The Lower Cretaceous Travis Peak Formation contains an estimated 6.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place in East Texas and North Louisiana. Advanced technology will be needed to maximize recovery from this low-permeability ("tight") gas sandstone. This report focuses on the contribution of geology to understanding and efficiently developing the complex gas reservoirs in the Travis Peak Formation in East Texas.

The Hueco Basin of Trans-Pecos Texas, which formed in response to Cenozoic extensional tectonism, lies within the southern Rio Grande rift near the poorly defined boundary between the rift and the southern Basin and Range province. Subsurface data, including proprietary seismic lines, were studied in conjunction with aerial-photo and surface geologic mapping to determine the basin's structure and fault history. These data were also studied to evaluate the seismic risk of the basin and to consider it as a possible repository of low-level radioactive waste.

Field studies and numerical modeling were used to evaluate hydraulic controls on unsaturated flow in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas. These studies were part of a program to characterize a site for a proposed low-level radioactive waste disposal facility. The study area was instrumented with neutron-probe access tubes to monitor moisture content and with thermocouple psychrometers to monitor water potential. The absence of temporal variations in moisture content monitored in deep (41 m) profiles indicated that water pulses are not moving through the system.