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Person

Madalyn S Blondes

Research Geologist
Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Email: mblondes@usgs.gov
Office Phone: 703-648-6509
Fax: 703-648-6419
ORCID: 0000-0003-0320-0107

Location
John W Powell FB
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston , VA 20192-0002
US

Supervisor: Evan A Bargnesi
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The storage assessment unit (SAU) is the fundamental unit used in the National Assessment of Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage Resources project for the assessment of geologic CO2 storage resources. The SAU is shown here as a geographic boundary interpreted, defined, and mapped by the geologist responsible for the assessment interval. Individual SAUs are defined on the basis of common geologic and hydrologic characteristics. The resource that is assessed is the mass of CO2 that can be stored in the technically accessible pore volume of a storage formation. The technically accessible storage resource is one that may be available using present-day geological and engineering knowledge and technology for CO2 injection...
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Waters co-produced during petroleum extraction are the largest waste stream from oil and gas development. Reuse or disposal of these waters is difficult due both to their high salinities, which can greatly exceed 35 g/L (seawater equivalent), and also the sheer volume of wastewater generated, which is estimated at nearly 900 billion gallons per year across the United States. Beyond disposal concerns, produced water may also represent a possible source of valuable mineral commodities. While an understanding of the trace element composition of produced water is required for evaluating the associated resource and waste potential of these materials, measuring trace elements in high salinity brines is challenging due...
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During hydrocarbon production, water is typically co-produced from the geologic formations producing oil and gas. Understanding the composition of these produced waters is important to help investigate the regional hydrogeology, the source of the water, the efficacy of water treatment and disposal plans, potential economic benefits of mineral commodities in the fluids, and the safety of potential sources of drinking or agricultural water. In addition to waters co-produced with hydrocarbons, geothermal development or exploration brings deep formation waters to the surface for possible sampling. This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Produced Waters Geochemical Database, which contains geochemical and other information...
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Citation Note: These data were collected as part of a research study published in Environmental Science and Technology. Please reference the following paper when citing these data. Blondes, M.S., Shelton, J.L., Engle, M.A., Trembly, J.P., Doolan, C.A., Jubb, A.M., Chenault, J.M., Rowan, E.L., Haefner, R.J., and Mailot, B.E., 2020, Utica Shale Play Oil and Gas Brines: Geochemistry and Factors Influencing Wastewater Management: Environmental Science & Technology, https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c02461. The Utica and Marcellus Shale Plays in the Appalachian Basin are the 4th and 1st largest natural gas producing plays in the United States. Hydrocarbon production generates large volumes of brine (“produced water”)...
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To better understand the possible risks posed to shallow groundwater resources by geologic carbon sequestration (GCS), a multi-scale numerical modeling approach was invoked using the TOUGHREACT code from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The code solves coupled equations representing conservation of mass and energy on a finite difference grid to simulate multiphase, multicomponent, non-isothermal heat and mass transport in porous media. Two different two-dimensional cross-section modeling domains were constructed to improve understanding of groundwater flow and contaminant transport processes at a field site in soutwestern Utah. The site represents a natural analogue for leakage from a GCS site because water...
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