Abstract

Hypogene karst is well recognized throughout the greater Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico (USA) and has traditionally presented geohazard risks to drilling operations. Recent advances in petroleum engineering have enabled new exploitation of resources within the Delaware Basin interior, including the Gypsum Plain, which hosts abundant karst geohazards, both epigene and hypogene. Rapid oil field growth has expanded infrastructure development within the Gypsum Plain and heavily affected existing roadways not originally designed for energy sector activity. Infrastructure is commonly affected by shallow geohazards with greatest risk intensity in areas affected by hypogene processes. Geohazards manifest to variable degrees as road subsidence and collapse, often due to road base failure that are amplified by anthropogenic modification of the natural geomorphology. Caves, intrastratal dissolution, brecciation, diagenetic alteration (e.g., evaporite calcitization), and intermittent artesian conditions create unique variants of hypogene geohazards.

Current research on Gypsum Plain geohazards utilizes a multidisciplinary approach that couples traditional field surveys with geographic information system and geophysical remote sensing analyses. Electrical resistivity tomography has been successfully implemented as an efficient and effective method for characterization of potential karst geohazards, specifically delineation of the extent and occurrence of hypogene geohazard phenomena that are not well expressed at the land surface. Capacitively Coupled (CC) resistivity techniques enable rapid collection of shallow geophysical data, while Direct Current (DC) resistivity techniques produce more detailed subsurface imaging to greater depths. The coupling of these techniques provides accurate subsurface delineation of potential hypogene geohazards to facilitate development of improved infrastructure design by civil engineers in order to mitigate geohazard risk.