The oldest and most prestigious geological society in the world, The Geological Society (of London), invited Tom Chidsey and Michael Vanden Berg to present papers at a global symposium on a newly discovered major oil potential that occurs all around the world. Microbial carbonates are a distinctive type of reservoir rock that until recently was unrecognized in terms of oil potential. Several new oil fields have been discovered in various areas of the world and some are already producing. Chidsey and Vanden Berg researched both modern (where microbial carbonates are forming today in Great Salt Lake) and ancient (the roughly 54 million-year-old Green River Formation) analogs. They found microbial rocks in Utah (the Green River Formation), particularly in the Uinta Basin. Their presentations will make oil companies aware of the vast new oil potential in Utah.
Tom Chidsey and Mike Vanden Berg in front of the “map that changed the world”, William Smith’s geologic map of Great Britain, published in 1815. Displayed at the Geological Society of London, this was the first geologic map ever created.
On April 18, 2013, four geologists from the Hazards Program of the Utah Geological Survey flew along the Wasatch Front in a Utah Air National Guard Blackhawk helicopter. The flight was part of the Great Utah ShakeOut 2013 earthquake drill, as well as an opportunity to take high-resolution photos of the fault scarps along the Front from the air. The four geologists were Adam Hiscock, Gregg Buekelman, Mike Hylland, and Adam McKean. It was a freezing cold day in April! Over 1200 photos were taken from the air.
Adam McKean, Mike Hylland, Gregg Buekelman, and Adam Hiscock
Southeast of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
The White Pine rock slide covers the floor of Little Cottonwood Canyon with boulders of granitic rock of the Tertiary-age Little Cottonwood stock. These rocks broke loose from the north side of the glacially-carved canyon several thousand years ago.
Fishlake National Forest, Piute County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen
Storm clouds gather over Mount Belknap (12,137 feet) in the Tushar Mountains, Utah’s third-highest range. The smooth, rounded slopes of this summit ridge are composed of easily eroded volcanic ash and lava flows. The mountains are part of the eruptive center of the Marysvale volcanic field, an area of intense volcanic activity between 32 and 22 million years ago.