Summer is always a great time to be at the Library. This past summer was no exception and we would like to thank all of our members and daily use clients that kept us so busy this year. Nice weather provides more options for where we can setup viewing and sampling of core, it's also more pleasant to retrieve core and samples from an above zero degree warehouse. Even though new drillings continue to be slow the demand for data in the form of rocks was higher than ever. Many of our guests also likely enjoyed the added bonus of a BBQ hamburger and chat with our excellent crop of students.

Students have always been instrumental to the operations of the Library. Each year's group of students is challenged with updating a large number of important data sets and catalogues as well as some unique projects. This year's team was especially large and so were the projects that they were challenged with. Please see the short list below summarizing some of the new and updated products made available as a result of this summer's work by staff and students:

February is a major event in the Library calendar, this is when all the production data is received. Staff update many table and databases aggregating all aspects of annual reporting on oil, gas, condensate, water, pressure, sales, injection, disposal, and geo-geo work. The reports can be browsed online and tables summarizing production by pool and well are available to members.

Once the production data is entered then geographic information system (GIS) staff and students begin the process of updating pool boundaries. Pool boundaries are changed annually based on new discoveries and the plugging and suspension of wells changing the status outlines of the pools.

The latest boundaries are always published in our PxTools overlays for Google Earth.

With new pool outlines and aggregated production numbers the publication of the annual Pools & Pipelines map is possible. This year's edition features a new crop of sponsors and we would like to thank everyone who took out a sponsorship on the map. The 2016 Pools & Pipelines map with the latest pool production values and outlines is now available as a printed product from the Library.

Besides production volumes and pressures, annual reporting includes these other data sets mentioned above. All of the reports are scanned and each row of injection and disposal data is punched into a spreadsheet with all data dating back to 1992 when these reports were first required to be filed. The complete injection database is new for this year and available to all members. Geo-Geo (seismic) work is always digitized to a GIS layer recording the entire reported history of activity and published via PxTools.

These three major research projects were undertaken at the Library with the assistance of government funding. Each project was worked on by a dedicated student and an assistant. These projects yielded incredibly valuable data updates that have applications across several industries (anyone who works with the bedrock surface or deep subsurface). Results will be available soon at the Library and include an updated formation subcrop boundaries map for GIS, over 10,000 core photos from 44 different cores all over Ontario, and better geological formation top picks for more accurate mapping.

Our increasing work with the quality assurance of geological data has lead us to pursue more sophisticated techniques for modelling the subsurface. Increased modelling capabilities can also be tapped by clients for better views of subsurface data as Liz describes in her article below.

Summer is also the time to prepare new rock chip samples, cores, and scan geophysics. Although not much new data was received throughout the year our core room was booked solid from mid-May to mid-August. We really appreciate all of our clients who made full use of viewing and sampling of our physical rock catalogue and hope to have another busy year next year!

As part of the OGSR core digitizing project, a relatively new optical feature provided to clients is the ability to view rock core under longwave ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF). This article will be the component of a two-part series that looks at rock core fluorescence in Ontario. In part I, we will discuss the basics of fluorescence in sedimentary rock core from southern Ontario and Part II will explore fluorescence found in sedimentary rock core from various major oil and gas units across Southern Ontario.

Fluorescence is a physical property that takes place in only certain rock mineral types. The fluorescence ‘glow’ occurs when ultraviolet (UV) light is shown on a rock mineral and ion particles within its crystal structure are ‘excited’. As a result, the excited particles are raised to a higher energy level and as they return to their ‘ground’ state, they may fall into an intermediate energy level where light of lower energy (and longer wavelength) is emitted (Klein, 2002). Typical elements that become charged are transitional metal cations (tungsten, molybdenum, lead, boron, titanium, manganese, uranium and chromium), rare earth elements (europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium) and organic impurities (King, 2016). 

Typically, most minerals will fluoresce in one colour but there are few which have multiple colours. Calcite, for example, can fluoresce in white, red, pink, green, orange and blue colours. Calcite that has a red and pink glow are often activated by lead and manganese impurities, whereas green fluorescence may indicate traces of uranyl ions. Interestingly, a single mineral may display multiple colours of fluorescence which are a result of various growth stages (King, 2016). Additionally, minerals that exhibit one colour under longwave UV light, may display another under shortwave UV light.

The application of fluorescence can be found geology, mineralogy, gemology, and the petroleum and mining industries. In the oil and gas industry, drill cuttings and cores can be examined with UV light as oil staining in rock core and mineral pore spaces will demonstrate fluorescence. The colours of the oil staining can give an indication as to the thermal maturity of the oil, for example lighter oils will give off lighter UVF colours and heavier oils will display darker ones (King, 2016).

Below are a few examples of fluorescence in sedimentary core across Ontario.

Figure 3 Left (Top - Bottom: a, b, c). Oil Staining in the Dundee Formation, Middlesex County, Ontario. The limestone rock core is viewed under white light where the core is dry (a), white light where the core is wet(b) and dry core under UVF(c). It is observed that under UVF light, the darker oil stained rocks exhibit orange-yellow and white colours as compared to the non-hydrocarbon rock, which shows darker blue-grey colours.

Klein, C. (2002). The 22^nd Edition of the Manual of Mineral Science. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

King, H. (2016). Fluorescent Minerals. Retrieved from http://geology.com/articles/fluorescent-minerals

QA Codes have been incorporated into the geologic database! The library can now query formational data based on the data quality of the pick.