Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education

News

At the Michigan Geological Repository for Repository for Research and Education we share news about upcoming workshops, rock cores recently received, education and research activities, and student and faculty achievements.

CORE WORKSHOP OCTOBER 3, 2024, AT MGRRE

Our focus this year is subsurface energy storage, CCUS, and waste disposal wells. We’ll welcome 4 speakers from the USGS, some Michigan operators, and our researchers. Several of our students will make poster presentations as well. We will keep our registration fees at the same amount as in previous years--early bird registration fee is $205 until September 20th. It's $245 after that. We have space for 80 attendees. We hope to see you here then! To read our full announcement and to register, please CLICK HERE.

DR. PETER VOICE AND HIS CLASS EXAMINE UPPER PENINSULA CORES AT MGRRE

May 30, 2024 - Dr. Peter Voice and his students examined cores at MGRRE to see examples of rocks they will see next week in the Upper Peninsula. These are some of the oldest cores that we preserve at MGRRE.

MAY 14-15, 2024 CCUS WORKSHOP

We welcomed 40 people from other surveys, universities, governmental agencies and industry to a CCUS core workshop here at MGRRE May 14-15, 2024. More than 3300’ of core was available for examination and the team made several presentations about Michigan’s Carbon Systems. The main focus was on formations that can act as seals (confining systems) for underlying formations that can store CO2. Post-workshop evaluations showed that participants found the workshop to be well presented and useful. We thoroughly enjoyed presenting it.

APRIL 2024 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS EXAMINE AND DESCRIBE CORES AT MGRRE

WMU's Dr. Petcovic (second from right) and Lab Assistant Ashley Scott (far right) welcome WMU earth materials class students to MGRRE

WMU’s Dr. Petcovic brought her earth materials class students to MGRRE to examine and describe cores and cuttings and to discuss why we archive samples from natural resources MGRRE.

Albion College Dr. Marshall (far right) and her students describe core at MGRRE

Albian College’s Dr. Madeline Marshall’s examined the American Chem 44 and 45 cores. These cores recovered many intervals of shaley lithology that are often poorly preserved in outcrop.

MARCH 2024 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS EXAMINE AND DESCRIBE CORES AT MGRRE

Dr. Voice (second left) and his structural class students

WMU’s students in Dr. Peter Voice’s structure class examined cores from the Arms 10, Dalrymple, Polarsky 1-12B, US 2 over Sturgeon River, M-35 over Carp River, and the Roe A-2 wells, because they illustrate faults and other structural features.

Dr. Harrison (far left) welcomes MSU students and Dr. Krans (Dr. Krans, fourth from right)

Michigan State University’s students from Dr. Susan Krans’ sedimentary/stratigraphy class visited MGRRE for a Saturday to examine and describe clastic cores from the American Chem 44 and 45 cores from Mason County. They had previously examined these weathered formations at the Grand Ledge outcrop. Although these cored wells are within a few hundred feet of each other, they show some variability in sedimentary stacking patterns of facies that may represent lateral variability of depositional environments across this Pennsylvanian fluvial-deltaic plain.

MARCH 9, 2024 $2.25M AWARDED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO DR. AUTUMN HAAGSMA AND WMU'S ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

The Department of Energy awarded $2.25M to Dr. Autumn Haagsma, Director of MGRRE and Assistant MGS Director, together with WMU’s Engineering Department. This funding will support creating a system of direct air capture of carbon dioxide (CEAS) and then safely storing the captured carbon underground in Michigan’s ideally suited geological formations (CAS). Dr. Haagsma was interviewed by WOOD TV 8. You can see the interview here. And you can read more about this research here and here.

FEBRUARY 2024 EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY GEOLOGY CLUB VISITS MGRRE

Eastern Michigan University Geology Club members talk with Bill Harrison (right).

Several members of the Geology Club from Eastern Michigan University came to examine cores and talk about subsurface geology with Bill Harrison. Some of our WMU Geology Club students enjoyed getting to know them too. They viewed cores from 3 wells: 1) the deepest well drilled in the state of Michigan, 2) a potash core, and 3) a well containing core from the Marshall Formation.

FEBRUARY 2024 OAKLAND ACADEMY STUDENTS EXAMINE CORES AT MGRRE

Linda Miller’s class from Oakland Academy visited MGRRE in February. They examined, smelled, and touched the samples as they learned about earth resources from Marie Solum, the Michigan Geological Survey K-12 outreach specialist.

JANUARY 24 and 25, 2024 MGRRE HOSTS GREAT LAKES GEOLOGIC MAPPING COALITION

MGRRE welcomed 35 members of the Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition to hear each state give an update on their mapping, outreach, and drilling techniques. Members from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin attended. They also examined examples of cores at MGRRE and in the Upper Peninsula.

JANUARY 19, 2024 SOMAT ENGINEERING DONATED SHALLOW BEDROCK CORES TO MGRRE

Sean Panetta, a WMU alum and geologist who works for Somat Engineering, arranged for Somat to donate several shallow bedrock cores to MGRRE. His firm drilled those cores for the I-75 modernization project in southeastern Michigan, and for the work on I-94 near Jackson. They also donated the geotechnical logs from the wells. We saw some coal in the cores near Jackson, where there is some concern for road collapse near some old, abandoned coal mines.

Cores from urban areas like these, that are covered with buildings and pavement, are so valuable to us. In such a densely populated area, it's very unlikely that other wells will be cored there. So, the data they provide really fills a gap.

We are always grateful that our alums think well of us and continue to help us by donating geological material that we will use in education and research.

JANUARY 2024 INTERNATINAL RESEARCHERS SAMPLE CORE AT MGRRE

MGRRE welcomed geologists to examine and sample Lower Silurian cores as part of their worldwide biostratigraphic research using Chitinozoans (microscopic flask-shaped fossils). Prof. Thijs Vandenbroucke, Ghent University, Belgium, Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, Illinois Geological Survey, and their Ghent University PhD student, Carolina Klock, sampled cores from 6 wells in 6 different Michigan counties to look for chitinozoans. Published research reports about age-dating work (by Bill Harrison, Andrew Caruthers, Matt Rine, Mohammed Al Musawi and others) using carbon isotope chronostratigraphy-dating, radioactive dating of zircons from Silurian ash beds, and conodont biostratigraphic dating brought international attention to this research and preserved cores here at MGRRE. Results from this new work will provide further time zone delineation worldwide to these Lower Silurian formations.

Upper, left to right: Bill Harrison, Patrick McLaughlin, and Thijs Vandenbroucke; Lower, left to right: Carolina Klock and Thijs Vandenbroucke

NOVEMBER 2, 2023 CORE WORKSHOP AT MGRRE

At our Carbonate Reservoir workshop, we welcomed 110 people to MGRRE. Ten speakers from industry, universities and government shared insights and experiences. We looked at cores from the Traverse, Dundee, Richfield, Niagaran, Burnt Bluff, and the Trenton/Black River formations.

Adam Wygant speaking to the group

Speakers (left to right): Bill Harrison, Adam Wygant, Kyle Patterson, Peter Voice, Matt Rine, Jacob Dunston, Autumn Haagsma, Dave Heinz, Amber Conner, and John Fowler

Bill Harrison, MGRRE Research Director, presented the MGRRE Lifetime Achievement award to both Dave Maness and Tim Maness. Growing up in their Dad Mabry Maness’s business, they have spent decades learning about geology, developing data, training interns, developing prospects, and ethically serving the industry—and donating materials and support to MGRRE.

Bill Harrison (left) presenting MGRRE Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dave Maness (center) and Tim Maness

“This is the highlight of my professional year,” said one speaker as he began his presentation. He and others not only shared their experiences, but enjoyed networking at every break and while examining cores. It was an excited, animated, heart-warming event.

October 25, 2023 CORE PRESERVATION WORK

Jen Trout worked to rebox a stratigraphy test core from near the Wayne County airport. The core preserves formations from the top of the bedrock to the Salina. In this densely populated area, there may never be another core drilled here. From older records, we know the tops of the formations. The boxes were badly deteriorated from water and insect damage, making the footages hard to read. Now that they have been reboxed and labeled for footage, they will be readily available for education and research.

SEPTEMBER 2023 WMU CLASSES EXAMINE SUBSURFACE SAMPLES AT MGRRE

Dr. Peter Voice and his clastic sedimentology class examined cores at MGRRE on September 6.

Dr. Steve Kaczmarek’s sedimentology and stratigraphy class members sampled cores at MGRRE on September 7.

MGS/MGRRE welcomed visitors from Carbon Solutions on September 7.

JULY 2023 DRS. VOICE AND ZAMBITO LEAD UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHERS AT MGRRE

Through a Keck Foundation grant, Dr. Jay Zambito, Professor of Geology, Beloit College and Dr. Peter Voice, Faculty Teaching Specialist, Western Michigan University, welcomed nine undergraduate students from across the United States to MGRRE. They examined and sampled cores from the Traverse-Ellsworth interval. After their week here, the group traveled to the Beloit Paleo Lab, where they ran analyses on those samples, including magnetic susceptibility, XRF elemental data, carbon isotopes from organic matter, and SEM. Most of the students will continue to work on their projects through the academic year and will present their work at the NC-GSA meeting in April 2024.

Dr. Voice shows the class how to describe cores

Dr. Zambito helping with core sampling

Dr. Voice talks with students about subsurface resources.

JUNE 2023

"Mama, I found a brachiopod!" Although he’s only 10 years old, Conner is identifying fossils here at MGRRE. By matching photos of fossils to specimens themselves, he has sorted boxes of fossils. It’s possible he inherited some skills from his geologist Mom. Good work, Conner!

APRIL - MAY 2023 CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

April 25-27 Autumn Haagsma Co-Chairs National CCUS Conference in Houston

Dr. Autumn Haagsma, MGRRE’s Director, delivered the opening comments as she co-chaired a national CCUS conference in Houston.

Dr. Autumn Haagsma, MGRRE’s Director, co-chaired a national Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) conference in Houston. More than 1400 participants met to share ideas about climate change, carbon storage, and moving the world toward a carbon-neutral and sustainable energy future.

Autumn helped create a CCUS committee and launch the first American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) supported CCUS conference in 2021. Since that time, the CCUS conference has tripled in size, gained support from multiple leading organizations including the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). CCUS 2023 has gathered leading technical experts to demonstrate the ongoing need for petroleum geoscientists and engineers in the CCUS arena.

In her 2023 program opening remarks, she said: “Both the subsurface technical knowledge and related data sets developed by the petroleum industry are major inputs required for the world to successfully move towards a carbon-neutral and sustainable energy future."

The conference included 130 oral presentations and 54 poster presentations. More details about the conference can be found at https://ccusevent.org/

May 3 Drs. Peter Voice and Bill Harrison Conduct Core Workshop at MGRRE

As part of the annual North Central Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Peter Voice and Bill Harrison conducted a one-day core workshop at MGRRE. Examining cores from 18 wells, participants could lay hands on rocks from the Upper Precambrian through the entire Paleozoic, and from the Pleistocene. The oldest cores were 1.1 billion years old; the youngest were just 10,000 years old.

Those cores hold raw data about our freshwater resources, aggregate materials, hydrocarbon resources, potash, and building materials including sandstone, gypsum and limestone. They also illustrate how these materials were formed and deposited in the Michigan Basin.

Because Michigan is covered with hundreds of feet of glacial sediments, there are few outcrops where you can see the bedrock. However, you can come to MGRRE and examine these preserved resources.

APRIL 2023 MGRRE Welcomes Industry Members

(Left photo) Autumn Haagsma (left) reviews sandstone cores with Battelle geoscientist Beth Vanden Berg (right).

(Right photo) Bill Harrison (left) holds potash core as he and Michigan Potash & Salt Company CEO Ted Pagano (right) discuss the deposit with industry members.

We welcomed several industry members in April. Battelle geoscientist Beth Vanden Berg came to MGRRE examine and photograph sandstone cores. Beth is an old friend, having been a graduate student here. Autumn Haagsma, MGRRE Director, is also very interested in sandstone cores, so their common interest produced some fruitful discussions.

Once again, Bill Harrison, MGRRE Research Director, welcomed Ted Pagano, CEO of Michigan Potash & Salt Company, who brought several geologists to examine and discuss this large deposit of an essential fertilizer ingredient. Having the cores preserved here proved invaluable because they yielded the raw data to show that this is a world-class deposit of potash.

April 2023 WMU Classes Examine Cores at MGRRE

Several WMU Department of Geological and Environment Sciences classes visited MGRRE in April to examine cores and discuss how these materials were deposited and how they are used today.

Dr. Steve Kaczmarek leads graduate students through a lab exercise. From left to right, Jean Maurisset, Ashley Scott, Evan Hellner, Mohammed Al Musawi, Steve Kaczmarek, and Ariel Martin.

Dr. Heather Petcovic (far right), discusses cores with her incoming group of majors.

Dr. Petcovic’s students using hand lenses to examine core (left); and student taking notes about a core (right)

Dr. Peter Voice with his class (left); a student examines core (right)

April 5, 2023 Pink Evaporite in Core

Bill Harrison (above left) and Autumn Haagsma (above right) examine a core with pink salt that fills fractures in a core from a brine disposal well. Dr. Rachelle Kernen, Research Fellow with the University of Adelaide (center above), who studies evaporites, was very interested in the core. This calcareous shale in the Silurian Salina C shale has unusual large open fractures that were subsequently filled with this pink salt. In an ongoing study, we will interpret the history and mechanism of how this salt infilling occurred.

MARCH 24 and 25 2023 CMU and MSU Classes Learn about Core at MGRRE

Rachel Agardy and her sedimentation class from CMU visited MGRRE on March 24 to examine and describe one carbonate and one siliciclastic core. The formations represented in the siliciclastic core also outcrop at Grand Ledge. However, because of the destructive nature of weathering, some softer formations like shales are poorly preserved at the surface at Grand Ledge. The students could see all the formations in good preservation here in the cored samples.

Bill Harrison and Rachel Agardy (center) discuss cores with CMU students

On March 25, Susan Breightol and her sedimentology class from MSU spent a Saturday here examining two siliciclastic cores that were drilled 1,000 feet apart near Grand Ledge. All the formations are well preserved in these cores. By examining samples from these two cores, the students will be able to create a 3D view of the formations from these two well points.

Susan Breightol (left) examines cores with her MSU students

March 23, 2023 Waste Management Team Donates Core to MGRRE

Fred Sawyers and his team from Waste Management visited MGRRE to review the cores they donated to us from their recent waste disposal well. Bill Harrison talked about the rock types in the well and Autumn Haagsma discussed how we will use these cores in our CCUS research. We are always grateful when industry members donate cores and data to us.

February 2023 DOE Specialist visits MGRRE

Rose Dady visited MGRRE on February 24 to hear several Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences researchers discuss their work. Together with several Michigan legislative aids and Western’s vice presidents, they heard about unique research to positively address climate change, environmental issues, and to assess Michigan’s geological resources for energy and minerals. Rose Dady is the regional intergovernmental and external affairs specialist for the Midwest office of congressional and intergovernmental affairs of the U. S. Department of Energy.

Autumn Haagsma, Julie Schoyer, Rose Dady, and John Yellich (left to right) discuss resources

Chanho Park (left) and Dr. Mine Dogan reveal their drone

Dr. Matt Reeves speaks about his PFAS research

Our October 27, 2022 Core Workshop at the Grand Traverse Resort

The Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education, the Michigan Geological Survey and the Michigan Oil and Gas Association jointly presented a workshop with 11 presenters and 116 participants. It was a full program where speakers addressed new techniques and practices as well as data management possibilities. After a two-year break from workshops at the Grand Traverse, it felt good to see everyone and discuss some great ideas. We are reminded again of how generously this community shares ideas and experiences.

Participants at the Workshop

Workshop Speakers

August 2022 | MGRRE Hosts Visit by Dr. Sultan and Ambassador Aboul-Enein

Ambassador Aboul-Enein (left) and Dr. Harrison (right) view potash cores and poster

Dr. Harrison (right), Ambassador Aboul-Enein (center) discuss cores used for gas storage

On August 8, MGRRE welcomed a visit by WMU Professor Mohamed Sultan and Ambassador Dr. Aboul-Enein, Deputy Foreign Minister and Director of the Egyptian Diplomatic Academy. Dr. Harrison shared our approach to preserving subsurface geological materials so that we can use them in education and research. It was an honor to visit with them and we hope these discussions will foster a continued interest in mutual areas of research.

July 2022 | WMU Hydrogeology Field Course Class Learns about Subsurface Resources at MGRRE

This year's hydrogeology field course visited the MGRRE facility to look at some shallow well sediment cores.

Hydrogeology Class examines MGS cores at MGRRE

Students examined shallow cores drilled by the Michigan Geological Survey in Ottawa County. Those samples were taken in key areas to better determine the glacial systems.

No groundwater aquifers were found in this area.

Cores in the field.

The MGS will examine these cores to prepare a NEW surface geology map of Ottawa County, replacing the 1980's version. The new map will show greater detail in these complex glacial systems.

MARCH 2022 | Our Potash Research Supports National Food Security

Russia’s war against Ukraine has limited the world’s supply of potash—a fertilizer ingredient, for which there is no substitute. Potash helps plants take up and retain moisture, and it must be applied each year to crops like soy beans and corn. Russia and Belarus had supplied 40% of all the world’s potash, and that’s unavailable now. The US imports more than 95% of its potash, which has tripled in cost in the past year. Midwest farmers are hard pressed to pay for their fertilizer, and it’s becoming harder to come by.

That’s why our research about Michigan’s potash deposit is even more important than ever. In 2008, WMU was very instrumental in re-discovering a rare potash deposit when Dr. Harrison rescued cores from several counties that contain this critical mineral. Bill Harrison sampled the cores from 2 counties, providing raw data for an independent lab whose analyses showed the deposit’s rare qualities.

Theodore Pagano, founder and CEO of Michigan Potash and Salt Company (MPSC) worked with Dr. Harrison to further unearth data about this deposit. MPSC is now nearing completion of the development phase to produce potash from this deposit for American farmers. Providing a domestic source of this critical fertilizer component will support national food security.

Dr. William Harrison now leads a team to examine potash well records and cores from 9 Michigan counties that are preserved by the Michigan Repository for Research and Education, at the Michigan Geological Survey. Through funding from the U. S. Geological Survey, they are creating a map that will show, for the first time, the detailed grade and thickness of this rare deposit.

Photos: Top: Bill Harrison and students examine potash cores; Center: Interested business people discuss potash cores with Bill Harrison; Bottom: Michigan Potash and Salt Company discusses potash deposit.