ABSTRACT The Indiana Dunes is a name commonly used for the eastern part of the Calumet Lacustrine Plain, generally referring to the large dunes along the coast from Gary, Indiana, eastward to the Michigan state line. However, the Calumet Lacustrine Plain also contains complex coastal landscapes associated with late Wisconsin to Holocene phases of ancestral Lake Michigan (e.g., mainland-attached beaches, barrier beaches, spits), including those formed during quasi-periodic decadal and shorter-term waterlevel variability that characterize modern Lake Michigan (e.g., beach ridges, dunes, interdunal wetlands). Major industrial development and other human activities have impacted the Calumet Lacustrine Plain, often altering these landscapes beyond recognition. Today, geological and paleoenvironmental data are sought to inform regional environmental restoration and management efforts and to increase the resiliency of the coastal landscape to ongoing disturbances. During this field trip, we will examine the relict shorelines and their associated nearshore and onshore features and deposits across the Indiana portion of the Calumet Lacustrine Plain. These features and deposits record the dynamic interaction between coastal processes of Lake Michigan, lake-level change, and long-term longshore sediment transport during the past 15,000 yr. Participants will examine the modern beach, the extensive beach-ridge record of the Tolleston Beach strandplain, a relict dune field, and the large dunes of the modern shoreline, including Mount Baldy. At Mount Baldy, we will focus on the landscape response to human modification of the shoreline. We will also explore the science behind dune decomposition chimneys—collapse features that caused a 6-yr-old boy to become buried more than 3.5 m below the dune surface in 2013 and highlighted a previously unrecognized geologic hazard.

ABSTRACT The Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer system (GMBVAS) is a U.S. EPA–designated sole-source aquifer for most of the ~2.3 million residents of the Great Miami River basin. The aquifer system is similar to many of the glacial outwash–alluvial aquifers found throughout the southern Midwestern United States: a valley deeply incised into bedrock by meltwater from repeated glaciations, subsequently aggraded with glacial outwash, lake clays, tills, and post-glacial alluvium. These aquifers are often immediately adjacent to or below modern streams with which they are hydrologically connected. Because of the exchange of water between the aquifer and surface streams, they must be considered two parts of a single hydrogeologic system; anything impacting one part will impact the other. Because virtually all water is recycled, public water suppliers, agricultural users, and industrial users withdraw water from the GMBVAS, then discharge the used water to the next downstream consumer. For example, agricultural runoff and municipal wastewater enter the Great Miami River. River water recharges the aquifer near well fields through induced infiltration. Municipalities, agriculture, and industry pump groundwater from the aquifer and discharge some of the water back into the river as a return flow. Sound water management requires balancing the needs of these diverse users. Agriculture, particularly in the upper Great Miami basin, is a major source of revenue and jobs but requires heavy application of nutrients and herbicides. Sand and gravel quarrying in the Great Miami basin is critical for construction and infrastructure but also removes vast amounts of aquifer material. Not only is healthy reliable groundwater important for the public water supply, it is also essential to bottling facilities, distilleries, pharmaceutical companies, and other water-dependent industries that have been attracted to the area. This field trip explores the GMBVAS, its uses, its interaction with Great Miami River, and the contrasting needs of the people and businesses that depend on it.

Abstract The development of the retail petroleum industry in the UK has received only sporadic attention by academics. This is curious, as the industry has vital importance to modern commerce. The industry is usually thought of as an oligarchy, with a small number of companies controlling the production and movement of products through vertical integration. However, there is evidence of change in the industry: there has been a significant number of exchanges of retailing sites between the major entities themselves, and a rise in the number and influence of competitors. These constitute both multiple retailers such as supermarket chains and, at the ‘competitive fringe’, a rise in the number of smaller independents. This paper identifies the historical changes and analyses the factors underlying them.

Abstract Hydrocarbon exploration in the East Irish Sea Basin began with the identification of surface oil seeps in peat beds in Lancashire, UK. This precipitated the drilling of the first onshore exploration wells. The discovery of the Formby Field in west Lancashire at the end of the 1930s triggered a wave of further drilling. Wells drilled in west Lancashire had limited success, with only minor hydrocarbon shows, whilst the production from the Formby Field was modest. Nonetheless, the invaluable geological information taken from onshore wells and the ratification of the Continental Shelf Act led to a shift in focus to the offshore and a period of significant interest in the East Irish Sea. Two key periods of oil and gas exploration activity stand out in the history of the offshore basin, the first headed by the Gas Council during the 1970s resulted in the discovery of the gas giants of Morecambe Bay, whilst the second fronted by Hamilton Oil during the 1990s heralded the discovery of oil with the Douglas and Lennox fields in Liverpool Bay. Exploration in the basin has waned during the last decade; however, to date, this mature hydrocarbon province has yielded estimated hydrocarbon reserves of over 1.8 BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent).

Abstract The manufactured gas industry was one of the great technological innovations of the industrial revolution. Whilst it was developed in Great Britain, this was not in isolation, and required the input of many European engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs for its success. Although the innovation of making inflammable gas for lighting may now seem quite simple, it brought considerable change to society. Initially, gas was used for lighting, replacing candles and oil lamps, greatly improving safety within factories by reducing the occurrence of fires. The concerns over street crime and the potential benefits of brighter gas street lights were key factors in its wider uptake. Lighting was its primary use for the first 70 years. As competition emerged from electricity, the gas industry found new markets in heat and power. Gas manufacturing also produced a range of by-products which were later found to have some very useful properties and became important feedstocks to the chemical industry. Manufactured gas was the first integrated utility energy network and its success in Britain led to a rapid spread across Europe. Since its demise and replacement by natural gas, it has left a shared but unique legacy in each country.

Abstract Oil and gas activities in Romania cover a long time interval from antiquity until the present day. Most importantly, the year 1857 represents the starting point for industrial production in Romania when three world oil firsts were achieved: the first country with a crude oil production formally recorded in domestic and international statistics (275 tons); the first petroleum industrial refinery, located in Ploiești, with a processing capacity of 7.5 tons/day; Bucharest became the first city in the world to have public illumination, using lamp oils. After 1857, the evolution of the oil and gas industry in Romania was controlled by important historical events: World Wars I and II, the communist regime (1945–89), and the post-communist period (1990–today).

Abstract Since the early 2000s, the exploitation of shale gas has radically modified the US energy scenario. In a number of European countries, the US boom has elicited questions about its repeatability in Europe. Among the staunchest supporters of the development of national shale-gas resources were Polish administrations, which grounded their activism in this domain in the language of energy security, autonomy vis-à-vis Russian gas, and in Poland’s old oil history. The history of hydrocarbon exploration in the country dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, and is connected to the oil boom that occurred in the region of Galicia. While the boom was over by World War I, promising estimations made in recent years by several agencies about Poland’s shale gas reserves have stirred hopes of a ‘second Galicia’. From 2007, the Polish government started assigning permits to both national and foreign gas companies. However, factors linked to legislation, geology and macroeconomics caused a premature end to hopes of Polish autonomy. After a reconstruction of the history of oil in Galicia and the constitution of the Polish oil and gas sector, this paper narrates the rise and fall of Poland’s ‘affair’ with shale gas.

Abstract The aim of this work is to provide a synthetic history of the Italian upstream oil and gas industry, from its early start until today. Among European countries, Italy has one of the richest abundance of evidence of hydrocarbon seepages. The populations that have inhabited the country during the various historical periods took advantage of these phenomena, harvesting oil and bitumen from the surface. A testimony of such activity is an ingot of purified bitumen dated as first century AD found in central Italy. In the nineteenth century, seepages attracted the interest of oil companies that began to explore the Apennines. The drilling of the first modern oil well was realized in 1860 near Ozzano (Parma). The first onshore seismic reflection survey was acquired in 1940. The well Caviaga-1 was drilled in 1944 near Milan, discovering a gas field of 12.5 Bcm. It was one of the major European gas fields and it marked the starting point of the modern Italian petroleum industry. The widespread use of seismic reflection triggered an intense period of exploration. The first material oil discoveries were Ragusa (in 1954) and Gela (in 1956), both in Sicily. By the mid-1950s, the first offshore seismic survey started in the Adriatic Sea. In 1959, the drilling of well Gela 21, the first offshore well in Europe, boosted further exploration possibilities. During the following decades, the level of exploration and production (E&P) activities remained high, while from the beginning of the third millennium there has been a general slowdown. Since 2007, the level of exploration drilling has dropped to under 10 wells per year. In 2014, this negative trend was further confirmed with no exploratory wells drilled. The causes of this decline derive from the exploration maturity of the biogenic gas play and from the heavy bureaucratic processes involved in obtaining authorization. However, the main cause is probably the strong opposition from environmentalist associations to any kind of petroleum activities.