This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

Master of Science / Geology / Sambhudas Chaudhuri / Chemical and mineralogical compositions of < 2 µm-size fraction clays of the shale source rocks of Devonian-Mississippian age in northern Oklahoma were determined to find any link between the minerals and the generation of petroleum. Ten samples of clay separates were analyzed for their mineral composition, major element contents, K/Rb ratios, and REE contents. XRD analyses and SEM showed the presence of discrete illite, the most dominant clay mineral, with smaller amounts of mixed-layer illite/smectite, chlorite, and kaolinite. The non-clay minerals found in the Woodford Shale from this study include quartz, dolomite, calcite, pyrite, feldspar (albite and microcline), and apatite. The clays in these rocks have a range of K/Rb ratios between 160 and 207. These ratios are considerably lower than the ratios of average silicate minerals (clays), with expected ratios between 250 and 350. It could be that clays received K and Rb from a solution, which was partly involved in oil generation by which oil received more K relative to Rb making the aqueous phase depleted in K/Rb ratios (Alvarez, 2015). Thus, the low K/Rb ratios for these clays may be reflecting signatures of reactions involving oil generation. The total REE contents ranged between 13 and 30 ppm. The low total REE contents of < 2 µm-size fraction clays in the Woodford Shale as compared to average sedimentary rocks which may be represented by values given either PAAS 184 ppm or NASC with 178 ppm, may suggest that the formation of the clays was linked to oil generation, having known of the face from the study of Alvarez (2015) that crude oils could have higher specific REE concentrations than the associated formation waters. PAAS-normalized REE patterns for these samples display positive Gd anomalies. Two out of the ten samples had prominent Ce anomalies. Only three out of ten samples had Eu positive anomalies, one of which was quite prominent. All samples had MREE enrichment, superimposed on either a flat REE distribution patterns with enrichment in LREE. Only one pattern showed the distribution with a distinct HREE enrichment. The MREE anomalies could be from the effect of phosphate mineralization. In fact, the X-ray diffraction patterns of random powder samples showed the presence of fluorapatite and chlorapatite in most of the studied samples. The total organic carbon (TOC) contents of the whole rocks ranged from 0.5 to 6.54 wt.%. Thus, it can be concluded that hydrocarbon generation potential of the Woodford shale (0.8-4.44 wt.%) is significantly higher than Mississippian Lime unit (0.5 wt.%). Only one sample, which belonged to pre-Woodford Shale Hunton group, had the highest value of TOC. The available K-Ar dates of < 2 µm-size fraction clays suggest that the clays are authigenic (illites) for at least some samples. The dates ranged from 318.6 ± 7.9 Ma (Serpukhovian) to 353.9 ± 7.9 Ma (Tournaisian). All dates are younger than the times of deposition of the Woodford Shale. Assuming there is a genetic link between formation of authigenic illite and hydrocarbon generation, this study suggests that oil generation may have taken place on an average about 30 Ma after the deposition of the Woodford Shale.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Allen W. Archer / Hydrocarbon production throughout the continental United States has declined in past decades. New interpretations together with advanced recovery techniques can increase production in older fields. Re-examining these types of underdeveloped resources is a simple and cost effective tool that can be readily used to increase hydrocarbon production throughout the mid-continent. Pennsylvanian sandstones throughout Oklahoma and Kansas are known for their excellent reservoir qualities. The focus of this study is the upper Pennsylvanian Tonkawa Formation, a sandstone dominated unit. The Tonkawa has been informally correlated to both the Stalnaker and Tonganoxie sandstones in Kansas. Previous publications do not present a unified understanding of the depositional environments that are seen across state borders. The interpretations vary from fluvio-deltaic to marine environments. A cohesive interpretation is necessary to understand paleo-processes and efficiently exploit the reservoir for hydrocarbons. The study presents a regional analysis covering an eleven county area in northwest Oklahoma. Analysis of core and well log data is used to determine the range of depositional environments of the Tonkawa sandstone. Sedimentary structures, mineral assemblages, and lithologies of selected cores are described and correlated with well log data. With this data, structural isopach maps are constructed using Petra software. Earlier interpretations have relied primarily on well log data, focusing on core data rather than geophysical logs, allowing for a more detailed and accurate interpretation. Analysis of transitional sedimentary sequences, such as the Tonkawa, can be applied to sandstones deposited in similar environments throughout the mid-continent.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew E. Brueseke / The Jarbidge Rhyolite of Elko County, Nevada, is approximately 26 mapped bodies of porphyritic rhyolite. Several of the bodies are truncated by the Idaho or Utah border, and extend into the states for an unknown distance. This study focuses on five bodies, the Mahoganies, two near Wild Horse Reservoir, the outcrop enclosing the Jarbidge Mountains, and one outcrop south of Wells. The study’s focus is providing field, petrography, geochemistry, oxygen isotope, and geochronology information about the five previously mentioned bodies. Physical volcanology encountered during this study indicates the sampled Jarbidge Rhyolite are effusive lava flows and domes that coalesced over the life of the volcanic system. First order approximations indicate that erupted products cover ~1,289 km2 and erupted material totals ~509 km3. Petrography indicates primary anhydrous mineral assemblages, assimilation of granitoid, possible assimilation of metamorphic rock and magma mixing of mafic and silicic bodies. Collectively, the Jarbidge Rhyolite lava flows sampled are compositionally restricted from rhyolite to high silica rhyolite and all samples demonstrate A-type magma characteristics. Compositions from different bodies overlap on Harker diagrams, and trace element ratios distinguish few flows from the other samples. Rare earth element patterns mimic one another, and incompatible trace element ratios overlap between bodies, likely indicating the presence of one large magma body. Oxygen isotope values for selected samples range 6.61-8.95%oVSMOW are coincident with normal igneous values. New 40Ar/39Ar geochronology indicates Jarbidge Rhyolite volcanism initiated ca. 16.7 Ma near Wild Horse Reservoir and was active at Bear Creek Summit ca.15.8 Ma. Local Steens Basalt, geochemistry, and Au-Ag mineralization indicate Jarbidge Rhyolite is similar to Middle Miocene silicic volcanics (e.g. Santa Rosa-Calico volcanic field) further west in the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada tristate region.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew W. Totten / The source of the hydrocarbons in western Kansas has been an ongoing debate for many years. The highly organic-rich Anadarko basin, directly south of western Kansas, has been a very prolific producer for many years. This basin is the most widely accepted source of the oil in Kansas, as it is very deep and thermally mature. The main source rock in this area is the Woodford Shale, a very thick, very organic-rich unit which has been proven to produce many hydrocarbons. Several studies have been done on the oils that are presently in Kansas, suggesting that they can be traced back to the source of the Woodford Shale. The hydrocarbons in the Anadarko basin would have traveled several hundred miles, which would require that the migration mechanism be unusually efficient. An alternate explanation could be that one of the many organic black shales in western Kansas may have sourced this oil. This study examines formations of Cambrian to Permian ages which include organic shales interbedded with several known producing formations. Shales of these ages in other areas have produced thermally mature hydrocarbons, which indicate relatively high temperatures and pressures. Several models suggest that thermal maturity may be reached even with lower temperatures if burial times are longer. The shales in western Kansas were deposited in marine seas, and upon TOC testing, proved to be very organic-rich. Two sets of data were analyzed in this study, with the first from northwestern Kansas, and the second from southwestern Kansas. These two sets were analyzed for TOC, whole-rock analysis, and vitrinite reflectance. The shales analyzed from the first set proved to be thermally immature. Had they been subjected to higher temperatures, then they would have made excellent source rocks. The second set of shales analyzed also proved to be thermally immature with the exception of a few deeper shales, which are closer to being mature source rocks. These shales may have contributed to some of the hydrocarbons currently within Kansas.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew Totten / Petroleum producing areas within the mid-continent region discovered in the first half of the 1900’s often ignored the potential of deeper horizons once hydrocarbons were discovered in shallower zones. In Ness County, Kansas the deepest horizon typically explored are Mississippian-aged rocks. One of the largest fields in Ness County is the Aldrich Field, first discovered in 1929. The Mississippian in this field contains an active water-drive, which was produced by an “open-hole” completion method. This precluded drilling deeper horizons. Although modern drilling and completion techniques allow drilling through and isolating water-drive reservoirs like the Mississippian, very few deep exploratory wells have been drilled in Ness County. Wells that penetrate sub-Mississippian horizons are typically drilled as disposal wells, along the flanks of the main structure. This study evaluates the potential of several sub-Mississippian formations to be hydrocarbon reservoirs. Drill cuttings from five wells that penetrate these formations were analyzed using a combination of petrographic microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and chemical methods. Reservoir quality porosity was observed in several sub-Mississippian zones. The presence of hydrocarbon staining was observed in the Viola samples of three wells, and the Arbuckle in one well. Staining was confirmed by EDS spectra under the SEM. The results of this study suggest a good potential of zones deeper than normally drilled to contain hydrocarbons in rocks with reservoir quality porosity. These zones were not drill stem tested in the Aldrich field, and structural advantage to these wells might be expected by drilling the apex of the trapping anticline to further evaluate the deeper horizons.