in the C-T reflect our understanding of tectonic, physical, and biochemical processes and drivers?
- Do we know enough to predict/retrodict (“predict” the past) this record with our current paleogeography/paleoclimate understanding and models?
- Have we missed any key processes or interactions? If so what are the remaining uncertainties that need to be addressed?
- How does the Americas record compare with the C-T across the world – is this global?
- Are the organic-rich units contemporaneous, comprising discrete “synchronous” events? How good is the age-dating?
- Is the C-T interval really that special? How and why?
Core Workshop
- A Core Workshop will be held on December 8-9, 2022, featuring USGS Eagle Ford behind-the-outcrop research cores, as well as additional cores from the Eagle Ford and other C-T intervals (For more details, see separate announcement).
There will be a core workshop held in conjunction with the 38th Annual GCSSEPM Perkins-Rosen Research Conference on the Cenomanian – Turonian (C-T) stratigraphic interval. The overall goal of the research conference is to understand controls on geologic carbon sequestration using the observed C-T record as a natural laboratory. The aim of the core workshop is to provide participants with hands-on opportunities to examine cores from across the Americas to place the stratigraphic expression of the carbon cycle into the context of sedimentary processes associated with natural carbon sequestration during the C-T interval. Lithofacies and depositional processes seen in core will be linked to the tectono-stratigraphic framework, and climatic, oceanographic, and biochemical processes through core discussions and interactive poster presentations. This will provide an excellent opportunity to unravel how fundamental stratigraphic controls interacted to influence spatial and temporal variability in geologic carbon sequestration in this very unusual time interval in Earth history.
Specific questions to be addressed include but are not limited to: (1) where is the inorganic carbonate stored, and how did it get there; (2) where is the organic carbon stored, and how did it get there; (3) how do the inorganic carbonate and organic carbon each relate to depositional and diagenetic processes, such as production, destruction and dilution, as seen in core; and (4) can we distinguish biogenic carbonate from carbonate cement produced through the mineralization of organic carbonate.
We are soliciting contributions of cores through the C-T interval for the workshop, along with relevant posters to be presented concurrently. We are looking for a broad geographic range of cores to capture as much spatial variability across the C-T interval as possible. Poster presentations that are tied to core research are highly encouraged.
The core workshop will be held at the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Houston Research Center (HRC) 11611 West Little York Rd, Houston, Texas 77041.
Venues
Research Conference, December 5-7, 2022
Equinor US
2107 CityWest Blvd, Suite 100
Houston, Texas 77042
Core Workshop, December 8-9, 2022
Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
Houston Research Center
11611 West Little York Rd.
Houston, Texas 77041-4715
Technical Program Committee Leaders/Conveners
Joe Macquaker, ExxonMobil, Houston, TX
Paul Markwick, Knowing Earth, Leeds, UK
Katherine J. Whidden, USGS, Denver, CO
John Suter, GCSSEPM Foundation, Houston, TX
Technical Program Committee
Jason Flaum, USGS
Lauren Birgenheier, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Richard Denne, TCU, Fort Worth, TX
Douglas Paton, TectonKnow, Leeds, UK
Per Pederson, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Steve Sonnenberg, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO
Milly Wright, Chemostrat, Houston, TX
This conference is made possible by our sponsors! If you are interested in conference sponsorship, please contact us.
The GCSSEPM Foundation supports and complies with the SEPM Code of Conduct.
