Michel T. Halbouty Lecture: Modern Sediment Transport as Analog for the Past and Future: From Houston to Antarctica

The Michel T. Halbouty lecture series – funded by the AAPG Foundation – is an ongoing special event. Lecture topics are designed to focus either on wildcat exploration in any part of the world where major discoveries might contribute significantly to petroleum reserves, or space exploration where astrogeological knowledge would further mankind’s ability to develop resources on Earth and in the solar system.

The present is the key to the past" is a fundamental tenet of uniformitarianism and the basis for much of our understanding of Earth's history. However, the present is highly variable and includes sudden extreme events; additionally, the present is changing dramatically as we watch. This talk will use examples of recent sediments to consider how past conditions are recorded, as well as what they tell us about the future.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas six years ago, in August, 2017. In the Houston region, the storm brought more than 1.3 m (50 in) of rain over a four-day period and mobilized sediment in the region's fluvial and estuarine systems. Sediment moved across the city towards Galveston Bay at volumes significantly higher than the average annual amount delivered during either modern or Holocene times. This pulse of sediment, delivered all of a sudden, highlights the intermittent conditions that might be recorded in the rock record.

Thwaites Glacier, which is larger than Florida and contains the sea-level rise equivalent of 65 cm, is the opposite sedimentary environment in all possible ways: polar not subtropical, pristine not urban, unexplored rather than geology's backyard. Sediment cores collected in 2019 offer the first glimpse of the environmental conditions along this portion of Antarctica's ice margin. 210Pb radiometric dating allows reconstruction at decadal time scales. The modern sedimentary facies extend back only a few decades, showing that ice retreat there was triggered in the middle of the last century.

Fee:

Included with Registration

Room Assignment:

George R. Brown Convention Center, Room 360 A