Ground-water hydraulics of the deep-basin brine aquifer, Palo Duro Basin, Texas panhandle

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6347944

Smith, D A

The Deep-Basin Brine aquifer of the Palo Duro Basin (Texas Panhandle) underlies thick Permian bedded evaporites that are being evaluated as a potential high-level nuclear waste isolation repository. Potentiometric surface maps of 5 units of the Deep-Basin Brine aquifer were drawn using drill-stem test (DST) pressure data, which were analyzed by a geostatistical technique (kriging) to smooth the large variation in the data. The potentiometric surface maps indicate that the Deep-Basin Brine aquifer could be conceptually modeled as 5 aquifer units; a Lower Permian (Wolfcamp) aquifer, upper and lower Pennsylvanian aquifers, a pre-Pennsylvanian aquifer, and a Pennsylvanian to Wolfcampian granite-wash aquifer. The hydraulic head maps indicate that ground-water flow in each of the units is west to east with a minor northerly component near the Amarillo Uplift, the northern structural boundary of the basin. The Wolfcamp potentiometric surface indicates the strongest component of northerly flow. Inferred flow direction in Pennsylvanian aquifers is easterly, and in the pre-Pennsylvanian aquifer near its pinch-out in the basin center, flow is inferred to be to the north. In the granite-wash aquifer the inferred flow direction is east across the northern edge of the basin and southeast along the Amarillo Uplift.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Texas, Austin (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6347944
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 17
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
58 GEOSCIENCES
580100 -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
AQUIFERS
BRINES
EVAPORITES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FLOW MODELS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROLOGY
MANAGEMENT
MAPPING
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PALEOZOIC ERA
PALO DURO BASIN
PERMIAN BASIN
PERMIAN PERIOD
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ROCKS
SALT DEPOSITS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
TEXAS
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER