Tech Division Events
Structural Geology Division
For more information concerning this Division, please contact the Division Chair, William (Jamie) Jamison, The Upper Crust Inc., (403) 816-1818, wjamison@shaw.ca
Division Profile
The Structural Division's mandate is to provide a forum for CSPG members who are interested in structural geology and tectonic processes, and to showcase what is new and current in structural geology. Topics are wide-ranging and include both compressional and extensional tectonics.
The division aims to provide informal brownbag talks every month from September to May. Talks typically average about 45 minutes followed by a short question/discussion period, and are currently located on the 17th floor of the Petro-Canada West Tower, 150 6th Ave. S.W. Speakers for the luncheons are sought from industry and academia, and new volunteers are always welcome.
The division also hosts at least one field trip per year. These trips are informal and are lead by volunteers within the structural community. They are designed to be low cost, and involve no more than one evening away from home.
If you are interested in joining the Structural Division e-mail listing which
currently provides luncheon reminders and a few other notices of
interest to the structural community, if you care to suggest a technical
topic or present a talk to the division, or if you have a field trip
idea, please contact William (Jamie) Jamison at (403) 816-1818 or wjamison@shaw.ca.
Division Talks
The Application of LiDAR to the Mapping of Mountains
Speaker
Willem Langenberg
Alberta Geological Survey / ERCB Edmonton, Alberta
Authors
C. Willem Langenberg, Michel Jaboyedoff, Andrea Pedrazzini and Shilong Mei
12:00 Noon
October 9, 2008
Petro-Canada
West Tower, room 17B/C (17th floor)
150, 6 Ave SW Calgary, Alberta
Abstract
Canadians, such as George M. Dawson and John A. Allan, were great mappers of mountains. Nowadays, the use of airborne LiDAR (an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging) is becoming increasingly common in mapping mountains. LiDAR systems employ intense pulses of light, typically generated by lasers, and sensitive optical detectors to receive the reflected pulses.
Airborne LiDAR systems consist of a laser machine mounted beneath an airplane or helicopter that follows a predefined path. The ground is then scanned by means of tens of thousands of pulses per second emitted from the laser. In order to obtain measurements for the horizontal coordinates (x, y) and elevation (z) of the objects scanned, the position of the aircraft is determined using accurate differential GPS measurements and the distance from the aircraft to the ground calculated. These measurements generate a three-dimensional cloud of points with irregular spacing. Left unfiltered, the model includes treetops, buildings and vehicles and the image looks like a picture. Many of these non-ground features can be removed to produce a bare-earth Digital Elevation Model (DEM), which is especially useful for geologists.
The Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) purchased LiDAR data for a 33 square kilometre area covering Turtle Mountain. Trees and buildings were removed by filtering and the resulting bare earth DEM shows details of rock structures, which are concealed in regular aerial photos mainly due to vegetation cover. Draping existing geological map over this DEM allows refinement of these maps. The trace of the Turtle Mountain Thrust as displayed on a Geological Survey of Canada geological map from 1993 and a 2007 AGS map can be more accurately placed.
In addition, the trace of the axial plane location of stratigraphic contacts of the Turtle Mountain Anticline can be accurately placed on the DEM. Contacts needed adjustments of up to 150 metres on the existing maps. The trace of the steeply dipping main coal seam, which was mined in the Frank Coal mine from 1901 to 1918, can also be accurately mapped from well defined mine subsidence pits.
The University of Lausanne (and the Canton de Vaud) obtained LiDAR images of the Morcles Nappe from Swisstopo, the Swiss Geo-information Centre. The geology of the 'Diablerets' map-sheet (from Swisstopo) was draped over the DEM and GIS technology allowed the area to be viewed down-plunge. These views can be compared with down-plunge cross sections of cylindrical domains. In the Haute Pointe area, the precise location of the lower contact of the Urgonian (Barremian) lithostratigraphic unit could be shown to be 100 metres southeast from the location mapped in the 1980s. In other areas, contacts were mapped more than 100 metres away from their true location. Faults could also be located more precisely.
The remarkable feature about LiDAR is its capability to remove non-ground objects. LiDAR presents a valuable tool to recognize features that would otherwise remain obscured by vegetation. It is anticipated that this technique combined with improved cross sectioning methods will revolutionize the mapping of mountains.
Biography
Willem Langenberg is a senior geologist with the Alberta Geological Survey/ERCB in Edmonton. He obtained a Ph.D. in Structural Geology from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 1973. He has been employed by the University of Amsterdam, the University of Alberta, Alberta Research Council, Alberta Department of Energy and the Alberta Resources Conservation Board.
Langenberg has had a longstanding career in Structural Geology, with emphasis during the last twenty-five years on economic geology (including energy and mineral resources). He performed the function of Project Control Officer on the inter-governmental Turtle Mountain Monitoring Project from 2003-2005. He is presently conducting investigations on the structure of the Alberta Foothills and Mountains and has a weak spot for the geology of Turtle Mountain (Crowsnest Pass). Recently, he has also worked on coals of the Coalspur, Scollard and Horseshoe Canyon formations. He authored or co-authored 35 refereed articles in scientific journals, four AGS Bulletins and many AGS reports and abstracts of oral and poster presentations.
Langenberg is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta, the Geological Association of Canada, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geology and the Geological Society of America. He was Publication Manager of the Edmonton Geological Society from 1993-2003 and Associate Editor of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America from 1991-95.
The Contribution of Integrated Structural/Tectonic Studies of HRAM Data for Exploration and Exploitation of Resource Plays in North America
Speaker
Dr. Zeev Berger, Dr. Michelle Boast, and Dr. Martin Mushayandebvu,
IITECH Inc.
Authors
C. Willem Langenberg, Michel Jaboyedoff, Andrea Pedrazzini and Shilong Mei
12:00 Noon
Thursday, November 27 and December 11, 2008
Petro-Canada
West Tower, room 17B/C (17th floor)
150, 6 Ave SW Calgary, Alberta
Abstract
The recent shift from convention exploration to resource play exploitation has presented the geosciences community with a new and exciting set of challenges. Geologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers engaged in resource play exploitation are being challenged to identify "sweet spots" and "preferred trends" that are often controlled by extremely subtle geological features. Detection and analysis of these features often requires the use of tools and interpretation techniques which are not routinely used for conventional exploration.
IITECH has recently completed integrated structural and tectonic studies of several active resource play areas including: the Barnett shale in the Dallas Forth Worth Basin of West Texas; the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin (USA and Canada); the Woodford and Fayetteville shales in the Arkoma and Ardmore Basins (Oklahoma); the Doig and Montney formations; and the Devonian shale play of the Horn River Basin, north east British Colombia (Canada). Results show that many of the resource plays contain "sweet spots" and "preferred trends" that are largely controlled by basement structures and topography. These features can be detected and analyzed through integrated analysis of magnetic data.
The objective of these talks is to illustrate our approach to regional structural interpretation and assessment of basins that contain developed and undeveloped resource plays. Special emphasis is placed on illustrating various imaging and filtering techniques that can be used to interpret the magnetic images in conjunction with existing three-dimensional and two-dimensional seismic and other pertinent geological information.
The first talk, on November 27, will focus on resource plays in NEBC and the Peace River Arch area.
The second talk, on December 11, will focus on resource plays of the Williston Basin and other basins in the USA.
Biographies
Zeev Berger is the president and owner of IITech Inc. He has over 30 years of exploration experience including 10 years with the remote-sensing group at Exxon Production Research Co., five years with Imperial Oil as a technical mentor and four years as President of PAZ Energy.
Michelle Boast is an interpreter of gravity, magnetic and remote sensing data for IITech. She is a structural geologist with a cross-disciplinary background spanning economic geology, metamorphic petrology, impact geology, petrography and field-based geology. Boast reinterpreted the effects of the Penokean and Grenville orogenies on the Sudbury impact structure in Ontario, with implications for Cu-Ni ore exploration in the underlying basement rocks.
Martin Mushayandebvu is Chief Geophysicist of IITECH with over 20 years teaching and research experience. He was the principal researcher in the development of Extended Euler deconvolution.
Structural Division Field Trips
CSPG Structural Geology Division Fall 2008 Field Trip
Livingstone Rive Anticlinorium, Southern Alberta Foothills
FIELD TRIP LEADER
Michael Cooley
Queen's University
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Livingstone Rive Anticlinorium
Southern Alberta Foothills
View south at the core
of the Centre Peak anticline as exposed on
the south side of the Green Creek canyon. The planar limbs of the
anticline are separated by a composite, east-verging thrust fault
that extends along the hinge zone. Banff Formation (Cbm),
Banff Formation grainstone unit (Cbg), Turner Valley Member
(clvtv) , Mount Head Formation (Cmh).
The CSPG Structural Geology Division Fall 2008 Field Trip will be led by Michael Cooley to regions within his PhD study area (PhD. Queen's University, 2007. The structural, thermal, and fluid evolution of the Livingstone Range Anticlinorium and its regional significance to the southern Alberta foreland fold and thrust belt). The Livingstone Range Anticlinorium (LRA) is a spectacularly exposed leading edge anticlinal structure that developed in the hanging wall of the Livingstone thrust as it cut more than 1 km up section from a regional detachment in the upper part of the Palliser Formation to a detachment horizon within the Fernie Group. In the southern part of the LRA, several cross-cutting creek canyons provide natural cross sections through the Centre Peak anticline, the western-most anticline in this area. The canyons abruptly widen out along the adjacent Green Creek syncline, forming north- and south-terminating box canyons. These provide along-strike views of the core of the Centre Peak Anticline and its internal faults and fractures.
The main destination of the field trip will be a short (< 3km) walk up Green Creek canyon at the southern end of the Livingstone Range to look at the chevron-style Centre Peak anticline and the thrust faults that have propagated out of the back limb of the fold and offset the fold core. The grade is fairly gentle up the creek valley, but once in the canyon there are some talus slopes that may be climbed to get close to some of the rocks, and to get a spectacular view of the opposite walls of the canyon. Once through the canyon the group can explore the box canyons and look at the cross-cutting fractured zones that cut through the fold core at surprisingly regular intervals.
The group will leave Calgary on the evening of October 17 (Friday) and overnight in the Crowsnest Pass region. There will be a full day in the field on October 18 (Saturday), and the group will return to Calgary that evening. Details of the logistics will be arranged closer to the date of the trip. All members of the CSPG community are invited to participate. This trip is free but you must bring or purchase your lunch and cover expenses for the Friday night.
If you are interested in this field trip please email Deborah Sanderson at dsanderson@suncor.com and provide your name and phone number.
Spring 2008 CSPG Structural Geology Division Field Trip Recap – McConnell Thrust, Mt. Yamnusk
On June 21, 2008, Kevin Root led a group of 15 geologists up the slopes of Mt. Yamnuska to examine supurb exposures of the McConnell thrust fault surface and the sheer face of complexly deformed Eldon Fm. in the hangingwall. The view of these features up close is quite different from the one we get from the Trans Canada Hwy. We followed the trace of the thrust for the full extent of its exposure beneath the Yamnuska "sail", then continued into the saddle on the west side of Mt. Yamnuska. In that region Kevin took us to outcrops of Stephen Fm. shales and Cathedral Fm. limestones, both older than the Eldon Fm. The obvious view of a thrust fault with a ramp-flat geometry at Mt. Yamnuska is not so obvious when the details of the deformation and the stratigraphy are taken into account. Many thanks to Kevin Root for an extremely instructive presentation and to Jean-Yves Chatellier for handling the logistics for this field trip.
Information
Talks are free; please bring your lunch. Goodies
and drinks are provided by HEF Petrophysical Consulting, and the
room is provided by Petro-Canada. If you would like to be
on the Structural Division e-mail list, or if you'd like to give
a talk, please contact William (Jamie) Jamison, The Upper Crust Inc., (403) 816-1818, wjamison@shaw.ca.
