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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Environmental Geosciences (DEG)
Abstract
Environmental Geosciences, V.
2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists/Division of Environmental Geosciences. All rights reserved.
Three-dimensional geologic model of southeastern Tertiary coastal-plain sediments, Savannah River Site, South Carolina: An applied geostatistical approach for environmental applications
Guillaume A. Jean,1 Jeffrey M. Yarus,2 Gregory P. Flach,3 Margaret R. Millings,4 Mary K. Harris,5 Richard L. Chambers,6 Frank H. Syms7
1Ecole Nationale Sup
rieure de Gologie, rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, 54501 Vand
uvre-les-Nancy, France
2Quantitative Geosciences LLP, 2900 Wilcrest, Suite 370, Houston, Texas 77042
3Savannah River National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, 773-42A, Aiken, South Carolina 29808; [email protected]
4Savannah River National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, 773-42A, Aiken, South Carolina 29808
5Savannah River National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, 773-42A, Aiken, South Carolina 29808
6Quantitative Geosciences LLP, 2900 Wilcrest, Suite 370, Houston, Texas 77042
7Bechtel Savannah River Inc., Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina, 29808
AUTHORS
Guillaume Jean received his Diplome d'Ingenieur from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Geologie (Nancy, France) in 2003. He is currently finishing an M.S. degree in petroleum engineering at Imperial College (London, United Kingdom). He will soon be working as a reservoir engineer in the petroleum industry.
Jeffrey Yarus obtained his Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina in 1977 in geology, specializing in statistical applications. He has worked for a variety of petroleum and technology companies, including Marathon, GeoMath, Roxar, and Knowledge Reservoir. In 2001, Yarus started Quantitative Geosciences LLP with his partner Richard Chambers, with whom he has authored several papers and books.
Greg Flach earned a Ph.D in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University in 1988. Since then, he has worked at the Savannah River National Laboratory on a variety of environmental and nuclear engineering topics, specializing in mathematical and numerical analysis and simulation.
Margaret Millings joined the Savannah River National Laboratory in February 2001 after receiving an M.S. degree in geology in 1997 from the University of Georgia and working several years in the environmental field. She has been involved as a geologist and geochemist in various projects pertaining to metals and dense nonaqueous-phase liquid contamination, geochemical modeling, and the geology of the Savannah River Site.
Mary Harris is the geosciences manager for the Environmental Sciences and Technology Department at the Savannah River National Laboratory. She received her M.S. degree in geology from the University of Idaho and her Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of South Carolina. One of her fundamental beliefs is that understanding subsurface geology provides the base for successful remedial technology deployments.
Richard Chambers earned his Ph.D. in geology from Michigan State University. In 2001, he cofounded Quantitative Geosciences LLP with offices in Broken Arrow, Houston, and London. He is the current chairman of the AAPG Reservoir Development Committee.
Frank Syms is as engineering geologist for Bechtel, specializing in subsurface exploration in coastal-plain environments. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. Research interests include geologic interpretation of cone penetration data and sequence stratigraphy reconstruction in the Carolina coastal plain.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Earth Decision Sciences, Geovariances, and StreamSim for allowing us to use their respective state-of-the-art software. In addition, we wish to thank Quantitative Geosciences for their guidance and support on geostatistics. Finally, we are sincerely grateful to Westinghouse Savannah River Company and the U.S. Department of Energy for making this work possible and for the permission to publish our findings.
ABSTRACT
A high-resolution geologic model of the General Separations Area supporting groundwater cleanup at the Savannah River Site (SRS) was developed using geostatistical approaches adapted from the petroleum industry. Depositional facies in each formation were identified from core descriptions and modeled using sequential indicator simulation. Petrophysical properties in each facies were then modeled as distinct fields using sequential Gaussian simulation. A complete property distribution was assembled as a montage of the three-dimensional fields simulated independently in each facies. Petrophysical property realizations thus reflect the spatial distribution of and sharp boundaries between facies. Application of sequence-stratigraphic principles was difficult because of the small scale of the study site, unconsolidated nature of sediments, and proximity to the Fall Line. Nevertheless, multidimensional variogram mapping was effective at identifying the underlying spatial structures in the field data needed to reproduce major preserved features of the ancient coastline in model surfaces and facies and property fields. Preliminary assessment of permeability fields derived from the geologic model using connectivity and streamline and tracer simulation suggests that the methods were successful in identifying preferential pathways for contaminant migration from the SRS F-area seepage basins. However, further analysis using a numerical solute transport model with rigorous boundary conditions is needed for confirmation.
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