InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a microwave remote sensing technique that uses the phase shift of radar signals acquired at different timeframes to measure or monitor ground deformation. InSAR has many implications, such as monitoring ground deformation caused by natural- or geo-hazards, e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, anthropogenic activities, groundwater pumping, underground mining, and hydrocarbon extraction. InSAR can also be utilized to study infrastructure displacements and environmental changes, such as monitoring changes in surface water level, mapping floods, soil moisture contents (at a shallow depth), and deforestation. The first significant application of SAR is the deployment of real-aperture radar interferometry to study the topography of the Moon in the early 1970s. However, InSAR was not widely used due to the limitations of computation capacity and the sparse availa-ble SAR data until the early 1990s. A major milestone for InSAR applications came in the 1990s when researchers used SAR data to measure ground deformation induced by the Landers Earthquake in California, and one of the publications landed on the cover of Nature magazine. This landmark achievement brought widespread recognition to the potential of InSAR for mapping ground deformation. Over the past two decades, the computation power and availability of SAR data have improved considerably with the launch of more satellites carrying SAR sensors. This paper presents a brief introduction to the history and fundamentals of InSAR, as well as case studies of its applications in the geo-engineering fields, including landslide displacement monitoring and underground excavation-induced ground subsidence mapping.

In Chaffee County Colorado, residents and visitors alike have long taken advantage of the natural hot springs generated by thermal anomalies deep underground.  Soon, this same heat may be tapped to provide energy for the local community. Here, and across Colorado, geothermal is the focus of renewed attention and funding, with $7.7 million awarded for geothermal technology from the Colorado Energy Office, and further private investment.  This project in Chaffee County was highlighted last week in an article from the Colorado Sun, noting the investment of Icelandic companies.

This paper is the last in a series that identified the operational, financial and business model risks through the lifecycle of a geological storage project. These papers then discussed steps that are being taken to mitigate each risk, as well as to ensure that adequate funds are available to pay for closure and for environmental damages should any occur. In addressing these risks, this series averred that the regulatory landscape appears adequate to address them.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling four separate wildfires that have erupted since Monday, July 29, along Colorado's front range foothills, consuming more than 8,300 acres. One person has died, and thousands have been forced to evacuate. On Wednesday, July 31, Gov. Jared Polis ordered the deployment of the National Guard to aid in the firefight.

Cost savings have become a prominent focus of programmatic Open Educational Resources (OER) assessment. While cost savings appear easy to understand, measure, and sell to stakeholders, they belie the breadth of benefits associated with OER and may be based on inaccurate assumptions. A comprehensive approach to assessment is needed to understand the full impact of OER, accurately represent the benefits of OER to stakeholders, and maintain program momentum and sustainability. Libraries and OER share much in common, perhaps most significantly, a foundational purpose of enabling access to information. Librarians are advocates of OER and frequently serve as program administrators. Libraries use evaluation to improve their offerings and sell the value of free goods and services to policymakers and stakeholders. As such, library assessment is well-suited to act as a guide for developing OER program assessment. This paper seeks to provide recommendations for an approach to OER program assessment based on existing OER and library assessment frameworks, with a de-emphasis on cost savings.

The U.S. government has implemented several policies designed to position Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects for growth. These include a regulatory framework and financial incentives such as Internal Revenue Service Section 45Q tax credits and grants. Potential project developers are responding positively, as evidenced, for example, by Class VI well permit applications that have been discussed elsewhere in this series of papers.

Submarine-lobe deposits host important archives of paleo-environmental change and are major targets for exploring and producing hydrocarbons. Traditional conceptualizations of submarine-lobe architecture typically exhibit a systematic decrease in bed thickness, grain size, sand content, and amalgamation from proximal to distal and axis to fringe. However, contemporary interests in these submarine environments, driven by petroleum explorations and carbon sequestration endeavors, have unveiled complex lateral heterogeneities. This research presents a quantitative bed-scale analysis of core data from the Gas Technology Institute Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site 2 within the Wolfcamp A Formation, Delaware Basin. The study concentrates on correlating vertical and slant core datasets to delineate the vertical and lateral variability and event-bed architecture within a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sea-floor fan. Data sets from two wells have been provided for this study: (1) A vertical well and (2) a slant well which include well log data, CT scans, core photos, and XRF data. They are situated 380.6 ft and 1007.2 ft apart for the studied interval, ideal for the quantification of lateral heterogeneity in a significantly short distance. Furthermore, this study investigates the correlation between CT-scan data and rock composition, assessing the utility of CT-scan technology in conjunction with XRF data and compositional proxies—Vcarb, Vsil, and Vclay—in heterogeneity analysis. Additionally, the potential of basic Machine Learning techniques for predicting rock composition is also explored (see Appendix). For the vertical heterogeneity quantification 20 distinct lithofacies were grouped into four Facies Associations (FA-1, FA-2, FA-3, FA-4). Our findings indicate a dominance of Facies FA-3, consisting mainly of pelagites and hemipelagites, followed by Facies FA-1, characterized by Hybrid Event Beds (HEBs), FA-4, composed of hemipelagites influenced by bottom currents and dilute turbidites, and FA-2, featuring turbidite deposits. Among the HEBs, the H3 deposits were the most prevalent, and are characterized by calcium-rich layers at the bottom that progressively transition to silica-dominant layers upwards. Regarding the lateral heterogeneity, this innovative approach highlights considerable differences in event-bed and background layer thickness and composition over relatively short distances. Trends revealed that background layers diminished in thickness approaching the slant well, whereas event-bed deposits became thinner closer to the vertical well. In addition, the interpreted intervals (A and B) were divided into seven depositional lobe elements, defined by compositional, thickness, and stacking pattern variances. These elements - Axis, Off-axis, frontal fringe, and distal fringe zones - demonstrated specific compositional trends. The distal fringes revealed a gradual shift towards silica-rich sediments, whereas the frontal fringes showed a transition to calcium-rich sediments. The central axis and off-axis regions were predominantly characterized by calcium-rich deposits, whereas the frontal fringes showed a transition from calcium-rich to mixed-deposits. The distal fringes revealed a shift from mixed-deposits towards silica-rich deposits. These findings underscore the complex dynamics of sedimentary deposition and its implications for petroleum exploration and developing strategies.

The Permian Basin is one of the most prolific oil and gas-producing geologic basins in the United States. The Permian Basin is located in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. It has supplied more than 33.4 billion barrels of oil and 118 Tcf of natural gas during a 100-year period (EIA 2022). The ever-increasing water production and usage (e.g., hydraulic fracture stimulation) in the Permian Basin requires produced water management by the operators. Oil recovery from shale reservoirs is a very slow process because of the extremely low permeability of oil-containing pores, with the ultimate oil recovery of around 3 to 8%. Classical waterflooding or gas flooding in unconventional reservoirs is not plausible because of the small pore size and low permeability of the shale matrices. Therefore, creative approaches are needed to increase oil production without relying on large quantities of water injection to enhance oil production, which became the motivation for my research with the objective to integrate geology, fluid flow theory, experimental data, and reservoir modeling to assess production performance and enhance hydrocarbon recovery in the Permian basin. Injecting rich gas or CO2 in such formations in a cyclic fashion (the huff-n-puff process) increases oil recovery substantially but is expensive because of gas compression and injection equipment. Another alternative is to use solvent-containing water in a cyclic fashion (e.g., solutions of ketones and ethoxylated alcohols). Using brine-containing 3-pentanone or surfactant-based solutions results in much additional oil recoveries by cleaning the micro- and macro-fracture flow paths in the stimulated reservoir volume. In this study, the efficacy of injecting a brine solution containing a very small amount of 3-pentanone or a non-ionic surfactant (0.5 to 1.5 percent) determined to enhance oil recovery (EOR). The aqueous EOR huff-n-puff method is more cost-effective and easier to apply than the gas injection huff-n-puff process for the Wolfcamp formation in the Permian Basin. As an initial review of Wolfcamp formation, the production data for wells drilled into the Wolfcamp Formation of the Delaware Basin between 2012 and 2021 was reviewed and organized. A set of bubble maps to identify and visualize cumulative oil, gas, and water production changes was created. The maps showed the maturity of the basin where gas-prone wells are the majority in the northern and northwestern parts, and the southern area is more oil-prone. The wells drilled in Lea, Loving, and East-Reeves counties show the most oil production in one year of production. The gas production is highest in Culberson, North Reeves, and Loving counties. Furthermore, water production is significant throughout the region regardless of the produced hydrocarbon type. Wettability measurements (i.e., contact angles and wettability indices) and the associated water-rock capillary pressures reflect the interactions between the reservoir rock and the pore fluids, which, in turn, strongly affects the distribution of fluids in the reservoir pores. Consequently, I conducted contact angle experiments on five different unconventional reservoir formations across the US and measured interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and brine from the associated formations. Furthermore, I conducted contact angle experiments on the Wolfcamp formation rock samples using ketone and surfactant solutions. For engineering analysis, first, a static geologic model utilizing well-logs and core data was built on Petrel. Subsequently, the aforementioned static model was used to construct a compositional dual-porosity reservoir model using the CMG-GEM commercial reservoir modeling software in conjunction with the experiments. Second, Rate Transient Analysis (RTA) to determine the stimulated permeabilities associated with the hydraulic fracture stimulation was conducted. Next, Wolfcamp PVT report were evaluated and used to build a reservoir fluid model with CMG’s Winprop module. Finally, the compositional reservoir model was history match the field production data to validate the model. After the numerical model was ascertained by history matching, three distinct enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques, the huff-n-puff gas injection, ketone solution injection, and surfactant solution injection were implemented for the selected well. Afterward, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the characteristics that had the most significant influence on the reservoir performance of the well in the three enhanced oil recovery (EOR) scenarios. A broad conclusion is that the use of ketone solutions resulted in a significant increase in oil production, while injection rate magnitude and period, soaking period, and solvent concentration affected the magnitude of the incremental oil recovery outcome.

Cobalt is a critical material as designated by the United States Department of Energy. It is used in electric vehicles as a cathode material and in high strength steels as an alloying addition. The United States currently relies nearly 100% on imports and secondary scrap materials for refined cobalt consumption. Because of this, efforts to establish a domestic supply for cobalt are being pursued. This thesis describes research into sortation and flotation to improve one such effort by Electra Battery Materials through the Iron Creek, ID deposit. Coarse material sortation was tested in order to determine its viability, specifically the viability of XRT sensor-based sorting on Iron Creek material. The sortation testing was successful as low-grade material was able to be separated from rocks that had higher cobalt and copper grades. Rougher flotation testing was used to ascertain the most appropriate conditions for particle size, collector type, and collector dosage. A cobalt grade of approximately 1.8% was achieved with a recovery of nearly 92.0% using rougher flotation. Differential flotation testing was undergone to obtain separate copper and cobalt concentrates by depressing the pyrite at a PH of 11.5. Separate cobalt and copper concentrates were obtained with the copper concentrate having a cobalt recovery of 3.98% and a copper recovery of nearly 20%. Cleaner flotation at high PH was undergone to further recovery cobalt from the differential flotation copper concentrate. Re-grinding to a particle size P80=80 microns aided in the recovery of cobalt to the cobalt concentrate as the final copper concentrate from cleaner flotation had only 0.27% cobalt recovery. Locked cycle testing was also conducted to simulate an industrial flotation operation with results supporting the implementation of an industrial flotation circuit for the recovery of cobalt and copper as separate products. An overall economic analysis incorporating sortation, flotation, thermal degradation, and magnetic separation was constructed. The economic analysis showed that the process was economical and a positive NPV of $35.2 million (+ or – 35%) indicated that the project should be pursued at the industrial level.