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A new look at the Athabasca Oil Sands
Posted on Monday, June 26, 2006 @ 11:25 am by Dave Schumaker
As the price per barrel of oil continues to rise, oil reserves that were previously uneconomical to extract are now looking more attractive. People are starting to pay more attention to the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, known as the Athabasca Oil Sands. This is a topic we previously covered last year.
60 Minutes is taking a fresh look at the mining operations that are currently underway in Alberta to extract these tar oils. There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil deposits located within these sands and they are being mined at a feverioush pace. It is estimated that up to two trillion barrels of oil may exist within these deposits.
Of course there are similar sorts of tar sands (and oil shales) located in other places as well, such as Utah. This article from 2005 talks about the estimated 400 billion barrels of that exist beneath Utah and 2 other states in the Green River Formation.
Coupled with this article from yesterday, things are looking up for the United States and the world as a whole in terms of oil availability.
However, the real question is whether or not we want to extract all that sequestered carbon (when burned, such as in a car, becomes CO2 which is a known greenhouse gas) and reintroduce it into the atmosphere. I’m willing to bet that we don’t.
Montana / North Dakota has more oil than Alaska?
Posted on Monday, June 26, 2006 @ 1:52 am by Dave Schumaker
A study carried out in 1999 by Leigh Price, working the the USGS concluded that there is potentially more oil in the Bakken shales formation beneath eastern Montana and North Dakota than the total amount of oil present in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. (400 billion barrels vs. 16 billion barrels in the ANWR)
However, Leigh Price died the following year, before scientists were able to peer review his research, so his claims were never verified.
The USGS now wants to review his work and determine the validity of the research.
If this research is accurate, it has HUGE implications for North Dakota’s economy in terms of federal money for research and exporting oil. North Dakota’s State Oil and Gas Division supports the research but has a “conservative” estimate of up to 200 billion barrels of petroleum beneath the state, still a huge amount.
Undersea volcano discovered near Italy
Posted on Thursday, June 22, 2006 @ 4:25 pm by Dave Schumaker
An underwater volcano off the shores of the Sicily coast has been discovered by researchers working in the area. Named Empedocles, the volcano spans an area of nearly 750 square kilometers and is 400 meters in height. The volcano consists of various islands and cones that stick up above the Mediterranean Sea that were initially thought to be individual volcanoes.
Southern San Andreas ready to explode
Posted on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 @ 12:18 pm by Dave Schumaker
The southern section of the San Andreas fault has not moved in nearly 250 years, and according to researchers with the Scripps Institute of Oceonography at the University of California, San Diego, it is ready to “explode” at any moment.
Given the amount of stress built up along this part of the fault, the researchers hypothesize that there is enough stress to create a magnitude 8.0 earthquake and upwards of 32 feet of lateral offset, which would be among the largest offsets ever recorded along the fault. (The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake had lateral offset of up to 21 feet).
According to the study, there are three possible scenarios as to why there hasn’t been any significant movement on this part of the fault: some sort of aseismic creep that is going on beneath the surface, the possibility that this section of the fault does not move as much as the sections to the north, or the possiblity that something is blocking the fault from moving (and increasing stress).
The research is presented in this week’s issue of Nature.
Chile Approves Gold Mining Project
Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 @ 11:53 pm by Dave Schumaker
This was previously reported on Geology News, but now it’s actually official. Chile approved a proposed $1.5 billion dollar gold mining project in the Andes Mountains, near the famous area of Pascua Lama.
Naturally, this has a variety of environmental groups up in arms. Barrick Gold, the company behind the mining project, claims that 95% of the mineral deposits are not underneath the Pascua Lama glaciers and they will protect the remaining 5%. They want to commence mining operations by 2009.