The primary purpose of this paper is to show the benefits obtained from coordinating seismic and geologic information into an acceptable interpretation of the subsurface geologic conditions existing at a particular gas storage project.
During 1974 and 1975, seismic explorations, utilizing the common depth point (CDP) technique and the Vibroseis energy method, were conducted at Northern Natural Gas Company's Dallas Center Aquifer Storage Prospect in central Iowa and Lyons Depleted Gas Field Storage Prospect in central Kansas. Although these two areas are geographically far removed from one another, the CDP technique is quite applicable to each of these geologic provinces.
The petroleum engineer's need for detailed information about the configuration and integrity of the gas storage reservoir often surpasses the geologist's knowledge, based on a finite number of drill holes. The seismologist, working in close association with the geologist and utilizing modern field recording techniques, instruments and computer data enhancement, can add a new dimension to the understanding and thinking of both the petroleum engineer and geologist.
The Dallas Center Anticline, located in Dallas County, Iowa, is 300 miles northeast of the Lyons Anticline, located in Rice County, Kansas. Both of these geologic structures have been evaluated by shallow and deep drill holes and by common depth point seismic work. The purpose of this evaluation was to prove their purpose of this evaluation was to prove their relative worth either as an aquifer gas storage prospect (Dallas Center) or to more accurately prospect (Dallas Center) or to more accurately define the boundary faults associated with an abandoned gas field (Lyons). Figure 1, an index map, shows the location of these two anticlines in relation to each other and to State and County boundaries, as well as major geologic features.
Geologically, the two anticlines are in entirely different provinces. The Dallas Center Anticline is located at the extreme northern end of the Forest City Basin, eight miles east of the southeastern edge of the Mid-continent Gravity-Magnetic High. The Lyons Anticline is located on the southern half of the Genesco Uplift, the eastern most lobe of the larger Central Kansas Uplift.
The Dallas Center Anticline was originally delineated by Northern Natural Gas Company from preliminary structural mapping of shallow farm preliminary structural mapping of shallow farm water well data.
