Yucca Mountain, a high-level nuclear waste repository over a billion barrel oil field?
- Colorado School of Mines, Lakewood (United States)
New structural models and source rock data suggest that the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, high-level nuclear waste repository lies in the Central Nevada thrust belt. The Central Nevada thrust belt could contain billion-barrel oil fields. The Central Nevada thrust belt coincides with an organic richness fairway and a maturation fairway of Mississippian source rocks that have already produced more than 25 million barrels of oil. Giant thrust-related structures along the thrust belt have yet to be tested. However, new work in the Tempahute Range, which lies between Yucca Mountain and the prolific Grant Canyon field, confirms the thrust belt concept and sheds light on source and reservoir rock quality and thrust belt geometry. Klippen of overmature Mississippian rocks are distinct on maturation maps such as the Diamond Range klippe in central Nevada. Thrust trends suggest that the Eleana Range near Yucca Mountain may be another klippe of overmature rocks over Mississippian source rocks in the oil window. There is a strong possibility that the subthrust source rocks may have generated large quantities of hydrocarbons that may be trapped in large thrust features beneath Yucca Mountain.
- OSTI ID:
- 138330
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910403-; ISSN 0149-1423; TRN: 92:005343
- Journal Information:
- AAPG Bulletin, Vol. 75, Issue 3; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Dallas, TX (United States), 7-10 Apr 1991; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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