Publications

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 459 million barrels of shale oil, 275 billion cubic feet of associated gas, and 23 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Central Sumatra Basin, Indonesia.

Multi-proxy analyses were conducted on a sediment core from Favre Lake, a high elevation cirque lake in the northern Ruby Mountains, Nevada, and provide a ca. 7600 year record of local and regional environmental change. Data indicate that lake levels were lower from 7600-5750 cal yr BP, when local climate was warmer and/or drier than today. Effective moisture increased after 5750 cal yr...

Pluvial Lake Bonneville features a prominent shoreline at the Provo level, which has been interpreted as having formed during a period of threshold-stabilized overflow. The timing of Provo shoreline development is important for paleoclimate interpretations and for inferences on geomorphic process rates. Estimates for the timing of the shoreline formation, based on radiocarbon...

Profiles of reservoir properties of oil-bearing plays for selected petroleum provinces in the United States were developed to characterize the database to be used for a potential assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of oil that would be technically recoverable by the application of enhanced oil recovery methods using injection of carbon dioxide (CO2-EOR). The USGS assessment...

Shale is now commonly exploited as a hydrocarbon resource. Due to the high degree of geochemical and petrophysical heterogeneity both between shale reservoirs and within a single reservoir, there is a growing need to find more efficient methods of extracting petroleum compounds (crude oil, natural gas, bitumen) from potential source rocks. In this study, supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2...

A three–dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of Mono Basin in eastern California unveils a complex subsurface filled with zones of partial melt, fluid–filled fracture networks, cold plutons, and regional faults. In 2013, 62 broadband magnetotelluric (MT) stations were collected in an array around southeastern Mono Basin from which a 3D electrical resistivity model was created...

The organizers of the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (NCA) made a concerted effort to reach out to and collaborate with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the most comprehensive information to date on climate change impacts to Indigenous peoples in a US national assessment. Yet, there is still much room for improvement in assessment processes to ensure adequate recognition of...

From 2000 to 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted 139 quantitative assessments of continuous (unconventional) oil and gas accumulations within the United States. This report documents those assessments more fully than previously done by providing detailed documentation of both the assessment input and output. This report also compiles the data into spreadsheet tables that can be...

Introduction Earth materials and structures in the El Casco quadrangle provide considerable information about the late Cenozoic geologic evolution of southern California’s Inland Empire region (fig. 2). Important structural and stratigraphic elements include (1) modern traces of the right-lateral San Jacinto Fault zone, (2) older traces of the San Jacinto Fault zone, and (3) sedimentary...

The organic-rich upper shale member of the upper Devonian–lower Mississippian Bakken Formation (Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA) has undergone significant diagenetic alteration, irrespective of catagenesis related to hydrocarbon generation. Alteration includes precipitation of numerous cements, replacement of both detrital and authigenic minerals, multiple episodes of fracturing, and...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 23.9 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources in Paleozoic formations in the Sichuan Basin of China.

Thiadiamondoids (TDs) are diamond-like compounds with a sulfide bond located within the cage structure. These compounds were suggested as a molecular proxy for the occurrence and extent of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). Compound-specific sulfur-isotope analysis of TDs may create a multi-parameter system, based on molecular and δ34S values that may be sensitive over a wider range...