Just back to a full week’s work following the Mudstone Diagenesis research in Santa Fe. The weather was great (except for some smoke provided by the U.S. Forest Service on Sunday), the Cottonwood trees were in full display with their fall golden glow, and the presentations were fantastic! We had a total of 90 people registered, with 35 oral and 20 posters presented, representing 11 U.S. states and 5 other countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada and the U.K.). I was pleased with how well the attendees were engaged; providing some good spirited debate and recommendations for future research.

Thanks to my co-conveners: Kitty Milliken (BEG, Univ. of Texas, Austin), Neil Fishman (Hess Corp, Houston), and Paul Hackley (U.S. Geol. Survey, Reston), and Cassie Turley (SEPM) and Alicia Collins (AAPG) for their help in delivering a very successful event!

We are preparing a summary of the conference that will be posted on the SEPM website, and are working on making as many of the abstracts, posters and presentations available pending approval for release by the authors.

Question from the conference: should pore-filling organic matter (solid bitumen) in a mudstone be considered a cement?