*GCSSEPM News Fall07 - Gulf Coast Section SEPM

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GULF COAST SECTION SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC PALEONTOLOGISTS AND MINERALOGISTS
Volume 55 Number 3 Fall 2008
A Global View
In October 1997 I first visited
China to evaluate oil
and gas prospects in Sichuan
Province as well as in the
South China Sea. Having been
in Russia in 1994, my first visit
to a former communist country,
I was expecting similarly
bad food, poor service, and a
generally confused and bureaucratic
national oil business
set within a crumpled economy.
Nothing could have surprised
me more. Cities that I
had never heard of, like
Chengdu and Zhanjiang, were
bustling with energy. The restaurants
and hotels were outstanding
and even the airlines
pampered us with gifts and excellent
service. On my return
I advised all who would listen
that China was about to take
over as an economic powerhouse
in world affairs and
would quickly cease to be considered
as a third world country.
It seemed clear to me that
the 21 st century would belong
to China, much as the 20 th century
was ours. I was met with
cynicism and disbelief that
The President’s Column
Announcing 2009 Executive Council
President:
John B. Wagner
President-Elect:
John Holbrook
Vice President:
Richard Kilby
Treasurer:
Johanna Moutoux
Secretary:
Lana Ann Czerniakowski
Past-President:
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Page 1
China would ever beat us at
our own game and was told
that despite their 10% growth
rate, they really had a long way
to go. A decade later, the 2008
Beijing Olympics testifies to
all of us how far China has
come. These Olympics cap the
first decade of the 21 st century,
a decade marked by rising oil
prices, driven largely by the
demand for energy required to
fuel this unprecedented Asian
growth. Many of my household
products are now made in
China, world alliances have
shifted, and oil is a hot commodity
again.
Despite the looming Asian
predominance, America,
Canada the United Kingdom
and Europe still lead the world
in geology, and students from
many petroleum exporting
countries are flocking here to
become trained as petroleum
geologists, geophysicists and
engineers. However, despite
the general enthusiasm for
modern geological concepts,
the Chinese Cultural Revolution
resulted in a great gap in
knowledge. While we were
busy inventing concepts of facies
analysis, sequence stratigraphy,
and graphic correlation,
many Chinese scientists were
relegated to digging ditches,
working the rice paddies, or
worse! In the early 80’s, the
first Chinese students were allowed
in the US and Canada.
They were distinctive in being
required to wear the standard
dark-blue uniforms, representing
the long arm of their oppressive
communist society,
even when studying in the
west.
My recent Chinese students
are a very different breed, hard
working, focused, ambitious
sharply dressed and far savvier
about the western world. As
they overcome their language
and cultural differences, and
learn to adapt, we will all observe
a gradual shift in the
demographics in our industry.
At universities across North
America the student landscape
is changing. We have students
from all over the world, from
Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe. Increasingly
our job is to train
and mentor the world and export
our knowledge and concepts.
Many of the oil companies
that I talk to are clear that
there are simply not enough
students in US universities to
satisfy the hunger for new petroleum
geologists, geophysicists
and engineers.
I just attended the AAPG
leadership conference in Tulsa.
AAPG is very focused on how
to broaden and globalize the
appeal of our scientific societies.
All of us were agreed that
Highlights
The GCSSEPM News is published
three times a year by the Gulf
Coast Section Society of Economic
Paleontologists and Mineralogists.
Your comments and
suggestions are welcome. Contact
Lana Ann Czerniakowski,
GCSSEPM Secretary at (713)
775.5764 or Lana.Czerniakowski
@murphyoilcorp.com, or contact
your local business representative.
Visit the GCSSEPM Website at
www.gcssepm.org for Section and
Foundation News and Information.
1
President’s Column
2009 Executive Council
2
The Director’s Corner
New Members
4
Ed Picou Fellowship
Lost Members
5
Research Notes
8
News from Business,
Student and Corporate
Representatives
10
Membership Application/
Renewal Form
the rate-determining step in
our industry is finding new
opportunities that must be generated
by scientists and engineers.
AAPG has opened offices
in Bahrain and London in
their quest to become more
relevant for a global industry.
Of course, GCSSEPM is a regional
society, but we should
all remember that the center of
gravity for the technical and
Continued on page 9

Before getting to our guest editorial,
I must mention that we are now offering
a new service. We do get requests
for reprints of individual articles. In the
past, they have not been available. They
are now. $20 will get you a PDF file of
any article from RC1999 till present. We
will have more information on our web
site, but in the meantime, contact me at
gcssepm@comcast.net
In the spirit of great minds think alike,
Janok and I both wrote about universities
in the last issue of the newsletter. I
am pleased that both of our columns got
a response by someone who knows the
university situation very well and offered
to provide some additional information.
George Devries Klein is president and
chief geologist of SED-STRAT Geoscience
Consultants, Inc, a Houston area
geological consulting firm in the petroleum
field. He earned his MS degree
from the University of Kansas, and a PhD
from Yale. Klein worked for Sinclair
Research, Inc. as a research geologist,
and then taught at the Universities of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Illinois
(Urbana-Champaign). In 1993, he left
Illinois to become Executive Director
of the NJ Marine Sciences Consortium
and NJ State Sea Grant Director. In
1996, he opened his consulting firm
focusing on petroleum geology (domestic
and international), stratigraphic
traps, play concepts, seismic and sequence
stratigraphy, clastic reservoirs
and facies reservoir characterization,
The Director’s Chair
and sedimentary basin evaluation. Klein
relocated to Texas in 1998. Klein is the
recipient of 11 Awards for his research
including a Visiting Fellowship, Wolfson
College, Oxford University (1969), The
SEPM Best Paper Award (Journal of
Sedimentary Petrology; 1972), A
Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship
in the Netherlands (1989) and the
Lawrence L. Sloss Award of the
Geological Society of America (2000).
He is the founding chair of GSA’s Division
on Sedimentary Geology, and
served on editorial boards of four
journals including the Geological Society
of America Bulletin and Geology.
All of this is mentioned here in thanks
for his column, to document that he
knows his subject well, and because he
has always been a strong supporter of
the Section.
The Changing Landscape
of the American University.
Coincidentally, both Norm Rosen’s
and Janok Bhattacharya’s columns
(Summer, 2008, GCSSEPM News) described
the ever-changing landscape on
American university campuses. Rosen’s
column focused on how universities
are run “like a business,” whereas
Bhattacharya’s described how geology
departments survived (some barely)
since the mid-1980’s after the collapse
of the extraction industry. Let’s take each
in turn.
————The GCSSEPM Welcomes New Members————
Stephen Barrett
Sage Betts
John Bretches
Regina Dickey
Timothy Diggs
Barrett Dixon
Barbara Faulkner
Brian Horton
Michelle Kominz
Curtis Mayo
Lowell Waite
Matthew Wilson
Nations Energy Company Ltd; Houston, TX
Omni Laboratories; Seabrook, TX
Chevron; Houston, TX
Texas A&M University; College Station, TX
Shell International EP; Houston, TX
Anadarko Petroleum Corp; The Woodlands, TX
ExxonMobil Corporation; Houston, TX
University of Texas – Austin; Austin, TX
Western Michigan University; Kalamazoo, MI
Fredericksburg, TX
Pioneer Natural Resources, USA Inc.; Irving, TX
MMS; Mandeville, LA
BUSINESS ASPECTS: During the
1980’s, in response to stagflation of the
late 1970’s, most state universities were
underfunded as tax revenues flattened
while costs increased. Simultaneously,
many unacceptable excesses on campus
became public and voters complained to
state legislators. University administrators
were suddenly under the gun.
At the same time, state universities
transitioned from state-supported to
state-aided entities, with less than half
the operating budget coming from state
legislatures. The rest came from private
donations and federal research grants and
contracts. Moreover, disclosure of misappropriation
of overhead funds during
the late 1980’s to purchase luxury items
for campus presidents or other administrators
also had a major impact. Federal
granting agencies mandated greater accountability
on federal grants and contacts.
Thus, campus administrative management
costs also increased.
University administrators realized that
to enhance public confidence, stricter
guidelines on financial management
were needed with careful cost accounting.
Professors became “profit centers”
and were evaluated accordingly. New
accounting changes and associated business
practices were imposed. Department
heads and deans became more cost
conscience. Economic effectiveness became
a key criterion in the metrics of a
university. With new econometrics in
place, the principle guideline for evaluating
effective performance of faculty,
departments, and colleges is represented
by the following formula:
E = ($CNF) X + $O g (1)
Where:
E = Effectiveness of either individual
faculty, department, or college;
C = Credit hours per course;
N = Number of students enrolled in a
course; F = Tuition fee rate per credit
hour for each course; X = Number of
courses taught in an academic year;
O g = Overhead for university campus
generated from research grants a professor
wins for personal research, or aggregate
overhead of all faculty in department
or college.
Campus administrators view faculty,
Page 2

departments and colleges as highly effective
if E is greater than 80 percent of
the annual budget appropriated for salary
or program costs; acceptable if E
ranges from 70 to 80; and concerned or
oversized if E ranges from 60 to 70. A
faculty member or a department faced
strong pressure or closure if E falls below
60 percent.
Thus the mindset of campus department
heads and deans focused more on
such econometrics, and over time, they
surrounded themselves with an everincreasing
phalanx of business managers
to enforce tight financial controls.
This cadre made the core mission of
the university more diffuse and its role
of teaching, research, and service now
required less resources and a more onerous
bureaucracy.
In short, the situation that Rosen described
is the reality of a modern US
university. In Europe it is actually worse.
There, the business manager (with no
relevant academic qualifications)
SUPERCEDES the geoscience (or
other) department head or dean.
CHANGING GEOSCIENCE
DEPARTMENTS: Geology departments
have been in survival mode for
25 years after the drop in hiring in the
oil industry in the mid-1980. As enrollments
plummeted, geology departments
offered more and more popular general
education courses to keep “E” (See
formula 1) respectable. Pressure on geology
faculty to raise grant money for
research also increased. When senior
people retired or faculty chose to move
on to new careers, replacements rarely
were hired. Between 1985 and 1995, a
significant number of faculty retirees
were in soft-rock geology and programs
widely known for their strength in paleontology,
sedimentology, and stratigraphy
declined or disappeared. If hiring
was permitted, it required extreme justification,
so preferences were given to
fashionable fields in environmental geology
or paleoclimate to satisfy the
scrutiny of politically correct deans and
campus faculty appointment panels.
Only during the last four years, coincident
with higher oil prices, has more
hiring in paleontology, stratigraphy and
sedimentary geology occurred.
These changes created serious consequences
for the education of the current
generation of geoscientists. Many departments
no longer offer core geology
courses in stratigraphy, paleontology or
structural geology to majors. How
graduates lacking such a background
become employable remains a mystery,
if they are even hired.
Changing undergraduate science requirements
during the late 1970’s also
hurt Geoscience programs. At one time,
college graduates completed two years
of science including one year of required
laboratory coursework. When the student
radicals of the 1960’s became faculty
members and then earned tenure,
they stacked faculty committees, and
science departments were in their crosshairs.
To them, science departments
represented a level of impartiality that
they viewed as authoritarian. Thus
they mandated that college graduates
take one semester of a lab science, two
semesters of science electives, and one
semester to meet a “science and society”
requirement. Moreover, the science
and society requirement could be
taught by faculty in sociology, history,
philosophy, or other liberal arts departments.
This hurt enrollments and
added pressure. To survive, geology departments
began offering courses in
“sustainability”, “dinosaurs,” and “National
Parks” to keep “E” at an acceptable
level (Formula 1).
Moreover, faculty became more specialized
and in some fields, bright PhD
graduates either needed to do a post-doc
in a different field to find employment
or never entered the geoscience
workforce. I met one brilliant PhD in the
field of mineral physics who worked as
a post-doctoral fellow for 12 years before
finally receiving a junior faculty
appointment. By the time he started his
professional career, most of his peers in
more desirable fields had achieved tenure
and were up for promotion to a full
professorship or higher management in
the private sector.
Nevertheless, some departments did
well. Three keys to doing well were (1)
focusing on core themes of geology and
utilizing new technologies to develop
new research (Univ. of Kansas), (2) developing
ties to other departments on
campus to utilize these new technologies
and approaches, and (3) establishing
schools of Earth Sciences (Stanford,
University of Oklahoma) independent
from Colleges of Arts and Sciences
(where too many geology departments
are housed). Establishing Earth Science
schools assured a larger critical mass that
made it more difficult to cut geology
departments on campus. Two universities
that formed such colleges during
the last four years include Ohio State
and the University of Illinois @ Urbana-
Champaign. Higher administrators welcomed
this coalescing of different programs
because it meant two or three
fewer departments with which to deal,
because the College office handles everything
administratively. It improved
efficiency (See Formula 1), cut administrative
costs, and assured the future
survivability of geoscience programs
So, what can GCSSEPM or SEPM
do? Bhattacharya’s column has some interesting
suggestions, but will they work?
To be more effective, GCSSEPM and
SEPM should determine the real needs
of university departments before developing
a relevant plan of action. One need
that SEPM could meet is to offer
a series of traveling (visiting) short
courses in fundamental fields during
“intersessions” that complement what a
department offers to its students. Such
short courses can introduce students to
fields that are not taught everywhere,
including paleontology, stratigraphy and
structural geology. GCSSEPM and
SEPM should give certificates to each
student who completes such courses so
they can be submitted when they apply
to graduate schools and jobs. At the
same time, the GCSSEPM/SEPM
instructor(s) can network to college
Deans and higher administrators during
their campus visit and deliver the message
that the time has come to place
Geoscience programs, including core
areas of interest to SEPM, front-andcenter
on their campuses and give them
added support.
Dr. Norman C. Rosen
Executive Director
GCSSEPM Foundation
Page 3

GCSSEPM FOUNDATION
ED PICOU Fellowship Grant For Graduate Studies in Earth Science
Programs and Rules for 2008
Founded in 1981, the GCSSEPM Foundation is a tax-exempt,
nonprofit organization whose primary objective is to promote
the science of stratigraphy in the Gulf Coast region through
research in sedimentary petrology, reservoir quality, paleontology,
and any other related geological and geophysical fields,
especially as it relates to petroleum geology.
Among the activities which the Foundation may engage in are:
• Conduct research directly or through promotion, assistance,
encouragement, or support of studies and research
in the field of stratigraphy and in the science related
thereto;
• Dissemination of information relating to stratigraphy and
related fields through lectures, seminars, research conferences,
symposia, publications, educational courses,
teaching aids, and by other means and material;
• To carry on programs of continuing education in stratigraphy
and related studies;
• To assist in career guidance to persons interested in stratigraphy
and related studies;
• To assist public and private schools and colleges and universities
and technical schools in teaching and education
in the field of stratigraphy and related fields.
Therefore, we are hoping to support students whose thesis or
dissertation is related to our primary objective. We are primarily
concerned about quality of work; however, given two works
judged of equal merit, preference will be given to the Gulf Coast
Basin. Maximum grant will be for $2500.
Interested students should submit:
1. A short description of their proposed work, not to exceed
4 pages (in type no smaller than 11 point and with standard
margins), in digital format (Word, Word Pro, etc.).
2. A list of expenses and other support should be included
in digital format.
3. The student’s advisor should write an appropriate document
of support in written format.
4. We also require a short biography of the student as well
as a digital picture. All of the above should be submitted
to:
Dr. Norman C. Rosen
Executive Director
GCSSEPM Foundation
2719 S. Southern Oaks Drive
Houston, TX 77068
Submission of a proposal to the GCSSEPM indicates acceptance
of the following conditions.
1. The GCSSEPM Foundation will be acknowledged in the
work.
2. This money is being granted for the defraying of the cost
of thesis/dissertation work associated with a degree program
only. In the event that this work is not done, the
money must be returned to us.
3. We request a note at six (6) month intervals letting us
know about the progress of the research. The first such
note will be due (i.e., posted) by December of the year in
which the award is granted
4. You will submit two notes (expanded abstracts) for publication
in our GCSSEPM News Letter. The first will
refer to the goals of your study; the proposal for the grant
in general will be used. The second will be a summary
of results of the work after completion.
5. If the topic is appropriate for submittal to the GCAGS-
GCSSEPM, we request that you present your work at a
GCAGS-GCSSEPM convention.
6. We request a 2-3 panel poster display at a GCSSEPM
Research Conference after completion of your work and
after you have received your degree. You would not be
required to be there (although we will be pleased if you
do come); the display is to help us showcase the grant
program in order to attract more corporate donations for
the program.
Failure to comply with these terms may result in our refusal to
consider future proposals from students of your professor and
university. (Please make your advisor aware of this.)
Lost Members
We no longer have contact information for the following individuals. If you can provide information please contact
Ramon Trevino at (512) 471-3362 or ramon.trevino@beg.utexas.edu.
Didier Arboulie Duncan W. McMaster Heather M. Rosenstein
Marian Hanna Paul Owens Garth E. Syhlonyk
Page 4

Research Notes
Each year, the GCSSEPM offers Ed Picou Fellowships Grants for Graduate Studies in Earth Sciences. The grants are for a
maximum amount of $2,500. Once a proposal is accepted for support, it will be published in our newsletter. Also, we plan to
publish an expanded abstract after completion of the student’s work. We are pleased to present a short abstract of the results of one
of our winners: Svetlana Mizintseva is working on her PhD. at Rutgers University.
Reconstruction of Interregional Late Cretaceous Sea -Level Record Using Integrated
Benthic Foraminiferal Biofacies and Nannofossil Biostratigraphy
My project will establish global correlation of Upper Cretaceous
(Cenomanian-Campanian) depositional sequences
between the eastern US Gulf and New Jersey coastal plains
and Russian Platform regions. High resolution biostratigraphy
of calcareous nannoplankton and planktonic foraminifera
will be applied for interregional correlation. The results
will contribute to global estimates of sea-level changes and
to interregional a biostratigraphic
and sequence-stratigraphic reconstructions
of Cenomanian-
Campanian strata.
Biostratigraphy is a powerful
tool in many different areas of
stratigraphic reconstructions.
Microbiostratigraphy is an indispensable
tool for a variety of
stratigraphic work in many different
regions for both academic
and the oil exploration industry.
My studies have focused on the
application of microbiostratigraphy
to Late Cretaceous sea-level reconstructions in the
northern part of Atlantic passive margin -New Jersey coastal
plain. My approach has been to integrate sequence stratigraphy,
paleobathymetry, and biostratigraphy, in order to derive
a record of Late Cretaceous sea-level change in the
New Jersey coastal plain and to establish firm biostratigraphy
for interregional reconstructions. I used nannofossil biostratigraphy
for age control; used benthic foraminiferal assemblages
for paleobathymetry estimates; and applied integrated
sequence stratigraphic analysis on the basis of physical
stratigraphy, lithofacies, analysis and geochronology. My
studies have provided high -resolution (

The Upper Cretaceous strata of the eastern
US Gulf coastal plain contain a relatively
complete section of marine to nonmarine
mixed siliciclastic and carbonate sediments
(Mancini et al., 1994). The marine lithofacies
are rich in calcareous nannoplankton and
planktonic foraminifera that have been used
for biostratigraphic zonation. Depositional sequences
are identified on the basis of the
litho -and sequence stratigraphy (Mancini et
al., 1996, 2005). Maximum flooding surfaces
of these depositional sequences are considered
as chronostratigraphic horizons and are
used for regional correlation. The sequence
boundaries, however, are diachronous and
require further verification (Mancini et al.,
1996). Correlation with high -resolution sealevel
record from New Jersey can verify timing
and duration of the sequence boundaries
from the Gulf coastal plain.
The Late Cretaceous sections of the Russian
Platform provide excellent records of
transgressive-regressive sequences
(Sahagian et al., 1996). The Russian platform
is a tectonically quiet region containing
extensive Upper Cretaceous deposits. Previous
study of Sahagian et al., (1996) indicates
remarkably close correlation between
low -resolution sea-level records from the
Russian platform and the sea-level record
from New Jersey. For my studies having less
than 1myr resolution, the Russian platform
sea-level record requires increased resolution
of biostratigraphy and paleobathymetry
estimates.
The objectives of my work are to refine biostratigraphy,
paleobathymetry, and sequence
stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous units
of the Russian platform and the eastern US
Gulf coastal plain and provide an integrated
correlation between the New Jersey coastal
plain and those regions. My approach will
be: (1) date unconformity bounded units using
nannofossils and foraminifera biostratigraphy;
(2) use benthic foraminifer as supplemented
by lithofacies studies to reconstruct
water depth changes; (3) establish interregional
correlation of the sequences by use
of foraminifera and nannofossils biostratigraphy;
and (4) estimate Late Cretaceous sealevel
changes on a global scale.
Fig. 2: Calcareous nannofossils specimens from the Millville
corehole of New Jersey coastal plain.
Page 6
Methods:
My proposed area of studies is the Russian Platform sections
near Moscow originally studied by Sahagian et al. (1996;
Fig. 4). The samples will be taken from five wells and two
outcrops in the Moscow region. The wells are Teplyi Stan (M1),
Vorokhobino (M9), Yuriev-Polskii (M47), Savelievo (M 163),
and Varanino (M456); the outcrops are by the Yangoda and
Agapa rivers (Fig. 4; Sahagian et al., 1996). For my study, I
will do field work in Russia: resample outcrop and well sections
and conduct nannofossils biostratigraphy and benthic
foraminiferal paleobathymetry analyses. Using the obtained
data I will correlate the Upper Cretaceous strata of the Russian
Platform, New Jersey coastal plain, and the eastern US
Gulf coastal plain on the basis of foraminiferal and nannofossil
biostratigraphy. The data of sequence stratigraphic and biostratigraphy
analyses of the Gulf Coast have been published
by Mancini et al. (1996). For sequence stratigraphy of this
region and interregional correlation I will use published data
of Mancini et al. (1994 and 1996).

Fig. 3: Timing and amplitudes of geologic mechanisms
of eustatic change derived from Miller et al., (2005)
Fig. 4: Locations of the main wells and outcrops in Moscow Region used for
the construction of the quantified eustatic curve (After Sahegian et al., 1996).
Expected results and Future work:
I expect to increase the biostratigraphic and paleobathymetric
resolution of the Russian Platform region and provide
verification of sequence stratigraphic analysis in the eastern
US Gulf coastal plain. My studies will provide a firm biostratigraphic
age control and sea-level estimates on a global scale
for Upper Cretaceous strata. For my PhD. Dissertation, I will
provide close correlation between global sea-level and deepsea
oxygen isotope records. Detection of synchronous
changes in eustasy and 18O will be evidence of intermittent
ice sheets during the Late Cretaceous sea-level falls. I envision
my project to be of value to the academic community as
well as industry.
References:
Mancini, E.A., and T.M. Puckett, and T. Markham, 2005, Jurassic
and Cretaceous transgressive-regressive (T -R) cycles, northern Gulf
of Mexico, USA: Stratigraphy, v. 2, no. 1, p. 30 -47.
Mancini, E.A., T.M. Puckett, and B.H. Tew, 1996 Integrated biostratigraphic
and sequence stratigraphic framework for Upper Cretaceous
strata of the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain,
USA: Cretaceous Research, v. 17, p.
645 -669.
Mancini, E.A., and B.H. Tew, 1994 Integrated
biostratigraphic and sequence
stratigraphic approach for intrabasin
and interbasin correlations: Upper Cretaceous
and Paleogene strata of the
eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, USA, in Application
of Sequence Stratigraphy to Oil
Field Development: AAPG Hedberg Research
Conference, p. M1 -M5.
Miller, K.G., P.J. Sugarman, J.V. Browning,
M.A. Kominz, R.K. Olsson, M.D.
Feigenson, and J.C. Hern‡ndez, 2004,
Late Cretaceous sequences and sea -
level history, New Jersey coastal plain:
Geological Society of America Bulletin,
v. 116 p. 368-393.
Mizintseva, S, Browning, Mi ller, K,
Olsson, R (Submitted), Integrated Late
Santonian-Early Campanian Sequence
Stratigraphy sea-level studies, New Jersey
Coastal Plain: implications to global
sea-level studies: Stratigraphy
Pitman, W.C., Iii, and X. Golovchenko,
X., 1983, The effect of sea-level change
on the shelf edge and slope of passive
margins, in D.J. Stanley and G.T.
Moore, eds., The Shelfbreak: critical interface
on continental margins: SEPM
Special Publication 33, p 41- 58.
• wells 0 outcrops cross section
M1- Teplyi Stan M30 - Eza M110 – Paramonovo
M3 - Volgusha M33 - Lopatin M148 - Shikhobolovo
M4 - B. Korovitsa (Unzha) M34 - Krest M163 - Savelievo
M6 - Yurino M38 - Gavrilkovo M198 – Boristsevo
M9 – Vorokhobino M42- Alpatievo M307 - Uglich
M15 - Galich M43 - Novoselki M456 - Varavino
M17 - Kolomenskaya M45 - Skovorodino P47 – Prosandeevka
M19 - Khodynka M46 - Kuzminskoe P60 - Vorona
M20 - Tsernskoe M47 - Yuriev-Polckii P73 - Lasitskyi ovrag
M26 – Kotelniki MM - Elatma P121 - Lasitsy
Sahagian, D., O. Pinous, A. Olferiev, V.
Zakaharov, and A. Beisel, 1996,
Eustatic curve for the Middle Jurassic-
Cretaceous based on Russian platform
and Siberian stratigraphy: zonal resolution:
AAPG, v. 80 p. 1433-1458.
Svetlana Mizintseva
Rutgers University
Page 7

News from the Business, Student and Corporate Representatives
Editor’s Note: As a continuing feature we will begin to include news highlights from the various areas. The business and
student representatives from each district and various corporate representatives have provided these items.
ALABAMA AREA NEWS
The Alabama Museum of Natural History (Tuscaloosa) has
a new Curator of Paleontology: Dr. Mark D. Uhen, formerly
Director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Michigan and
more recently a Research Associate with the National Museum
of Natural History. Dr. Uhen is a specialist on fossil whales,
which he has collected in the American Southeast as well as
sites as distant as Egypt and Peru. Find out more about the
museum and its new curator at http://amnh.ua.edu/.
The two amateur paleontological societies in Alabama, the
Alabama Paletonotological Society (APS) and the Birmingham
Paleontological Society (BPS), continue to hold monthly
field trips and public lectures. Recently, the APS has conducted
monthly trips to the Minkin Site as part of their ongoing project
to salvage Carboniferous vertebrate trackways and other fossils
(www.alabamapaleo.org/). The BPS will conduct another
Fossils of the Black Belt XI gathering on October 21 (http://
bps-al.org/).
At Auburn University, the Department of Geology and Geography
is pleased to announce that in addition to our M.S. in
geology program, we are now approved to offer a Masters in
geography (including remote sensing and GIS applications).
AUSTIN NEWS
On July 1, The University of Texas at Austin has named Dr.
Charles G. “Chip” Groat interim dean of the Jackson School
of Geosciences. Groat replaces Dr. Eric J. Barron, dean since
2006, who left the university to become director of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research. Groat holds the position
while a national search takes place for the next Jackson
School dean. Groat was director of the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) from 1998-2005, appointed by President Clinton
and retained by President Bush. Since 2005 he has directed the
Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program and the Center
for International Energy and Environmental Policy at The University
of Texas at Austin, where he holds the John A. and
Katherine G. Jackson Chair in Energy and Mineral Resources.
For a more complete story on this item go to: http://www.
jsg.utexas.edu/news/rels/070108.html .
SAN ANTONIO NEWS
At Trinity University in San Antonio, Dr. Diane Smith,
Geosciences Professor and Associate Vice President for Academic
Affairs, has been named a Fellow of the Geological Society
of America. Dr. Benjamin Surpless has been promoted
to Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences. Dr.
Lara Heister is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor in
Geosciences for the 2008 fall semester.
In June 2008, the Department of Earth Sciences at St. Mary’s
University was combined with Physics to form the new Department
of Physics and Earth Sciences. Also, Dr. Gene Lene,
a long-time Earth Sciences faculty member, has retired, and
his teaching duties will be assumed by Dr. Evelynn Mitchell,
a recent graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio
with a doctorate in environmental science and engineering.
EXXONMOBIL NEWS
John Snedden of ExxonMobil is serving as co-Technical
chair for the AAPG International Meeting in Cape Town, South
Africa. The meeting will feature over 600 technical presentations,
24 oral sessions (including SEPM sessions), 41 poster
sessions, 8 field trips (including the deepwater Karoo), 16 short
courses ranging from 3D and 4D seismic to African
geodynamics. The meeting will be held October 26-29th and
registration is open. For more information, go to http://
www.aapg.org/capetown .
Mike Sweet is serving as co-Technical chair of the 2008
Bob Perkins Research Conference which will focus upon the
challenges of production from deepwater reservoirs: analogues
and case histories. For more information go to http://www.
gcssepm.org/conference/fr_2008_conference.htm
SHELL NEWS
Amy Sullivan has agreed to act as Shell’s Corporate Representative
by invitation of John Snedden. Amy would like to
highlight Shell’s ongoing commitment to GCSSEPM technical
excellence and regional geoscience events. It would be a
great catalyst for other Corporate Representatives to share their
company’s involvement in GCSSEPM. Shell would like to recognize
Charlotte Jolley for her commitment to GCSSEPM as
a candidate for 2009 President-Elect. Ciaran O’Bryne, Shell
International E&P, is a program advisory committee co-chair
for the 28 th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research
Conference (Dec. 7-9, 2008). In the region, the 4 th International
Symposium on Submarine Mass Movements and
Their Consequences will be held in Austin, Nov. 8-11, 2008.
Craig Shipp, Shell International E&P, is one of the Technical
Conveners. This event is co-sponsored by IGCP and Jackson
School of Geosciences.
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON NEWS
During the 2008 AAPG Convention in San Antonio, Hernán
Reijenstein and Sushanta Bose, both graduate geology students
from the University of Houston, were awarded with SEPM
distinctions for their student poster presentations. Their areas
of research are seismic geomorphology / architectural analysis
of fluvial depositional systems from the Gulf of Thailand, and
the analysis of modern carbonate sedimentary processes, respectively.
Hernán Reijenstein is the U of H student representative
for GCSSEPM. Sushanta Bose has recently graduated
from U of H with Henry Chafetz as his advisor and joined
ConocoPhillips as a geologist in the Rocky Mountains exploration
area whereas Hernan Reijenstein continues his research
with Janok Bhattacharya and Henry Posamentier and will
join Chevron Corporation’s Mid-Continent and Alaska Business
Unit upon completion of his thesis, fall 2008.
Page 8

GULF COAST
ASSOCIATION OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES
1951
GCAGS-GCSSEPM
Annual Convention
will be held as a part of the
2008 GSA Joint Annual Meeting
Celebrating the Year of the Planet Earth
October 5-9, 2008 Houston, Texas
58 th Annual Meeting of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies and
the 55 th Annual Meeting of the Gulf Coast Section SEPM
For updated convention information visit https://www.acsmeetings.org/ or http://www.gcags.org/
The President’s Column
continued from page 1
scientific side of our industry is the Gulf
Coast, with Houston being the epicenter.
I take this opportunity to remind you
all about our annual meeting, to be held
October 5-9 th . This promises to be the
largest GCAGS-GCSSEPM meeting
ever as it will be held jointly with GSA!
No, this won’t be the intimate local meeting
we are used to, but you will have the
opportunity to mingle, visit, and learn
from geoscientists and students from all
over the USA and around the world, as
GSA typically attracts significant international
attendees. We hope you will
sample a bit of everything, but if you
miss your GCSSEPM colleagues we
have several of our own events. I invite
you to join us on Sunday for our opening
awards ceremony, where we will
honor Robert Nail, with the GCSSEPM
Service Award for his outstanding work
on building and maintaining the
GCSSEPM website. Dr. Richard Fillon
will be conferred an Honorary Membership,
in recognition of his outstanding
contributions to understanding the geology
of the Gulf Coast as well as his many
important service contributions to
GCSSEPM. We will also honor the best
paper awards for last years meeting in
Corpus Christi. Finally, Dr. James
Coleman will receive the prestigious
Doris Malkin Curtis Award for his career
contributions in the development of
new concepts for understanding the geology
of the Gulf of Mexico Basin and
other basins globally. Dr. Coleman’s
name is virtually synonymous with “Gulf
Coast Deltas” and we are pleased to recognize
his seminal contributions to understanding
our own Mississippi system
as well as his global synthesis of coastal
systems. Our Tuesday lunch meeting
will feature SEPM president, Dr. Dale
Leckie, Chief Geologist at Nexen, Calagry
and a distinguished speaker in his own
right, who promises to deliver an engaging
overview of one of the world’s largest
unconventional petroleum reserves,
the Athabasca tar sands in Canada. I look
forward to seeing you at the meeting.
On December 7-9 th , we will host the
28th Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob
F. Perkins Research Conference at the
Houston Marriott Westchase. This year’s
conference will focus on “Answering the
Challenges of Production from
Deepwater Reservoirs: Analogues and
Case Histories to aid a New Generation”.
As this is the last newsletter of the
year, this is also my last presidential letter.
Next year, Dr. John Wagner, Chief
Geologist at Nexen, USA, and a former
student of mine, will assume duties as
GCSSEPM president. I will continue to
help where I can as past-president. I
would like to thank all of you who have
made this job both enjoyable and, I hope,
productive. With the help of Mike
Boyles, at Shell, who has ably served as
GCSSEPM Convention vice-chair and
Angela Hammond, also at Shell who
Page 9
took on the monumental task of coediting
the GCAGS Transactions we
have managed to organize the largest
ever GCSSEPM/GCAGS meeting. We
have also taken care of some needed
bylaw revisions, strengthened our ties
with GCAGS and clarified our list of
officer duties.
Our very strong and highly effective
executive committee made all of this
possible. I must particularly thank our
erstwhile and dedicated secretary, Lana
Czerniakowski, without whom nothing
would ever get accomplished. Our outgoing
treasurer, Ramon Trevino, always
ensured that our accounts were in good
order. Behind the scenes, of course, are
the Foundation trustees, led with dedication
by Norm Rosen. This year we said
goodbye to trustee Rashel Rosen, who
elected to retire from the committee
but we welcomed Tony D’Agostino, a
long-time member of GCSSEPM. I also
must thank trustee Mike Nault, whose
deep knowledge was critical, especially
in managing our many awards. I look
forward to continued association with
GCSSEPM in the years to come and
am honored to have been able to serve
the society.
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Geosciences Department
University of Houston
4800 Calhoun Rd.,
Houston, Texas 77204

Gulf Coast Section – Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists
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