USING GIS APPLICATIONS TO CREATE GEOTHERMAL-RELEVANT MAPS FOR THE SMACKOVER FORMATION, SOUTHERN ARKANSAS

The Arkansas Geological Survey took part in the State Geothermal Data Project, a federally funded project incorporating geothermal-relevant data from all 50 states into a national database. As a contribution to the project, Arkansas created geothermal gradient and heat flow maps of the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas. Borehole temperature data was essential for the creation of these maps where over 1,000 wells were selected from a possible 20,000. Several GIS tools, including ArcMap, Python, and SQL Server, were used to organize and select wells that met specified criteria of location and depth in relation to the Smackover as well as the proximity to other wells. These tools were used along with various data including historic paper maps, a well database, and an unorganized directory of scanned well logs to complete these maps and provide meaningful data.