​Abstract: Fine-grained, mud-dominated, carbonate rocks can form in a variety of sedimentary environments. While subenvironments of shallow-water tropical carbonate systems are capable of producing muddy  facies, this course focuses on predominantly pelagic carbonates in slope and basin settings.  Increasingly, such carbonate mudrocks are becoming the targets of unconventional petroleum system  exploration and development. Basinal accumulations of pelagic carbonate (either platform or openocean derived) can be associated with anoxic to suboxic conditions conducive to preservation of  source-rock marine organic matter. These organic-rich carbonate mudrocks tend to be brittle and are  therefore viable targets for hydraulic fracturing completions. Other carbonate mudrock systems are  economically important conventional reservoirs, such as the Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene chalks of  the North Sea. This course will consider the sedimentology and diagenesis of pelagic carbonates, including ecological  controls on carbonate production, chemical controls on carbonate accumulation, and the effects of  burial diagenesis on carbonate mudrock reservoir quality. Case studies of mudstone/chalk reservoirs  will be presented.

Bio: Dr. John D. Humphrey is Associate Professor and Assistant  Chairman of Geosciences at King Fahd University of  Petroleum and Minerals. His appointment is in the  Department of Geosciences, within the College of  Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences. He received his  B.S. degree in Geology at the University of Vermont, where  he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Cum  Laude. Dr. Humphrey received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees  from Brown University in Geological Sciences. He was on  the faculty of Geosciences at the University of Texas at  Dallas from 1986 to 1991. Beginning in 1991, Dr.  Humphrey was a professor of Geology and Geological  Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. He was twice awarded the Alumni Teaching Award for the  top educator at CSM (1998, 2014).  He served as Department Head from 2006 to 2013. From 2013 to  2015, he was Interim Director of the CSM Chevron Center of Research Excellence. He retired from  Mines in 2015 and joined KFUPM in 2017. His areas of specialization include carbonate diagenesis  and geochemistry, carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy, carbonate reservoir characterization,  unconventional carbonate reservoirs, stable isotope geochemistry, and paleoclimatology. He has been  a consultant to the oil and gas and mining industries for thirty years. Dr. Humphrey is a Fellow of the  Geological Society of America and a Trustee Associate of the American Association of Petroleum  Geologists.