HGS March General Dinner

HGS March General Dinner

Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleogeographic Reconstruction of the Beaumont Formation, Late Pleistocene, Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas

Speakers: Penny Patterson and Jerry Kendall

Date: Monday, 2 March

Time: 5:30 – 7:30

Location: Spaghetti Western, 1608 Shepherd Drive, Houston, TX 77007

Directions: Park in lot behind restaurant

Cost: $45 Members, $55 Non-members, $40 Students

Details: Includes buffet dinner and two drink tickets

Abstract:

Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleogeographic Reconstruction of the Beaumont Formation, Late Pleistocene, Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas

Penny Patterson and Jerry Kendall

We invite you to take a virtual kayaking trip down Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas, and see the amazing outcrops of the Beaumont Formation and learn about its fascinating geology, all while sitting at the Spaghetti Western Restaurant enjoying a fine meal and beverage.

The Beaumont Formation (Late Pleistocene) is exposed along the embankments of Buffalo Bayou that transect the greater Houston area. These outcrops have been under-studied, in part, because dense vegetation, wildlife, and treacherously steep embankments limit their access from the surface. However, with the use of kayaks, Beaumont strata can be observed during very low-water stages of Buffalo Bayou.

We will present our observations and interpretations regarding the sedimentology, stratigraphy, and paleogeographic reconstruction of the depositional environments from selected outcrops of the Beaumont Formation. Although the Beaumont Formation is commonly regarded as a homogeneous mud-dominated interval, it contains a wealth of information regarding depositional environments, sediment transport, stratal architecture, pedogenic and diagenetic alterations, and shifts in depositional environments over the last 130,000 years.

Based on observations of the ~14 vertical meters of Beaumont section outcropping along the ~80 km length of Buffalo Bayou, and 18 measured sections, we interpret that these strata accumulated in marginal marine deltaic and delta-plain environments. The lower stratigraphic interval is composed of several coarsening-upward stratal packages comprised of laminated to massive mudstones that grade upward to laminated and low-relief curvilinear laminated sandstones. These stratal packages are interpreted to have been deposited as bayhead deltas within a shallow marginal marine bay. Bayhead deltaic packages stack progradationally, such that successive overlying stratal packages are thicker and possess sandstone sedimentary bed geometries indicative of increasing depositional flows. Bayhead deltaic strata are overlain by channel sandstones and floodplain mudstones interpreted to have accumulated in a delta-plain environment.

We compiled our temporal and spatial interpretation of the Beaumont Formation and developed five paleogeographic maps depicting the shifts in depositional environments with fluctuations of sea level during the last 130,000 years.

Special thanks to other contributors of this study: Angela Schwartz, Joshua Novello, Will Gaston, Richard Lang, Dorene West, Justin Gosses, and Caroline Wachtman.

Penny Patterson

Penny received her BA, MS, and PhD degrees in geology from the University of Colorado. Her first foray into her career as a geologist began during her undergraduate studies working as a Field Assistant for the USGS, Denver, mapping Mississippian carbonates in the mountains of Idaho. During her MS and PhD studies, she worked as a consultant for oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain region. Upon completion of her PhD, she began her 28-year career with Exxon Production Research Company. Penny remained on the technical career path and retired from ExxonMobil as a Senior Technical Advisor for conventional and unconventional resource assets. In 2018, Penny was invited to develop a petroleum geology curriculum and teach the classes at the University of Colorado Boulder. Penny currently is President of Patterson Geoscience Group, LLC an independent geoscience consulting company that focuses on petroleum-systems and CCUS assessments.

Jerry Kendall

Jerry Kendall is a global expert on the processes of mountain building.  He has a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a M.S. from the University of Southern California. He has 49 years’ experience as a field geologist, ExxonMobil structural geologist, and instructor. He currently is adjunct faculty at the University of New Mexico and leads field experiences for Philmont Scout Ranch and NMGS. Living directly on Buffalo Bayou he has watched it flow, surge, and evolve over the last 20 years.  Jerry has been working with local artists who are documenting the impact of hurricanes on Houston (FlowArchieve.com). Jerry got involved in trying to understand the existence of hammer-ringing outcrops in recent sediments in his own back yard. He is interested in how the natural processes of Buffalo Bayou have interacted with the anthropogenic efforts to shape our city.