Date: April 21st
Time: 11:30AM – 2:00PM
Location: The Petroleum Club of Lafayette
Abstract:
Redeposition of Microfossils related to Mega-Tsunami Events as analogs for deepwater deposition
The large amplitude of mega-tsunami waves creates a devastating erosional effect on the continental shelf and shorelines resulting in a large amount of fine-grained material swept offshore and deposited via gravitational settling. The resulting sea-floor deposit is a fining-upwards silt to clay sizeunit with an interesting microfossil distribution. Large deposits resulting from Santorini caldera collapse in the Holocene Mediterranean Sea, a bolide impact in Campanian western Interior Seaway, and the famous bolide impact near Chicixulub Gulf of Mexico ending the Cretaceous; can be studied and compared to normal deposition in the deepwater. The distribution of sediment and microfossils from these deposits resulting from disastrous and chaotic mega-tsunami events are oddly similar to mass-transport turbidites observed in seemingly ordinary well-bores in the Miocene deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Even though these mass transport deposits causation is not likely related to Mega-tsunamis, their chonostratigraphy appears coincidental with bathyal wedges (inferred from benthic foraminifera) observed along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Understanding the spatial and chronological distribution of these large mega-tsunami events may be insightful analogs to oil and gas exploration and production as inputs to seal presence, seal capacity, and borehole design.
Biography
Ryan Weber
Ryan is currently the President of Paleo-Data, Inc.; a biostratigraphic consulting firm serving the Oil & Gas sector for over 50 years. Ryan previously worked for BP as a Gulf of Mexico biostratigrapher. Ryan hails a BS and Education certificate from Minnesota State – Mankato, and an MS from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Ryan also served as the Earth Science Section Chair for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences. Ryan’s career has applied biostratigraphy from onshore to deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the interior USA, Egypt Nile Delta, Northwest Australian shelf, offshore Mozambique, Colombia, Alaska, and the Spanish Pyrenees. Ryan’s passions include Miocene and Wilcox stratigraphy, Mesozoic paleooceanography, the Minnesota Twins, nostalgic comedies, and fermentation.
