Includes full-color isopach and richness maps for each organic-rich and organic-lean oil shale interval within the upper Green River Formation. Offers computational exploration of trade-offs in drilling and heating options on the net energy return for oil produced from an in situ process. Analyzes costs and emissions associated with in situ production of oil shale. Discusses legal and policy issues for a nascent oil shale industry.
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.
Includes full-color isopach and richness maps for each organic-rich and organic-lean oil shale interval within the upper Green River Formation. Offers computational exploration of trade-offs in drilling and heating options on the net energy return for oil produced from an in situ process. Analyzes costs and emissions associated with in situ production of oil shale. Discusses legal and policy issues for a nascent oil shale industry.
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.
This CD contains a 19-page report, 8 plates, and GIS data. Provided are detailed isopach maps, along with overburden contours, showing the thickness of a continuous sequence of oil shale averages of oil per ton of rock.
In the early 1980s, industry and government took a hard look at the economics of extracting oil from vast deposits of shale that lie beneath the western United States. Oil prices subsided, and interest waned. With oil prices spiking and global demand showing no signs of abating, reexamining the economics of oil shale makes sense. In this report, the authors describe oil shale resources; suitability, cost, and performance of new technologies; and key policy issues that need to be addressed by government decisionmakers in the near future.
Kane County, with its 4105 square miles, lies along the south-central margin of Utah and is found in the western part of the Colorado Plateaus physiographic province. It is famous for scenic beauty displayed in its colorful rock formations and other geologic features such as faults, folds, arches, monoclines, joints, cross beds, cliffs, lava fields, and canyons. Kane County contains parts of Bryce and Zion National Parks, the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, and it is home to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Kodachrome Basin State Parks. The county area has had an interesting geologic history and important fossil finds have added much to our knowledge of world geology. The total value of the mineral production of Kane County, Utah through 1985 is estimated at $21,854,000, of which more than 95 percent is attributed to construction materials, mined or quarried to build and maintain highways. Sand and gravel, crushed stone, coal, gemstones, pumice and volcanic ash, manganese ore, gold, uranium, silver, copper and lead were or have been produced, with the most important current commodities being construction and gem materials. The annual rate of production of these items is erratic, but the value averages a few hundred thousand dollars annually. The production of the construction materials is dependent on the schedules of the Utah Department of Transportation and other road building agencies. Gem materials are mined intermittently to supply the tourist trade. Currently, there are no large, regularly producing mining operations in the county. Other mineral deposits reported in Kane County include titanium and zirconium, gypsum and anhydrite, limestone and dolomite, clay, and vanadium. About 29 tests for petroleum have thus far been drilled without significant success. However, many had interesting shows of oil and gas and the potential for discovery remains high. 192 pages + 10 plates
