Publications

Organic petrology developed from coal petrology, and, in the 1960s, it began to be applied to the study of dispersed organic matter (DOM) in sedimentary rocks other than coal. Over the last few decades, the petrology of DOM has been used to characterize organic matter in sedimentary basins with an emphasis on fossil fuel resource exploration. Today, due to the global research shift on topics relat

Executive Summary Climate is the primary driver of environmental change and is a key consideration in defining science priorities conducted across all mission areas in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Recognizing the importance of climate change to its future research agenda, the USGS’s Climate Science Steering Committee requested the development of a Climate Science Plan to identify future rese

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional and continuous resources of 294 million barrels of oil and 11 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Lewis Shale in the Southwestern Wyoming Province, Wyoming and Colorado.

Accurate reservoir evaluation requires reliable three-dimensional (3-D) geological models. This study conducted 3-D geological modeling for numerical flow simulation of the B1 sand gas hydrate reservoir at the Kuparuk State 7-11-12 pad, Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope. The model integrates well logs, core, and seismic data to address spatial heterogeneity in geological structures and reservoi

To further refine the use of solid bitumen reflectance (BRo in %) as a measurement of thermal maturity in source-rock reservoirs, we examined its relationship to other thermal proxies in the Bakken Formation. Comparisons included criteria from programmed temperature pyrolysis, gas chromatography (GC), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Thirty-two organic-rich samples from the lowe

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 5.1 billion barrels of oil and 79.1 trillion cubic feet of gas in offshore East Africa and the Seychelles.

Conventional magnetofossils are the remains of magnetotactic bacteria and giant magnetofossils are the remains of iron biomineralizing organisms that have not yet been identified. We report the oldest robust conventional and giant magnetofossil records, ~97 Ma, from marine sediments drilled in Holland Park, Virginia, USA. The Holland Park core records the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary and Oceanic-A

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 105.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Black Sea area.

Superhigh-organic‑sulfur (SHOS) coals (coals with organic sulfur content >4 wt%) are unique coal deposits found at a few notable locations in the world. Specific peat accumulation and preservation conditions must be met to form SHOS coals. Organic sulfur is a major constituent of such coals, and it may have various sources depending on the prevailing paleomire conditions. Understanding such paleom

Global Li production will require a ~500 % increase to meet 2050 projected energy storage demands. One potential source is oil and gas wastewater (i.e., produced water or brine), which naturally has high total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations, that can also be enriched in Li (>100 mg/L). Understanding the sources and mechanisms responsible for high naturally-occurring Li concentrations can ai

Coal mine drainage (CMD) and associated metal-rich precipitates have recently been proposed as unconventional sources of rare earth elements (REEs). However, the potential occurrence of radium (Ra), a known carcinogen, with the REE-bearing phases has not been investigated. We hypothesized that Ra may occur in solids that are precipitated from CMD as a “radiobarite” solid solution ((Ba,Sr,Ra)SO4) a

Sources and fluxes of methane to the atmosphere from permafrost are significant but poorly constrained in global climate models. We present data collected from the variable permafrost setting of the outer Mackenzie River Delta, including observations of aquatic methane seepage, core determinations of in situ methane occurrence and seep gas isotope geochemistry. The sources and locations of in situ