Land subsidence in central Kansas associated to salt dissolution

Technical Report · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1976

OSTI ID:5231038

Walters, R F

The Hutchinson Salt Member of the Permain Wellington Formation underlies 27,000 square miles in central and southcentral Kansas. Near the city of Huchinson, the salt has a gross thickness of 350 feet, including shale and anhydrite interbeds totaling 20 percent of the section, or a net of 280 feet of rock salt (mineralogically halite, chemically NaCl) of variable purity. It is there encountered near 400 feet, but elsewhere at depths ranging from 200 feet to over 2500 feet. Within Kansas, the margins of the Huchinson Salt are depoisitonal edges except for the updip east edge which is solution eroded due to access to the Pleistocene and present water tables. West of this natural erosion border, there are no instances of dissolution of the Hutchinson Salt prior to man's drilling test fholes for oil or salt during the past 88 years, the inadvertent effects of which are the 13 subsidence areas described in this paper, five associated with the miing of salt, and eight resulting from oil and gas operations. 44 refs., 37 figs., 5 tabs.

• Research Organization: Walters (Robert F.), Wichita, KS (USA); Solution Mining Research Inst., Inc., Flossmoor, IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5231038
• Report Number(s): DOE/OR/21400-T338; ON: DE88007222
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
KANSAS
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
MINING
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
OIL WELLS
DISSOLUTION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
SALT DEPOSITS
FEDERAL REGION VII
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
NORTH AMERICA
USA
WELLS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
510500 - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (-1989)