Kentucky Geology May 2000
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Kentucky Geological Survey entucky Geology UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY K Earth ResourcesOur Common Wealth Summer 2003 Volume 4, Number 2 Kentucky Geological Geologic feasibility Survey 228 Mining & Mineral Developing coalbed methane Drilling Resources Bldg. ortland Eble, a coal methane in the Illinois Basin Coalbed m University of Kentucky Cgeologist at the Kentucky have been produced, mainly Lexington, KY Geological Survey, received a because historical data have Conventio 40506-0107 A convention grant of $1.5 million from the indicated low, uneconomic gas then fluid is f 859.257.5500 U.S. Department of Energy to contents. More recently releases met fax 859.257.1147 assess coalbed methane acquired data suggest, however, www.uky.edu/KGS resources and test production that gas contents in certain Jim Cobb, State in the Illinois Basin. KGS will areas of the basin may be much collaborate with the geological higher than previously thought. Induced fractures Geologist and in coal enhance Director surveys of Illinois and Indiana As coal production in the basin gas flow. John Kiefer, Assistant in this 3-year project. continues to decline, mainly State Geologist The Illinois Basin has because of the high sulfur Carol Ruthven, Editor, more than 325 billion tons of contents of most of the coals, Kentucky Geology remaining coal resources that production of coalbed methane COAL BED is estimated to contain 11 may be an effective way to use Drilling for coalbed methane: Our mission is to trillion cubic feet or more of this vast energy resource to a conventional well like those increase knowledge and coalbed methane, a gas that serve markets in Illinois and used for natural gas is drilled, understanding of the then fluid is forced down the mineral, energy, and occurs in association with Indiana. Development of this well to fracture the coal, water resources, coal. When coal is formed, resource would also contribute geologic hazards, and large amounts of gas (mainly to the energy security of the which releases methane gas. geology of Kentucky for methane) are producedmore nation as a whole. the benefit of the gas than the coal can hold. The goal of the project is coalbed methane. The results Commonwealth and Some of this gas escapes into to obtain fundamental methane- of the exploration program Nation. other rocks or into the atmo- content, permeability, and well- will be used to identify one sphere, but some remains in completion data for Illinois area that will undergo addi- the coal. More information is Basin coals from a selected set tional closely spaced drilling found in a fact sheet at of core holes. Detailed geologic and serve as a well-completion In this issue www.uky.edu/KGS/education/ analysis will be done to site. Various fracturing Developing coalbed education.html. determine the selection of well methods, designed to enhance methane 1 To date, very limited sites that provide possible areas the flow of gas out of the coal, Helping communities amounts of the coalbed of economic development of will be tested to determine the find water supplies 1 best method for maximizing Directors desk 2 production. An advanced Abandoned coal mines Geology and planning drilling program, the first of its in Kentucky 2 Helping communities find water supplies kind for coalbed methane Earth Science Week he Kentucky Geological effort by the KIA, KGS, and exploration in the Illinois 2003 2 TSurvey received a grant for local governments, groundwa- Basin, will also be used. The In focus: Digital $50,000 for fiscal year 2003 ter quality and quantity will be analyzed data and results will geologic mapping 04 from the Kentucky Infra- assessed by drilling water be made available to the public for the Common- structure Authority in the wells and sampling water in in publications, on a Web site, wealth Insert Governors Office to help coal mines so that local and at regional workshops. Technology transfer 3 communities across the government officials can plan The project results should Spotlight on new Commonwealth develop for future water-supply needs. encourage private industry to publication 3 groundwater supplies for Jim Dinger, head of the Water explore and develop this Calendar of events 4 drinking water. Hydrologists at Resources Section at KGS, is important energy resource. Awards 4 KGS will examine abandoned directing the program. For For more information, underground coal mines and more information, contact contact Eble at 859.257.5500 delineate fracture zones in rock Dinger at 859.257.5500. ext. ext. 149 or by e-mail at that will produce large supplies 163 or by e-mail at [email protected] of groundwater. In this joint [email protected] 1 Directors Desk ast summer we held a press confer- quality of public service we are provid- Lence in Lexington to announce the ing. launching of our online system of oil When we established our online and gas well records. As we anticipated, system, we created a single portal where the response from the oil and gas users could access information and data industry and State government officials from all our databases (www.uky.edu/ was extremely positive. KGS/pubs/lop.htm). In effect, we Shortly after the system was wanted to create one-stop shopping. launched, an oil and gas producer in Having highly publicized our oil and gas Texas called. He wanted information well records, we were curious to see if about Kentucky oil and gas wells. One there would also be increases in access of our geologists was able to guide him to the other KGS databases available on through our online system, and he had the Web. the information he needed within We recently examined some If we use the conservative number minutes of calling. This client exclaimed statistics that represent the number of of 150 searches a day, 5 days a week for that he did not know of any comparable database searches on our Web site by a normal workweek, for 52 weeks, the online system. Last month, in our Public users on a daily basis. The results were annual total is 39,000 searches. This is Information Center, I met an investor quite remarkable. On a daily basis, the approximately four times more than the from Europe who was accompanied by a number of searches were: number of traditional inquiries (tele- Kentucky oil producer. The investor told ♦ 150 to 200 for all KGS databases phone, fax, e-mail, drop-in customers) me how pleased he was to be able to that we respond to annually. This is just ♦ 100 for oil and gas well records access the oil and gas well records he the beginning! Watch for new develop- needed in Kentucky from the conve- ♦ 30 to 40 for publications ments as we continue to enhance this nience of his office in Europe. He ♦ 15 to 20 for water well and spring vital public service.v described the KGS online system of oil data and gas well records as the best in the ♦ 5 to 10 for coal borehole and world. This feedback confirms the thickness records Digital geologic maps and data Geology and planning in Kentucky n the spring of 2003, a new initiative (www.kaco.org). Drew Andrews, Carol planning and GIS applications was Iwas launched to explain how digital Ruthven, Dave Williams, Dan Carey, presented by Cobb and Ruthven at the geologic maps and data are essential for and Jim Cobb have given presentations spring conference of the Kentucky planning decisions about land use, on geology and planning at seminars in Chapter of the American Planners environmental protection, and mitigation Berea, Elkton, LaGrange, Mount Association in Rough River Dam State of natural hazards in urban and rural Sterling, Lexington, Kentucky Dam Resort Park in western Kentucky on areas. This initiative was undertaken in Village State Resort Park, London, Fort May 23. cooperation with the Kentucky League Mitchell, and Bowling Green. The For more information about the of Cities NewCities Foundation seminars will be offered in other geology and planning presentations, Leadership Center Program communities in the future. contact Ruthven at 859.257.5500 ext. (www.newcities.org) and the Kentucky A workshop demonstrating the 128 or by e-mail at Association of Counties use of digital geologic data in land-use [email protected] Earth Science Week 2003 ark your calendar for October 1218: Earth Science Week 2003 M(www.earthsciweek.org). This years theme is Eyes on Planet Earth: Monitor- ing Our Changing World. Join us for an open house on Wednesday, October 15, co- sponsored by KGS, the UK Department of Geological Sciences, the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, and the Tracy Farmer Center for the Environment. For more information, contact Carol Ruthven at 859.257.5500 ext. 128 or by e-mail at [email protected] IN FFOCUS Digital Geologic Mapping for the Commonwealth Warren H. Anderson and Gerald A. Weisenfluh August 2003 The Digital Geologic mandated that the entire United States be tion that relate to the age, composition, mapped geologically. The legislation and structure of mineral features. Mapping Program was reauthorized in 1998. Because of this complexity, the informa- he Digital Geologic Mapping The Kentucky Geological Survey tion cannot be stored in a single data Tprogram (www.uky.edu/KGS/ has used funding from this program to structure. Individual themes must be mapping/mapping.html) has been one of produce 7.5-minute digital geologic created to represent different kinds of the largest and most successful programs quadrangle maps at a scale of 1:24,000 geologic features in a digital format. of the Kentucky Geological Survey (1 inch=2,000 feet).