MEDIA ADVISORY

TO:                      Community News Editors, Natural Resource Reporters

FROM:                  UAF Geology Department

SUBJECT:            Seminar with Geologist Tom Marshall

DATE:                 Friday, Nov. 10 at 3:30 p.m.

LOCATION:         Pearl Berry Boyd Lecture Hall, 201B, Natural Sciences Facility

Each year in October Alaska residents receive a Permanent Fund Dividend check from the state. Most know that the money comes from oil revenue and that oil mainly comes from the North Slope, from Prudhoe Bay and associated oil fields. However, few know how Alaska came to select this land or the name of the man responsible for making that selection.

Tom Marshall came to Alaska in 1958 to homestead and look for a job, with a geology degree from the University of Colorado and eight years of experience in oil exploration. He joined the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as an assistant land selector and the only petroleum geologist. In 1961 he recommended 1.5 million acres of the North Slope for selection because of its oil potential. Significantly, this was six years before the discovery of Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America. At the time he was criticized for choosing a useless frozen wasteland of no interest to oil companies, which was dubbed as "Marshall's Icebox." With a personal conviction that the geological evidence indicated oil potential, he persisted, overcame many objections, and convinced his DNR supervisors. The rest is history, but it could have been otherwise.

Marshall will discuss the history behind the North Slope land selection on Friday Nov. 10 at 3:30 p.m., in the Pearl Berry Boyd Lecture Hall, 201B of the Natural Sciences Facility. This is part of the weekly seminar series of the Department of Geology and Geophysics and it is free and open to the public.

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CONTACT: UAF Professor of Geology and Geophysics, Emeritus Don Triplehorn (907) 474-6891

AAS/10/23/00/030