Rick Bowersox | University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

Rick Bowersox

Senior Research Geologist, Kentucky Geological Survey

Kentucky Professional Geologist PG 112454

California Professional Geologist PG 3514

Florida Professional Geologist PG 2027

American Institute of Professional Geologists, Certified Professional Geologist CPG 6309

I have been a senior research geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, since January 2008, and faculty in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences since August 2007. I serve with the department as an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty, part-time instructor, and member of the Sedimentary Geology and Paleontology research group. Before coming to the University of Kentucky, I was on the faculty at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of South Florida, Tampa. Courses I have taught include sedimentology and stratigraphy, petroleum geology, field geology, physical, historical, and environmental geology, natural resources, natural hazards, and quantitative reasoning.

I earned BS and MS degrees in geology from San Diego State University, California, and, after a 25-year hiatus, a PhD in geology from the University of South Florida, Tampa. All of my academic research has been in numerical paleobiology, but I have worked as a petroleum geologist for 40 years. I started my career in Bakersfield, California, where I held staff, supervisor, and management positions with Getty Oil Company and Texaco Inc. (now Chevron Corp.), geological manager with Mission Resources Inc., and geological manager, corporate secretary, director, and partner of Bakersfield Energy Resources Inc. Post-Bakersfield Energy, I have occasionally worked as a consulting petroleum geologist in California.

Contact Information

j.r.bowersox@uky.edu

328 Mining and Mineral Resources Building

(859) 323-0536

Education

PhD Geology - University of South Florida, Tampa
MS Geology - San Diego State University
BS Geology - San Diego State University

Affiliations

Earth & Environmental Sciences
Sedimentary Geology
American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Geological Society of America
American Geophysical Union
American Institute of Professional Geologists

Availability

Whenever my door is open, which is most of the time.

Research

As a research geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, my primary focus has been the geologic storage of carbon dioxide in deep saline reservoirs in the subsurface of the Illinois and Appalachian Basins of Kentucky. These projects involved the drilling of deep wells to Precambrian basement, testing carbon dioxide injection in the Cambro-Ordovician Knox Group in western Kentucky (2008 - 2012) and in the carbon dioxide storage capacity of the Middle Cambrian Maryville and Basal sandstones and Knox Group in eastern Kentucky (2011 - date). Recently completed research focused on a reassessment of the heavy oil and bitumen resources of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian tar sands, or rock asphalt deposits, of western Kentucky. My other research interests include the Devonian-Mississippian petroleum system and organic geochemistry of the western Kentucky tar sands, provenance and deposition of the Precambrian Middle Run Sandstone, and Precambrian basement rocks and tectonics of eastern Kentucky. Master thesis committees I have served on have covered topics in aqueous geochemistry, isotope paleoclimatology, Appalachian stratigraphy, and eastern Kentucky petroleum geology.

Selected Publications

Selected Publications:

Recent Publications, 2012 - 2016

Bowersox, J.R., 2016a, Rocks to Roads to Ruin: A Brief History of Western Kentucky’s Rock Asphalt Industry, 1888–1957: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Information Circular 33, 45 p.
Bowersox, J.R., Williams, D.A., and Harris, D.C., 2016b, Phase 1 Geologic Evaluation of the Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan no. 1 deep-saline reservoir CO2 injection test well, Hancock County, Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Contract Report 63, 58 p.
Bowersox, J.R., Greb, S.F, Moecher, D.P., and Hickman, J.B., 2014, The Precambrian Middle Run Formation in Kentucky: evidence for fluvial and tidal facies [abstract]: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p. 767.
Nuttall, B.C., and Bowersox, J.R., 2014, Kentucky's unconventional hydrocarbon resources: Sustain Magazine, Issue 31, p. 30–38.
Bowersox, J.R., and Williams, D.A., 2014, Geology of the Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan no. 1 well, east-central Hancock County, Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Report of Investigations 25, 22 p..
Bowersox, J.R., 2014, Evaluation of western Kentucky's heavy oil and bitumen resources [extended abstract]: Eastern Unconventional Oil & Gas Symposium 2014, www.euogs.org, unpaginated [5 p.].
Bowersox, J.R., 2013, Western Kentucky Carbon Storage Test, in IEAGHG, The Process of Developing a Test Injection: Experience to Date and Best Practice, 2013/13, month, 2013: IEAGHG, Orchard Business Centre, Stoke Orchard, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, unpaginated.
Bowersox, J.R., 2013, Evaluation of phase 2 CO2 injection testing in the deep saline Gunter Sandstone reservoir (Cambrian–Ordovician Knox Group), Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, Hancock County, Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Contract Report 53, 43 p.
Bowersox, J.R., Greb, S.F., Anderson, W.H., and Harris, D.C., 2013, Assessing the CO2 storage capacity in the central Appalachian Basin: results of the Kentucky Geological Survey test well, Carter County, Kentucky [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 45, no. 7, p. 99.
Zhu, J., Parris, T.M., Bowersox, J.R., and Harris, D.C., 2013, Modeling CO2-brine-rock interactions in the Knox group: implications of a deep carbon storage field test in western Kentucky: Applied Geochemistry, 2013, DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2013.07.007
Greb, S.F., Riley, R.A., Bowersox, J.R., Solis, M.P., Rupp, J.A., Kelley, M., Harris, D.C., and Gupta, N., 2012, Ordovician Knox carbonates and sandstones of the eastern mid-continent: Potential geologic carbon storage reservoirs and seals, in Derby, J.R., Fritz, R.D., Longacre, S.A., Morgan, W.A., and Sternbach, C.A., eds., The great American carbonate bank: The geology and economic resources of the Cambrian – Ordovician Sauk megasequence of Laurentia: AAPG Memoir 98, p. 1077–1101.
Sparks, T.N., Harris, D.C., and Bowersox, J.R., 2013, Class I waste disposal wells and Class II brine injection wells in Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series 12, Map and Chart 204, scale 1:1,000,000, 1 sheet.
Bowersox, J.R., and Hickman, J.B., 2012, An Evaluation of the Carbon Sequestration Potential of the Cambro-Ordovician Strata of the Illinois and Michigan Basins: Part 1: Evaluation of Phase 2 CO2 Injection Testing in the Deep Saline Gunter Sandstone Reservoir (Cambro-Ordovician Knox Group), Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, Hancock County, Kentucky: Part 2: Time-lapse Three-Dimensional Vertical Seismic Profile (3D-VSP) of Sequestration Target Interval with Injected Fluids: U.S. Department of Energy, Topical Report DOE/FE0002068-3, December 2012, 361 p.
Bowersox, J.R., Skees, C.F., Baker, T.M., Fasano, J.M., Ferguson, D.L., and Randolph, D.E., 2012, Assessing the Lower Kentucky River Public Water Supply in 2050: When an Undergraduate Class Project Returns Real Information [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 44, no. 7, p. 102.
Greb, S.F., Bandy, R.E., Bowersox, J.R., and Hickman, J.B., 2012, Structural influences on the Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone and overlying strata: Insights from carbon sequestration research in the Midwest United States [abstract]: Proceedings of the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia, 5-10 August, 2012, p. 401.
Harris, D.C., Williams, D.A., Bowersox, J.R., 2012, Summary of carbon storage project public information meeting and open house, Hawesville, Kentucky, October 28, 2010: U.S. Department of Energy Topical Report DOE/FE0002068-2, June 2012, 18 p.

Selected Publications in Paleobiology

Bowersox, J.R., and Harries, P.J., 2007a, Multivariate analysis of molluscan biofacies of the Pliocene Etchegoin group, San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 39, no. 6, p. 398.
Bowersox, J.R., and Harries, P.J., 2007b, Cross-scale temporal and spatial diversity and structure of molluscan faunas from the Pliocene Etchegoin group, San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 39, no. 6, p. 567.
Bowersox, J.R., 2006, Community structure, faunal distribution, and environmental forcing of the extinction of marine molluscs in the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin, central California [PhD thesis]: Tampa, Florida, University of South Florida, 390 p.
Bowersox, J.R., 2005, Reassessment of extinction patterns of Pliocene molluscs from California and environmental forcing of extinction in the San Joaquin Basin: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol. 221, p. 55–82.
Bowersox, J.R., 2004, Sea-level control of molluscan diversity and extinction in the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 36, no. 5, p. 366.

Selected Publications in Petroleum Geology

Bowersox, J.R., 2016a, Heavy Oil and Bitumen Resources of the Big Clifty Sandstone, Northeast Grayson County and Adjacent Hardin County, Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Report of Investigation 35, 21 p.
Bowersox, J.R., 2016b, Heavy Oil and Bitumen Resources of the Western Kentucky Tar Sands: Kentucky Geological Survey, Series XII, Report of Investigation 36, 39 p.
Bowersox, J.R., 2014, Evaluation of western Kentucky's heavy oil and bitumen resources [abstract]: Eastern Unconventional Oil & Gas Symposium 2014, Abstract 34, p.
Bowersox, J.R., 2004a, Late Neogene Paleobathymetry, Relative Sea Level, and Basin Margin Subsidence, Northwest San Joaquin Basin, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Annual Convention Abstracts Volume, v.13, p. A16; American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Search and Discovery Article #90026.
Bowersox, J.R., 1997, Development of marginal fractured siliceous shale reservoirs with horizontal wells in Lost Hills Field, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, vol. 81, p. 680.
Bowersox, J.R., and Shore, R.A., 1990, Reservoir compaction of the Belridge diatomite and surface subsidence, South Belridge field, Kern County, California, in Kuespert, J.G., and Reid, S.A., eds., Structure, Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon Occurrences of the San Joaquin Basin: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Pacific Sections, p. 225-230.
McGuire, M.D., Bowersox, J.R., and Earnest, L.J., 1983, Diagenetically enhanced entrapment of hydrocarbons - southeastern Lost Hills fractured shale pool, Kern County, California, in Isaacs, C.M., and Garrison, R.E., eds., Petroleum Generation and Occurrence in the Miocene Monterey Formation, California: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Pacific Section, p. 171-183.