Education Week 2008

Basic Core Logging with Ichnological Techniques (SC0807)

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

Instructor: Kerrie L. Bann
Date: October 27 - 29, 2008
Time: 8:00am to 4:30pm
Duration: 3 Days
Max. Attendance: 20

CSPG Member Earlybird Registration Deadline: September 15, 2008
CSPG Member Registration Deadline: October 15, 2008
Course Fee: CSPG Member Earlybird: $1,350 +GST | CSPG Member: $1,500 +GST

Location: TBA

Course Description:

This Short Course has been designed to teach the basics of logging cored clastic intervals, with the inclusion of fundamental introductory ichnological techniques. Identification of successions from some depositional environments suffers from a lack of definitive diagnostic criteria based on physical sedimentary structures alone. This is particularly true in shallow marine and marginal marine successions where physical sedimentary structures may be difficult to see in core, or have been disturbed or obliterated by bioturbation. More accurate identification of these facies through the integration of sedimentology and ichnology is obviously crucial in building better stratigraphic and palaeogeographic models of reservoirs.

The course presentation and manual are designed to be as practical as possible, and emphasise illustration of introductory concepts and how to apply them in a useful and practical way. The first part of the course introduces basic ichnological concepts with emphasis on promoting understanding of processes, organism behaviour and behavioural groupings (i.e., how to read environmental information from both the primary sedimentary features and the bioturbation styles) rather than on taxonomy and classification of individual ichnogenera. The aim is to avoid the misconception that individual trace fossil types are indicative of particular environments and thus to gain an understanding of what the bioturbation styles suggest about the depositional environment. The second part involves hands on core-logging exercises, involving the application of basic ichnological methods to a number of core examples of shoreface, deltaic and marginal marine successions.

This short course does not propose to teach detailed or advanced ichnology, rather it outlines introductory level ichnological techniques and demonstrates how basic methods are applied during the core logging process. The overall emphasises will focus on the usefulness of a holistic approach to sedimentary facies analysis based on a combination of lithofacies and biofacies.

Instructor Bio(s):

Dr Kerrie L. Bann

Dr Kerrie L. Bann received a Ph.D. in sedimentology, ichnology and high-resolution sequence stratigraphy, from the University of Wollongong, Australia, in 1998.

In 2000, Kerrie undertook a Post-Doc at the University of Queensland, Australia, studying the ichnology and sedimentology of Permian reservoir intervals of the Bowen Basin in Queensland. This study comprised the detailed analysis of over 5000 meters of core and extensive outcrop analysis of shallow marine, deltaic, estuarine, coastal and delta plain deposits from the Permian Sydney / Bowen Basin system.

In 2003, Kerrie moved to Calgary to undertake a Post-Doc within the Ichnology Research Group at the University of Alberta and with associates at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. A number of projects were completed focussing on the integration of sedimentology and ichnology to enhance deltaic and shallow marine facies models and stratigraphic interpretations in the Alberta Basin, the Book Cliffs in Utah, Wyoming, the Timor Sea and the Sydney-Bowen Basin, Australia.

Ichnofacies Analysis Inc., was formed in 2005 to provide specialist ichnological services and field training courses to petroleum companies. Ichnofacies Analysis Inc. has provided integrated ichnology- and sedimentology-based reservoir characterization for numerous companies within western Canada and internationally focussing on successions in Canada, eastern and Western Australia, Bass Strait, the Timor Sea and offshore Sarawak. This vast range of core and outcrop experience has been supplemented by field work in modern analogue environments such as Moreton and Hervey Bays on the east coast of Australia, the Burdekin Delta in north-eastern Queensland and the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada. Kerrie is currently working full time as a consultant for Ichnofacies Analysis Inc., and also holds a position as an Adjunct Professor in the department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver where she in involved in several integrated sedimentological and ichnological research projects and also acts as a supervisor to numerous graduate students. In addition to running short courses, she is an author of over 20 publications and has presented papers at numerous conferences throughout the world.