From Geological Text Mining, Bio-erosion and Oil Exploration to Plate Tectonics, Geothermal Power, Schlumberger and Wine Making!

I was in Healdsburg, California this week with the GeoScienceWorld team. Some very interesting demonstrations from the University of Kansas discussing text mining to support research questions such as “what causes bioerosion fluctuations through geological time?” which is important for oil and gas reservoir quality.

Healdsburg is 70 miles north of San Francisco in the Sonoma Valley in wine country. It is bordered to the east by the Rodgers Creek fault which lies to the east of the San Andreas fault. The photo above derived from LiDAR (USGS) shows the fault beneath trees and vegetation. The two sides of the fault slip past each other 1-2 centimetres a year with a 30% chance of a major (over 6.5 on Richter scale) earthquake over the next 30 years.

The valley is bounded by ancient volcanoes that last erupted in the Pliocene (2-5 Million years ago). Complete with Geysers, they support the oldest Geothermal field in the world supplying 60% of the power for coastal areas in that region. The volcanic soil is also responsible for some of the world-renowned wine in Dry Creek Valley in the beautiful Michel-Schlumberger estate..