Digital database of a 3D Geological Model of the Powder River Basin and Williston Basin Regions, USA

This digital GIS dataset and accompanying nonspatial files synthesize model outputs from a regional-scale volumetric 3-D geologic model that portrays the generalized subsurface geology of the Powder River Basin and Williston Basin regions from a wide variety of input data sources. The study area includes the Hartville Uplift, Laramie Range, Bighorn Mountains, Powder River Basin, and Williston Basin. The model data released here consist of the stratigraphic contact elevation of major Phanerozoic sedimentary units that broadly define the geometry of the subsurface, the elevation of Tertiary intrusive and Precambrian basement rocks, and point data that illustrate an estimation of the three-dimensional geometry of fault surfaces. The presence of folds and unconformities are implied by the 3D geometry of the stratigraphic units, but these are not included as discrete features in this data release. The 3D geologic model was constructed from a wide variety of publicly available surface and subsurface geologic data; none of these input data are part of this Data Release, but data sources are thoroughly documented such that a user could obtain these data from other sources if desired.

The PowderRiverWilliston3D geodatabase contains 40 subsurface horizons in raster format that represent the tops of modeled subsurface units, and a feature dataset “GeologicModel”. The GeologicModel feature dataset contains a feature class of 30 estimated faults served in elevation grid format (FaultPoints), a feature class illustrating the spatial extent of 22 fault blocks (FaultBlockFootprints), and a feature class containing a polygon delineating the study areas (ModelBoundary). Nonspatial tables define the data sources used (DataSources), define terms used in the dataset (Glossary), and provide a description of the modeled surfaces (DescriptionOfModelUnits). Separate file folders contain the vector data in shapefile format, the raster data in ASCII format, and the tables as comma-separated values. In addition, a tabular data dictionary describes the entity and attribute information for all attributes of the geospatial data and the accompanying nonspatial tables (EntityAndAttributes). An included READ_ME file documents the process of manipulating and interpreting publicly available surface and subsurface geologic data to create the model. It additionally contains critical information about model units, and uncertainty regarding their ability to predict true ground conditions. Accompanying this data release is the “PowderRiverWillistonInputSummaryTable.csv”, which tabulates the global settings for each fault block, the stratigraphic horizons modeled in each fault block, the types and quantity of data inputs for each stratigraphic horizon, and then the settings associated with each data input.