Structure and geomorphology of the Duchesne graben, Uinta basin, Utah, and its enhancement of a hydrocarbon reservoir
Citation
Ronald Bruhn, and Alicia Groeger, Structure and geomorphology of the Duchesne graben, Uinta basin, Utah, and its enhancement of a hydrocarbon reservoir: .
Summary
Alicia Groeger has a B.S. degree in geology (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 1995) and spent one year of undergraduate study at the Geosciences Institute of Göttingen University in Germany. She then received her M.S. degree in geology (University of Utah, 1997) with a concentration in structure and tectonics. Since then Alicia has been living in Peru, working in exploration geology and in sustainable development, cultivating responsible relationships between large mining companies, local peasant communities, and the Peruvian national park system.Since receiving his Ph.D. in geology (Columbia University, 1976), Ron Bruhn has worked as a professor of structure and tectonics at the University of Utah, where he has received [...]
Summary
Alicia Groeger has a B.S. degree in geology (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 1995) and spent one year of undergraduate study at the Geosciences Institute of Göttingen University in Germany. She then received her M.S. degree in geology (University of Utah, 1997) with a concentration in structure and tectonics. Since then Alicia has been living in Peru, working in exploration geology and in sustainable development, cultivating responsible relationships between large mining companies, local peasant communities, and the Peruvian national park system.Since receiving his Ph.D. in geology (Columbia University, 1976), Ron Bruhn has worked as a professor of structure and tectonics at the University of Utah, where he has received numerous teaching and research awards. Bruhn's research interests include the application of structural geology to problems in petroleum geology, seismic hazards, and mining. He is an internationally recognized expert on the origin, hydrologic properties, and modeling of fracture systems in fault zones.
The Duchesne fault zone (DFZ) in the Uinta basin of northeastern Utah is a system of normal faults and joint zones that forms prominent, east-trending lineaments tens of kilometers long. The Duchesne graben, an asymmetrical fault-bounded trough in the western part of the DFZ, is the focus of this article. A master fault bounds the southern margin of the structural half graben, dips steeply northward, and accommodates about 200 m of slip. This fault either terminates downward by 1400 m depth or flattens into a north-dipping, low-angle detachment fault at about 1000 m depth. The half graben is developed along the crest of an open, low-amplitude flexure in the southern limb of the Uinta basin syncline. This faulted flexure trapped hydrocarbons that migrated southward from depth in the Uinta basin. Intense fracturing within the half graben also created migration pathways for hydrocarbons and generated shallow reservoirs in the Green River Formation.
Published in Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, volume 85, issue 9, on pages 1661 - 1661, in 2001.
