CANCELLED DUE TO LOW REGISTRATION

This is an introduction to the interpretation of siliciclastic depositional environments with a focus on subsurface data sets, and how to use that information to make predictions. Settings that will be covered include alluvial (meandering rivers, etc., and paleosols), coastal (wave-, fluvial- and tide-dominated), estuarine incised valley fills, deepwater fans (channel fills, levees, lobes), and contourites. Data sets will include outcrop photo pans, well logs, and high-resolution, large format core photos.  This course is intended to provide a basic introduction to these settings over the course of two days.

Carbonate reservoir rocks host hydrocarbons and mineral deposits as well as being a potential sink for carbon capture.  However, understanding and predicting lateral and vertical variability of carbonates are challenging.  This course is designed to inform your ability to make those predictions.  This full-day short course reviews the basics of carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy, including sediment components, depositional environments, stratigraphic successions, and seismic architectures.  At this pivotal time of energy transition, attendees will gain an appreciation for the potential of carbonates not just as reservoirs, but as important records of earth history.

Sedimentary geology has historically been dominated by conceptual qualitative models to explain and predict depositional systems and the strata they accumulate. More recently analogue and numerical forward models have been developed and are increasingly used to progress understanding and predictive power. This workshop will give a practical introduction to the theory and practice of numerical stratigraphic forward modelling and how this kind of modelling can help us better understand sedimentary systems. The course will be given in an NAU computer classroom with access to programs.  

During this work shop we will look at:

•    What is a stratigraphic forward model, and what are the advantages of a quantitative forward model over a qualitative model?

•    What are the components of a stratigraphic forward model and how are they constructed?

•    What are the different ways we can use these types of forward model, and how have they impacted on our understanding of strata?

•    What are the likely next developments in stratigraphic forward models?

UNFORTUNATELY THIS COURSE IS CANCELLED DUE TO ISSUES WITH HAVING CORE ONSITE.

Learn the principles of ichnology, identification of trace fossils and their interpretations of sedimentary characteristics.  This two-day course will introduce attendees to the principles of ichnology, the criteria for identifying key trace fossil types, the assessment of bioturbation intensity, the recognition of physico-chemical stresses, the use of ichnology to characterize sedimentary facies to identify depositional environments, the recognition of trace fossil omission suites for identifying sequence stratigraphic discontinuities, and the assessment of the impact(s) of bioturbation on the flow-media properties of reservoirs.

CANCELLED DUE TO LOW REGISTRATION

Due to the homogeneous nature and limited thickness of most unconventional resource plays, seismic has very limited applicability. Therefore this is not a Seismic Stratigraphy course and the bulk of our time will be investigating these reservoirs using well logs (including borehole image logs), core and thin-sections. Each day of the course will be devoted to one play type with case-studies from popular oil and gas fields within North America.

1: Learn how to identify siliciclastic depositional settings from basic observations of sedimentary structures, burrows, lithology, and stacking patterns.

2: Learn how to use this information to make predictions about the distribution of sandstone and mudstone.

The instructor will provide a small collection of well logs and core photos.  

CANCELLED DUE TO LOW REGISTRATION

A general background in clastic depositional environments and seismic interpretation would be useful. This is a hands-on course (workshop format) where participants will spend most of their time performing sequence and seismic analysis seismic lines provided by the instructor. The teaching collection of seismic data are text-book examples collected from basins across the globe. The course not only covers the practice of sequence stratigraphy using seismic data, but spends quite a bit of time on seismic facies analysis in cross-sectional and map view.  Also covered is clinoform trajectory analysis that allows the interpreter to predict whether the clinoforms on their seismic data will be sand-rich or if the sand has by-passed the shelf and been deposited in the basin as deepwater lobes. Through lots of exercises by the end of the course everyone should be proficient at sequence analysis on seismic lines and be able to interpret depositional environments and net:gross using seismic facies analysis.