MidwestGeo Blog

Geological Society of America National Meeting in Minneapolis Oct 2011

2011-10-17T14:02:00.000-04:00

GSA was fun! The massive Minneapolis Convention Center was packed from wall to wall with people, presentations and posters. Midwest GeoSciences Group was there in the midst of it all!


Busy Days at GSA (Keegan and Joe Julik pictured)

One of the many event highlights was to see so many geoscientists wearing their GeoMan or GeoWoman shirts in their "sartorial splendor" (thanks to Jim Butler for that wondrous descriptor!)

Cait and Sean from Northern Illinois University Go Huskies!

GeoWoman Liliana's smile speaks for itself

Even the SuperHero GeoMan Thomas was unleashed at GSA! Thomas and Keegan looking great!

GeoMan Austin sporting the Hi-Vis Safety T during Day Two. If we were outside, you could easily see how he is Outstanding in the Field!

Thank you to all the GSA organizers and sponsors for hosting a world-class conference event. GSA is like a family reunion in so many ways, but with too many family members to connect with in just a few days. If we missed you, you're invited to send us an email at dan@midwestgeo.com and we are glad to send you a 2012 catalog with our latest offerings!

2011 Melbourne, Cairns and Sydney

2011-08-26T20:51:00.002-04:00

Ken Bradbury and Maureen Muldoon led the teaching during our 2011 course: Improving Hydrogeologic Analysis of Fractured Bedrock Systems. Arriving in Melbourne at the end of July, we had the privilege of meeting and teaching a wonderful group of scientists and engineers facing the same common ground water issues we face in the United States.

Hydrogeologic site characterization in the fractured basalts across Victoria pose some unique challenges but our friend and colleague, Tami Weaver, PhD, (URS Corporation, Melbourne) shed light on technical resources and references that outlined a meaningful process to tackle such a seemingly impossible mission.

Thank you to our friends at ACLCA for graciously hosting us in Australia again. We are inspired by your hospitality and enthusiasm along with the course attendees who travel from across Australia and demonstrate their leadership among these challenging technical disciplines.

Maureen Muldoon at Ayers Rock which is located near the geographic center of Australia and made of Arkosic Sandstone.

Ken Bradbury (with his wife, Kari, in the background) snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and greeting one of the many, many fish species that are often only an arms length away.

Live Webinars vs. Recorded Webinars

2011-07-26T20:15:00.001-04:00

Webinars are educational seminars available online. Live Webinars are taught live by an instructor who receives participants real-time questions using a chat system on the computer screen. Each Live Webinar is recorded and now available through the WEBINAR ARCHIVES at Midwest GeoSciences Group.

Just click on the link showing the Members Only Section located online at our homepage, midwestgeo.com and then choose your favorite webinar topic from list of recorded sessions. A wide variety of webinar subjects are available now and more are being added all the time.

Watch the session like you’re in a classroom and listen to internationally-recognized instructors who specialize in each of their topics. Submerse yourself in these 90-minute educational experiences and gain insights that are found no where else on the web.

Recorded Webinars offer many benefits besides being available on demand, 27/7. They simulate classroom sessions encapsulated in an easy-to-access online forum. Some other benefits include:

Learn from recognized experts in the field
Improve your personal and professional skills and efficiencies
Learn to solve hydrogeologic, environmental and engineering problems we commonly face as professionals
Bring added-value to your projects and continue to build your career.
You can control the webinar progress or let it run automatically. You have the ability to immediately repeat segments using a control slider, similar to YouTube.
Order Three Webinars and Receive Three More for Free! Your Membership tracks both your paid and free Webinars automatically!

Not only can you experience the webinar alone or in a group, but every 90-minute webinar is equivalent to one and a half Professional Development Hours. Each webinar includes downloadable handouts consisting of the Session Slides and a Record of Attendance Form. Record of Attendance Forms may be used for documenting yours and your colleague’s attendance… in case you have licensure requirements for continuing education units.

Experience webinars right on your personal computer or broadcast it in your conference room - choosing either a Live Webinar or a Recorded Webinar - both allowing an unlimited number of colleagues for no extra charge.

2011 University of Wisconsin: Rock Cores, Flow Meters and Models

2011-06-16T12:40:00.006-04:00

The University of Wisconsin Madison is beautiful all year but my favorite season to be on campus is summertime. Participants during our 2011 course "IMPROVING THE HYDROGEOLOGIC ANALYSIS OF FRACTURED BEDROCK SYSTEMS" indicated they enjoyed it too along with the on-campus fun. Anyone who is familiar with the campus understands the uniqueness of State Street that connects the University and State Capitol. We were aware of the daily (history-making) protests happening at the Capitol during our evening walks after class on State Street - which made our experience uniquely memorable.

The 3-day course takes advantage of the excellent facilities in Madison ranging from the state-of-the-art on-campus classroom auditorium, the extensive rock core library in Mt. Horeb and access to bedrock exposures and the fantastic field site with a variety of wells and downhole technologies. The exercises range from practicing our rock core logging skills to FLUTe sampling to using the a host of dynamic borehole flow meters. The 20-sec video below shows the rock core logging exercises:

Participants travel globally for this course with some travelling this year as far as the Western Cape of South Africa. We are honored to have the privilege of bringing our educational experiences to people. We enjoy meeting participants with such a wide variety of experiences, backgrounds and originating from such diverse geographic distributions. Thank you to those who joined us in Madison for this fun and unique course!!

Solid "H(o) Slug" .....what is it?

2011-06-16T03:00:00.001-04:00

Pronounced: H naught slug

The Solid H(o) Slug™ is a traditional solid slug that is designed to yield a pre-estimated initial displacement during a slug test.

It's a new item available only through Midwest GeoSciences Group. The H(o) Slug may ordered in either teflon or PVC.

Calculated initial displacement is represented by "H(o)*" where H is the calculated distance of instanteous change at time zero (o) in water level created by the the slug. "H(o)" is the measured initial displacement. It is important to compare calculated H(o)* with measured H(o) as part of the QA/QC of the slug test for checking the reliability of test data.

The 60-sec video below shows initial displacement occurring within a two-inch diamter well using the H(o) Slug for a one-foot initial displacement. Note how the water level changes by 1 foot after dropping the slug mimicing the initial displacement during a falling head slug test.

The H(o) Slug is available now at http://www.midwestgeo.com/ for both english and metric units:
12 in, 18 in and 24 in --or-- 30cm, 45cm, 60cm.

Learn why slug testing with different initial displacements is very important and how normalizing the data can create appreciable data analysis efficiences using the FIELD GUIDE FOR SLUG TESTING AND DATA ANALYSIS.

2011 Pneumatic Hi-K Slug

2011-02-20T12:39:00.001-05:00

Check out the Hi-K Slug !! The Pneumatic Hi-K™ Slug uses air pressure from a hand-held pump to lower the water level and the easy-to-use valve releases the pressure immediately to dramatically improve test results!

2011 Pneumatic Hi-K Slug

View more presentations from DanielKelleher.

Five Year Milestone @ In-Situ, Inc.

2010-10-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

Thank you to In-Situ, Inc for hosting us for the past five years to conduct Aquifer Testing for Improving Hydrogeologic Analysis Featuring AQTESOLV and the In-Situ Level TROLL. It was a wonderful milestone to reach together and we appreciate the opportunity to conduct this unique educational experience at your headquarters in Fort Collins, Colorado allowing full access to your world-class facility.

Thank you to the course attendees too. We hope to exceed your expectations every time by truly teaching meaningful concepts, field methods and data analysis strategies. It has been a privilege to meet all of you and hear your stories too from unique field experiences to "implausible" data sets.

The course instructors (Jim Butler and Glenn Duffield) and I don't take your attendance for granted and we appreciate your dedication and enthusiasm for aquifer testing. We realize the challenges you face because we face them too during our own slug testing and pumping test projects. Together, I suspect we have provided our clients, employers and taxpayers meaningful solutions to those common challenges. We applaud you, the course attendees....plus we thank In-Situ, Inc. for making it happen.

Jim Butler shown kicking off the aquifer testing course on 05 October 2010.

Toronto Till Commandos

2010-09-17T16:50:00.003-04:00

Sedimentary successions tell a story when soil core samples are placed from end-to-end forming a continuous sequence of the deposits. For our course in Toronto, we use tables for placing the continuous core which is much easier for rapid and close evaluation.

Our friends from both GroundTech Solutions (GeoProbe Systems distributor) and Boart Longyear Company continuously sampled multiple deep soil cores for our field exercises during the 2-day course Improving the Description and Characterization of Glacial Successions. The weather was great and the sedimentary sequence was perfect for teaching how sediments and their associated geotechnical and hydraulic properties are ultimately controlled by depositional environments - the sole independent variable. Once we built the geologic framework from the soil cores, we could confidently take steps toward taking the mystery out of the subsurface and understand ground water occurence and movement applied to both environmental and engineering projects.

Dr's. Tim Kemmis and Carolyn Eyles taught the majority of the course with assistance from Dr. Kelsey MacCormack and me, Dan Kelleher. Tim and Carolyn are possibly the most two qualified living glacial sedimentologists to teach this course based on course application and context - it has been a personal goal for many years to have them team up to teach this important course. Kelsey MacCormack is fearlessly demystifying both reliability and (un)certainty in 3D geologic model data sets which I suspect most professionals will embrace since anyone dealing with modeling has faced the problematic issue of unevenly weighted confidence in data sets.

Attendee experience was wide ranging from a few non-technical staff to dedicated "Till Commandos" (an endearing name I'm borrowing from the Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene). The majority of attendees were from across Canada with most driving from locations with Ontario. The US contingent had a strong attendance too, with some from non-glaciated states!

Its gratifying to watch the rapid improvement of attendees both "reading the story" the deposits are telling plus describing the sequence in that manner. I believe everyone at the end of the course was efficiently characterizing the sequence using complete, accurate and credible descriptions plus recognizing and understanding the meaning and context of each subsurface unit. Their personal pride and achievement bodes well for our industry as a whole.

Down Under 2010: Two Ways

2010-04-15T22:47:00.015-04:00

Australian pride and honor abounds. MidwestGeo had the privilege in March to conduct a course in Melbourne with 60 attendees traveling from across the continent and New Zealand too. It was our honor to have the opportunity to meet the attendees and work shoulder-to-shoulder with them during the 3-day educational experience.

This year's course was dedicated to Advanced Aquifer Testing Techniques taught by Jim Butler and Glenn Duffield. Jim and Glenn are fun instructors in the classroom and out of it too (that's Peter Gringinger and Susan pictured with the Dynamic Duo, Jim and Glenn - showing off biceps).

One of the unexpected surprises during the visit to Melbourne was a International Invitational Track Meet located only a few blocks from our downtown hotel. Thankfully Jim Butler brought this event to my attention during breakfast on the day of the Meet and I was able to attend that evening.

The reason for my unbridled excitement was to watch the pole vault event featuring Steve Hooker who is the 2008 Bejing Olympic Gold Medalist and the current Olympic Record Holder (and from Australia). What seems like now a lifetime ago, I once found a small bit of success pole vaulting but I never stopped admiring those athletes, especially the world class men and women pole vaulters. It was another honor for me to briefly meet Steve Hooker after the Meet where is final clearance was his opening height (5.65M / 18'7").

Post-course activities landed us at the Great Barrier Reef. Down under the water was the second way this trip took us there. Snorkeling and underwater exploration among the endless variety of coral and fish was beyond anything I had prepared for the experience.

Thanks to the crew at both the Crowne Plaza in Melbourne and the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney for their special accommodations and attention. IHG hotels give us yet another reason we look forward to returning.

We are pleased to recommend these hotels:

InterContinental Sydney
(located two blocks from Sydney Opera House)

117 Macquarie Street, Sydney
NSW, 2000, Australia
Phone: +61-2-9253 9000
www.sydney.intercontinental.com

Crown Plaza Melbourne

(located adjacent to the World Trade Center)

1-5 Spencer Street, Melbourne

VIC, 3005,

Australia

Phone: +61-3-9648 2776

Field Guide for Slug Testing and Data Analysis

2009-11-21T20:14:00.022-05:00

THE FIELD GUIDE FOR SLUG TESTING AND DATA ANALYSIS was released on 30 January 2009 and is proving to be a tool that is changing how hydrogeologists conduct slug tests.

For about 18 months, Jim Butler (Author of The Design, Performance and Analysis of Slug Tests), Glenn Duffield (Author of AQTESOLV software) and I designed and developed this 4-sided field guide. It seems to connect with - not only the field hydrogeologist, but - the experienced hydrogeologist who appreciates the detailed elements for obtaining reliable slug test results using the right approach, tools and analysis solution.

The field guide was a result of listening to and learning from attendees at MidwestGeo aquifer testing courses (2-day or advanced 3-day versions) and recognizing and successfully overcoming problematic conditions. For example, we each occasionally face extreme conditions that may include fractured, low-K or high-K formations causing uncertainty in preparing for, conducting and analyzing slug tests.

During the aquifer testing course, Jim Butler addresses those extreme conditions and clarifies issues that are often confusing when analyzing the data. Both he and Glenn Duffield provide a step-wise procedure for choosing the appropriate solution to analyze slug test data. It was the interaction with course attendees coupled with our own personal experiences that motivated us to create the field guide. I don't believe there is anything else like it.

The field guide captures those most-common elements discussed in the course and provides guidance for the practitioner who needs to think on his/her feet in the field or at the computer. Despite the depth of the field guide, it does not compare with Jim's 250+ page book.

Jim's book is one of those classically applied books that is a must have for any practicing hydrogeologist. Don't take my word for it. If you know slug testing, you know the Bouwer and Rice solution....so take Herman Bouwer's word instead:

Excellent...a significant milestone in slug test technology and, for that matter, groundwater hydrology.
-Herman Bouwer, USDA Water Conservation Laboratory

(Source: http://www.amazon.com/ 2009 editorial review)

Glacial Successions - 2009 University of Calgary

2009-06-28T15:31:00.005-04:00

In June, we arrived in Calgary to teach the principals of sedimentary deposition, effects of secondary weathering and methods to describe those elements on boring logs and then rationalize a meaningful way to correlate geologic units from boring to boring.

It was a blast.

First, we drove to Calgary (Ken Borrell and me, Dan Kelleher). The drive is about 20 hours from Waverly, Minnesota and it took us two full days. Someone might say wanting to drive across the "boring" plains is crazy....but to a pair of keen geoscientists, the glacial landscape is full of subtle rolls that tell a riveting post-glacial story.

We sampled a pilot boring the day before the course to better understand the regional setting. It was my first sonic boring in Canada (June 16, 2009). The long days enabled us to spend sufficient time with the core and place it on tables in order to read the story the sediments were telling us.

The capacity course began on campus at the University of Calgary. The first day is dedicated to teaching depositional environments, secondary weathering and then moves into the "do's and don'ts" of building the geologic framework, unraveling glacial sedimentary complexities and then applying what we see to designing ground water monitoring systems, selecting geotechnical soil samples that are diagnostic to site stratigraphy and project objectives and having confidence in your site conceptual model.

The attendees arrived at the field site on Day Two by motor coach. Soil core was continuously sampled by sonic methods and then placed from end to end on a table. Placement of the soil core is remarkable when inspecting it in this manner. The sedimentary story is so much easier to read and the geologic history is apparent, even to those without a science background.

We were glad we had a circus-sized canopy tent at 3pm when a drenching storm cloud passed overhead for 10 minutes. Everyone stayed dry and we never lost a minute of teaching.

Although sonic drilling was reportedly developed in Canada and gained popularity in the US through North Star Drilling (Tom Oothoudt) which is now Boart Longyear, sonic is reportedly just gaining momentum in Canada for environmental applications. The drilling company that drilled the boring in Calgary was Crater Lake Drilling from Red Deer, Alberta. The crew did a world-class job of careful sampling and 100-percent core recovery which makes teaching sedimentary sequences much easier, thank you to Gary Whitesell and his crew.

Following the course, Ken and I headed to the Columbia Ice Field located between Banff and Jasper, Alberta. The ice of the apline Athcabasca Glacier is remarkably clean compared to those reportedly dirty continental ice sheets that covered the Upper Midwest. It was an enjoyable trip that was worth every mile. -Dan.

Nevada Test Site: Phenomenal Course Field Trip

2009-04-29T10:34:00.004-04:00

For the past six years, course attendees from the course Improving Hydrogeologic Analysis of Fractured Bedrock Systems access the super-secure Nevada Test Site and then inside the Yucca Mountain Repository Exploration Tunnel.

The tunnel field trip demonstrates how detailed fracture mapping can be used for hydrogeologic projects and illustrates trends between fracture origin and distribution. And frankly, its a historical project site irrespective of its future outcome TBD.

This year, the field trip was moved by US DOE from Yucca Mountain Project area to the eastern portion of the Nevada Test Site where atomic testing occurred in the 1970s and 80's. Driving through the "field" of subsidence craters quickly gives a person new perspective about this era of American history. The photo above captures the some of the 2009 field trip attendees (about half the attendees were on a different bus at a different location) at the remarkable "Apple II House" which was originally painted white and contained windows and a roof before the above ground atomic testing experiment, Apple II, was conducted to assess structural damage to identical buildings at various blast distances. First comment: the site was monitored and verified to be safe. Yes, it was the first question we each asked.

The geologic framework unfolds from stop to stop after a couple of bus stops at two unique and historical visits: one of the two remaining standing Apple II houses (two others were obliterated during the testing) and the infamous Sedan Crater.

Hydrogeologic Analysis of Bedrock; Jalisco, Mexico 2009

2009-02-03T09:50:00.009-05:00

January is a great time to take a geology course in Mexico, especially if you live in an area with low temps and lots of snow. Midwest GeoSciences Group was invited to teach a course in Puerto Vallarta through the Universidad of Mexico, Mexico City. Ken Bradbury and I with our good friend, Dr. Luis Marin from the Universidad of Mexico, conducted a two-day course dedicated to characterizing geologic conditions, understanding ground water movement and the do the don't of ground water modeling in fractured rock. Luis incorporated many of Mexico's unique elements about doing field work, collecting and storing all types of data, and future trends where work may be expected during the next 10 years.

Participants attended from the US and Mexico and everybody stayed a few extra days to enjoy the hotel resort and town. The classroom portion of the course was conducted at the InterContinental Hotel located about 15 km south of downtown Puerto Vallarta. In this area south of town, the rainforest-covered mountains seem to come jetting straight up out of the Pacific Ocean. A few secluded and perfect beaches exist between Puerto Vallarta and Mismaloya, one of which is located at the InterContinental Hotel and Resort. If you are considering a visit to Puerto Vallarta, this is my recommendation (thank you to the IC crew for your generous hospitality). I've stayed at several hotels in Puerto Vallarta over the years, but once I stayed at the InterContinental, that is where I remained. There is no need to rent a car - taxis are plentiful and economical coupled with the safest choice considering the local driving habits.

The 2-day course included a field trip to a gigantic vertical rock exposure, a public drinking water supply wellfield and a new housing development where a fresh rock wall was excavated and rock bolts were being installed to secure the vertical rock face. Dr. Luis Marin told the geology story and Ken Bradbury used the field stops to illustrate the principles taught earlier in the classroom.

Despite the appearance, it was all business.

Melbourne, Australia 2008

2008-11-12T10:21:00.008-05:00

High expectations were exceeded at every turn during our visit to Australia to conduct Improving Hydrogeologic Analysis of Fractured Bedrock Systems: From Comprehensive Characterization to Ground Water Modeling. It was a pleasure working with Peter Gringinger and the gang from the Australian Contaminated Land Consultants Association (VIC). Thank you again to the whole crew.

This was the first leg of our Australian tour and it was a an honor and thrill to meet each course attendee. They filled the classroom with energy while each person's knowledge and experience was apparent from their thoughtful questions and interaction.

One of the highlights for me was meeting people whom I have read of their work or heard their name in professional circles. It was equally a learning experience for me since most of my bedrock experience is focused on sedimentary rock stratigraphy. In Melbourne and throughout surrounding Victoria, the primary rock types are basalt. Approaches for characterization are vastly different for the two rock types.

Ken Bradbury, Glenn Duffield along with my wife and I arrived in Melbourne about a week before the course in order to adjust for time change and explore the city and surrounding countryside. Again a notable highlight was the friendly and welcoming people, everywhere.

My wife, Susan, took a day flight to Tasmania while we were teaching at the Holmsglenn Institute. She visited the Bonorong Park Wildlife Sanctuary and received her first personalized introduction to a Tasmanian Devil. She says they are much more friendly and tranquil than the whirling cartoon character, in fact she said they were "cuddly"...but not as much as the Koala Bears.

Project Management Excellence: 2008 Truby Experience

2008-07-03T20:17:00.013-04:00

This is a unique course. Learning the elements of something I cannot feel, see or smell is not a common part of my everyday life. But yet it is. How I do things is as important as what I do.

Project Management educational experience benefits me everyday on a deeper level than knowing how to do my technical work. It changed me and it changed others too who took the 2-day course in June 2008 at Northern Illinois University Naperville Campus.

Based on the feedback following the course, everyone receives the course differently, but always positively. Some people apparently learn for the first time the mechanics of real and effective communication and another person told me (they) "got more out of 2-day of project management course than 2-years of marriage counselling". You'll only see that testimonial on this blog and nowhere else because, frankly unless you experience the course, its hard to believe that anything can be so dramatically empowering.

The reason for the dramatic experience is given to the credit of Bill and Joan Truby. Without going into details that I'm not even certain about, its obviously apparent that Bill and Joan together are motivated to launch the lives of people, irrespective of their environmental or engineering background. And despite their motive and dependable teaching abilities, they promote, inspire and teach a process that works. Don't take my word for it. Experience it for yourself. http://www.doorproductions.com/

Aquifer Testing Course at the University of Texas San Antonio

2008-06-24T13:26:00.008-04:00

For our third year teaching the Advanced Aquifer Testing Course, we aimed at Texas because we had already hit Miami (2006) and San Diego (2007). We like the warm temps in February although we also like Canadian cities too when there's lots of snow to enjoy.

We landed in San Antonio and the course was slightly past capacity. Attendees are normally knowledgeable and enthusiastic at these courses, but this gang was not only those things, but also noticeably more interactive. I cannot explain the cause except perhaps it was the gracious Texas hospitality we each experienced. Regardless, this course is full of those brief moments where I suspect my friends and I will look back and reference many subtle and not-so-subtle memory-making instances.

UTSA Downtown is a showcase campus with new buildings and classrooms. The people, the food, the architecture, the birds and the landscape left a lasting memory on each of us. If you decide to visit UTSA Downtown, its conveniently located within either a long walk or a short car ride to the famous San Antonio Riverwalk.

The main instructors at this course are Jim Butler, Glenn Duffield and Shlomo Neuman. Dr. Neuman is located in the photo in the front row (fourth from right wearing a dark blue jacket) and Dr. Butler is the tallest standing in the back row, a few feet behind Dr. Neuman. I cannot tell you where Glenn is located....if I recall correctly, he was helping a student analyze project-related pumping test data in the classroom. He's a trooper.

THE AQUITARD COURSE - 2007

2007-06-07T13:26:00.005-04:00

Assessing Ground Water Movement and Contaminant Migration Through Aquitards: From Field Investigation to Hydrogeologic Characterization was an enlightening 3 days at Northern Illinois University in Naperville. In collaboration with the North Central Section of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists, Northern Illinois University and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), we had a full house with attendees coming from over 20 states and Canada.

Despite its first-time offering, the feedback was phenomenal which is a tribute to the main instructors: Ken Bradbury, Madeline Gotkowitz, Paul Kesich, Dave Hart, Tim Kemmis, Mark Adamski, Mark Borchardt, and Dan Kelleher. The combination -once again- of classroom and field exercises proved to be a powerful element in illustrating the main principals for teaching aquitard integrity.

Hydrogeologic Analysis of Bedrock Systems: UNLV and Yucca Mountain

2004-03-24T14:46:00.002-05:00

“Hard Hats Required” was read on a sign by workshop attendees entering into the Yucca Mountain Proposed Radioactive Waste Repository at the Nevada Test Site last month. Attendees from twenty-one states participated during the three-day workshop at UNLV conducted by the Midwest GeoSciences Group. The workshop featured a field trip to the Nevada Test Site which is located about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

The workshop Advances in Hydrogeologic Analysis of Fractured Bedrock Systems was conducted this year at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in order to tour inside Yucca Mountain. “For a limited time, non-project-related professionals are allowed access into Yucca Mountain Project tunnel pending Department of Energy approval,” stated Tim Kemmis, one of the workshop coordinators. Kemmis added “The field trip illustrates many of the principles taught during the first day of classroom sessions.”

Rob Hoey of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection observing the absence of seepage and feeling the low humidity shared “…this tunnel is much drier than I expected”. Rob’s comment was indicative of many attendees’ observations due to the depth of the water table exceeding 1,500 feet below the tunnel entrance. The main criterium for storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountian is that the facility be secure for 10,000 years. A major concern, however, is rock fracturing and how that would affect ground water seeping into the facility and to the water table. As a consequence, Yucca Mountain is perhaps the most extensively studied fractured rock site in the world.

Field trip leaders from the US Department of Energy pointed out the subvertical faults along the tunnel walls and explained how individual joints and fractures were mapped throughout the proposed tunnel area. Another concern about the site is the timing and magnitude of faulting bounding the Yucca Mountain area. Field trip participants observed trenches where extensive investigations were made of the age and displacement of nearby faults. Other concerns about the site were discussed by Yucca Mountain Project staff, including prediction of long-term climatic change and the effects of rock heating and cooling related to long-term storage of the nuclear waste.

Ken Bradbury and Maureen Muldoon from Wisconsin, Willard Murray and Glenn Duffield from the east coast, and John Peck from Las Vegas were the primary course instructors. The course focused on combining fundamental approaches with recent advances in hydrogeologic site characterization of fractured bedrock settings. Rob Hoey reported that site characterization and aquifer testing topics are much more comprehensive than other courses dedicated to the subject of fractured bedrock.

This Midwest GeoSciences Group recently announced that they are offering the same course again next year at the Desert Research Institute at UNLV with a field trip into Yucca Mountain again.