Jasper Formation, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico
General Setting
The Jasper Aquifer is a minor aquifer Miocene-aged unit of the Gulf Coast aquifer system, along with the Yegua-Jackson, Catahoula, Chicot, and Evangeline units. The Jasper Aquifer is comprised of the Oakville Sandstone and Fleming Formation which are underlain by the Catahoula Sandstone. The transmissivity of the Oakville Formation closely corresponds to the Jasper Aquifer (Galloway et al., 1982); the Jasper transmissivity was found by Murray and Yosko (2012) to range from 102 to 242 m2 d−1.The aquifer sand percentage is high within paleochannels, but the interchannels are finer-grained floodplain deposits (Galloway et al., 1986). The downdip, southeastern deposits are confined by sequences such as the Burkeville confining unit (Murray and Yosko, 2012), a low permeability unit, that could potentially be a competent seal during carbon sequestration. Due to the variability in depositional environments, the aquifer properties are heterogeneous (Gates et al., 2011) and need to be considered during reservoir characterization for carbon storage. During planning for injection, the unconfined conditions with groundwater resources in the northwest (Murray and Yosko, 2012) need to be considered to ensure secure, long-term storage.
References
Galloway, W.E., Henry, C.D., and Smith, G.E., 1982, “Depositional framework, hydrostratigraphy, and uranium mineralization of the Oakville Sandstone (Miocene), Texas Coastal Plain”. United States.
Gates, J.B., Nicot, J.P., Scanlon, B.R., R.C. Reedy, 2011, Arsenic enrichment in unconfined sections of the southern Gulf Coast aquifer system, Texas, Applied Geochemistry, Volume 26 (4) 421-431, doi.org:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2011.01.002.
Murray, K.E., Yosko, L.S., 2013, Multi-observation well aquifer test case study: is recovery coincident with the cessation of pumping? Environ Earth Sci 68, 1955–1965. doi: 10.1007/s12665-012-1883-9.
Prepared by Emily Moskal, 2020.
