50 Years Ago

 
50 Years Ago
The experiment that was the HGS Bulletin started 50 years ago under the editorship of Dr. Shirley Mason. Wrapping up volume 1, HGS President Ralph Taylor claimed its first year a success. I imagine both these gentlemen would be amazed at what the Bulletin has grown into.
Delving into issue No. 10 revealed several items worthy of mention. There is a review of M. King Hubbard’s preliminary work on prediction of future hydrocarbon production and when peak rate might occur. We also learn that the 1959 GCAGS annual convention occurred in Houston, so 50 years later it’s going to be back. It lists 21 talks ranging from regional work like “History of the Gulf Coast Cenozoic” and “Facies Study of the Frio Formation of the Upper Gulf Coast of Texas” to individual field studies for Grandison Complex, Thornwell, Rayne and Hitchcock Fields.
There is this scientific note:
“A gas well in Alberta quit flowing soon after completion. The pay was a porous dolomite containing sulphur and production was almost entirely carbon dioxide, hydrogen suphide, and methane, with suphur in solution.
“Denton Wieland, a graduate student at A&M …determined solubility of rhombic suphur at different temperatures and pressures in the three gases and in mixtures of them…It is obvious that…pressure around the well must be sustained at a certain value, otherwise sulphur precipitates in the reservoir, reducing permeability.
“…Smackover operators take notice.”
Finally, the Reverend Daniel Linehan reported on the International Geophysical Year expedition to the Antarctic. He reports Antarctica “extends over 5,000,000 square miles and rises in some places to over 15,000 feet.” We now know that Mount Vinson, the highest point on the continent, tops out at 16,050 feet.
“The geology of Antarctica is not too well understood as yet. It is too difficult to extrapolate knowledge under the ice from the few exposures available. Flying up the Beardmore Glacier, one can see both crystalline and sedimentary exposures.
“Apparently McMurdo Sound is the result of a graben. The land east of the Admiralty Range dropped, carrying down both sediments and metamorphics. Volcanic activity began along the fracture, and Ross Island was born of this activity. The highest peak in this island, Mt. Erebus (13.800') is still emitting smoke and steam.”
Reverend Linehan actually had more to say about the only two species of penguins to live below the Antarctic Circle, the Adelie and Emperor penguins, and the only other native bird, the Skua Gull. He concluded with this:
“…the great expanse of ice, the flickering of the aurora across the heavens, the beauty of sunsets reflected on the ice, the relentless power of a moving iceberg, even the cheep of a penguin chick, teaches the explorer of the Power, Beauty, and Love of the Creator. Man feels very small in beholding His Works as they are portrayed in Antarctica.”