Conference Part of Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Annual Meeting
Mei Liu, a University of Houston Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Ph.D. student, placed second at the GeoGulf 19 conference organized as the 69th Annual Convention of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (GCAGS).
The conference, titled “Where the Entire Greater Gulf of Mexico Comes Together!,” was held in Houston, October 23-25, and focused on the geology and petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
First through third place awards were given to the top posters out of 35 entries from both graduate/undergraduate students. Posters were scored by a panel of judges based on the overall appearance of the poster, quality of data and interpretations, oral summary of the poster by the presenter, and responses of the presenter to questions posed by the judges.
Liu, a Ph.D. student in geology at EAS since 2018, was awarded second place for her poster entitled “Crustal architecture of Late Jurassic, oceanic and adjacent, thinned continental crust in the circum- Gulf of Mexico.” She received an M.S. in geology from the University of Nebraska/Lincoln in 2017.
For her presentation, Liu used 3D gravity inversion to derive crustal thickness of the entire Gulf of Mexico and surrounding land areas extending from the U.S. Gulf states to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. She also interpreted a regional, extensive grid of industry seismic data that covers the offshore Florida and Yucatan margin and identified more precise mapping of a marginal rift that surrounds the oceanic crust that underlies the deep, central Gulf of Mexico. The poster addressed academic questions concerning the opening history of the Gulf of Mexico in addition to having practical applications for petroleum exploration.