Contact: Ralph Derickson

Blaine Cecil

Blaine Cecil is an expert in the geology of coal and its formation. Over the course of a decade, he led American and Indonesian geologists on numerous expeditions to study Indonesia’s coastal swamps, rivers and seas. In this decade of research, he made many scientific discoveries and had many interesting encounters in remote regions of this fascinating country.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2004) -- At the upcoming Donald Haney Lecture, Blaine Cecil, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., will discuss how coal in Kentucky was formed and what studies of tropical peat swamps in Indonesia revealed about Kentucky coal.

The Haney Lecture, sponsored by the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) headquartered at the University of Kentucky and named for a former KGS director, will be delivered at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in 102 Mining and Mineral Resources Building on Rose Street. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Blaine Cecil is an expert in the geology of coal and its formation. Over the course of a decade, he led American and Indonesian geologists on numerous expeditions to study Indonesia’s coastal swamps, rivers and seas. In this decade of research, he made many scientific discoveries and had many interesting encounters in remote regions of this fascinating country. In his presentation, he will show pictures of the geography of Indonesia and discuss how its tropical peat swamps contain clues about how the coals of Kentucky were formed.

For more information, visit the KGS Web site.