We welcome you to attend the first luncheon for the new 2025-2026 STGS Fiscal Year. Register now to reserve your seat! 

Date: September 10th, 2025

Time: 11:30 am

Speaker and Topic:   Dr Joseph Satterfield,

The Rockies Meet the Big Bend: An Uplifting Story

Location: Petroleum Club 8620 N New Braunfels  Ave  #700 San Antonio, TX 78217

Speaker Biography:

Joe Satterfield is now Professor of Geology Emeritus at Angelo State University. He was born in Baytown, Texas. He earned a Masters degree in Geology at the University of Missouri and a B.A. and Ph.D. in Geology at Rice University. In the 1980s Joe worked for five years as a petroleum geologist, mostly for Marathon Oil Company in Houston.
Joe taught at Lamar University and San Jacinto College before being hired at Angelo State University in 2003. His favorite classes to teach were introductory geology, Structural Geology, Sedimentology, and Field Camp. He considers stereonets and cross-sections of field data to be beautiful and profound. He continues to advise students making geologic maps in the Big Bend region of West Texas and the Walker Lane of western Nevada.

Abstract:
The Rocky Mountains extend through the Big Bend:
Classic basement uplifts plus NEW complications

Joseph I. Satterfield, Department of Physics and Geosciences, Angelo State University,San Angelo, TX 76909

Rocky Mountain or Laramide basement uplifts and adjacent foreland basins along the eastern margin of the North American Cordillera extend from Montana, through the Big Bend region of West Texas, and into central Mexico. Controversy exists concerning the terminology, timing, number of  deformation phases, and southern extent of the Laramide orogen. Angelo State University (ASU) students and I tackle these controversies by mapping at 1:12,000-scale three areas in the Big Bend that comprise a
NE-SW transect documenting characteristic Laramide basement uplift and forelandbasin pair: the El Burro-Peyotes-Marathon uplift (BPMu) and Tornillo basin (Lehman,1991; Ewing, 1991). Structures and sedimentary facies changes that are well exposed in the Big Bend provide models for subsurface interpretations within the Permian and Maverick basins.