Who am I
I am a geologist. I worked for Chevron for ~27 years in various positions, retiring in 2008.
My main research interest is the Franciscan Complex in California. My interest in the Franciscan is in-part related to work I did as a student in New Zealand many years ago on a similar rock unit, the Torlesse terrrane.
I also have a continuing interest in the Monterey Formation of California. While at Chevron, I worked on the Monterey Formation for many years.
Recent Activities.
I am currently (2019-2021) president of the Northern California Geological Society.
I am currently working on a paper preliminarily entitled "Geology of the Yolla Bolly area revisited; Eastern Belt of the Franciscan Complex in Northern California. I finished my field work in 2019. (See the Franciscan section of this website for more information).
I'm also working on mapping the Franciscan at Point Richmond, located just South of the Richmond bridge.
I attended the August, 2016 GSA Structural Geology and Tectonics forum at Sonoma State University where I presented some of my work.
I gave a talk at the 2016 GSA Cordilleran section meeting in Ontario. The talk was entitled: "Are the contacts between the South Fork Mountain Schist, Valentine Spring, and Yolla Bolly units transitional or faulted in the Eastern Belt of the Franciscan Complex of California? My Abstract and presentation are downloadable from this website (click Franciscan button on left).
on December 15, 2015, I presented a poster entitled "The geometry of underplated accreted “packets” in subduction zones; examples from the Eastern Belt of the Franciscan in California and the Torlesse Terrane in New Zealand" at the AGU meeting in San Francisco . The abstract and Poster are downloadable from this website (click Franciscan button on left).
In 2014/2015 I gave several presentations on the Monterey Formation. Part of my presentation concerned the popular but erroneous assumption that the Monterey Formation held huge reserves that could be tapped by fracking. My abstract and powerpoint presentation are downloadable from this website (click Monterey button on left).