North to Alaska - for Petroleum News

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Alaska and offered its support, Mull said.
“It was a world of change when Ken
Boyd and Mark Myers came in as directors
of the Division of Oil & Gas and
when Tom Irwin became Commissioner
of Natural Resources,” Mull said.
North to Alaska: Geoscience, Technology and Natural Resources
COURTESY GIL MULL
Making a Difference
Of the considerable accomplishments
of his career, Mull said he is most proud
of the discovery that the entire northern
central part of the Brooks Mountain is at
least 100 miles out of place. Geologically
speaking, this area should be further
south near Wiseman.
It was Mull who put together geological
clues to prove that shifting of continental
plates pushed chunks of the
upper crust of the earth northward.Thus,
the sequence of rocks far south of the
North Slope around Mount Doonerak in
the Gates of the Arctic National Park is
identical to the subsurface of ANWR and
Prudhoe Bay.
“It proved this whole mountain range
has been pushed northward in a thrust
fault,” Mull said.“It showed tremendous
geological insight. It was an exciting
technical discovery, but there are still
people who don’t believe it. But I call it
elegant proof.”
The intrepid Mull’s wanderings also
enabled him to identify several important
archeological sites in the Brooks Range at
Tukuto Lake and Anaktuvuk Pass, locations
that have enabled scientists to identify
new types of chert and to plot trade
routes and solve other mysteries of the
prehistoric residents of the region.
Mull, of course, is quick to point out
that the breakups he made in conquering
the geological frontier of northern Alaska
probably would not have happened without
his fortuitous and frequent interaction
with many knowledgeable colleagues.
“I worked with a lot of other people
who know as much about the geology of
northern Alaska as I do,” he said.“The difference
is I survived,” Mull said.“And a lot
of people have more detailed knowledge,
but I was able to cover more area, from
the Canadian border to Point Hope.”
Among other talented geologists who
worked in Alaska, Mull specifically cites
USGS’ Ken Bird,Tom Moore, Dave
Houseknecht as well as an earlier generation
of explorers, including Dietrick
Roeder, Irv Collier and Bill Brosge.
“I met Dietrich Roeder in 1968 not
long after I started with Exxon. He was
very influential in my understanding of
The Prudhoe Bay State No. 1 well.
the Brooks Range. He essentially brought
me up to date with plate tectonic concepts
(continental drift), which were
being developed in the geosciences
world in the 1960s. But being in remote
Alaska during that time, I had little familiarity
with this major revolution in geologic
concepts until I met Dietrich. Some
of the new concepts immediately
explained some of the enigmatic geologic
relationships we had been seeing in
the Brooks Range, and certainly influenced
how I interpreted things we were
seeing after that time,” Mull said.
The superb work of helicopter pilots
and support crews, including camp
cooks, also played a critical role in Mull’s
success.
“Without their outstanding contributions,
I would not be here today,” he said.
“You remember those old helicopters. It
was like flying in a glass fish bowl held
together with baling wire,” he quipped.
The veteran geologist points with
pride to the many young geologists he
has enticed into the field in Alaska.
“Grad students today are getting just a
tiny piece and never get to look at the
broad picture. It’s not like being on that
cliff face and looking at the sandstone or
limestone.That’s why geologists take
field trips,” he said.“It is sometimes tough
to do when you are being assigned to
specific projects.”
There was a period, however, when
such geology field trips were restricted
by federal officials, said Mull.
“I believe that is contrary to why
national parks were established,” he said,
noting that recently, the restrictions
appeared to be easing.
Mull’s one piece of advice for young
geologists:“See absolutely as many rocks
as you can. Don’t get bogged down in
one place. Keep it regional if you can.”
Why Geological concepts are constantly
evolving, he said.
Plate tectonics, for example, has
changed how geologists look at mountains.
“New concepts are coming along on
meteor impacts and catastrophic extinction,”
Mull explained.“There are locations
in the western Brooks Range and the
DeLong Mountains where I would love
to go back to and think about those concepts.
“That’s part of the reason geologists
keep going back to the same localities
over and over again, to look at things
with a new eye,” he added.
An interview of Gil Mull conducted
Karen Brewster for Project Jukebox, an
oral history compiled by the University
of Alaska Fairbanks, contributed to this
article.