Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Fall 11-1-2016 Hydrogeochemical Evaluation of the Uinta Formation and Green River Formation, Piceance Creek Basin, Northwestern Colorado, USA Megan E. Masterson Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Geology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Masterson, Megan E., "Hydrogeochemical Evaluation of the Uinta Formation and Green River Formation, Piceance Creek Basin, Northwestern Colorado, USA" (2016). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3317. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.3297 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. Hydrogeochemical Evaluation of the Uinta Formation and Green River Formation, Piceance Creek Basin, Northwestern Colorado, USA by Megan E. Masterson A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geology Thesis Committee: Robert B. Perkins, Chair Carl Palmer John Bershaw Maxwell Rudolph Portland State University 2016 ABSTRACT The Piceance Creek Basin in northwestern Colorado contains extensive oil shale deposits that produce natural gas and which could potentially yield ~1.5 trillion barrels of shale oil. However, much of the oil shale lies at depths too great for traditional mining practices and various innovative approaches for in situ conversion of kerogen to oil have been proposed. A firm understanding of the existing hydrogeochemistry is needed as resulting mineralogical changes or rock-fluid reactions may affect rock porosity and permeability.