Publications

Coking coal, or metallurgical coal, has been produced in the United States for nearly 200 years. Coking coal is primarily used in the production of coke for use in the steel industry, and for other uses (for example, foundries, blacksmithing, heating buildings, and brewing). Currently, U.S. coking coal is produced in Alabama, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia , and West Virginia. Historically, coki

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1,407 billion (1.4 trillion) cubic feet of gas in conventional accumulations in Upper Devonian to Lower Cretaceous strata of the western North Slope, Alaska.

This review examines new techniques and applications of organic petrography in source-rock reservoir petroleum systems that have occurred along with development of the global ‘shale revolution’ in energy resources. The review is limited to techniques and instrumentation that provide spatially resolved information, typically at or below microscales, for dispersed organic matter occurring in situ in

Here, we present the draft genome sequence of Bordetella sp. strain FB-8, a mixotrophic iron-oxidizing bacterium isolated from creek sediment in the former uranium-mining district of Ronneburg, Germany. To date, iron oxidation has not been reported in Bordetella species, indicating that FB-8 may be an environmentally important Bordetella sp.

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflec-tion (ASTER) radiometer onboard NASA’s Terra satellite has nearly complete global coverage in the 8 – 14 µm thermal infrared (TIR) atmospheric window and is the highest resolution sensor providing TIR emissivity data at 90-m spatial resolution and five multispectral bands. ASTER imagery enables mapping of spatial variations in the distribution of min

The unsaturated zone (UZ) extends across the Earth’s terrestrial surface and is central to many problems related to land and water resource management. Flow of water through the UZ is typically thought to be slow and diffusive, such that it could attenuate fluxes and dampen variability between atmospheric inputs and underlying aquifer systems. This would reduce water resource vulnerability to cont

This paper summarizes the changes in permeability at three boreholes located above an abutment pillar at a longwall coal mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. The motivation of this study was to better characterize the potential interaction between shale gas wells and the mine environment, through measurement of permeability changes in the coal mine overburden caused by mining-induced deformations. M

Recent production of light sweet oil has prompted reevaluation of Devonian petroleum systems in the central Appalachian Basin. Upper Devonian Ohio Shale (lower Huron Member) and Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale organic-rich source rocks from eastern Ohio and nearby areas were examined using organic petrography and geochemical analysis of solvent extracts to test ideas related to organic matter sour

As part of a study to determine the origin of oil and gas in the Berea Sandstone in northeastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio, 158 samples of organic-rich shale from the Upper Devonian Olentangy and Ohio Shales and the Lower Mississippian Sunbury Shale, collectively referred to as the “black shale,” were collected and analyzed from 12 cores. The samples were analyzed for total organic carbon (TO

Shallow production of sweet high-gravity oil from the Upper Devonian Berea Sandstone in northeastern Kentucky has caused the region to become the leading oil producer in the state. Potential nearby source rocks, namely, the overlying Mississippian Sunbury Shale and underlying Ohio Shale, are immature for commercial oil generation according to vitrinite reflectance and programmed pyrolysis analyses

Geological carbon sequestration (GCS) is necessary to help meet emissions reduction goals, but groundwater contamination may occur if CO2 and/or brine were to leak out of deep storage formations into the shallow subsurface. For this study, a natural analogue was investigated: in the Virgin River Basin of southwest Utah, water with moderate salinity and high CO2 concentrations is leaking upward int

This study examines the use of organic petrology techniques to quantify the amount of coal and carbonaceous combustion by-products (i.e., coke, coal tar/pitch, cenospheres) in sediments taken from the Kinnickinnic River adjacent to the former site of the Milwaukee Solvay Coke and Gas Company. These materials are of concern as contaminants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to r