Indiana University

 

Professor Crow took this picture looking South toward Mexico from just below the rim of North McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. The area in the background, beyond the saddle in the ridge, is the desert floor of the Delaware Basin. The bedded rocks to the left are the backreef deposits of the Yates Formation.
North McKittrick Canyon in the
Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Remember back in grade school when teachers asked students towrite essays about how they spent their summer vacations? Fortwo professors in the Department of Geosciences at Indiana University-PurdueUniversity Fort Wayne, this summer will definitely be something to write home about to colleagues and students alike.

Assistant Professor Christopher Crow is returning to an areawhere he has spent a lot of time doing research in years past:the Permian Reef Complex in the Southern Guadalupe Mountainsof western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Assistant ProfessorEric Flodin will be going to the same mountain range this yearfor a different research project.

The current stage of Crow's research involves making a detailedgeological map of the Goat Seep reef, which was deposited duringthe oldest episode of reef growth that resulted in the PermianReef Complex. The quarter-billion-year-old Goat Seep reef isexposed at the head of Pine Canyon in the Guadalupe MountainsNational Park in Texas, and in North McKittrick Canyon in theLincoln National Forest in New Mexico--remote areas that canonly be reached on foot. Crow's interests lie in the paleoecologyof these fossil reefs, what organisms lived in the reef, howthey interacted with other reef organisms, and how they influencedconstruction of the reef itself.

Flodin, venturing into a new field area, is making his secondtrip to the Guadalupe Mountains. His first trip was during spring2005, when he identified suitable locations for the collectionof information. Flodin says he will be collecting data “on thegeometry of several different fault zones that exhibit varyingamounts of displacement. One goal of this research is to developa conceptual model for the evolution of the fault systems inplatform carbonate rocks. Another is to numerically calculatethe impact the faults will have on subsurface fluid flow,” hesays.

Professor Flodin took this picture on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land west of the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. The picture shows small-scale fault zones within platform carbonate rocks. Fractures associated with the fault zones would most likely act as fluid flow conduits in a subsurface environment. The gentleman in the photograph is Professor Flodin’s colleague, Professor Phil Resor of Wesleyan University.
Professor Phil Resor of Wesleyan University


In other words, Flodin's research focuses on characterizingthe geometry of fracture and fault systems in rock, using thegeometries as a basis for estimating the effect the fractureswill have on fluid flow. After he has collected the data, Flodinplans to digitize the field maps and to begin running preliminaryfluid flow models by summer's end.

Flodin's work has potential to help increase the efficiencyof petroleum production. Much of the world's petroleum reservesare stored in fractured carbonate rocks. His research could alsoshow how the faults and fractures could be used to most effectivelytap a groundwater resource or to mitigate subsurface contaminationproblems.

Both Crow and Flodin are eager to get into the field, lookingforward to the terrific “what I did last summer” stories they'llhave to tell.

 
IU