Dr. Marc J. Kamerling, PhD, Consultant Geologist and Academic Researcher will be presenting:
The Santa Barbara basin is part of the Western Transverse Ranges province whose east-west trend of structures lies across the dominant northwest-southeast trend of most of California. The basin has a complex geologic history. Surface and seafloor geology, stratigraphy, paleontology, paleomagnetic, geochemical, seismicity and abundant seismic reflection and well data have been used to construct the geologic, stratigraphic, and structural evolution of the Santa Barbara Basin. Many faults and stratigraphic horizons have been mapped in three-dimensions. The basin evolved with Cretaceous marine sedimentary rocks, being deposited on Jurassic metamorphic basement. From Cretaceous through upper Eocene the rocks are marine deposits of sand, shale and conglomerate, representing submarine fans and slope/basin deposits adjacent to a volcanic arc. As subduction waned with the approach of the East Pacific Rise, latest Eocene through earliest Miocene non-marine, mainly fluvial rocks, of the Sespe Formation were deposited in an extensional basin with correlative marine rocks to the west. Miocene extension, rifting, and rotation lead to subsidence of the non-marine Sespe basin and deposition of the transgressive Vaqueros Formation, the Rincon-Topanga, San Onofre Breccia, volcanic rocks, the Monterey and lower part of the Sisquoc Formation. During Pliocene the Santa Barbara Basin was in its current position and began to undergo compression as transform motion between the Pacific and North American plates became more concentrated along the San Andreas fault. A thick Pliocene through Recent section of sandstone and shales resulted from the uplift of the margins and subsidence of the central part of the basin during this time. Structurally the Santa Barbara Basin has undergone tectonics related to subduction, subsequent extension, rifting, rotation, shear, and compression with many older structures reactivated as the structural style evolved.
Dr. Marc J. Kamerling, has 25 years industry experience with ARCO and Venoco, analyzing subsurface geology, of California, North Texas, Oklahoma, and Pacific northwest basins. At Venoco he was involved in a comprehensive analysis of the Monterey Formation, 3-dimensional mapping of the subsurface in the Santa Barbara basin, oil seeps, and many California Basins. Between employment in the petroleum industry, he worked 8-1/2 years as a research scientist at the Institute for Crustal Studies (now Earth Research Institute) at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), where his focus was on three-dimensions subsurface mapping of faults and horizons for earthquake hazards. He also taught classes in introductory geology and geologic hazards for the Department of Geological Science at UCSB. While at the university he also consulted part time on oil and gas projects and consulted full-time from 2016-2022. Dr. Kamerling is now a “Gentleman Scientist” working on the tectonic evolution of Southern California, the Santa Barbara-Ventura Basin, and North America Cordillera. He has a B.A. in Chemistry with Specialization in Earth Science, from the University of California San Diego, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Geological Science from the University of California Santa Barbara. He is most known for his work on the tectonic rotation of the Western Transverse Ranges (M.A.) and Paleomagnetic work on all 8 of the California Islands and tectonic evolution of the California Borderland (Ph.D.). Dr. Kamerling is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, Seismological Society of American, Society for Sedimentary Geology, and the Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC), as well as several local California geological Societies.
