News Release, Kansas Geological Survey, Sept. 20, 2010
LAWRENCE--A geology graduate student and two faculty members from the University of Kansas have been recognized by a worldwide geologic organization for their presentation on petroleum-related rocks in southeast Kansas.
Erin Young, KU graduate student and Kansas Geological Survey research assistant; Robert Goldstein, KU professor of geology; and Evan Franseen, Survey senior scientist and KU professor of geology, received the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) 2010 Excellence of Poster Presentation Award. The presentation was made in April at the SEPM annual meeting in New Orleans.
The poster showed conclusions from a study of underground Mississippian-age rocks in petroleum reservoirs based on core samples from four locations in Cherokee County. The area borders the expansive natural-gas producing Anadarko and Arkoma basins to the south.
Samples of fossil-rich rocks deposited more than 320 million years ago were studied in microscopic detail to shed light on their structures and characteristics. Analyzing the rocks helps determine under what conditions they were formed and what resources, such as oil and gas, they may be associated with.
SEPM is an international society that focuses on the dissemination of scientific information on sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology, environmental sciences, marine geology, and hydrogeology.