Publications

The Middle – Upper Triassic Shublik Formation is an organic-rich heterogeneous carbonate-siliciclastic-phosphatic unit that generated much of the oil in the Prudhoe Bay field and other hydrocarbon accumulations in northern Alaska. A large dataset, including total organic carbon (TOC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) meas

Bottomhole temperature (BHT) measurements offer a useful way to characterize the subsurface thermal regime as long as they are corrected to represent in situ reservoir temperatures. BHT correction methods calibrated for the domestic onshore Gulf of Mexico basin were established in this study. These corrections are empirically derived and based on newly compiled databases of BHT wireline measuremen

In 2013, a continuous 624-foot core hole was drilled and logged by the U.S. Geological Survey in Natrona County, Wyoming, with the goal to better understand Cretaceous source rocks in the Wind River Basin. The core hole, named the Alcova Reservoir AR–1–13, penetrated the interval extending from the upper part of the Lower Cretaceous Cloverly Formation to the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous Fron

We have successfully applied of SH-wave seismic reflection methods to two different near-surface problems targeting unconsolidated sediments. At the former Fort Ord, where the water table is approximately 30m deep, we imaged aeolian and marine aquifer and aquitard stratigraphy to a depth of approximately 80m. We identified reflections from sand/clay and sand/silt interfaces and we mapped these int

To elucidate how different extreme heteroatom concentrations in oil shale kerogen may present and contribute to various structural features, three shale samples, containing kerogen with high oxygen content, low heteroatom content, and high sulfur content, were analyzed using advanced 13C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, including multiple cross-polarization/magic angle spin

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 389 million barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Niobrara interval of the Cody Shale in the Wind River Basin Province, Wyoming.

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable continuous mean resources of 46.3 billion barrels of oil and 281 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Wolfcamp shale and Bone Spring Formation of the Delaware Basin in the Permian Basin Province, southeast New Mexico and west Texas.

The Green River Formation deposited in Eocene Lake Uinta in the Uinta and Piceance Basins, Utah and Colorado, contains the largest oil shale resource in the world with an estimated 1.53 trillion barrels of oil in-place in the Piceance Basin and 1.32 trillion barrels in the Uinta Basin. The Douglas Creek arch, a slowly subsiding hinge-line between the two basins, created separate deep depocenters w

Jupiter's Moon Europa has one of the youngest geological surfaces in our solar system with an age of 40–90 Ma, implying an intense history of resurfacing. The surface of Europa indeed shows abundant evidence of tectonic deformation related to extension, strike-slip, and shortening. However, observed features related to shortening are scarce compared with pervasive extensive extensional features su

Epithermal gold-silver deposits are vein, stockwork, disseminated, and replacement deposits that are mined primarily for their gold and silver contents; some deposits also contain substantial resources of lead, zinc, copper, and (or) mercury. These deposits form in the uppermost parts of the crust, at depths less than about 1,500 meters below the water table, and at temperatures below about 300 °C

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 10.7 trillion cubic feet of potential coalbed gas resources in the Kutei and Barito Basin Provinces of Indonesia.

The West Siberian Basin Province is one of the largest sedimentary basins in the world, with an area of 2.6 million square kilometers, and the basin ranks first in the world with more than 400 billion barrels of oil-equivalent discovered petroleum. For the 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, the U.S. Geological Survey defined a Northern West Siberian Mesozoic Composite Total Petroleum System (T