A review of WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) repository clays and their relationship to clays of adjacent strata
The Salado Formation is a thick evaporite sequence located in the Permian Delaware Basin of southeastern New Mexico. This study focuses on the intense diagenetic alteration that has affected the small amounts of clay, feldspar, and quartz washed into the basin during salt deposition. These changes are of more than academic interest since this formation also houses the WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant). Site characterization concerns warrant compiling a detailed data base describing the clays in and around the facility horizon. An extensive sampling effort was undertaken to address these programmatic issues as well as to provide additional insight regarding diagenetic mechanisms in the Salado. Seventy-five samples were collected from argillaceous partings in halite at the stratigraphic level of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). These were compared with twenty-eight samples from cores of the Vaca Triste member of the Salado, a thin clastic unit at the top of the McNutt potash zone, and with a clay-rich sample from the lower contact of the Culebra Dolomite (in the overlying Rustler Formation). These settings were compared to assess the influence of differences in brine chemistry (i.e., halite and potash facies, normal to hypersaline marine conditions) and sediment composition (clays, sandy silt, dolomitized limestone) on diagenetic processes. 44 refs., 11 figs., 5 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/DP
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 6197231
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-90-0549; ON: DE91007151; TRN: 91-004462
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
CLAYS
MINERALOGY
BRINES
DEPOSITION
FELDSPARS
GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS
HALIDE MINERALS
PETROLOGY
QUARTZ
SAMPLING
SEDIMENTS
STRATIGRAPHY
WIPP
CHALCOGENIDES
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GEOLOGY
MINERALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PILOT PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SURVEYS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
580000 - Geosciences