WARM SPRINGS-. The Warm Springs fault is named after the warm springs (108 ⁰F) present at Claxton Bay. According to Rohr (1955) these waters derive their heat from shallow circulation in the Pliocene Sum Sum sands from a depth of 2600' - 3000'. Wall and Sawkins refer to these springs in their 1860 report on the Geology of Trinidad as "... possessing an abundance of water, are said to exert a powerful influence on the system, and would probably be found advantageous in the treatment of cutaneous and rheumatic affections."

HIGHEST TEMPERATURES, The highest temperature ever recorded in the subsurface of Trinidad is 314OF (1 570C) at a depth of 14,500' in a well drilled in the Gulf of Paria. However, the highest geothermal gradients recorded over Trinidad is 1.8 ⁰F/100' in the Balata East and Couva Marine Areas.

WORLD'S LARGEST OIL AND GAS FIELDS: The Ghawar oilfield in Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oilfield. The relatively unfaulted, simple anticlinal structure is 250km long, covering an area of 2300 sq. km, and originally contained a reported 70 billion bbl of producible reserves, which is nearly 30 times Trinidad's cumulative oil production. The Burgan oilfield in Kuwait also comprises a simple anticlinal structure and produces from Middle Cretaceous sandstones that initially contained 50 billion bbl of producible reserves.

The gas field of Urengoy in the West Siberian basin of the Soviet Union is the world's largest. The anticlinal structure has a simple geometry uncomplicated by faulting and produces from

Cretaceous sandstones and dolomites. Initial reserves are 250 tcf of gas, which is almost 18 times Trinidad's gas reserves.

WORLDS WORST OIL SPILLS. According to the August 1989 AAPG Explorer, the blowout at the Pemex IXTOC1 well in the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Yucatan Peninsula in June 1979 resulted in the loss of 3.3 million bbl of oil. The well blew out on June 3 and had poured 900,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf after just one month, creating a 40,000 sq. mile oil slick. The spill lasted for 9 months and is considered the world's worst oil spill The 4th worst oil spill is recorded as the collision of the Atlantic Empress tanker north of Tobago 19, 1979. The Exxon on July Valdez oil spill in March 1989 resulted in the loss of 250,000 barrels of oil and ranks as the 14th worst oil spill in history. The $1 billion (US) spent on cleaning up the spill makes it one of the costliest accidents in industrial history.

Eleven of the 15 worst Oil spills were due to collision/grounding of tankers while only 1 (the IXTOC 1 Well) resulted from a blowout.

HEAVY OIL- The world's largest heavy oil and tar accumulations are the Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt of Eastern Venezuela (Tertiary/Cretaceous reservoirs) and the Athabasca and Cold Lake deposits of Alberta (Cretaceous reservoirs). These two accumulations contain 2.4 trillion barrels of oil in place and account for more than 80% of the world's heavy oil reserves.

MAJOR EARTHQUAKES: The largest Richter scale magnitude earthquake recorded in the 20th Century was located in Japan in 1933 and measured 8.9. India recorded an 8.7 magnitude earthquake in 1950 while China in 1920 and Chile in 1906 experienced 8.6 magnitude earthquakes. The Alaska earthquake in 1964 and the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 measured 8.4 and 8.3 respectively.

The most destructive earthquake in terms of loss of life was the 7.88.2 earthquake in China in 1976, which resulted in 242,000 deaths, with unofficial estimates as high as 800,000.

THE Mississippi River carries more than 400 million tons of sediment into its mouth each year. Some of this is transported into the Gulf of Mexico but most of it is deposited at its mouth, forcing the river to divide into several channels. Most of Louisiana has been formed by Mississippi River sediment. The present delta varies from 12,000 to 19,000 sq. miles in area.

VESUVIUS, located 7 miles southeast of Naples in Italy and rising to a height of 3,891', is the only active volcano on the European the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius occurred on August 24 AD 79 when the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae were covered with ash and lava. More recent eruptions have occurred in 1906. 1927 and 1944.