Thermal analysis of the southern Powder River Basin, Wyoming

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Engineering
Department Civil & Environmental Engineering
Creator Mcpherson, Brian James; Chapman, David S.
Title Thermal analysis of the southern Powder River Basin, Wyoming
Date 1996
Description Temperature and geologic data from over 3000 oil and gas wells within a 180 km x 30 km area that transect across the southern Powder River Basin in Wyoming, U.S.A., were used to determine the present thermal regime of the basin. Three-dimensional temperature fields within the transect, based on corrected bottom-hole temperatures (BHTs) and other geologic information, were assessed using: (1) A laterally constant temperature gradient model in conjunction with an L1 norm inversion method, and (2) a laterally variable temperature gradient model in conjunction with a stochastic inversion technique. The mean geothermal gradient in the transect is 29°C/km, but important lateral variations in the geothermal gradient exist. The average heat flow for the southern Powder River Basin is 52 mW/m 2 with systematic variations between 40 mW/m 2 and 60 mW/m2 along the transect. Extremely high local heat flow (values up to 225 mW/m2) in the vicinity of the Teapot Dome and the Salt Creek Anticline and low heat flow of 25 mW/m 2 occurring locally near the northeast end of the transect are likely caused by groundwater movement.
Type Text
Publisher Society of Exploration Geophysicists
Volume 61
Issue 6
First Page 1689
Last Page 1701
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Mcpherson, B. J., & Chapman. D. S. (1996). Thermal analysis of the southern Powder River Basin, Wyoming. Geophysics, 61(6), 1689-701. November-December.
Rights Management (c)Society of Exploration Geophysicists [http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/admin/getfile.exe?CISOMODE=1&CISOFILE=/ir-main/import/IR-15644.pdf]
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Format Extent 1,531,373 bytes
Identifier ir-main,15644
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ID 705995
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s69s28h1
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