Pervasively dolomitized, anhydritic carbonates of the upper San Andres Formation in the Emma field of West Texas constitute an upward-shallowing sequence of lithofacies representing four major depositional environments. Open Platform fusulinid packstone/wackestone and burrowed wackestone form the base of the sequence. These deposits, which accumulated in a shallow-water, normal marine setting, contain moldic and intercrystalline porosity and constitute the lower of two major porosity intervals in the reservoir section.
The manner in which sedimentary overburden accumulates significantly influences the growth of syndepositional salt structures. To determine the general principles of this influence for application to specific instances in nature, we carried out 16 experiments using scaled centrifuged models to simulate the effect of variable sedimentary loading on the geometry, kinematics, and dynamics of syndepositional salt structures. This topic has been almost entirely ignored in both physical and mathematical modeling of salt structures.The rheology of four modeling materials was determined.
Natural gas in the United States consists of proved reserves in known reservoirs, of inferred reserves and undeveloped resources within these reservoirs, and of undiscovered resources. Other than proved reserves, all volumes of future natural gas supply are estimates based on information derived from past and current experience in gas production and reservoir development. Even proved reserves are subject to periodic revision.
The Palo Duro Basin of the Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico contains bedded Permian salts of sufficient thickness and depth for the basin to be considered as a potential site for long-term storage and isolation of high-level nuclear waste. Salt (primarily halite) is a desirable host rock because of its low permeability, high thermal conductivity, low moisture content, and high gamma-ray shielding properties (Johnson, 1976b). A major concern that was addressed during the waste isolation study of the Texas Panhandle region is the long-term integrity of the bedded-salt host rock.