| 1920 |
In the spring of 1920, the first geophysical exploration company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oklahoma as the Geological Engineering Company. Its principle backers were Dr. William Peter Haseman, Frank Buttram, Dr. Irving Perrine, the Ramsey brothers and D. W. Ohern, with headquarters in Oklahoma City. Dr. J. A. Udden published in the AAPG Bulletin, "Suggestions of a Method for Making Underground Observations." John William Evans and Bevan Whitney applied to the British patent office for a patent covering the reflection seismograph method. Conrad Schlumberger conducted field tests with the electrical resistivity method of geophysical exploration. |
| 1921 |
On July 1st, John R. Suman's book, "Petroleum Production Methods," was published. Everette De Golyer contracted for two Eotvos torsion balances, one for the Rycade Oil Corporation and one for the Mexican Eagle Oil Company. At Budapest, construction of two torsion balances was begun by Ferdinand Suss. J. C. Karcher and W. P. Haseman did the first seismic surveying in seareh of petroleum for the Geological Engineering Company, in various localities in the state of Oklahoma, experimenting with both reflections and refractions. R. Schuman and H. Gornick made torsion balance surveys in central Europe. "Seismos" was founded on April 4th, in Germany, to do exploration for ores and minerals. |
| 1922 |
Late in 1921, Dr J. C. Karcher returned to the Bureau of Standards. Dr. W. P. Haseman worked with Burton McCollum on reflection shooting near Ponca City for a few days in late 1921 and for some three months in 1922. In the summer of 1922, Burton McCollum paid off the indebtedness of the Geologieal Engineering Company and in return gained possession of the seismograph equipment built by J. C. Karcher. On August 14, 1922, Burton McCollum applied for the first of a series of patents on the seismic method. |
| 1922 |
Early in December, Rycade, with Party Chief Andrew Gilmour in charge, worked out the torsion balance picture on SpindIetop. This marked the first use of the torsion balance in the United States and the first gravity survey of an American oilfield. The work was under the general supervision of Dr. Donald C. Barton. Later in December, 1922, Shell started its first torsion balance work on the Gulf Coast under Mr. W. H. Terrell. Earlier in this same year, Royal Dutch Shell had been operating with the Eotvos torsion balance in Egypt and northwest Borneo. The use of the magnetometer was also introduced into the United States in 1922. In 1922, Theron Wasson became Chief Geologist of the Pure Oil Company. |
| 1923 |
A second Shell torsion balance crew started operations in the Texas Gulf Coast early in 1923 under the direction of Party Chief Arie van Weelden. Andrew Gilmour started torsion balance exploration for the Mexican Eagle Oill Company near Tampico. Stephan Rybar published a paper on the gravity method of prospecting. The firs party of "Seismos Gesellschaft" to leave Europe arrived in Tampico, Mexico, in April, 1923, under Party Chief Dr. Otto Geussenhainer. "Seismos" employed the mechanical seismograph in Mexico in an attempt to trace the extension of the Golden Lane. A second "Seismos" party went to work for the Marland Oil Company in northern Oklahoma in the summer of 1923, under Dr. Ludger Mintrop, and by autumn had moved to East Texas in an attempt to work the Mexia fault. |
| 1924 |
The first discovery by any geophysical method in the United States was made by the Rycade Oil Corporation in the spring of 1924. Nash Dome was found by the torsion balance, situated in Brazoria County, Texas, and was confirmed by the drill as an oilfield in January, 1926. The "Seismos" party under Otto Geussenhainer finished an unsuccessful attempt to work in Mexico for the Mexican Eagle Oil Company and were moved to Texas to undertake a new contract for the Gulf Production Company in April, 1924. In June, 1924, this party discovered the Orchard salt dome in Fort Bend County, Texas, for Gulf. This was the first salt dome to be found by the seismic method in the United States. In December of this year oil was discovered on Orchard Dome. In March of 1924, the "Seismos" crew operating for the Marland Oil Company with John F. Weinsierl as party manager, arrived in Houston and started operation on the Gulf Coast under the general direction of geologist, Alexander Deussen. Mr. L. P. Garrett, Chief Geologist of Gulf Production, devised the method of fan shooting for Gulf Coast work, which was soon adopted as standard practice in the search for salt domes. The Humble Oil and Refining Company organized its geophysical department under Dr. Norman Ricker. Burton McCollum did experimental refraction work near Tampico, Mexico, for the Atlantic Refining Company. |
| 1925 |
Geophysical Research Corporation organized with Everette De Golyer as President and Dr. J. C. Karcher as Vice President and chief physicist. The Marland Oil Company organized its own geophysical department under Dr. W. P. Haseman and Dr. E. A. Eckhardt as chief physicists. Marland started pendulum exploration in Kansas and north central Oklahema. In November of 1925, "Seismos Gesellschaft" had three refraction seismograph parties working for Gulf; the one working for Marland had just been dismissed. |
| 1926 |
The Geophysical Research Corporation and the Marland Oil Company introduced the electrical refraction seismograph into the Texas Gulf Coast in the opening months of 1926. The Haseman-Eckhardt refraction instruments and the Karcher refraction instruments were essentially the same. Late in 1926, GRC Party Chief, J. E. Duncan, obtained successful reflections from the Nash Dome. In 1926, Alex M. Alexander started magnetometer work in Oklahoma for the L. H. Wentz Oil Division. By 1926 or 1927, Oliver Scott Pett!y, Burton McCollum, Frank Rieber and Gordon Taylor were in the refraction contracting business and operating one or more field parties, apiece. Dr. Charles B. Bazzoni started refraction seismograph operations for the Sun Oil Company. |
| 1927 |
Shell started magnetometer work in West Texas in 1927 and toward the end of that year discontinued the use of the electrical resistivity parties of Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger. Shell reached its maximum number of torsion balance parties in the field, 28, in the year 1927. The Standard Oil Company of California started magnetometer work in California under Edward D. Lynton. Shell stopped its torsion balance work in California after a few months trial. The first successful reflection seismograph work in Oklahoma was shot by Mr. J. E. Duncan for the Geophysical Research Corporation. Duncan put his finger on a photographic record and said, "This is arefleetion from the Viola limestone." He was correct in this assumption and was able to map the Maud structure on the Seminole Plateau. |
| 1928 |
During this year the first seismograph work was commenced in Venezuela. Five crews of the Geophysical Research Corporation started refraction shooting in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Four parties were operating for the Gulf Production Company and one was operating for the Mother Company, Amerada Petroleum Corporation. Dr. Paul Darwin Foote resigned as Senior Physicist of the Bureau of Standards to organize the Gulf Research and Development Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Kenneth C. Heald as head geologist and Dr. E. A. Eckhardt in charge of the geophysical laboratory. |
| 1929 |
A record number of producing salt domes was found by geophysical means in this year, a total of fourteen, principally by the refraction seismograph. There were four reflection parties in operation in 1929, all belonging to the Geophysical Research Corporation and operating for Amerada. One GRC crew introduced the dip method of reflection shooting into the Texas Gulf Coast. In 1929, electric logging in oil wells became standard practice. |
| 1930 |
The initial organization meeting of the Soeiety of Economic Geophysicists was called by Donald C. Barton and met at the University Club in Houston on January 31st. Before the end of the year, the name had been changed to the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists. In December; 1930, the new society elected Everette De Dolyer and Ludger Mintrop to honorary membership. By 1930 a total of 44 salt domes and other structures, found by geophysical means, had been confirmed by drilling. Humble placed the first modern gravity meter (the Truman meter) in the field in June, 1930. In the spring of 1930, J. C. Karcher and Eugene McDermott resigned from the Geophysical Research Corporation to form Geophysical Service, Inc. of Dallas, wholly financed by Everette De Golyer. Karcher and McDermott started to build reflection seismograph instruments in New Jersey. By June of 1930, the first party of what was destined to become the largest of all contracting geophysical companies, the GSI was in the field. GSI persuaded four party chiefs to come over from the GRC; Dr. H. B. Peacock, Dr. Roland Beers, Henry Salvatori and K. E. Berg. In 1930, the East Texas field, largest oilfield in the Western Hemisphere, was discovered without any help from geophysics. |
| 1931 |
The November and December issues of the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists contained seven papers on geophysics from members of The Society of Petroleum Geophysicists. SPG held its first conventlon with AAPG in San Antonio, Texas. |
| 1932 |
GSI found the first field attributable to geophysical means in the state of California, for the Pure Oil Company. The Party Chief was Henry Salvatori and the field was the Chowchilla Gas Field of Madera County. SPG became an affiliate to the AAPG, agreed upon at a joint convention in Oklahoma City. AAPG issued a charter to SPG on April 6th. Four pioneer earth scientists passed away this year, William Peter Haseman in Oklahoma City on March 14th, Reginald Fessenden in Bermuda on July 23rd, Sidney Powers in St. Louis on November 5th and Erasmus Haworth in Wichita on November 17th. In 1932, The Independent Exploration Company was formed in Houston of the employees let out of work when the Geophysical Research Corporation abandoned its Houston (contracting) Division. The first "Minerals Yearbook" of the U. S. Bureau of Mines was issued this year. In Tulsa, W. G. Green, C. H. Frost, J. H. Green and George F. Martin organized the Seismograph Service Corporation and performed its first contract for Mid-Continent Petroleum Co. |
| 1933 |
Henry Salvatori broke away from the GSI to form Western Geophysical Company in Los Angeles. The Sweet Brothers disposed of their interest in the Independent Exploration Company and organized the American Seismograph Company; first contract for the Russell Oil Company of Oklahoma City in Oklahoma County and second contract with the L. H. Wentz Oil Division in southern Kansas. In 1933 both the electrical transient and the soil analysis methods of geophysical exploration were introduced. V. A. Sokolov published the results of his geochemical prospecting. The D'Arcy system of measuring permeability was adopted. |
| 1934 |
Early in 1934, the first Wolf reflection seismograph proved successful when tested by the Texas Company near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Louis A. Scholl, Chief Geologist, had instigated the first Texas Company laboratory in the summer of 1933, making over an abandoned warehouse in Houston. Dr. Alexander Wolf was made chief physicist and head of the geophysical laboratory. In 1934, the Schlumberger WeIl Surveying Corporation was founded in Houston. The successfuj seismic campaign in the state of Illinois started this year. |
| 1935 |
The refleetion seismograph discovered its first billion barrel oil field this year. In June and July of 1935, Reginald C. Sweet, Party Chief of Party #2 of the American Seismograph Company, discovered, mapped and recommended the Wilmington oilfield in Los Angeles County California; under contract to Loren L. Hillman and Lindley Morton. |
| 1936 |
Frank Rieber published two papers on his Sonograph, the forerunner of the present magnetic tape systems. The Society of Petroleum Geophysicists changed its name to the present designation, The Society of Exploratios Geophysicists and resigned as a division of the Ameriean Association of Petroleum Geologists. Mr . L. P. Garrett and Mr. Wallace E. Pratt were elected as the third and fourth honorary members of the SEG. The official periodical of the SEG, "Geophysics," began its publication as a quarterly with a January, 1936 issue. A. I. Levorsen introduced the term "stratigraphic trap" into the literature. |
| 1937 |
Geophysical Service Inc. sent reflection parties into Saudi Arabia, Java, Sumatra, and Ecuador. Dr. E. E. Rosaire, resigned as President of the Independent Exploration Company to form Subterrex, in which he was associated with Dr. Leo Horvitz. Mr. T. I. Harkins, Vice President, moved up to President of the Independent Exploration Company. The Superior Oil Company of California and the Pure Oil Company, as joint operators, made the location for the first weIl to be drilled in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Gun perforation of weIl easing was developed by the McCulIough Tool Company. Four years of an intensive campaign of reflection seismograph shooting in Illinois brought in 17 new oil fields. |
| 1938 |
Four years of intensive search by reflections in California resulted in the discovery of 16 important oilfields. Western Geophysical Company was the major discoverer. The reflection seismograph entered New Guinea. |
| 1939 |
By l939 there were six or more different gravity meters in general use. Shell and Humble had been using the Thyssen and Truman meters, respectively, since 1930. Gulf had developed an execllent gravity meter, beginning the experimental construction in 1932 and perfecting its field instrument in 1935 or 1936. The meters available for contract purposes had been patented by Mott-Smith, Romberg and Sweet. The Mott-Smith gravity meter had been widely employed in the middle thirties but was going out of use by 1939. Underwater gravity work in the late thirties was accomplished by diving beIls. In 1939, the reflection seismograph was first employed in Panama, India, and on the open waters of the Persian Gulf. |
| 1940 |
Pioneer Geophysicist, Dr. Donald C. Barton, past president of botb the AAPG and the SEG, died on July 8, 1939. In April of 1940, at the Chicago convention of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Barton was posthumously elected the fifth honorary member. |
| 1941 |
Preliminary work was done by the Gulf Research and Development Company on the airborne magnetometer before its development was taken over by the Federal Government for war purposes to help detect enemy submarines. The neutron-gamma log was developed by Wells Surveys, Inc. |
| 1942 |
The refraction seismograph method was revived to meet special problems involved in working the Edwards Plateau area of West Texas. Refraction parties were in general use in the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana throughout the 1940s. Most of these refraction operations took place in the open waters of the Gulf. Surveying by Radar came into vogue in the middle forties, upon those parties doing water work. |
| 1943 |
The Atlantic Refining Company began the use of the mass spectrometer in petroleum research. The state of Missouri published gravimetric and magnetic maps of the entire state. |
| 1944 |
The remote control underwater gravity meter was perfected. |
| 1945 |
The use of the gravity meter in the United States reached its zenith in the year 1945 with 1916 crew months of work done. In 1945, mankind became aware that the atomic age had arrived, when in August the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. |
| 1946 |
The airborne magnetometer became available for a rapid system of geophysical coverage. Four contract companies offered soil analysis service. |
| 1947 |
Over a two year period, Reginald C. Sweet, President of the North American Geophysical Company of Houston, sold gravity meters to the governments of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Russia, West Germany and Belgium. |
| 1948 |
Humble Research developed the acoustic impedance log. |
| 1949 |
The United States Geological Survey hired seventy geologists to embark on the biggest oil geology study ever made, covering 23 states and aimed at delimiting areas favorable for the occurrence of oil and gas. |
| 1950 |
The American Petroleum Institute organized a Division of Technical Services. |
| 1951 |
The U. S. Bureau of Mines began monthly issuance of World Petroleum Statistics. The European Association of Exploration Geophysicists was founded at The Hague, with Dr. Arie van Weelden as its first President. |
| 1952 |
The first hydrogen bomb was tested. Dr. E. A. Eckhardt became the sixth honorary member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.• |
| 1953 |
For the past five years offshore geophysical work, mostly seismograph, estimated to have cost on the average of 70 million dollars per year. |
| 1954 |
"Nautilus," the first atomic submarine, was launched at Groton, Connecticut. |
| 1955 |
Burton McCollum announced that his company, McCollum Laboratories, was offering the use of a "Geograph" or "Thumper" for commercial purposes. A heavy weight was employed in place of explosives. |
| 1956 |
Everette Lee De Golyer, father of geophysics, died on Deeember 14th. Ludger Mintrop died on January 1, 1956. |
| 1957 |
The International Geophysical Year began on July 1st. |
| 1958 |
On January 31st, The Explorer I was launehed from Cape Canaveral. The "Nautilus" made its first sub-polar voyage. On December 31st, the International Geophysical Year came to a close. |
| 1959 |
Death took Alexander Deussen on September 5th. He was the seeond recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Medal awarded by the AAPG. Deussen directed the operations of the first seismograph party that undertook to explore the Gulf Coastal Plain. |
| 1960 |
In 1960, the discovery of an immense gas reserve in basal Permian sands in the Groningen provinee of Holland, made extensive seismic exploration of the North Sea inevitable. |
| 1961 |
The first phase of the Moho project was completed on April 2nd when 557 feet of sedimentary deposits were penetrated off Guadalupe Island in water 11,700 feet deep. The project was sponsored by the National Academy of Science and was drilled by the Global Marine Exploration Company. It was theorized that 44 feet of the Earth's (second layer) Mantle was penetrated. A core was brought up from this 44 foot section. |
| 1962 |
Eugene Holman, Chief Exeeutive Officer of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey from 1944 to 1960, died on August 12th. Hired by Wallace Pratt in 1920, Holman succeeded Pratt as Chief Geologist of Humble Oil and Refining Company in 1925, when Pratt moved up to a place on the Board of Directors of Humble. |
| 1963 |
A downhole television system was perfected by the Shell Development Company and made possible the observation of mechanical conditions in wells thousands of feet below the earth's surface. |
| 1964 |
Seismograph prospecting during the year 1964 was distributed throughout the free world as follows: North America, 61.6%; South America, 8%; Europe, 11.2%; Africa, 8.3%; Middle East, 3.4%; Far East, 3.8%; and Australia, New Zealand, 3.7%. The all time reeord for seismic activity in the United States occurred in the two year period, 1952-1953, when the average number of seismograph parties in operation never fell below 600. The average number of seismic crews in operation in the United States during 1964 was about 340. |
| 1965 |
Arville Irving Levorsen died on July 16th. He was the third recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Medal awarded by the AAPG. |
| 1966 |
The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists was celebrated at the annual convention at St. Louis on April 25 to 28th.In the second half of 1966, the Wilmington oilfield of California established itself as the leading field in North America in daily production of petroleum. The East Texas oilfield changed from first to second position. |
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