Seismic exploration for oil and gas underway in Mohave County

A seismic exploration company is carrying out a geophysical exploration program in Golden Valley in Mohave County to assess the potential for oil and gas deposits.    The company's  'thumper' trucks [right, credit Nodal Seismic] send vibrations into the ground which bounce off different geologic units and are recorded at the surface by seismic sensors.    The seismic signals provide a map of the shape and nature of rocks in the subsurface.

According to news reports, California based Nodal Seismic is collecting the seismic data for what I interpreted to be a 'spec' survey.  In other words they would not be "shooting" the seismic data (a historical term when dynamite was used to send the signals into the ground) for an oil company client but would collect it in order to sell it to petroleum companies to generate interest in the oil and gas potential of the area.    

Update 7-24-15, 8am: Since I wrote this, I understand Vanterra Energy may have an agreement with another company that would earn an interest in their leased acreage by funding the seismic acquisition and drilling of an exploratory well.

An article in the Kingman Daily Miner quoted residents as worrying about the impact of hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' on their groundwater.   First, this is only a geophysical exploration program.  No one has proposed drilling any wells.  And even if wells were drilled, hydraulic fracturing is a technique that is used in only certain geologic environments.  We have not seen anything to suggest that geology in Golden Valley would be suitable for fracking.

The Arizona Oil & Gas Conservation Commission permits and regulates all oil and gas drilling and would specifically have to approve any hydraulic fracturing operations.

So, don't panic.   There are a lot of 'ifs' before any of this would lead to drilling or development.   There have been over 1,100 wells drilled for oil and gas in Arizona and only a handful ever produced and they are on the Navajo Reservation just on the border with Utah.

Sudden passing of Bill Dickinson

We just learned from his family that William "Bill" Dickinson, Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, died in his sleep early yesterday morning while doing field work in Tonga.


His bio on Wikipedia notes that Bill was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Prior joining the University of Arizona, Bill was a professor at Stanford University. He joined the UA faculty in 1979.

Dickinson is renowned for his work in plate tectonics, sedimentary geology and Pacific Oceana geology and is considered one of the foremost experts on the geology of the Colorado Plateau. Dickinson is one of the founders of the Gazzi-Dickinson Method and its primary application, QFL diagrams and their use in sandstone provenance.

Dickinson's research includes studying the potsherds (historic or prehistoric fragments of pottery) of Pacific Oceana. Over the years, he has visited hundreds of Pacific Islands collecting and dating sherds.

Only 10% of applicants get permits to visit famous "Wave" crossbedded sandstone site

The Bureau of Land Management issues permits for only 20 visitors per day to visit the iconic Wave red sandstone crossbeds in the Paria Canyon - Coyote Buttes Special Management Area.   Only about 10% of the 73,000 annual applicants currently get permits.  BLM is seeking public comments on its proposal to increase fees and restructure the permit system.   [Right, photo credit Arizona Highways, Jeremy Jordan]

The area has become world famous in the past 20 years, attracting large numbers of foreign visitors on top of the growing popularity of the site among US hikers.


The Arizona [Flagstaff] Daily Sun reports that 

The changes suggested by BLM will transition all permitting in the area to an online system, including swapping a next-day walk-in lottery system for a 48-hour online one. Half of the 20 daily permits issued for Coyote Buttes South and North, where The Wave is located, are currently issued in the next-day lottery, which can attract more than 100 people per day... That same portion, 10 per day, will move to the 48-hour lottery, allowing people to better plan ahead for their trip.

The BLM’s draft plan also will raise fees, including an increase from $5 to $10 per person per night for overnight camping in Paria Canyon and an increase of the permit fee for Coyote Buttes North and South from $7 and $5 per person per day, respectively, to $12 per person per day. A $6 service fee would be charged by the online system for each permit issued.

 The St. George [Utah] Spectrum says the public is invited to provide feedback on the permit process and proposed fee increases, both of which are addressed in the Paria Canyon-Canyon Buttes Special Management Area Draft Business Plan, by August 17.

Comments may be submitted to BLM at  345 E. Riverside Drive, St. George, Utah, 84790-6714 or via email to blm_az_vcnm@blm.gov 

Getting back on the grid

We're back in Tucson and connected to the rest of the world online after a brief sojourn to the family cabin in northwest Wyoming.   My first time off in 14 months came after completing major deliverables for our two biggest funded projects due at the end of June.

The drive took us along the section of US89A rebuilt and recently reopened after a massive landslide took out a section of the road and rerouted traffic in and out of Page. ADOT engineered a huge buttress downslope to stabilize the megaslide area (right).

My blogging is way down the past year and more due to the press of so many projects but I have a good sized stack of items to write about.  

Copper price plummets

Copper has fallen 19 cents at the start of the past week, and was down 30 cents the past month.   The close on Wednesday  was $2.42/lb after briefly touching $2.40.  The price rallied back to $2.54 by week's end.  

Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, the world's largest publicly traded copper producer saw their stock plummeted to $16.03 intraday.on Wednesday.

The price drop is not restricted to copper but is affecting all metals.  Arizona produces about two-thirds of the copper used in the US, so the price has a big impact on jobs and the economy.