Congratulations to MARS Project students!
Maia Davis and Ryan Weller were just recognized by the Pacific Section Society for Sedimentary Geology with the John C. Crowell Graduate Award for having the two best 2018-2019 Masters theses in sedimentology/stratigraphy. The Pacific Section includes all universities in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
1st - Maia C. Davis, Cal State Long Beach, "Spatial and geochemical characterization of an anomalous, map-scale dolomite breccia in the Monterey Formation, Santa Maria basin, California"
2nd - Ryan M. Weller, Cal State Long Beach, "Compositional and diagenetic controls of hardness in siliceous mudstones of the Monterey Formation, Belridge oil field, CA: implications for fracture development"
2019 MARS Combined Annual Meeting & Field Trip; August 14-August 16
The 8th Annual Science Meeting was, once again, combined with the Annual Field Trip to be more effiecient for participants coming from overseas from Norway, Denmark and the UK. 23 participants form the Affiliate companies joined 7 MARS Project personnel. We began with a 1-day symposium at the Embassy Suites in Lompoc, where there were 6 presentations by students and staff on MARS Project research and preparation for the field trip. The next day, we first went to the Lompoc Landing location on Vandenberg Air Force Base to examine an exhumed, still charged oil field of fractured chert and porcelanite. In the afternoon, we visited the world's largest diatomite mine, operated by Imerys for splendid exposures. The 3rd day of the meeting took us on a long, beautiful hike through an empy beach south of Guadalupe Dunes to the classic Mussel Rock section, where we examined and discussed the diatomaceous Sisquoc and upper Monterey formations and then investigated the diagenetic transition to chert and porcelanite.
2018 MARS Combined Annual Meeting & Field Trip; July 30-August 1
The 7th Annual Science Meeting was combined with the Annual Field Trip to be more effiecient for participants coming from overseas from Norway, Denmark and the UK. We began with a 1-day symposium at CSULB where there were 9 presentations on MARS Project research and preparation for the field trip. The next day, we took a 2-day excursion to the site of former field work in Malibu (Paradise Cove), Santa Barbara (Arroyo Burro and Haskells Beach) and Santa Maria (Sweeney Road).
.jpeg)
2017 MARS Field Trip; November 1-2
This years field trip focused on diatomite and opal-CT phase rocks. In addition to regular stops where our students have worked on Masters theses - Sweeney Road, Montana de Oro and Gaviota Beach - we also visited a new location at Harris Grade and examined core from McKittrick field in the San Joaquin Basin.
6th MARS Project Workshop; July 28, 2017
The MARS Project Science Meeting took place at California Resources Corporation's offices in Bakersfield. Rick Behl presented a 1/2-day short-course, followed by 2 presentations by CRC specialists. These were followed by presentations by MARS graduate students Jack Farrell and Ryan Weller.
5th Annual Meeting; December 5, 2016
The MARS Project Science Meeting took place at Aera Energy's training facility in Bakersfield. More than 50 people attended the symposium that ran all day, consisting of multiple presentations by Rick Behl and presentations by all of the MARS students.
2015 MARS Field School; July 20-22
This year’s field school was a visit to classic exposures of the Monterey Formation in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria counties. Our objectives were to review excellent examples of stratigraphy, lithofacies, diagenesis, fractures and other deformational mechanisms in the Monterey. We started with a half-day of presentations by Rick Behl and Yannick Wirtz in Solvang, then spent 2 1/2 days in the field. We visited Sweeney Road, Gaviota Beach, Arroyo Burro Beach, and the Boathouse and Lompoc Landing on Vandenberg Air Force Base.
4th Annual Meeting; October 17, 2014
The MARS Project has been in existence for three years now. Six excellent Masters theses have been completed. The meeting was held in the Department of Geological Sciences at CSULB with 31 people in attendance. Through the day, there were 12 separate presentations of newly started and completed work. We had excellent discussions and the attending members from Affiliate companies helped us with valuable comments and suggestions that will help shape new thesis research.2014 MARS Symposium & Field Trip; June 18-19, 2014
This years MARS Project field trip and symposium focused on diatomaceous sedimentology and mixed clastics-diatomite systems. Our field area was the Los Angeles basin. The morning meeting was held in the Department of Geological Sciences at CSULB. Rick Behl gave presentations on diatomaceous sedimentology and the stratigraphy and evolution of the Los Angeles basin. This was followed by excellent guest presentations by Bob Garrison on Monterey Facies around the Pacific Rim and Ken Peters on oil families in Los Angeles and across southern and central California. We followed these with field trips to Newport Beach and Laguna Beach one day, then a long walk through the fascinating section in Malibu between Point Dume and Paradise Cove.
3rd Annual Meeting; October 14, 2013
The MARS Project has been in existence for two years now. This meeting to be held at CSULB’s Barrett Athletic Conference Center (same venue as last year) will showcase completed and near completed research, some greatly evolved from what was presented at the Spring Pacific Section-AAPG meeting. In the past several months, we have completed 3 excellent theses ranging from structural geology to chemostratigraphy to diagenesis of reservoir rocks... with another likely completed before we meet. More will follow within the next 3-6 months. We have been very productive and would like to share the fruit with you. Additionally, we would like to share the new projects that have been started and gather your input and advice on how best to focus them and move them forward.2013 MARS Field Trip & Short Course; June 3-5, 2013
On Monday, we met at the Pismo Lighthouse Suites, Pismo Beach, starting with an afternoon of presentations on the regional geology, stratigraphy, structure of the Santa Maria and Pismo-Huasna basins. Tuesday, we spent the day at Montana de Oro State Park to examine fracture networks, mechanical stratigraphy and its relationship to lithostratigraphy in Miguelito Member of the Pismo Formation (upper Monterey equivalent). This is the field are for Heather Strickland’s thesis and she led us through her observations and conclusions on the role of different mechanical layer boundaries and bedding styles on fracture networks. We then proceeded to Shell Beach to examine organic-rich, and cherty facies of the Monterey, in addition to the spectacular unconformity with the overlying Pismo Formation.
On our final day (Wednesday), we undertook the long slog out to Mussel Rock to examine the Monterey/Sisquoc boundary and gravity flow deposits, the opal-A to opal-CT transition in the upper Monterey, and highly fractured chert-dolomite-porcelanite facies in the middle Monterey (equivalent to reservoir facies in onshore and offshore Santa Maria basin).
AAPG Imperial Barrel Award
Cal State Long Beach places second in the Pacific Section AAPG competition in petroleum exploration - the Imperial Barrel Award.
1 team member was a MARS Project grad student - Hannah Erbele.
2nd Annual Meeting - 1st Science Meeting; September 24, 2012
The MARS Project has been in existence for a year now. There are 10 graduate students and 1 post-doc in the program. Most have developed thesis projects and some have made good progress in their research. The accomplished and proposed research was presented to 20 of our affiliate delegates to garner feedback on the scope, focus, and methods of the projects. The feedback helped us focus our research effectively. The meeting was held from 9 AM to ~ 3 PM, Monday, September 24 in the Barrett Athletic Administration Conference Room at CSULB. 10 presentations were made and these are all available for download on the Affiliates’ site.Spring 2012 Update
- Three MARS grad students have garnered 2012 summer internships with Occidental Petroleum (Annie Mosher), Chesepeake Energy (Daniel Torn), and Shell E & P (Heather Strickland).
- Affiliate members (Aera, PXP, Oxy) contributed valuable sedimentologic, biostratigraphic, and subsurface data in support of Annie Mosher’s study of the Chico Martinez Creek section in the San Joaquin Valley.
- 3D LiDAR survey of Point Fermin Sandstone channel cutting the hemipelagic lithofacies of the Monterey Formation in Palos Verdes was acquired for Nawaf Al Shammary’s thesis research with the aid of colleagues from California State University Northridge.
- 3D LiDAR survey of section of upper “Monterey” (Miguelito member of the Pismo Formation) at Montana de Oro.
- ExxonMobil has loaned us a new handheld gamma ray spectrometer for tying investigations of outcrop section to the subsurface.
- Affiliate members (PXP, Occidental, BrietBurn, Venoco) are contributing subsurface data to Becca Lanners’ thesis research on the chemostratigraphy of the Los Angeles basin.
AAPG Imperial Barrel Award
Cal State Long Beach wins Pacific Section AAPG competition in petroleum exploration - the Imperial Barrel Award.
3 of 5 team members are MARS Project grad students - Heather Strickland, Annie Mosher, and Kristina Hill.
AAPG Core workshop
- Cal State Long Beach hosts AAPG Monterey Seminar and Core Workshop on April 22, 2012.
- >110 geologists, 11 cores from San Joaquin, Santa Maria and Ventura/Santa Barbara basins, 6 lectures, 10 core presenters, and a 190-page workshop notes volume!
1st Short-Course: Mar 27, 2012
The first MARS short-course was held on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. The class was an in-depth, hands-on 1-day short course covering the composition, petrology, identification, and diagenesis of lithologies and lithofacies assemblages that are important to working in the Monterey. The day’s activities were a combination of lecture/PowerPoint presentations, and substantial investigation time with hand samples and thin sections. This benefited relative new-comers to the Monterey who have not spent extensive field and study time with these unusual rocks, but also was of help for experienced Monterey geologists who could use a guided tour and more detailed discussion of the rocks' sedimentary petrology and subtleties. Each Affiliate company was entitled to send two participants (to keep the class-size manageable).1st Annual meeting
The first organizational meeting and field trip of the MARS Project consortium was held July 18-19, 2011 in the Department of Geological Science at California State University Long Beach. There were 22 attendees including 1-3 representatives from the 8 founding Affiliate Members of the project, four graduate students, and the meeting organizers. Presentations were made by Professors Rick Behl and Michael Gross. The organizers then led a valuable day-long discussion focused on defining what are the important unanswered questions about the Monterey that need to be addressed, and what resources were available or needed to investigate them. The meeting was followed the next day by a field trip to examine excellent coastal exposures in the Los Angeles Basin.
