Modern Coastal Systems of Texas Field Course (Galveston, Texas)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Exploration and development geologists, engineers, geophysicists and managers desiring hands-on clastic depositional systems experience.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Sea level has fluctuated across the Texas continental shelf and coastline throughout time. What does this mean for the rivers and coastal deposits of Texas? The processes shaping our rivers and beaches essentially were the same in the past as they are today, but where we find the deposits from ancient bays and beaches and rivers has changed. Other geologic processes, such as sediment movement, also influence the deposits.

This intensive one-day field course examines the processes that influence deposition and change in these different environments and then map older deposits carefully to reconstruct the geologic history of the Texas coast. Participants will understand the distribution of the deposits and the processes that formed and changed them. This helps petroleum industry geologists better predict where oil and gas may form, move, and be found along the Texas coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.