Publications

In assessing methane hydrate as a potential transitional energy source, quantification of in-place volumes of gas is a first step—and yet, global, regional, and even local estimates of gas volumes contained within hydrate are highly variable, including within the extensively-studied Gulf of Mexico (GoM) gas hydrate province. Here, we construct the first 3-D basin and hydrocarbon system...

Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas produced by methanogens. Methanogenesis rates are controlled by environmental factors such as redox potential, temperature, and carbon and electron acceptor availability and are presumably dependent on the composition of the active methanogen community. We collected intact soil cores from a restored and...

The degree of organic sulfurization is broadly relevant yet underreported. We present a statistically significant correlation between whole rock S/Fe and the measured degree of organic sulfurization in the thermally immature Cenomanian–Turonian Eagle Ford Group. This relationship shows a sink switch for sulfur from pyrite to organic matter. Excess iron and excess sulfur relative to...

Geologic, or naturally occurring, hydrogen has the potential to become a new, low-carbon, primary energy resource. Often referred to as “white” or “gold” hydrogen, this gas occurs naturally in the Earth’s subsurface, similar to petroleum resources. However, unlike petroleum, which releases carbon dioxide when burned, burning hydrogen only produces water as a byproduct. Exploration for...

We document chemostratigraphy in an outcrop of late Albian to early Campanian (∼103–82 Ma) marine source rocks to better understand paleoenvironmental controls on trace element (TE) enrichment and organic matter accumulation in the distal Colville foreland basin of Arctic Alaska and how those drivers are linked to arc volcanism and successions of Cretaceous oceanographic and climatic

New data including measured reflectance (%Ro), programmed open-system pyrolysis data, and kerogen elemental analyses obtained on the Mississippian Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin, Texas, indicate that secondary-gas generation starts at 1.5% Ro and not at the previously prescribed 1.1% Ro. Oil-cracking kinetic parameters derived from pyrolysis experiments in the presence and absence...

A large Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) hub has been proposed in Kemper County, Mississippi. The target injection interval consists of numerous Cretaceous-aged deep saline aquifers overlain by a competent and extensive regional sealing layer. Above the seal, the deepest Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) at the site is the Eutaw aquifer of the Eutaw Group and McShan...

Geologic hydrogen could be a low-carbon primary energy resource; however, the magnitude of Earth’s subsurface endowment has not yet been assessed. Knowledge of the occurrence and behavior of natural hydrogen on Earth has been combined with information from geologic analogs to construct a mass balance model to predict the resource potential. Given the associated uncertainty, stochastic...

Energy consumption in the United States (U.S.) and across the world is shifting away from traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil, and towards natural gas and renewable sources, including hydrogen. Because gas demand is typically greatest during cold seasons and renewable sources sometimes produce variable supplies, it is important to store energy for use when demand exceeds supply...

The Tragedy of the Commons is a well studied problem in the literature of ecology, economics, and environmental policy which illustrates the deleterious consequences of managing common pool resources when individual and social incentives are misaligned. In this work, we apply a simple model of carbon sequestration in a deep saline aquifer by two neighboring geologic CO2 storage (GCS)...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed two new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and sequestration accounting methods for use in future reports. The first method is a Federal lease-produced CO2 emissions calculation for an update of the report, “Federal Lands Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sequestration in the United States.” The methodology to incorporate Federal lease CO2...

As part of U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) efforts to identify and assess geothermal energy resources of the US, a three-dimensional (3D) geologic and thermal model has been constructed for the Williston Basin, USA. The geologic model consists of all sedimentary units above the Proterozoic and Archean crystalline rock (called basement herein), with a total sedimentary thickness of up to...