THE MONTEREY FORMATION OF THE PISMO BASIN (co-sponsored by PS-SEPM) (CANCELED)
Leader: Heather Stang, Rick Behl, and Jon Schwalbach
Time and Date: 8:30am - 5:00pm arrive in Bakersfield, April 21 - 22, 2018
Cost: $150 ($50 for students; 3 slots max), includes 2 lunches, snacks and drinks.
Participants will have to provide: personal transportation, fuel, and lodging in Morro Bay area
Summary: The Pismo Basin provides world-class coastal exposures of the Monterey Formation.  This two-day, one-night trip will visit outcrops along the coast in the Shell Beach and Montana de Oro areas and will focus on stratigraphy, sedimentology and structural deformation of this important source rock and hydrocarbon reservoir.  Discussions will emphasize:

• Basin setting, evolution and hydrocarbon system
• Sedimentologic observations and facies associations that reveal clues to depositional environment
• The expression of key stratigraphic surfaces that are critical for subsurface mapping
• Fracture distribution and the role of mechanical stratigraphy and structure
• Reservoir character and analogs for numerous producing fields

Travel and accommodations will be the responsibility of individual participants in order to allow maximum flexibility.  Upon registration we will provide a list of hotels and campgrounds in the Morro Bay area, attendees are urged to make reservations immediately as accommodations fill quickly on the coast during spring weekends.  As the trip date approaches we will provide contact information for participants so they can make carpool arrangements (encouraged).

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STRATIGRAPHY AND DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF THE TULARE FORMATION, ELK HILLS AND BUENA VISTA HILLS (co-sponsored by San Joaquin Geological Society) (FULL)
Leader: Tony Reid, Jonathan Goodell, and Eric Greenwood, California Resources Corporation
Time and Date: 7:00am - 6:00pm, April 22, 2018
Cost: $125 ($50 for students; 3 slots max)
Summary: Pleistocene uplift of large anticline structures and subsequent erosion has exposed over 100 square miles of the Tulare in outcrops in Buena Vista Hills and Elk Hills. The Tulare section uncovered in the hills represents a depositional fairway located between alluvial fans derived from the growing Temblor Range, located to the southwest and west, and the Kern River delta to the east. Sediments in the fairway have characteristics of the neighboring depositional system, as well as unique facies including at least two major phases of basin floor lake sedimentation. This field trip will view outcrops of the Tulare as seen in road cuts and well pads across Buena Vista and Elk Hills and allow observation of a more distal Tulare facies, including fan delta, braided fluvial, and lacustrine deposits. Additionally, structural features, including normal faults and localized detachment anticlines, will be examined and discussed in reference to the tectonic development of the area.

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STRUCTURE OF THE NORTHWESTERN TRANSVERSE RANGES AND SOUTHEASTERN COAST RANGES, CA (co-sponsored by San Joaquin Geological Society)
Leader: Thom Davis, Geologic Maps Foundation, Inc.
Time and Date: 7:00am - 6:00pm, April 21, 2018 
Cost: $150 ($50 for students; 3 slots max)
Summary: This trip will make an east to west traverse from the San Andreas fault near Frazier Park, through Lockwood Valley, the Cuyama Badlands and Valley, to the southernmost Coast Ranges near Stanley Mountain. Focus will be on the map-scale faults and folds, synorogenic deposits, tectonic history, and oil fields and petroleum system of the Cuyama basin. Stops will view and discuss the San Andreas and Big Pine faults, the San Guillermo and Ozena faults, the Morales thrust system, the South Cuyama fault, the South Cuyama and Russell Ranch oil fields, fold and thrust structure of the Caliente Range, Oligocene to early Miocene age half-grabens with Simmler Formation growth strata, and the Rinconada fault and its crystalline-basement boundary. Regional cross section interpretations of the major convergent structures will be shown and discussed. Exceptional outcrops of Oligocene to Quaternary synorogenic deposits will be visited and their significance to the tectonic history reviewed. 

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GEOLOGY AND WINE: TERROIR OF THE PASO ROBLES AREA (co-sponsored by San Joaquin Geological Society)
Leader: Tim Cleath, PG CEG CHG, President of Cleath-Harris Geologists; Neil Currie, Project Geologist, Cleath-Harris Geologists
Time and Date: April 25, 2018 
Cost: $175 ($50 for students; 3 slots max)
Summary: The Paso Robles area has become known as a world-class a wine grape growing region of California.  The Paso Robles American Viticulture Area has a distinctive terroir (the geology, soils, landform, climate, water resources that effect the growing of grapes and the quality of wine) that we will see and learn about during this field trip. At our first stops at Parkfield and Cholame, we will learn about how the tectonics at the Pacific/North American plate boundary formed the boundaries of this area.  Our third stop at Franklin pond near Paso Robles will focus on the geothermal resources.  Our fourth stop, at Niner Winery, will feature information on the soils and water resources of the Monterey Formation and the high quality wines of the Templeton/Adelaida region between the Rinconada and Nacimiento faults.  Our fifth stop in Atascadero will be along the Salinas River where Santa Margarita Formation fossil beds can be sampled and geotechnical issues related to pipeline and bridge crossings will be discussed.  The sixth stop will be at a well-loved wildflower and fossil locality on the Avenal Ranch at Shell Creek and Highway 58.