Great American Carbonate Bank: The Geology and Economic Resources of the Cambrian—Ordovician Sauk Megasequence of Laurentia
The Great American Carbonate Bank (GACB) comprises the carbonates (and related siliciclastics) of the Sauk megasequence, which were deposited on and around the Laurentian continent during Cambrian through earliest Middle Ordovician, forming one of the largest carbonate-dominated platforms of the Phanerozoic. The Sauk megasequence, which ranges upwards of several thousand meters thick along the Bank's margin, consists of distinctive Lithofacies and fauna that are widely recognized throughout Laurentia. A refined biostratigraphic zonation forms the chronostratigraphic framework for correlating disparate outcrops and subsurface data, providing the basis for interpreting depositional patterns and the evolution of the Bank. GACB hydrocarbon fields have produced 4 BBO and 21 TCFG, mostly from reservoirs near the Sauk-Tippecanoe unconformity. The GACB is also a source of economic minerals and construction material and, locally, serves as either an aquifer or repository for injection of waste material. This Memoir comprises works on biostratigraphy, ichnology, stratigraphy, depositional facies, diagenesis, and petroleum and mineral resources of the GACB. It is dedicated to James Lee Wilson who first conceived of this publication and who worked on many aspects of the GACB during his long and illustrious career.
Ordovician Knox Carbonates and Sandstones of the Eastern Mid-continent: Potential Geologic Carbon Storage Reservoirs and Seals
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Published:January 01, 2012
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CiteCitation
Stephen F. Greb, J. Richard Bowersox, Michael P. Solis, David C. Harris, Ronald A. Riley, John A. Rupp, Mark Kelley, Neeraj Gupta, 2012. "Ordovician Knox Carbonates and Sandstones of the Eastern Mid-continent: Potential Geologic Carbon Storage Reservoirs and Seals", Great American Carbonate Bank: The Geology and Economic Resources of the Cambrian—Ordovician Sauk Megasequence of Laurentia, James Derby, Richard Fritz, Susan Longacre, William Morgan, Charles Sternbach
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Abstract
In response to rising concerns about atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and likely regulations on emissions, investigations into geologic carbon storage options across the United States are underway. In the Midwest, Cambrian sandstones are major targets for potential geologic carbon storage. In some localities, the overlying Cambrian–Ordovician Knox Group is also being investigated as a possible target for primary and secondary storage of CO2. The thick dolomitic succession contains intervals that may function as both reservoirs and seals.
Gas storage fields in Knox carbonates in Kentucky and Indiana demonstrate that methane can be safely stored in paleotopographic highs along the Knox unconformity surface. Numerous injection wells have also been completed in the Knox Group for brine disposal. More significantly, at least seven class 1 injection wells have used the Knox as all or part of a storage reservoir for industrial wastes. Many of these wells have injected millions of gallons of liquid waste annually into Knox reservoirs. The relative scale of these injection operations can be used to estimate the types and sizes of potential reservoirs within the Knox succession in the Midwest.
Specific data on the Knox interval relative to its carbon storage and confining potential are currently being collected from wells drilled as part of U.S. Department of Energy administered carbon storage projects, as well as state-administered carbon storage programs. In this chapter, initial results of carbon storage tests are summarized from the Battelle 1 Duke Energy well, Kentucky Geological Survey 1 Blan well, Battelle-American Electric Power (AEP) 1 Mountaineer well, and Battelle-Ohio Geological Survey 1 CO2 well. The AEP Mountaineer Power Plant will host the nation’s first commercially integrated carbon capture and geologic storage project, and the storage reservoirs will be in the Knox Group. Because the Knox Group is widespread at depth across much of the Midwest, it will be an important part of sequestration programs as confining interval and reservoir.
- aquifers
- Beekmantown Group
- biogenic structures
- boreholes
- brines
- Cambrian
- carbon
- carbon sequestration
- carbonate banks
- carbonate rocks
- clastic rocks
- Copper Ridge Dolomite
- cores
- correlation
- fluid injection
- gamma-ray methods
- ground water
- hydraulic conductivity
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Knox Group
- Laurentia
- Lower Ordovician
- lower Paleozoic
- Midcontinent
- monitoring
- Mount Simon Sandstone
- North America
- Ohio
- oil and gas fields
- Ordovician
- Paleozoic
- permeability
- porosity
- power plants
- reservoir properties
- reservoir rocks
- Rose Run Sandstone
- sandstone
- sealing
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentary structures
- shale
- site exploration
- unconformities
- United States
- Upper Cambrian
- waste disposal
- well logs
- West Virginia
- Gunter Sandstone