An extended tribute to Professor George Devries Klein (1933-2018): A sedimentologic pioneer and a petroleum geologist

Abstract

George Devries Klein was an iconic sedimentary geologist. He was born in the Hague, The Netherlands (January 21, 1933), immigrated to the United States in 1947, and passed away in Guam (April 30, 2018). He was one of the foremost sedimentary geologists in the world on the application of many facets of earth science. He was an accomplished process sedimentologist, sequence stratigrapher, sandstone petrologist, tectonics specialist, basin analyst, regional geologist, petroleum geologist, and climate scientist. He had a remarkable career in academia, petroleum industry, and consulting.  I had the privilege of getting to know Klein professionally during the past 40 years because of my employment with Mobil Oil Company in Dallas, Texas (1978-2000) and because of our shared interests in subsequent years (2000-2018) on the Ouachita Flysch (USA), submarine fans, tidal currents,  deep-water bottom currents, sediment deformation, and climate change. The AAPG Bulletin has accepted a short tribute to Klein for publication (Shanmugam, 2018). However, such a short tribute is not proportional to his monumental contributions with 12 books and edited volumes and over 380 published works. Therefore, this extended tribute, which is a personal reminiscence based on specific publications and events, is offered.