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Saturday, July 04, 1998
Putting geology on a computer screen
A geologist places the highlights of his field trip roaming through Central Nevada on compact disc.
By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal
Whether he's taking a hike in south-central Nevada or looking for oil, geologist Alan Chamberlain knows that knowledge of the terrain is essential.
That's why Chamberlain, a former Lincoln County commissioner, decided to compile images from a field trip of Central Nevada's geologic features.
His newly released compact disc, "Digital Field Trip to the Central Nevada Thrust Belt" -- a series of photos, maps and explanations about the area's geology -- is an appendix to his thesis for the Colorado School of Mines. Texaco's Stephen Hook and Kenneth Frost joined Chamberlain in producing the disc.
Chamberlain, who holds geology degrees from Brigham Young University, says the CD is a resource for rockhounds and educators.
"It can be used by Boy Scouts working on merit badges to teachers taking students on field trips. I think that's the biggest application," he said. Users of the CD can preview it on a home computer or take a laptop along on a field trip.
"If somebody's getting ready to fly up to Reno, they can look out the window and see what we're talking about," he said.
A self-proclaimed geologic data broker, Chamberlain said he and his co-authors began compiling the Digital Field Trip in 1995 as a resource for oil companies and geologists interested in Nevada's petroleum potential.
Popping the disc in a computer, a viewer can flip through a stack of images that highlights such features as the Alamo Breccia -- an ancient, uplifted seabed in a mountain range near Hiko -- and the Keystone Thrust Fault in Red Rock Canyon.
The fault was formed about 65 million years ago when a shift in the earth's tectonic plates pushed older, gray limestone rocks over younger Aztec sandstone. The fault can be seen for at least 45 miles, from Red Rock Canyon eastward to the Muddy Mountains. It's the first of 16 stops on the virtual field trip.
The Central Nevada Thrust Belt is a series of earthquake-caused outcroppings that stretch from Red Rock Canyon in the Spring Mountains, 12 miles west of central Las Vegas, north to the Egan Range, along the boundary of Nye and Lincoln counties, and ultimately as far north as Elko.
This area, said Chamberlain, "has oil-source rocks with the capacity for billion-barrel-size oil fields.
"Probably some of the biggest potential is under Groom Lake," he said, referring to the location of a classified Air Force base, 35 miles west of Alamo in Lincoln County in the Nellis Air Force Range Complex.
Chamberlain said he believes the Central Nevada Thrust Belt is rich in petroleum because it has the basic ingredients:
--world class oil-source rocks, some thousands of feet thick, with proper subsurface temperatures for generating oil;
--Plenty of so-called reservoir rocks from the Devonian period 375 million years ago. These produced oil from decaying plant and animal life;
--Deep areas along earthquake faults that can trap oil;
--Shalelike rocks and types of limestone that seal petroleum.
Chamberlain said he is focusing on the area south of Railroad Valley, where oil fields have been tapped.
"The big field hasn't been drilled yet," he said.
The area is similar to one in Wyoming where wells are drawing oil from 15,000 feet to 20,000 feet below the surface, he said.
Chamberlain said there are only two oil wells in Nevada that have gone below 15,000 feet. One is at Apex, 15 miles north of Las Vegas. The other, a well 19,000 feet deep, is in Mormon Mesa, between Moapa and Mesquite in northeastern Clark County.
"We've got a whole state that has really never been drilled," he said. "If we can find one billion-barrel field here it would create a lot of jobs."
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The Keystone Thrust Fault is outlined in an aerial photo of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
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