The Geology of Trinidad & Tobago
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 10 12 July 1985
The first conference of the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago (GSTT), held recently, was an excellently
organized meeting, small enough to enable easy contact between the participants and to allow all 30 papers to be
heard without the bugbear of parallel sessions. The consistently high percentage of attendees listening to
each of the papers showed that, in a regional meeting of this kind, everybody is interested in all aspects
of the studies presented.
As was to be expected, there was a strong focus on the oilfields, with contributions from staff of both the national
oil company and the international companies that are producing hydrocarbons onshore and offshore. Several papers
by geochemists showed the importance of studies of the thermal history of the various sedimentary sequences.
The concensus is that all Trinidad's oil originates from Paleogene or Cretaceous source rocks, from which it has
migrated into Neogene turbidites and into the immensely thick deposits of the Orinoco delta.
Much of the work is, however, still in a youthful stage, and the need for future close cooperation between geologists,
geochemists and biostratigraphers was apparent. A plea for the release of subsurface data after a reasonable length
of time was made by L. Algoo, President of thr GSTT, and one felt the wisdom of his words when listening to both
the papers and the lively discussions. Sometimes both were hampered by the confidential nature of information that
would by now be in the public domain in many oil producing countries.
The position of Trinidad and Tobago in the wider setting of the southeastern Caribbean was covered by a symposium
of invited papers on the last day of the conference. Plate reconstructions presented for the area from Jurassic
to the present showed that there are still widely divergent views. It is apparent that we have not yet accumulated
enough geological and geophysical facts to make the best interpretation and,in Trinidad, this particularly concerns
the amount of strike slip motion that has taken place along the El Pillar Fault on parallel faults offshore to
the north of Trinidad, and on associated wrenches across central and southern Trinidad. The accumulation of such
data is of prime importance if the complicated interaction of continental South America with the Caribbean and
Atlantic plates through time is to be understood. Such an understanding is far from academic, for the design
of future oil and gas exploration can be strongly affected by it.
The Conference Transactions should be available by the time of the 1 lth Caribbean Geological Conference to be
held in Barbados in July 1986. For information contact the GSTT, Box 771, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
GSTT CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY
1986 is the 10th Anniversary year of the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago. Formed in 1976, the Society
has made great strides over the last decade. Ms. Carol Telemaque, a past president and vibrant member of the Society
has been appointed to head a committee to mark the auspicious occasion. She, and her committee, will work
in close co-ordination with the Executive and other subcommittees. Members will be advised as to upcoming plans.
HONOUR ROLL AT ANNUAL DINNER
1. BEST FIELD TRIP - R. Bertrand - Clay Deposits in Trinidad.
2. BEST TECHNICAL PAPER-Forum of Teaching of Geology at Secondary and Tertiary levels
W. Ali, C. Rogers, K. Haynes
3. CORPORATE AWARD-Amoco Trinidad Oil Company.
4. SPECIAL AWARD-Ms. Carol Telemaque for her contribution
in planning the 1st Geological Conference of Trinidad and Tobago.
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