Karl Leonard presented at the 2022 Willston Basin Core Workshop

Karl Leonard presented at the 2022 Willston Basin Core Workshop

Karl Leonard (Geology Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Earth Science) presented research that he has done with students Hunter Brandt and Haley Tyler at the 2022 Williston Basin Core Workshop, August 10 and 11 at the North Dakota Geological Survey Core and Sample Library in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  The workshop was organized by the North Dakota Geological Survey and done for employees of the EERC (Energy & Environmental Research Center – Division of UND). Dr. Leonard and his students are examining and analyzing rock cores from the Amsden and Broom Creek formations from the subsurface in the Williston Basin in western North Dakota.  The Broom Creek is a currently being considered for large-scale carbon storage, but the formation is not well studied because it was never a petroleum reservoir. There is currently 1 test disposal well in the Broom Creek, but a large field with multiple disposal wells is being developed as is a multi-state pipeline connecting power and ethanol plants to the facility. The EERC has encouraged me and my students to keep working on this unit, and we have been invited to give a presentation in Bismarck in the spring.