Hosted by the Illinois State Geological Survey

Full announcement with program (PDF file)
Registration form (Word document)

Welcome!
We invite you to join us in Evansville, Indiana for the thirty-eighth Eastern Section AAPG Annual Meeting, September 20-22, 2009. Evansville is located in the heart of the Illinois Basin and offers excellent, affordable facilities, access to outstanding and scenic field excursions and provides a perfect setting for discussing energy issues of the Appalachian, Illinois, and Michigan Basins. Our meeting theme, Forging the Future from the Past, reflects the challenges we face exploring for, developing, and responsibly utilizing energy resources in the mature basins of the eastern United States and eastern Canada. The Evansville organizing committee has planned technical sessions, workshops, and field trips to address these three major areas of energy industry activity.

Our meeting will be held at the modern convention facility of the City of Evansville, Indiana, "The Centre." Exhibits, posters, and oral sessions will be at the Centre, located just a short shuttle ride from the two hotels where we have set up discounted blocks of rooms. Free parking is available on-site and at each of the hotels. We have an outstanding technical program with over 75 oral and poster presentations. Please join us at the Opening Session and Awards Ceremony on Sunday afternoon that will feature representatives from the various divisions of AAPG, including addresses by John Lorenz, President of AAPG, and national officer candidates. The Eastern Section Awards Ceremony will follow the Opening Session to recognize outstanding contributions to the Section. This will be followed by our traditional Icebreaker.

We have emphasized unconventional natural gas resources in the technical program, with sessions on Devonian black shales, coalbed methane, and also offer two unconventional reservoir analysis workshops. New carbon sequestration research will be presented in an Environmental Geology Division session. A total of 76 papers and poster presentations have been accepted for our technical program.

Three workshops will offer participants the opportunity to advance their knowledge in challenging areas of the petroleum and energy minerals industries. Our student workshop, Geophysics and Geology Applied in Industry, presented by Fred Schroeder of ExxonMobil, reflects Eastern Section AAPG's commitment to student education at reasonable costs. The pre- and post-meeting PTTC-sponsored workshops, Appraising Shale Gas Reservoirs, and Appraising Coalbed Methane Reservoirs, will bring Creties Jenkins, past president of AAPG Energy Minerals Division and Vice President of DeGloyer and MacNaughton, who will help you better understand the many-faceted challenges of evaluating and developing unconventional gas plays. Register soon for these workshops, as space is limited.

Three field trips will round out the technical program. A pre-meeting trip hosted by PTTC to examine the New Albany Shale in Indiana and north-central Kentucky, will examine classic exposures at the type area at New Albany, Indiana, and at exposures near Louisville, Kentucky. The trip to Pennsylvanian-age coal deposits in Indiana and eastern Illinois will examine the paleoclimate and depositional features that created mineable coal deposits. The trip will include plant fossil collecting opportunities. The PTTC post-meeting field trip will examine Middle Devonian carbonate reservoir strata exposed in east central Indiana. The Geneva Dolomite is host to prolific fields in Illinois and Indiana. Spectacular corals, other fossils, and dissolution features that provide reservoir analogues will be seen.

We were in Evansville back in 1980. Today we hope you will enjoy the excellent new facilities, proximity to interesting geology, and the hospitality of this old Ohio River town. Bring guests or your spouse to enjoy an activities program that includes exploring the historic 19^th century experimental commune and fine dining at New Harmony, Indiana, and the art and historical architecture of Evansville.

Everyone is invited to join us at our ticketed Monday evening event. We will be dining on the banks of the Ohio River at Rira's Irish Pub, where we will be entertained by live, foot-stomping music based on the region once known as the "Upper Louisiana." Historic tunes based on the settlers' French musical heritage will be performed by L'Esprit Creole, and we will also offer the opportunity for Eastern Section's own daring and talented musicians take to the stage in open session and cut loose. Bring your guitar, mandolin, vocal chords or tambourine and see what happens!

The two meeting hotels are located along the scenic Ohio River, close to the Aztar Casino. A shuttle van or bus will take you to and from the convention center if you do not want to drive. Both offer very reasonable rates and free parking. We hope that you'll find this year's program educational, challenging, and stimulating. Please help us make the meeting a success by joining us in Evansville!

Registration Booth Hours:
      Sunday, September 20, 1:00 pm - 8:00 pm
      Monday, September 21, 7:30 am - 5:00 pm
      Tuesday, September 22, 7:30 am - noon