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Title: Coal test drilling for the DE-NA-Zin Bisti Area, San Juan County, New Mexico

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5904960

From October 1978 to June 1979, the US Geological Survey (USGS) drilled 51 test holes, and cored 9 holes, in the vicinity of the Bisti Trading Post in the southwestern part of the San Juan Basin, San Juan County, New Mexico. The drilling was done in response to expressions of interest received by the Bureau of Land Management concerning coal leasing and, in some places, badlands preservation. The object of the drilling was to determine the depth, thickness, extent, and quality of the coal in the Upper Cretaceous Fruitland Formation in northwest New Mexico. The holes were geophysically logged immediately after drilling. Resistivity spontaneous-potential, and natural gamma logs were run in all of the holes. A high-resolution density log was also run in all holes drilled before January 13, when a logging unit from the USGS in Albuquerque was available. After January 13, the holes were logged by a USGS unit from Casper, Wyoming that lacked density logging capabilities. At nine locations a second hole was drilled, about 20 ft from the first hole, down to selected coal-bearing intervals and the coal beds were cored. A detailed description of each of the cores is given on the page(s) following the logs for each hole. From these coal cores, 32 intervals were selected and submitted to the Department of Energy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for analysis.

Research Organization:
Geological Survey, Reston, VA (USA). Conservation Div.
OSTI ID:
5904960
Report Number(s):
USGS-OFR-80-1289; ON: DE82902008
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English