Hello everyone! I’m Connor Turnecliff, a GIS and Database Assistant with the OGSR Library this summer! I’m going into my third year of the Bachelor of Environmental Design and Planning program at Fanshawe College and have been working with the team at the library since the end of April. In the past couple months, I have been working on multiple projects for the library and so far, it has been a really cool experience. As a student who doesn’t have a background in geology, it has been an amazing learning experience and every day I learn something new at the office! I have been helping the team with GIS projects such as creating maps for the EPEX Conference and MNRF reports, as well as creating templates to use for future custom map making. Another project I have been working on is scanning the never before seen Sanford Ledgers which are handwritten documents of wells in Ontario dating from the early 20th century. Once finished, these ledgers will be available for library members to download and will provide interesting insights into the history of the Ontario oil and gas industry.

There have also been lots of opportunities for me to learn about this field of work through various field trips we have gone on. The office took a day-trip to the Fairbank Oil Field and Oil Museum of Canada in Oil Springs which were amazing to see. I got to learn so much about the industry and was blown away by how much history Ontario has with oil and gas! We also visited Mystery Falls outside of Arkona, where I got to learn a lot from our geology staff and hunt for fossils. I've always wanted a brachiopod that sits with me at my desk! I never knew Ontario was full of such interesting geology! Working at the library this summer has certainly been exciting and I look forward to finishing the rest of my work term with the team before I head back to school in the fall! 

- Connor Turnecliff

Hey, my name is Connor M. and I am a student of Honours Bachelors of Environmental Design and Planning at Fanshawe College. I have been working at the Oil, Gas & Salt Resources Library as a GIS & Database Assistant for just over two months now and we have been busy! 

There are a lot of exciting projects going on at the library right now and plenty of other events to take part in. Some tasks I’ve been working on this summer include scanning and entering geophysical logs, generating maps and data for the geology teams, and learning how to model for 3D printing. The 3D printing has been an especially interesting experience as it combines GIS and design elements in a new way that is challenging but rewarding. We haven’t been stuck in the office all season though. The library staff has taken field trips to beautiful and fascinating locations such as Mystery Falls, Oil Springs, and the Oil Museum of Canada. A lot has already been completed, but there is always more to do. I will be looking forward to seeing what else gets accomplished in the second half of the summer.
- Connor MacLeod 

Left: Historical oil and natural gas well ledgers and maps from the collection of GSC geologist B.V. Sanford.

Right: Connor scanning the Sanford ledgers using the Library's large format scanner. Soon digital copies of these ledgers will be available on the Library website.

For the past three months, the QA/QC Geology team has been working on two major projects. The first involves creating more content for the library and its users to access. This involves increasing our core and drilling chip sample photographs. In total, we were able to take 8000 photos by end of July. The break down of these images includes 12 wells, where the chip samples were photographed (6899 vials) and 25 wells had the core photographed (1250 photos). The contents of the vails for the chip samples were photographed three times. Twice at zooms 10X and 30X, and another 10X to show the diversity of minerals in the sample (Fig 1). We also photographed cores of 25 wells (1250 photo). The core photos were taken on our custom stage and also in three modes to highlight core features in UVF lighting, DRY, and WET conditions (Fig 2). These images should now be available to the public via our PxTools which provides additional layers in Google Earth.

Our second project involves a review of the deep geology in southern Ontario. The geology team has been improving on picking methods for several formations. To this end, we have been core logging wells and assessing the contents of relevant drilling chip samples to identify the characteristics of individual formations. In addition, we reference the digitized geophysical logs to consider the characteristics of formations where chip samples and core are not available. At this time, two cross-sections are being developed to show how these formations would connect stratigraphically and geographically.

Some fun things! The geology team participated in trips planned by the OGSRL. We went to visit Mystery Falls to better improve our understanding of the geology of the region, and to view rocks and fossils. The grand prize for finding a trilobite still remains unclaimed. For our second trip, we visited Fairbank Oil Field and the Oil Museum of Canada to better understand the history of oil and oil production in southern Ontario. The creaking of the jerker-lines made for a very peaceful scene in the pastoral landscape. As did the birds being rocked to sleep (Fig 3). One of the team stopped in at a work shop on the Canada Safety Standards to give a geology focused talk on salt mining in Ontario.

In other news, joining (and soon to be leaving) the team is our Summer Intern – Elisa Dong. She has greatly enjoyed her time working at the OGSR Library on the QA/QA Geology team, and still thinks that the library could expand to include a metaphysical gift shop to make use of our salt cores, a café, and custom 3-D printing/embossing services. 

Figure 1: An example of photographed chip sample vials

    Figure 2: An example photographed core in three modes UVF, DRY, and WET

Figure 3: A bird enjoying a swing on the jerker link that powers several wells at Oil Springs.