Earth Scientists more relevant than ever to oil and gas industry

Susan R. Eaton

…During the fall of 2008, the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (the “CFES”) issued a report entitled Human Resources Needs in Earth Sciences in Canada. Dubbed Canada’s ‘first-ever,’ multi-sector survey – spanning government agencies, academic institutions, and the petroleum, mining, environmental and geotechnical industries – the report voiced concerns about…

My Career in Geophysics: Becoming an Explorationist

Robert Mummery

…Robert (Bob) Mummery. When asked to write about my career in geophysics, I was initially perplexed. Although I have worked closely with geophysical data for over twenty-five years, my formal training was in “classical” geology. I have morphed from “hard rock” to “soft rock” geology and from geologist to exploration…

Satinder Chopra

An Interview with Satinder Chopra

…[Oliver]: Well, this is different, with you on the other side of the table! I’ll start, as usual, by asking about your educational background and your career – introduce yourself to our members, though you don’t need any introduction really. I grew up in Shimla, the capital city of Himachal…

Presidential Column

…Year in review On March 30, the new CSEG Executive takes office. This will be the end of my term as President of our society. The commitment to be President is a three-year minimum commitment: one year each as Vice President, President, then and Past President. There are many opportunities…

Executive Message

…I have been a part of the CSEG Executive Committee for almost a year now, as the Assistant Director of Educational Services, working with the current Director, Petra Busiak. At the AGM in March, the torches will be passed and I will become Director, with John Fernando joining me as…

CAGC Column

…In the final half of the season) There are 3 things that determine your winning percentage: Schedule, Injuries and Officiating. Darryl Sutter, GM of the Calgary Flames Everyone likes three’s. Bread, Milk and Cheese – there’s a shopping list you won’t forget. Add Butter and half of us will forget…

Science Break: Weather Maps

…I’ve been getting more and more feedback on these “Science Break” articles, and that’s great. If you have any ideas for future articles, please pass them on. Alternatively, if you’d like to submit your own article, please contact me. I’d love it if we could run guest articles. My contact…

Tracing the Industry

…It is with great sadness that I include an obituary for an ex co-worker of mine. I was fortunate to work with John Fisher for two years while I was at GSI. I really enjoyed John’s sense of humor and working with him. My sincerest sympathies to his family, friends…

Grapevine

…Welcome to March! This is the last Grapevine I get to write for two years... yes, I know you are all MOST sad by this turn of events... but, I am taking on new responsibilities on the CSEG Executive, thus cannot continue to be a regular columnist… sigh. That said,…

Connecting active and passive seismic to describe geomechanical rock properties

Bill Goodway

…The reflection seismic method has its origins in the Earthquake Seismology studies of the nature and types of elastic seismic waves released from an earthquake source. Observations of these waves at the earth’s surface, have led to an understanding of the theoretical basis for elastic compressional P-wave and shear S-wave…

Noise reduction by structure-and-amplitude-preserving multi-channel deconvolution

Juefu Wang and Mauricio Sacchi

…Abstract We pose seismic noise reduction as an inverse problem. The clean data are obtained by minimizing a cost function that uses a priori information about the spatial continuity of reflectors. The optimization problem is solved by introducing a smoothing operator that reduces the difference between adjacent traces along seismic…

Early Cenozoic Hyperthermals: The Sedimentary Record of Rapid Global Warming and Massive Carbon Input

Gerald R. Dickens

…Abstract The “Greenhouse Earth” of the late Paleocene and early Eocene was generally characterized by warm temperatures and elevated Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide (pCO2). During this time, however, at least two “hyperthermals” occurred, the most pronounced corresponding to the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary ca. 55 million years ago (Ma). These were…

Jason McCrank and Maria Quijada

An Interview with Jason McCrank and Maria Quijada

…[Satinder]: Let’s begin by asking you to tell us about your educational background so far. [Maria]: I obtained a degree in Geophysical Engineering from Simón Bolívar University in Caracas and right after that I came to the University of Calgary to get a Masters in Geophysics. [Jason]: I received my…

Presidential Column

…CSEG Budget 2009 In January 2009, the CSEG Executive approved the budget for the year 2009 as proposed by the Finance Director Larry Herd. The budget was arrived at through submissions from various committees, discussions between the Director of Finance Larry Herd and the Assistant Director Brock Hassell with Jim…

Executive Message

…I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the CSEG’s participation in the CFES and one of CFES’s initiatives in particular. The CFES is an umbrella organization of 15 geoscience and academic societies, which the CSEG belongs to. It provides the CSEG an opportunity to coordinate efforts, trade experiences…

Letters to the Editor

…More Reflections on Q In their recent RECORDER article “Reflections on Q,” Lines at al. (2008) touched on two of the most fundamental problems which are of great interest to seismologists – namely the origin of seismic reflectivity, and its relation to the impedance and absorption. In the problem of…

CAGC Column

…In late November 2008 Ipsos Reid on behalf of the Petroleum Human Resources Sector Council conducted a small group survey of young adults (18-25 years old) in Toronto to gauge the perception of the Oil and Gas Industry and working in it. The participants have very strong opinions about the…

Science Break: Our Moon, and Synchronous Orbits

…A while back my 8-year son asked me why we can never see the other side of the Moon. I described the situation to him, but couldn’t give him any “whys”, leaving us both somewhat frustrated. More recently, CSEG member Jeff Beckett suggested this very topic would make a good…

Tracing the Industry

…This month’s column has some good news, some sad news and two announcements asking for your help for members of the geophysical community and their families. Congratulations to Dr. Steven Lynch for being awarded his Ph.D. That is quite an accomplishment! On behalf of the RECORDER community I would like…

Grapevine

…Happy February! As the “official” groundhog in Pennsylvania saw his shadow on February 2nd, apparently we are going to see another six weeks of winter. I was hoping that since the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl the day before, Pennsylvania would have been luckier, but I guess not. Ick. Oh…