Field Session II, 2023

By Dr. Mark Miller

Another great year in fun filled Massadona! Together with geologist Cankut Kondakci, a squadron of teaching assistants, and 27 students, I was again reliving the Massadona Experience. Students were able to connect petroleum engineering concepts with the outcrop. They made initial cross sections interpretations based on layer cake geology, then found that the geologic depositional environment really does matter; their initial interpretations were very incorrect. As usual, students also visited the excellent Weber outcrops in Dinosaur National Monument and connected the heterogeneities seen there with the presentation by Scout Energy, operator of the Rangely field. While much was the same, much was different.

What was different? One of the biggest changes was the smaller class size. In 2014 and 2015, we had three back-to-back sessions of about 70 students each. The third session, six weeks into the hot summer, was trying for both the students and faculty. With less than thirty students, we were able to have one group! Interestingly, the number of TA’s did not drop proportionally. Why? We need a lot of help driving. Because of liability concerns, instead of the students driving, faculty and TA’s do the driving; because this is similar to their Field Session 1 experience, students didn’t complain (a lot).

Another change compared to previous sessions was the lack of alcohol. One of the pandemic’s unfortunate side effects was the closing of the Massadona Tavern. While I very much missed the people, having Massadona Burgers and the various happenings, students seemed much more awake and prepared each day. Imagine! However, there were still a few students living in a different time zone.

We are again grateful to Scout Energy for providing students information about how geologic information contributes to Rangely’s operational success. Because of an unfortunate last-minute cancelation, students were treated to the Vernal Field Museum. Museum staff graciously provided a behind the scenes tour of specimen preparation, preservation, and storage. It was popular with the students and museum staff offered to take us where they look at the Green River Formation. Apparently our “keep this awesome piece of a leaf” is their “discard pile”. While we very much missed learning about production logs, it provided an opportunity to try something new.