Multimedia

Schematic cross section showing examples of chemical, mechanical, and thermal geologic energy storage methods in potential underground settings in a sedimentary basin. This illustration is a higher resolution version of figure 2 of USGS Fact Sheet 2022-3084.

Figure 3 from USGS Fact Sheet 2022-3082. Graph of typical energy storage capacity compared to typical discharge duration for various geologic and nongeologic energy storage methods. Oval sizes are estimated based on current technology. Modified from Crotogino and others (2017) and Matos and others (2019).

Map of the continental United States indicating the well density per 100 square mile grid cell of 117,672 unplugged orphaned wells in the 27 states included in the documented orphaned oil and gas well (DOW) dataset. Note the exponential scale of the coloring scheme used to preserve detail across both lower and higher well densities.

Oil, gas, and water separation vessels at a carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery operation, Horseshoe Atoll, Upper Pennsylvanian Wolfcampian play in the Permian Basin Province in Texas.

One charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Energy Resources Science Center is performing description
and analysis of hydrocarbon source rocks as input to USGS oil and gas assessments. This 2018 image
shows a coring and geophysical well-logging operation adjacent to U.S. Route 90, Kinney County, Texas.

Large layered nodule from the Roadside pit, Spor Mountain, Utah, showing fluorite, opal, and bertrandite mineralization. Beryllium is concentrated in the outer opal-fluorite zone; such samples can contain as much as 1-percent beryllium as bertrandite.