Today was officially my last Petroleum Reservoir Characterization class and the final project is out of my hands, so that’s that. It’s been an interesting class, but between wrestling with Petrel and wanting to stick my head under a pillow and scream every time I have to read about geostatistics, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to go into reservoir modeling when I grow up. But it’s certainly given me an appreciation of just what it takes to do that sort of job.
What I have left now is my last Facies Analysis project, which is ticking along quite nicely. Today I did a rough description of the last core, though I’m going to give it a pretty strict second pass through. This core and I are not getting along well, which I find strange since it’s from the Almond formation, which is the same formation as the Stagecoach Draw cores. I loved those cores to bits when I looked at them as an undergrad, and have still found them quite loveable while inflicting them on the current class of sed/strat undergrads. They’ve got the same lovely black lagoon shell that’s laced with oyster shells, even.
As weird as it is, I think I just don’t like the Almond core because:
a) It’s in a different sort of box, which makes it harder to look at the cores without pulling them out.
b) There’s a ton of swelling in clays in the upper part of the formation, which means all of the mudstone is covered with a crackly gray skin of clay. And if you want to look at those core sections, you have to clean them off thoroughly (in the process covering your hands with deep gray mud) and then look fast, since they get their clay skin back as soon as they dry off.
But I’m almost done. There will not be pictures of this core, though, since it’s not very pretty and I’m not getting along with it. I do have pictures of the Williams Fork core I just finished looking at. I’m hoping to post those for anyone who might be interested, but I think I want to check with my teacher first to make sure it’s okay to do so. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be, but my grad bff is doing her thesis on that core (and a few others) and I don’t want to risk stepping on toes or messing anything up.
But anyway, that ought to all be done by the end of the week, if all goes well. Though I unfortunately won’t actually be done then – I still need to finish grading! The Stagecoach Draw core projects are stacked in the plastic crate next to my desk, glaring at me accusingly because I’ve been too chicken to even look at them thus far. Once I get this last project done, though, I’ll be out of excuses and I’ll need to get started on them. Particularly since I need to have grades turned in as soon as possible next week.
And then I’ll be done with my second semester. This one’s gone better than the first semester… and has been a lot less stressful. But I’m definitely looking forward to the summer!
Also, from the department of It’s The Little Things: When you e-mail someone and specifically mention that your advisor is female, it’s pretty sad when the reply steadfastly refers to said advisor as male.