Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “SANDSTONE”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Predicting Fracture Porosity Evolution in Sandstone (Final Report)

To better understand porosity, strength, chemical reactivity, and patterns of fractures, we developed methods using mineral deposits to unravel how fracture growth and diagenesis interact to create and destroy fracture porosity. Quartz and dolomite cement textures and associated fluid inclusion assemblage sequences and thermal histories provided data to infer the duration and rates at which fractures open. We developed and tested a model that accounts for how fracture porosity and rock properties change as a function of thermal exposure and how fracture size and arrangement evolve. Effects of cement deposits on growth were investigated with new geomechanical models and new methods to quantify fracture spatial arrangement. We tested these concepts in a wide range of rock types using outcrop and core-based datasets. We documented opening histories of fractures and fracture arrays in contrasting tectonic and thermal regimes. Our methods set a new standard for fracture characterization and our diagenetic-geomechanical model accurately predicts fluid flow characteristics of fractured rocks based on coupled effects of diagenesis and deformation. Results represent a significant advance in fundamental understanding of fractures in the Earth and have application to improving subsurface engineering operations in a wide range of contexts including geothermal and sequestration applications. The breakthrough of successfully reconstructing the timing and opening rates of parts of single fractures and portions of fracture arrays to document the growth and linkage of fracture arrays was an accomplishment of this grant that is being followed up in our current BES grant DE-SC0022968, ‘Reconstructing and Predicting Fracture Pattern Evolution‘

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Manganese-rich sandstones as an indicator of ancient oxic lake water conditions in Gale crater, Mars

Manganese has been observed on Mars by the NASA Curiosity rover in a variety of contexts and is an important indicator of redox processes in hydrologic systems on Earth. Within the Murray formation, an ancient primarily fine-grained lacustrine sedimentary deposit in Gale crater, Mars, have observed up to 45× enrichment in manganese and up to 1.5× enrichment in iron within coarser grained bedrock targets compared to the mean Murray sediment composition. This enrichment in manganese coincides with the transition between two stratigraphic units within the Murray: Sutton Island, interpreted as a lake margin environment, and Blunts Point, interpreted as a lake environment. On Earth, lacustrine environments are common locations of manganese precipitation due to highly oxidizing conditions in the lakes. Here, we explore three mechanisms for ferromanganese oxide precipitation at this location: authigenic precipitation from lake water along a lake shore, authigenic precipitation from reduced groundwater discharging through porous sands along a lake shore, and early diagenetic precipitation from groundwater through porous sands. All three scenarios require highly oxidizing conditions and we discuss oxidants that may be responsible for the oxidation and precipitation of manganese oxides. This work has important implications for the habitability of Mars to microbes that could have used Mn redox reactions, owing to its multiple redox states, as an energy source for metabolism.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Probabilistic Assessment and Uncertainty Analysis of CO2 Storage Capacity of the Morrow B Sandstone—Farnsworth Field Unit

This paper presents probabilistic methods to estimate the quantity of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be stored in a mature oil reservoir and analyzes the uncertainties associated with the estimation. This work uses data from the Farnsworth Field Unit (FWU), Ochiltree County, Texas, which is currently undergoing a tertiary recovery process. The input parameters are determined from seismic, core, and fluid analyses. The results of the estimation of the CO2 storage capacity of the reservoir are presented with both expectation curve and log probability plot. The expectation curve provides a range of possible outcomes such as the P90, P50, and P10. The deterministic value is calculated as the statistical mean of the storage capacity. The coefficient of variation and the uncertainty index, P10/P90, is used to analyze the overall uncertainty of the estimations. A relative impact plot is developed to analyze the sensitivity of the input parameters towards the total uncertainty and compared with Monte Carlo. In comparison to the Monte Carlo method, the results are practically the same. The probabilistic technique presented in this paper can be applied in different geological settings as well as other engineering applications.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Carbonated Brine Injection as a Low-Risk CO2 Storage Strategy: A Case Study for Inyan Kara Sandstone Reservoir

Carbonated brine storage is a low-risk geologic CO2 sequestration strategy compared to traditional supercritical CO2 injection and storage. Our study provides an evaluation methodology for CBI that can be used for other potential pilot injections in suitable fields and opens the opportunity to work with industry for CBI using existing Class II wells to gain CO2 tax credits.

Xiong, Wei↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessing Suitable Geologic Carbon Storage Sites Across Utah

Utah has a wealth of potential geological reservoirs for carbon dioxide storage (CS) and a long history of geologic research resulting in an abundance of available subsurface data to evaluate CS potential. Reservoirs may include sandstone, carbonate, and basalt; these rock types are plentiful in Utah’s subsurface and the complex Phanerozoic history throughout the state requires evaluating each geologic region individually for promising reservoir-seal pairs for CO2 storage. Classifying Utah by geologic provinces (or “geo-regions”) allows for customized thinking about suitable CS reservoir and seal distribution, CO2 point sources, land use, and existing infrastructure. Preliminary results from this study highlight the geologic CS potential across 15 geo-regions. Four regions stand out as having high CS potential: the Uinta Basin, San Rafael Swell, Paradox Basin, and the southern Basin and Range Province. The Uinta Basin and San Rafael Swell geo-regions are well suited for CS and have several projects ongoing to evaluate Cretaceous Frontier and Naturita Formations, Jurassic Navajo Sandstone and Entrada Sandstone, and Permian Weber Sandstone reservoir units that lie beneath robust sealing units like the ~5000-ft-thick Mancos Shale and Carmel Formation. Reservoirs such as the Navajo and Weber Sandstones have been demonstrated to be suitable reservoirs through a long history of oil and gas exploration in Utah. New areas of interest include the southern Basin and Range in southwest Utah, where the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone is overlain by the sealing Carmel Formation at suitable depths (>3000 ft), and has good porosities based on outcrop analogue data. Just to the north (e.g., central Basin and Range), legacy wells and 2D seismic data show possible salt and subsurface basalt flows that may provide additional possible CS reservoirs and seals. This geo-region also has the advantage of being coupled with geothermal energy resources that may be used to power burgeoning direct air capture technologies. In the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah, the Leadville Limestone is a potential storage reservoir beneath the thick (4000–5000 ft), salt-bearing Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation. Although the northern and western parts of Utah offer CS potential, these areas typically contain less infrastructure and subsurface penetrations, creating geologic uncertainty associated with subsurface seals and reservoirs due to a lack of data. Overall, this statewide assessment and ranking is the first step to aid in evaluating CS potential across Utah and provides a foundation for future research in the most favorable locations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Mesozoic Deserts and CO2 Storage: The Glen Canyon Group, Utah, USA

For much of the Mesozoic an extensive desert environment extended across the Western Interior of the USA. These desert systems deposited vast dunefields, including one of the largest ergs preserved in the rock record. The Glen Canyon Group in Utah is a Triassic-Jurassic aged aeolian succession, consisting of thick, laterally extensive aeolian dune deposits, interdune lakes and oases, and dryland fluvial systems. These aeolian deposits have been identified as potential CO2 sequestration reservoirs. The Jurassic-aged Navajo Sandstone has been the subject of research into its potential as a CO2 reservoir, as well as naturally occurring CO2 seeps in the Green River area. It has excellent reservoir properties, consisting of thick sandstones with high porosity and permeability, and has industry data including well logs and core. It occurs in both outcrop and subcrop, allowing for comparison and sense checking of interpretations across small and large scales. The Triassic Wingate Sandstone has received much less attention, however it too is composed of thick aeolian dune deposits. Like the Navajo Sandstone, the Wingate Sandstone has industry data, and occurs in both outcrop and subcrop. Using extensive industry data which exists across Utah is an effective way to pivot from a hydrocarbon focus to CO2 injection, and so contribute to green energy and carbon neutral emission goals. Here we use historic industry data in conjunction with field work, to study the Navajo and Wingate Sandstones and their potential as CO2 reservoirs, in addition to increasing our understanding of lithologic and stratigraphic complexity in one of the most significant aeolian systems in the world.

Mahon, Elizabeth↗
DOE OSTI2022

Geochronology of Cambrian Sedimentary and Volcanic Rocks in the Illinois Basin: Defining the Illinois Aulacogen

The Wabash #1 well, drilled for the Wabash CarbonSAFE Project and located in Vigo County, Indiana, USA, was drilled in early 2020 as a stratigraphic test well to characterize and evaluate the basal Cambrian Mt. Simon Sandstone for carbon dioxide storage (TD=8750 ft; 2667 m). The Wabash #1 well is located along the eastern flank of a newly interpreted Cambrian aulacogen that occurs in western Indiana and eastern Illinois. Here we present 938 new detrital zircon U-Pb ages (LA-ICPMS) from early Cambrian sandstones sampled near the base of the well. A basalt lava flow was penetrated at ~8530 ft (2600 m) and has an 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of 525.03 +/- 1.10 Ma, which represents the first known Cambrian crust in the Illinois Basin. The two sandstone samples from beneath the basalt are dominated by zircons derived from the Midcontinent Granite-Rhyolite terrane. The sandstone samples from above the basalt reflect a mixture of these locally derived Mazatzal and Granite-Rhyolite terrane zircons, but also distal Archean, Grenville, and Yavapai zircons. Each sample has small numbers of Cambrian zircons, which is consistent with those in basal Cambrian sandstones in other deep wells to the west. These early Cambrian detrital zircons and early Cambrian age of the basalt, combined with sediment thickness patterns permit the interpretation of the Illinois aulacogen, which formed during the final stage of Rodinian rifting.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Supplemental Material: Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy of the northern Baltimore Canyon Trough: Implications for basin evolution and carbon storage

We focus on potential reservoirs in the Logan Canyon Formation. Based on lithostratigraphy, Libby-French originally divided the Logan Canyon sandstones into lower and upper Logan Canyon sandstone units separated by the Sable Shale equivalent. Miller et al. reinterpreted the well-log correlations with biostratigraphy using a sequence stratigraphic approach and found three distinct Logan Canyon highstand sandstones associated with three Aptian to lower Cenomanian stratigraphic sequences, the LC3, LC2, and LC1, respectively. In addition, Miller et al. found that the Sable Shale Formation identified by Libby-French was placed above and below the LC1 basal sequence boundary in some wells, highlighting issues with correlating units based only on lithology. The Upper Cretaceous strata in the BCT are termed the Dawson Canyon Equivalent Formation, correlate to the DCx composite sequence, and cap the Logan Canyon sequences below made up of a very thick, calcareous Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy mudstone, divided by a single, thick, laterally continuous Coniacian to Campanian sandstone called the Middle Sandstone.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Petrographic and Advanced Geologic Characterization Report on One Earth Energy #1 (API# 1211325373)

The One Earth Energy #1 (OEE1, API 1211325373) well was drilled to a depth of 7,099 feet from the Pennsylvanian bedrock to the Precambrian granite. In total, 99 thin sections were taken from Rotary Sidewall Core (RSWC) from 2,275 feet to 6,903 feet; 59 thin sections were taken from Whole Core (WC) from 4,311.5 to 6,519.2 feet for this report. This report details specifically thin section point-counting analysis that includes mineralogical and pore space analysis, including grain size analysis annotated thin section photomicrographs, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and statistics of grain size analysis on Mount Simon thin sections from OEE1. Characterized units include the St. Peter Sandstone, Eminence Formation, Potosi Dolomite, Franconia Formation, Davis Member, Ironton Sandstone, Galesville Sandstone, Eau Claire Formation, Elmhurst Sandstone, Mt. Simon Sandstone, and Argenta Formation.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗