GeoScience Research at California State University, Bakersfield

Bakersfield is the center of the southern San Joaquin Valley, the fourth-largest oil-producing area in the United States and one of the most productive and heavily groundwater- dependent agricultural regions in the world.  Diverse geological environments including the Sierra Nevada, the Pacific Coast, San Andreas Fault, Mojave Desert, and the Basin and Range province are nearby.  Proximity of the campus to the petroleum industry, easy access to diverse geological environments, the broad range of faculty research interests, the excellent student/faculty ratio, and a range of modern research facilities permit the student to select from a broad spectrum of research topics.   Abundant opportunities exist for cooperation with local petroleum and environmental companies and regulatory agencies.  Due to excellent access to these local employers, students are highly successful in obtaining a diverse range of professional positions. 

Specific areas of recent research include hydrogeology, aqueous geochemistry, petroleum geology, sedimentary petrology, paleoclimate studies, environmental geophysics, and seismology.  Research is supported by local industry and regulatory agencies as well as the more traditional academic granting agencies.  Faculty and student research is commonly published in journals of the highest quality including GSA Bulletin, Geology, Journal of Geophysical Research, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, Environmental Science & Technology, Applied Geochemistry, Geophysical Research Letters, AAPG Bulletin, Journal of Environmental Quality, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Quaternary Research, and Palaeolimnology.  Research funding in recent years has come from the National Science Foundation, Petroleum Research Fund, Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, Center for Field Research, as well as private industry and local government bodies.

Research Facilities

CSUB Geotechnology Center.  Established in 1999, the center hosts a SGI Octane workstation lab and a PC lab with the latest petroleum reservoir modeling and geographical information system software including Geo-Quest, Landmark, Geographix, Petra, Kingdom Suite, and ESRI’s ArcInfo and ArcView. 

Trace-Element Geochemistry Laboratory.   Centered around a Perkin Elmer Elan 6100 ICP-MS and a Cetac LSX-200 Laser Ablation system which were acquired in 2000, the lab offers a wide range of opportunities for geochemical and environmental research.  Other instruments include a Perkin Elmer Microwave Digester, a Dionex Ion Chromatograph, and a new Shimazu GC/MS housed in the Chemistry Department.   

The California Well Sample Repository containing cores and samples from more than 5000 wells from both on- and offshore California and 1500 catalogued micropaleontological samples, is located on campus. 

Geophysics Equipment and Facilities include a paleomagnetism lab, 12-channel seismograph, magnetometer, gravimeter, electrical resistivity meter, and a M-31 ground conductivity meter. 

The Petrography Laboratory hosts a wide range of petrographic microscopes including luminescence and epifluorescence, a Rigaku X-Ray diffractometer, and a Hitachi Scanning Electron Microscope. 

            Arrangements for use of additional equipment at local companies are easily made. 

Equipment

Equipment and technology play an integral role in student and faculty research. Our students receive diverse and practical training in the implementation of various technologies before graduation.  All students, including undergraduates, are expected to participate in individual research.  Examples of research projects include: hydrologic analysis, petrographic analysis, paleoclimatology, petroleum exploration and complex modeling. These experiences help students become familiar with the applications, procedures and limitations associated with technological equipment and how to implement them in their future professional careers.

Research

Our department is distinguished by its commitment to student-involved research.  The following categories point to representative examples of ongoing projects.

As part of their instructional mission, our faculty members are engaged in a wide range of student-involved research. To support this research, they publish frequently in respected peer-reviewed geology journals and successfully solicit funding from highly competitive sources such as the National Science Foundation as well as from local industry and government agencies. Their success rate in procuring funding from competitive sources is approximately 40% which is twice that achieved by faculty at the typical research university. Our faculty is even more successful at competing for funding within the university. For example, during a recent round of proposals for funding from the CSUB University Research Council, the three proposals submitted by the Geology program were ranked one, two, and four among 17 proposals. 

Research topics include the control of Sierra-frontal faulting on the groundwater budget of
the Indian Wells Valley, the role of oscillations in reversals of the Earth's magnetic field, the use of climate records from North American lakes to test models of global climate change, the effect of burial-induced pores in sandstone on petroleum deposits, the exploration for natural gas in the San Joaquin Valley, the use of geochemical analyses and geophysical surveys to trace the source of groundwater contaminants, etc. 

DISCLAIMER: Statements found on this site are for informational purposes only. While every effort is made to ensure that this information is up-to-date and accurate, official information can be found in the University publications.