Top 100 Landmark Papers

Landmark Papers

The Landmark papers project was initiated as one of AAPG’s 100th Anniversary celebration projects. The focus of the project was to select landmark papers in petroleum geoscience and to provide a “cliff-notes” type summary of each paper so that our members 1) would become aware of landmark papers in various sub-disciplines of petroleum geoscience, and 2) could determine if they wanted to pursue obtaining the original paper.Unlike the 75th Anniversary AAPG Reprint series, the field of potential papers was not restricted to AAPG publications but was open to all journals/sources.Therefore selected papers will not be reprinted either in hard or digital format because of copyright issues.While many of the papers were published by AAPG, and AAPG publications are recognized as outstanding, the committee felt the search should go beyond AAPG publications as a service to our members, many of whom may not be aware of significant papers in other journals.

The field of petroleum geoscience was divided up into a series of sub-disciplines.One or more prominent geoscientists in each sub-discipline were selected to chair and populate the sub-discipline committee.Each committee was charged with selecting the top landmark papers in their sub-discipline and encouraged to limit the number to 10 or fewer.Some committees also chose to include landmark textbooks. They were also charged with providing a write up for each selected paper and given a set of questions to use as a framework for the write-up.The following is a list of the questions provided to each sub-committee.

  1. Briefly present what the focus/subject of the paper is about.
  2. What is the most significant contribution made by this paper?
  3. How did this contribution change the way we think or do geology?Did this paper make a paradigm change? If so, what is it?
  4. What is the evidence this contribution has made a lasting impact?

The 100th Anniversary Committee commends the work of all the people involved in this project.Below is a list of the sub-discipline committees, the chairs and members of each committee as well as a link to the landmark papers each sub-committee selected.This was a monumental task and all involved should be acknowledged and thanked for their hard work and thoughtful contributions.

Landmark Papers In Carbonate Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Paul Wright and Paul (Mitch) Harris (Chairs)

Sub-committee: Bill Morgan, Giovanna Della Porta

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Top 10 Most Influential Books In Carbonate Sedimentology, Stratigraphy and Diagenesis
Paul (Mitch) Harris and Paul Wright (Co-Chairs)

Sub-committee: Giovanna Della Porta

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Most Influential Books In Carbonate Reservoirs
Jim Markello and Bill Morgan (Chairs)

Sub-committee: Neil Hurley, Art Saller

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Landmark Papers In Carbonate Reservoirs
Jim Markello and Bill Morgan (Co-Chairs)

Sub-committee: Neil Hurley, Art Saller

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Landmark Contributions to Getting Started in Carbonates
Clyde H. Moore (Chair)

Sub-committee: V. Paul Wright, Bob Loucks, Dick Koepnick, Tony Dickson

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Landmark Papers in Applied Biostratigraphy "Best Practices"
John Armentrout (Chair)

Sub-committee: Nancy Engelhardt-Moore, Co-editor, Kenneth Finger, Co-editor: Ronald Echols, Tony D’Agostino, Maria Antonieta Lorente, Ronald Martin, Michael Nault, Edward Picou, Mike Simmons, Mike Styzen, Arthur Waterman

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Geochemistry, Basin Modeling, and Petroleum Systems
Barry Katz (Chair)

Sub-committee: Joe Curiale, Andy Bishop, Wally Dow, Dan Jarvie, Ken Peters

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Paleontology "Tools"
John Armentrout (Chair)

Sub-committee: Nancy Engelhardt-Moore, Co-editor, Kenneth Finger, Co-editor: Ronald Echols, Tony D’Agostino, Maria Antonieta Lorente, Ronald Martin, Michael Nault, Edward Picou, Mike Simmons, Mike Styzen, Arthur Waterman

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Top 10 Landmark-Contribution Papers in Petroleum Structural Geology
Jim Lowell and Rick Groshong (Co-Chairs)

Sub-committee: Clare Bond, Eric Erslev

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Petrophysics and Formation Evaluation
Stephen Prensky (Chair)

Sub-committee: Richard Bateman, Bob Cluff, John Doveton, Darwin Ellis, Mauro Gonfalini, Terry Hagiwara, David Kennedy, Pat Lasswell, Brian Moss, Don Oliver, Philippe Theys, E.C.Thomas, Paul Worthington

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Salt Tectonics
Mark Rowan (Chair)

Sub-committee: Peter Cobbold, Bruno Vendeville, Ian Davison, Carl Fiduk, Mike Hudec, Webster Mohriak, Frank Peel, Simon Stewart

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Siliciclastic Petrology and Diagenesis
Joann E. Welton (Chair)

Sub-committee: Joanna Adjukiewicz, David Awwiller, Gemma Barrie, Jim Boles, Linda Bonnell, Steve Franks, Marsha French, Sabrina Innocenti, Suzanne Kairo, Robert Klimentidis, Robert Lander, Richard Larese, Mauro Lo Cascio, Kitty Milliken, Rosario Sheerhorn, Lori Summa, Grain Yip

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Siliciclastic Sedimentology
John Armentrout (Chair)

Sub-committee: Donna Anderson, James Coleman, Bob Dalrymple, Jeff Faber, Gary Hampton, Gideon Giwa, Chris Heine, Maria Lorente, Kay Pitts, Numo Pimentel, Bob Shoup, John Snedden, Mike Sweet

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Unconventional Tight Gas, Shale Gas and Tight Oil
Hank DeWitt (Chair)

Sub-committee: Harold Davis, Wayne Camp, Quinn Passey, Bob Milici, Gary Citron, and Kent Newsham.

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Top 10 Landmark Papers in Well Logging
Stephen Prensky (Chair)

Sub-committee: Richard Bateman, Bob Cluff, John Doveton, Darwin Ellis, Mauro Gonfalini, Terry Hagiwara, David Kennedy, Pat Lasswell, Brian Moss, Don Oliver, Philippe Theys, E.C.Thomas, Paul Worthington

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