Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Influence of impurities on the creep of salt from the Palo Duro Basin

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7166442· OSTI ID:7166442

Twelve triaxial compression creep tests were performed on salt specimens from the Woods-Holtzclaw well in the Palo Duro Basin to assess the influence of impurities on creep deformation. Four nominal impurity levels were initially selected for investigation: pure salt, salt containing 10% anhydrite, salt containing 10% mud, and salt containing 20% mud. Subsequent petrological measurements show these idealized categories do not exist. Composition of the samples was measured by methods of wet chemistry coupled with ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) digestion and point counting on full-size polished sections. Overall, the 12 specimens comprise 71.6--96.6% halite, 2.4--7.5% anhydrite, and 0.2--24.7% clay. Nine of the 12 specimens are similar to many other tested specimens from the Lower San Andres Unit 5. They range from 90--97% halite and average 94% with a standard deviation of 2%. The remaining 6% impurities are disseminated clay and anhydrite. The other three specimens from the Lower San Andres Unit 4 contain large amounts (average 20%) of uniformly distributed clays and average only 75% halite. 11 refs., 21 figs., 5 tabs.

Research Organization:
RE/SPEC, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (USA). Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-87CH10290; AC02-83CH10140
OSTI ID:
7166442
Report Number(s):
BMI/ONWI/C-87; BMI/ONWI-679; ON: TI88012371
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English