Detailed characterization of the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity (K) by direct measurement is usually impractical. A viable alternative is to use geologic information and geostatistics to characterize interconnectedness of critical K facies that have a dominant influence on fluid flow. Conditional simulation is introduced herein as a method for estimating aquifer interconnectedness.

In the western Delaware Basin and southern Central Basin Platform of Trans-Pecos Texas, Upper Permian (Ochoan) evaporite strata host locally voluminous but notoriously unpredictable, sporadic deposits of biogenic native sulfur. The two sulfur-bearing regions, the Rustler Springs (Culberson and Reeves Counties) and Fort Stockton (Pecos County) sulfur districts, encompass about 2,000 State-owned tracts that are widely distributed throughout the two districts.

Mushroom-shaped diapirs have an overhanging bulb fringed by one or more skirts (peripheral pendant lobes), which can curl inward to form vortices capable of entraining cover rocks to various degrees. The highly complex anatomy of mushroom diapirs, some of which have double and eventriple cores, is analyzed in centrifuged and natural diapirs. We conducted 8 centrifuge experiments, which produced more than 100 model diapirs under acceleration equivalent to 1,200 times that of gravity. The experiments were dynamically scaled to U.S.