News - 2024
September 20th, 2024
Legacy Cuttings and Data Donation from Ron Budros
Ron Budros was a dedicated geologist in the Michigan oil and gas industry. He was an avid data collector and visited MGRRE often to examine cores and cuttings. Unfortunately, Ron died suddenly in May, 2023.
Ron was a generous donor to MGRRE in his lifetime and now through his estate. At his request, his family donated his collection of well data to MGRRE in September, 2024.
That collection includes cuttings, core chips, oil samples, and photographic images of cores. The cuttings collection alone represents 81 wells, largely from the Trenton/Black River formations.
MGRRE will use this collection in it’s current carbon storage research to better characterize the Trenton and Black River formations.
We have always known that data has more than one life. Ron knew this as well—that’s why he left the collection to MGRRE. This data will be used here in our research, education, and outreach, in ways that we cannot even imagine now. We are honored to archive this legacy collection.
Ron Budros Collection.
May 14-15, 2024
CCUS Workshop
We welcomed 40 people from other surveys, universities, governmental agencies and industry to a CCUS core workshop here at MGRRE May 14-15, 2024. More than 3300’ of core was available for examination and the team made several presentations about Michigan’s Carbon Systems. The main focus was on formations that can act as seals (confining systems) for underlying formations that can store CO2. Post-workshop evaluations showed that participants found the workshop to be well presented and useful. We thoroughly enjoyed presenting it.
March 2024
WMU Students Examine and Describe Cores at MGRRE
WMU’s students in Dr. Peter Voice’s structure class examined cores from the Arms 10, Dalrymple, Polarsky 1-12B, US 2 over Sturgeon River, M-35 over Carp River, and the Roe A-2 wells, because they illustrate faults and other structural features.
Michigan State University’s students from Dr. Susan Krans’ sedimentary/stratigraphy class visited MGRRE for a Saturday to examine and describe clastic cores from the American Chem 44 and 45 cores from Mason County. They had previously examined these weathered formations at the Grand Ledge outcrop.
Although these cored wells are within a few hundred feet of each other, they show some variability in sedimentary stacking patterns of facies that may represent lateral variability of depositional environments across this Pennsylvanian fluvial-deltaic plain.
Dr. Krans (fourth from right).
March 9th, 2024
$2.25M AWARDED BY THE DEPT. OF ENERGY TO DR. AUTUMN HAAGSMA AND WMU'S ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
The Department of Energy awarded $2.25M to Dr. Autumn Haagsma, Director of MGRRE and Assistant MGS Director, together with WMU’s Engineering Department. This funding will support creating a system of direct air capture of carbon dioxide (CEAS) and then safely storing the captured carbon underground in Michigan’s ideally suited geological formations (CAS).
Opportunities to Learn More:
- WOOD TV 8 interview with Dr. Haagsma
- WKZO news article
- WSJM news article
February 2024
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY GEOLOGY CLUB VISITS
Geology Club.
February 2024
OAKLAND ACADEMY STUDENTS EXAMINE CORES AT MGRRE
January 19th, 2024
SOMAT ENGINEERING DONATED SHALLOW BEDROCK CORES
Sean Panetta, a WMU alum and geologist who works for Somat Engineering, arranged for Somat to donate several shallow bedrock cores to MGRRE. His firm drilled those cores for the I-75 modernization project in southeastern Michigan, and for the work on I-94 near Jackson. They also donated the geotechnical logs from the wells. We saw some coal in the cores near Jackson, where there is some concern for road collapse near some old, abandoned coal mines.
Cores from urban areas like these, that are covered with buildings and pavement, are so valuable to us. In such a densely populated area, it’s very unlikely that other wells will be cored there. So, the data they provide really fills a gap.
We are always grateful that our alums think well of us and continue to help us by donating geological material that we will use in education and research.
the Detroit River Group.
January 2024
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHERS SAMPLE CORE AT MGRRE
MGRRE welcomed geologists to examine and sample Lower Silurian cores as part of their worldwide biostratigraphic research using Chitinozoans (microscopic flask-shaped fossils). Prof. Thijs Vandenbroucke, Ghent University, Belgium, Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, Illinois Geological Survey, and their Ghent University PhD student, Carolina Klock, sampled cores from 6 wells in 6 different Michigan counties to look for chitinozoans.
Published research reports about age-dating work (by Bill Harrison, Andrew Caruthers, Matt Rine, Mohammed Al Musawi and others) using carbon isotope chronostratigraphy-dating, radioactive dating of zircons from Silurian ash beds, and conodont biostratigraphic dating brought international attention to this research and preserved cores here at MGRRE. Results from this new work will provide further time zone delineation worldwide to these Lower Silurian formations.
January 24th and 25th, 2024
MGRRE HOSTS GREAT LAKES GEOLOGIC MAPPING COALITION
