Where is the Utica Shale predominantly located?
The Utica Shale lies under most of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and extends under adjacent parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada and Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia in the United States.
Where is the Marcellus Shale and why is it important?
3), a network of flowpaths could be created. Figure 2. West to east line of section A-A’ of Middle and Upper Devonian rocks in the Appalachian Basin. The Marcellus Shale is the lowest unit in the sequence (modified from Potter and others, 1980).
What is below the Utica Shale?
The Utica lies beneath the Marcellus shale, where energy companies have drilled thousands of unconventional gas wells in Pennsylvania in recent years. The Marcellus is considered to be one of the richest natural gas reserves in the world. Drillers are just beginning to tap into the deeper Utica.
What type of rock is Utica?
Utica Shale
The Utica Shale is a black, calcareous, organic-rich shale of Middle Ordovician age that underlies significant portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Quebec and other parts of eastern North America (see Figure 1).
Where is Appalachian Basin?
The Appalachian Basin extends from upstate New York, down through Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and into parts of Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The main focus today in terms of oil and natural gas production is in the Tri-State area which consists of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Are the Appalachians taller than the Rockies?
The Appalachian mountains were formed over 480 million years ago. That is at least quadruple the millions of years that it took for the Rockies to form. The Appalachians were actually at one time presumed to be as large as or bigger than the Rockies, but time and erosion have whittled them down to where they stand now.
How deep was the Appalachian Basin?
The Utica shale is the deepest of them all with an average vertical depth of 8,000 feet in Ohio whereas the Marcellus shale sits above the Utica shale with an average depth of 6,000-7,000 feet in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Which are older Alps or Rockies?
The Alps are significantly “younger” than the Rocky Mountains, like about 30-50 million years younger.
Are the Alps and Appalachian Mountains the same?
Learn more about erosion. The Appalachians are about the same age as the Ural mountains that separate Asia from Europe, but they are far older than the Alps, the Himalayas, the Rockies, or even the Andes, which are the next oldest major mountains.
How tall were the ancient Appalachian Mountains?
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period….
| Appalachian Mountains | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 6,684 ft (2,037 m) |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 1,500 mi (2,400 km) |
| Geography |
Where is the Utica Shale located in Ohio?
The Utica Shale covers much of the northern Appalachian basin, Cincinnati-Findlay Arches, and Michigan basin and has been productive in Quebec, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Ohio is the primary focus of current activity because this state has the thickest accumulation of the Point Pleasant formation which underlies the Utica Shale.
What is the difference between the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale?
The rock units that occur between the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale follow this trend. In central Pennsylvania, the Utica can be up to 7000 feet below the Marcellus Shale, but that depth difference decreases to the west. In eastern Ohio the Utica can be less than 3000 feet below the Marcellus.
Is the Utica Shale the world’s largest natural gas field?
Now, just a few years later, the Marcellus Shale has become one of the world’s largest natural gas fields, and the Utica Shale – located a few thousand feet below the Marcellus – has become a new drilling target. The oil and natural gas potential of the Utica Shale is not fully understood.
How thick is the Utica formation in Ohio?
The Utica formation is thickest in western Ohio and the northwest corner of Pennsylvania at 200–300 feet and thins out to 50 feet or less in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. The Point Pleasant formation reaches a thickness of more than 200 feet in central Pennsylvania and thins out to less than 20 feet in the eastern part of Kentucky.