Staff Spotlight: Jonelle Stevens

This Staff Spotlight features Geology Research Technician Jonelle Stevens and her work as part of the KGS team.

By Ally Pruente

At the Kansas Geologic Sample Repository in Wichita, Jonelle Stevens helps supervise what she likes to call a “rock library.” Instead of hardcover books and other publications, this library is home to thousands of small yellow envelopes that hold rock fragments dating back as far as 1913.

“I help manage three warehouses of 147,000 rotary well sample cuttings,” Stevens said. “They’re available for checkout by oil and gas operators, researchers, students, or whoever wants to check them out, just like a book from a library.”

These resources — rock fragments unearthed during drilling — help tell the story of oil, gas, and research wells across Kansas and even in some neighboring states. Due to the abundance of information in these samples, oil and gas operators are the most frequent visitors to the Kansas Geological Survey’s Wichita repository, according to Stevens. The overall mission of the repository is to establish, manage, and maintain the state’s geologic samples for research, exploration, and education.

“They’ll come and look at samples from wells near where they are thinking about maybe drilling another well,” Stevens said. “That way they can see where the target zone is and if it’s a good spot for another prospect.”

When new samples arrive at the repository, Stevens is the first to review them. She notes their arrival, gets them ready for processing, and organizes them to be labeled, just like a book on a library shelf. Once new samples have been reviewed and deemed ready for the warehouse shelves, Stevens adds information about the sample to the online cuttings database alongside her team.

Stevens stands in front of rows of samples at the Kansas Geologic Sample Repository in Wichita.

In addition to receiving new samples, Stevens and her team make sure older samples are still in good shape. During this task, dedicated staff members check the envelopes as well as the samples themselves to ensure they are stored properly.

“I kind of flip between box maintenance and other things, but our goal every year is to take care of about 3,000 wells, and we usually meet it,” she said.

Preserving and keeping track of thousands of samples at the Wichita repository requires attention to detail and data entry skills.

Diagram depicting the collection of drill core with a coring bit and inner tube.

Stevens taps into her education at the University of Kansas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in geology with a minor in anthropology. During her time in college, Stevens tried a few pathways but eventually found an appreciation for earth science. “I remember my 11th grade earth science class and how much I enjoyed it,” Stevens said. “I always collected rocks as a kid, and that memory made me try geology, and it just fit.” After 15 years at the KGS, she loves the days when she is able to help identify samples and add to the repository’s resources. “Identifying a well, putting a sample where it’s supposed to be, solving that mystery, or just seeing all this hard work that I did, it’s just satisfying,” Stevens said. “It makes me think that the sample is now good for at least the next 20 years or more.” Stevens said that sometimes these rock pieces are the only examples of subsurface rocks in certain areas. Each addition to the repository serves as a new resource for research, industry, and other uses. “They keep finding new areas of research to use these samples in,” Stevens said. “My manager is involved in the critical minerals research that the KGS is doing, and he’s been looking at some of our samples to try to figure out how they can do testing for him for that research.” After a long day helping preserve Kansas geological samples, Stevens winds down with her family. She also enjoys spending time with her chickens, who follow her around waiting for treats and love. Stevens knows another day at the rock library awaits her and looks forward to helping preserve these samples for generations to come.

Cuttings library.