Best Poster Award from Pacific Section AAPG


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Best Poster Award from Pacific Section AAPG

By Helen Gibbons
May / June 2010

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U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist Holly Ryan and her coauthors Jacob Covault (Chevron Energy Technology Co.), Homa Lee (USGS emeritus), and Charles Paull and David Caress (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) were chosen to receive the 2009 H. Victor Church Memorial Award from the Pacific Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). This award is given annually in recognition of the best scientific poster presented at the annual Pacific Section AAPG meeting. The winning poster, "Tectonic Influence on the Generation of Cyclic Steps by Turbidity Currents Offshore San Mateo Point, Southern California Borderland," appeared at the organization's May 2009 meeting in Ventura, California (read poster abstract at http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/abstracts/html/2009/pacific/abstracts/ryan.htm). The award was presented at the May 2010 meeting in Anaheim, California.

Above: Multibeam-sonar map of a turbidity-current channel off southern California, excerpted from the award-winning poster. Map was constructed from data collected by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), which can fly as low as 30 m above the seafloor and is preprogrammed to fly in a "lawnmower pattern," collecting overlapping swaths of bathymetric (depth) data. Inset shows a bathymetric profile along the channel thalweg (the line connecting the deepest points along the channel). Slope decreases from 6.5° to 2.0° near red hexagon on map. Large scour features that are net-erosional cyclic steps are numbered 1 through 6 on map and inset; antiforms that cross the channel in the subsurface are lettered A through E on map. Scour features (steps) 1, 3, and 4 appear to have migrated upslope from the crests of buried antiforms C, D, and E. For additional information, read the poster abstract. [larger version]

The H. Victor Church Memorial Award was established to build a lasting memorial to the technical prowess of H. Victor Church, a petroleum geologist who compiled an impressive record as an explorer and oil finder during a career that spanned more than 50 years. The focus of the award is on creative thinking toward new ideas in exploration, development geology, or foundational geology. Peers judge the posters at each session, and scores are compiled and reviewed by the convention judging committee to determine the overall winner.

The names of previous recipients are posted at http://psaapg.org/honordetails.aspx?hid=3.
Congratulations to the award winners!