Rocky Mountain Section - 59th Annual Meeting (7–9 May 2007)

Paper No. 4
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM

THE UTAH CORE RESEARCH CENTER: UTAH'S LARGEST PUBLICLY AVAILABLE COLLECTION OF GEOLOGIC SPECIMENS, WELL CORE, AND DATA FOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH, INDUSTRY, WORKSHOPS, AND CLASSROOM STUDIES


LAINE, Michael D. and DEMPSTER, Thomas, Utah Core Research Center, Utah Geological Survey, 1594 W. North Temple, Suite 3110, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, michaellaine@utah.gov

The Utah Core Research Center (UCRC) offers students, educators, and industry access to the region's most comprehensive collection of geologic specimens for research, workshops, and classroom studies. The UCRC collection is ideally suited to supply data for projects including: facies analysis; diagenetic, source-rock, and biomarker studies; and oil and gas reservoir characterization investigations. Destructive testing is allowed with permission.

UCRC holdings include subsurface samples from more then 3600 wells, core from more then 750 wells, samples from major tar sand and oil shale deposits, and type oils from all the producing formations in the state. The UCRC collection also contains representative samples from Utah's coal mines, metallic mineral deposits, industrial rocks and minerals, geothermal wells, and surface stratigraphic sections. Unique and historical sediment and brine samples from Great Salt Lake are also available for study. The entire UCRC catalog is accessible from the Utah Geological Survey website.

The UCRC is fortunate to have stratigraphic research core collections ideally suited for workshop and classroom studies. Highlights include the remarkably detailed fluvial-dominated deltaic sands of the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone of east-central Utah, the shallow-shelf carbonates of the Mississippian Leadville Limestone and Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation of southeastern Utah, and the dune and interdunal deposits of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone.

The UCRC provides technical support for clients including high-resolution digital sample imaging and microscopy, petrographic and binocular microscopes, radiation monitoring, and UV lights. Core slabbing, core plugging, sample crushing, sifting, and preparation equipment are also available.