Moderately Saline Groundwater in the Uinta Basin, Utah (SS-144)

By: Paul B. Anderson, Michael D. Vanden Berg, Stephanie Carney, Craig Morgan, and Sonja Heuscher

Contains a 30-page report and nine plates. The base of the moderately saline water (BMSW) (10,000 mg/L TDS transition) in the Uinta Basin was first mapped in 1987 and re-mapped in this study using similar methods. Water samples from primarily oil and gas activities through the basin's history were compiled into a database (2788 records) and used as an aid for mapping. In addition, geophysical logs from 260 wells distributed throughout the basin were interpreted and used in mapping the BMSW. Regional groundwater flow paths, saline minerals, structural shape of the basin, and faults and fractures strongly influence the distribution of TDS levels. Both older and new data points were used to create an elevation contour map of the position of the shallowest occurrence of the BMSW below the surface. Depth-correlated water analysis data were mapped and compared to the log-derived BMSW. Mapped water analysis data indicate the northern portion of the basin has numerous occurrences of water fresher than 10,000 mg/L below the BMSW, indicating a complex stratification of salinity coincident with the area of primary recharge, whereas shallow saline waters dominate the central portion of the basin.

Other Information:
Published: 2012
Pages: 30
Plates: 9
Scale: N/A
Location: Utah