AMERICA’S Energy Future and Kansas’ Role

By  Dr. Lee C. Gerhard
KGS Technical Meeting on March 19, 2003

ABSTRACT

     There is little question that the energy supply of the United States is highly dependent on imported oil, and increasing amounts of imported natural gas.  Congressional failure to enact a rational energy policy balancing new production of domestic resources with conservation and alternative energy research and development is seriously hampering the American economy.  We won’t run out of oil in this world, but it could become seriously more expensive.  The American economy is directly tied to the price of energy, especially oil, and has been on a roller coaster since 1973.

     We will examine the future of the national energy demand and supply, and perhaps suggest some new ideas for the Kansas petroleum industry to stem the slide of Kansas raw energy production.  But it will take some imagination.
 

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“Structural Styles 1979, Revisited 2003”

Dr. James D. Lowell, Denver, CO
KGS Technical Meeting on April 30, 2003

ABSTRACT

     The original classification of structural styles by Harding and Lowell (1979, AAPG, Bull) of basement-involved wrench-fault assemblages, compressive fault blocks, extensional fault blocks, and warps, and detached thrust-fold belts, normal faults, salt structures, and shale structures is still useful in describing structures in petroleum provinces.  The potential for complex interplay of styles was recognized in that publication, if not illustrated.  In subsequent years new work has both concentrated on the complexities and described other characteristics and properties of styles that had not been previously known.

     In recent years in the styles grouping of basement deformation, discussion of the wrench assemblage has largely focused on the degree of transpression or transtension in the system.  Exploration in compressive blocks has often emphasized the mountain-front play, or structure concealed in the subthrust of a basement overhang.  Unusual, non-predictable tectonic settings for this style have also been discovered.  Controversy has arisen about the importance of low-angle normal faults (less than 30 degrees) in the deformation of extensional blocks.  In addition, gravity slump along the fronts of normal fault blocks, cross-rift trends in the form of accommodation zones and transfer faults, and hourglass structures have received considerable attention.  In the category of basement warps (arches, domes, sags), evidence from one plate-interior setting suggests that some of these gentle structural features have had a deep-seated compressional origin.  Some of these topics will provide basis for this talk.

BIOGRAPHY

     Dr. James D. Lowell is a consulting geologist in Morrison, Colorado, primarily involved in international consulting in structural geology related to petroleum exploration.  He has worked in exploration at American Overseas Petroleum Limited Co., Esso Production Research, Exxon, and Northwest Exploration Company.  He was an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer (1994-1995), Esso Australia Distinguished Lecturer (1989), Crosby Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987), and Schramm Chair Professor at the University of Nebraska (1987).  In the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, he is an honorary member (1996), was president (1985), edited Foreland Basins and Uplifts (1983), and received the Scientist of the Year Award (1979).  Dr. Lowell also wrote the book, Structural Styles in Petroleum Exploration, published by OGCI.  He holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Nebraska and an M.A.  and a Ph.D. in Geology from Columbia University.

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