Mid-Term Thoughts and Review
Writing this editorial in mid-December is an appropriate time to reflect on the past year. Five Bulletins are in the books. I now look forward to the last five issues of my term as your editor and how I might improve them. Reviewing my goals – A first priority (and the most challenging) is finding technical articles and writing “feature articles.” To help provide this, I need your help and encourage all to submit technical articles. Ideally, the articles would provide awareness and help people learn about different facets of geoscience’s ongoing and developing subjects. The current January issue features six abstracts on technical topics from the Sheriff lecture night held last month on November 11. We appreciate Dr Paul Mann, the CBTH director, for getting the abstracts to us in time for publication this month. Regarding the number of technical articles, last month’s Bulletin was a banner edition with a fabulous collection of papers highlighted from December’s Africa conference.
“Feature Articles” in each Bulletin can have different emphases or on hopefully interesting subjects. During my term as your editor, the monthly “feature articles” attempt to present, in some cases, subjects in which I have fair competence. Still, in other “features”, I present a more journalistic review of others' work that summarizes their thinking. Both methods aim to spur interest, thinking, and questioning by our readers. During my term, the bulletin has tried to offer a broad scope of fields that lead us into the energy transition and articles such as “fun” rockhounding features. For the energy transition, examples would be the Lithium article in the September bulletin and the Hydrogen article in the October issue. However, we cannot lose sight of the need to maintain the traditional oil and gas opportunities for the resources needed today. I believe it’s especially important for the younger generation of geoscientists to know about the non-traditional areas with exploration potential (such as the November article on Cuba’s Exploration potential. Questions are also posed to our readers, such as in the November issue, where the discussion focused on the viability of a new play for an Upper Jurassic oolite play in the EGOM. Sometimes, there can be blind spots by individuals or management who might tend to follow other exploration leaders rather than thinking about forging a new path or ideas. Hence, reviewing areas not always “in the news” can hopefully provide more geological and historical context. However, I often need some help or input from experts to ensure I provide more up-to-date content in writing “feature articles.” They have a deep knowledge of various subjects and help me understand the subject material better. To them, I offer a sincere “thank you”. The list of people that have provided ideas and clarifications for me include Doctors Julie Bloxson (SFA), Robert Erlich (Cayo Resources), Katherine Knierim (USGS), Joe Landy (PSI), Brian LeCompte (MOC), Paul Mann (UH), Ian Norton (UT), James Pindell (Tectonic Analysis LTD), John Snedden (UT), and Rafael Tenreyro (CUPET). As a disclaimer, all the opinions in the “Feature Articles” are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the people I just mentioned, but again, I am most grateful.
If anyone would like to offer suggestions for subjects in the “feature article,” please email me, and I will try to incorporate them into the Bulletin. I hope this “Half-time” talk provides effective encouragement to make this new year even better. I wish you all a successful and joyous 2025 New Year.