Previous studies have shown the Escalante Valley, Utah, is subsiding due to groundwater withdrawal. The magnitude and spatial pattern of this cm/yr.-scale subsidence is mapped with satellite data from a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) using interferometric SAR (InSAR) processing techniques.
Investigations about porosity in petroleum reservoir rocks are discussed by Schmoker and Gautier. Pollastro discusses the uses of clay minerals as exploration tools that help to elucidate basin, source-rock, and reservoir history. The status of fission-track analysis, which is useful for determining the thermal and depositional history of deeply buried sedimentary rocks, is outlined by Naeser. The various ways workers have attempted to determine accurate ancient and present-day subsurface temperatures are summarized with numerous references by Barker. Clayton covers three topics: (1) the role of kinetic modeling in petroleum exploration, (2) biological markers as an indicator of depositional environment of source rocks and composition of crude oils, and (3) geochemistry of sulfur in source rocks and petroleum. Anders and Hite evaluate the current status of evaporite deposits as a source for crude oil.
Hydrocarbon production in the Bluebell field is from three reservoirs in the Tertiary-aged Colton and Green River Formations: (1) overpressured Colton/Flagstaff, (2) lower Green River, and (3) upper Green River. Kerogen-rich shale and marlstone deposited in marginal and nearshore openlacustrine environments are the source of the waxy crude in the Colton/Flagstaff and lower Green River. Marlstone, or oil shale and possibly coal, are the sources for the asphaltic crude found in the upper Green River. Non-associated gas in the upper Green River could be from coaly deposits in the upper Green River, or migrated up from the lower Green River, or a combination of both. The lithology of all three reservoirs is similar; fractured sandstone, shale, limestone, and marlstone beds having generally low intergranular porosity and permeability. The strata were deposited in lacustrine and alluvial environments.
A multidisciplinary approach to research studies of sedimentary rocks and their constituents and the evolution of sedimentary basins, both ancient and modern.