Use of geophysical, geobotanical, and remotely sensed data in a low cost hydrocarbon exploration strategy for the Appalachians

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:7175399

Parrish, J B

An integrated approach is developed at three scales: regional, subregional, and local. The principal problem addressed was that of how to make the transitional effectively from regional anomalies on the scale of tens of kilometers to a specific drilling site defined by an area on the order of tens of meters. The regional scale results, particularly the are magnetic anomalies, indicated several cross-structural lineaments which are indicative of basement discontinuities that were used to define an exploration area. For this subregional area two-dimensional data sets for Landsat MSS and digital terrain data were transformed and used to define the surficial location of the Wheeling-Needmore magnetic lineament within the subregional study area, indicating that a basement fault has influenced sedimentary structure. Two local-scale exploration areas were delineated. The southern area, which is in the vicinity of the NASA/Geosat Lost River, West Virginia test site was chosen for further study. An anomalous distribution of maples (Acer rubrum) was identified at Lost River in a region where chestnut oak (Quercus prinus) predominates. Soil gas measurements in the field and an in vitro study of seedling response to methane gas supported the hypothesis that high soil gas methane content at the surface is responsible for the geobotanical anomaly. Based on the findings of this study, the proposed minimal-cost exploration strategy should be useful in vegetated terrains in which there are surface hydrocarbon seeps.

• Research Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7175399
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
02 PETROLEUM
APPALACHIA
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
EXPLORATION
GAS ANALYSIS
GEOBOTANY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
LANDSAT SATELLITES
MAGNETIC SURVEYS
MAPLES
METHANE
OAKS
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
REMOTE SENSING
SEEPS
SOIL CHEMISTRY
VARIATIONS
WEST VIRGINIA
ALKANES
BIOLOGY
BOTANY
CHEMISTRY
FEDERAL REGION III
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HYDROCARBONS
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PLANTS
RESOURCES
SATELLITES
SURVEYS
TREES
USA
030200* - Natural Gas- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
020200 - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration