This one day course is designed to provide participants with a working knowledge of the physical and biological processes operating in shallow-marine depositional-systems. 

Taken together, current-produced sedimentary structures and trace fossils permit a more refined interpretation of depositional setting (and likely reservoir behavior) than is possible when either sedimentology or ichnology are considered separately. The course combines lecture and hands-on work with core, with an emphasis on the application of ichnology to petroleum exploration and reservoir evaluation. Modern examples include the mesotidal barrier islands and inlets of the Carolinas and Georgia, the macrotidal embayments in Alaska, Canada and Scotland, and the Mississippi Delta. Reservoir studies will be presented in montages for all participants to review and will include the Frio Formation of the Gulf Coast, the Sag River Sandstone of North Slope, and the Bridgeport Sandstone of Wytch Farm, England. Core and data sets from the Ferron Sandstone of the Western Interior, the Sag River Sandstone, the St Petersburg Sandstone from the Michigan Basin, and the SubClarksville sandstone from the East Texas Basin will be available for participants to study. Case histories will explain the sequence stratigraphy and depositional setting of these sandstones, and also demonstrate the nature of the flow units in the reservoirs. The effects of bioturbation on reservoir properties and production performance can be demonstrated and quantified for each sandstone.

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