75th GCAGS/GCSSEPM Convention and Exposition
March 23–25, 2026 • Crowne Plaza Executive Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Hosted by the New Orleans, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge Geological Societies
Field Trips
Convention registration is NOT required to attend field trip.
Field Trip #1 - History, Geomorphology, and Stratigraphy of the Wax Lake Delta of the Atchafalaya River: A Pristine Friction-Dominated Shallow-Water Coastal River Delta
Instructor: Sam Bentley, Ph.D., P.G., Louisiana State University
Date & Time: Sunday, 22 March 2026 • 7:00 am–5:30 pm
Cost: $300/person
Start/End Location: Convention Hotel
Field Trip Description: Participants will depart by bus from Baton Rouge and travel to the Wax Lake Outlet of the Atchafalaya River on US Hwy. 90 near Patterson, LA. From there we will travel in a group of small boats operated by the LSU Coastal Studies Institute to one of the larger islands in the delta that emerged from a deltaic distributary-mouth sandbar following the 1973 flood on the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. Along the way we will pause in mid-stream to observe and discuss the crossing of the Intracoastal Waterway and Head of Passes for the delta.
We will then get out on (possibly) dry land to collect, split, and study a vibracore 5–6 m long, which should penetrate the entire Anthropocene deltaic sediment package, and illustrate the history of deltaic growth.
We will then return to the boat ramp, load into buses, and return to Baton Rouge by dinner time. Total travel hours approximately 7:00 am-5:30 pm door to door.
Enrollment likely limited to 25–30 participants, pending availability of boats.
Biography: Sam Bentley is a professor in the Louisiana State University Department of Geology and Geophysics, where he holds the LSU Harrison Chair in Sedimentary Geology and is a fellow in LSU Coastal Studies Institute (CSI). He recently served as Vice President for Research and Economic Development at LSU. He earned his Ph.D. in coastal oceanography from SUNY Stony Brook in 1998 and has held faculty positions at LSU and Memorial University of Newfoundland, presently in LSU Geology and Geophysics. Bentley was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022. He is presently Co-Director of the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative (missdelta.org) funded by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and is Principal Investigator for the OASIS Project, funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. He loves mentoring the graduate and undergraduate students in his research group. Since 1999, he has supervised 13 Ph.D. graduates, 21 M.S. graduates, and 11 successful senior B.S. thesis students, with whom he has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles.
Field Trip #2 - Quaternary Activity of the Baton Rouge Fault Zone and Impacts on Coastal Landscape and Infrastructure
Instructor: Nancye Dawers, Ph.D., Tulane University
Date & Time: Sunday, 22 March 2026 • 8:00 am–2:00 pm
Cost: $100/person
Start/End Location: Departing from Crowne Plaza at 8:00 am and returning to Crowne Plaza by 2:00 pm
Field Trip Description: This field trip will visit key sites along the Baton Rouge Fault Zone that exhibit prominent late Quaternary scarps. Stops will focus on the highly segmented nature of the fault zone, slip rate variability, influence of faulting on alluvial channels, and impacts to infrastructure. We anticipate departing from the Crowne Plaza at 8:00 am and returning by 2:00 pm.
Biography: Nancye Dawers is a structural geologist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University. Her research interests include fault growth, fault population evolution, rifting, salt tectonics, and impacts of active subsurface processes on landscapes. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, an M.S. from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, and a B.S. from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Dawers joined the Tulane faculty in 2000 following several years at the University of Edinburgh. She has served on GSA’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division board, the NOGS board, several national-level funding panels, in addition to other professional service appointments.
Field Trip #3 - Salt Domes of South Louisiana
Instructors: Chris McLindon (Field Trip Leader), Director of Energy Education and Outreach, LSU Center for Energy Studies, and Brian Lock, Ph.D., (Field Trip Guide Author/Unable to Attend), Professor Emeritus, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Date & Time: Sunday, 22 March 2026 • 7:00 am–5:30 pm
Cost: $200/person
Start/End Location: Convention Hotel
Maximum: Enrollment likely limited to 25–30 participants.
Field Trip Description: Participants will depart by bus from Baton Rouge and travel to Avery and Jefferson Island salt domes. A field trip guidebook covers the geologic origins of Louisiana salt domes, the geology of cap rock, the history of salt mining and the relationships between salt domes and oil and gas exploration and production. The topographic surface expressions of both domes support beautiful elevated grounds surrounded by marsh. The grounds include botanical gardens that are havens for wildlife with walking trails. Avery Island is also the site of the original factory for Tabasco Pepper Sauce where museum tours are available.
Avery Island Dome Bates et al, 1950
Biography: (Field Trip Leader) Chris McLindon is the director of Energy Education and Outreach at the LSU Center for Energy Studies. He is a graduate of LSU and worked for 45 years as a geologist in the oil and gas industry in south Louisiana. His work included several comprehensive and detailed evaluation of salt domes using both subsurface and 3D seismic data.
Biography: (Field Trip Guide Author) (Unable to Attend) Brian Lock is Professor Emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Brian received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1969. After seven years on the faculty of Rhodes University, South Africa, he began teaching at ULL in 1977 and has supervised over one hundred completed theses at the university. In addition to his teaching, administration, and research, which included publications on Louisiana salt domes, Brian mentored several teams in the Imperial Barrel Award competition, winning the international competition twice. The AAPG honored him as the Grover E. Murray Memorial Distinguished Educator in 2006. Brian worked for a year as a petroleum geologist with Geoconsultants International in New Orleans and consulted as mine geologist for all three active salt mines in Louisiana for over a decade. He served as GCAGS President in 1998-99.
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