The History Of Colorado

When oil was first discovered it was “Discovered of the spindle top oilfield near Beaumont in January 10, 1901 marked the opening of the prosperous phase of the business in Texas.” But not long after discovering in Texas it would soon be discovered in Oklahoma in 1905. Shortly after 1910 more oil was being founded and more was coming out of Texas. By the end of the Progressive Era in 1920’s “Texas was producing 85,000,000 barrels per year with even more dramatic increase

The Colorado Rocky Mountains are claimed to be one of the most intriguing and adventurous lands to visit nationally and globally. Primarily, the Rocky mountains are most visited for the skiing resorts, aside from the many other activities and locations to visit. I will persuade the audience what I believe an ideal weekend trip or vacation would be, and the steps and guidelines in making the vacation possible. The locations being covered would be some of the biggest attractions in the Colorado Rocky Mountains: the ski resorts. Some resorts credited with being the best that the Rockys can bring to a particular individual or group of people are: Keystone resort, Aspen, Loveland, Breckenridge, Ski Cooper. Although these are only a few of the locations the Colorado Rockies have to offer there are plenty more, thus I

Shale is found in many colors but those that are very dark or black contain oil and gas. Conventional drillers look for pools of oil and gas above shale rock. “The oil and natural gas migrated out of the shale and upwards through the sediment mass because of their low density. The oil and gas were often trapped within the pore spaces of an overlying rock unit such as sandstone. These types of oil and gas deposits are known as "conventional reservoirs" because the fluids can easily flow through the pores of the rock and into the extraction well”. (Geology.com King) Conventional drilling into shale has declined because those conventional supplies are disappearing and drilling companies have known this for quite some time. They also know that more oil and gas can be extracted. Geology.com’s Hobart King provides this insight. “Although drilling can extract large amounts of oil and natural gas from the reservoir rock, much of it remains trapped within the shale. This oil and gas is very difficult to remove because it is trapped within tiny pore spaces or adsorbed onto clay mineral particles that make-up the shale. In the late 1990s natural gas drilling companies developed new methods for liberating oil and natural gas that is trapped within the tiny pore spaces of shale. This discovery was significant because it unlocked some of the largest natural gas deposits in the world” (King Geology.com). The site goes on to provide this outlook for fracking oil

The most important of these is the Permian Basin. In the latter half of the Paleozoic era, sediments rich in organic matter accumulated here when a shallow sea got cut off from the main oceans and evaporated off, leaving lots of dead critters and evaporites. These sediments eventually got buried and compressed, causing the oil and gas to form "pockets in permeable rock, surrounded by impermeable rocks so that they couldn't escape. There the fluid sits until someone pokes a hole (well) into the area and the contents rush out as the tremendous pressure is released. Other areas of Texas with notable petroleum sources include East Texas's Woodbine Formation (formed in the Late Cretaceous), much of the Gulf Coast and the Gulf itself, and various smaller pockets in South and South Central Texas.

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of removing oil and natural gas from in between layers of shale and other low-permeability rocks. This is done by drilling both a well and a horizontal tunnel. Sand and chemicals are shot through the tunnel with incredible pressure, which cracks the shale allowing the oil and natural gas to travel up the well (Jackson, 2014). Fracking has caused a breadth of controversy due to the economic benefits and the geological consequences.

“Fracking is the process of obtaining Natural Gas from below Earth’s surface by drilling 1000’s of feet into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.” Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.” (Jackson). Hydraulic Fracturing got its name due to the fact of how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture of a number of chemicals, sand, and water. Drilling companies first began Fracking in the early 1940’s, and starting in the 1990’s companies began “safer drilling” due to the amount of concerns that had arisen because early drillers had to detonate small explosions that eventually ended up killing many people. Fracking has been used for nearly 60 years and the number of concerns about it are rising every day. Due to the new technological advancements in drilling Fracking has changed greatly over the years. Before, the drilling would go on for weeks on end in order to extract only a small amount of natural gas. Now, due to the invention of higher powered drills, the drills get double the amount then they used to be able to get in more then half the time. Over 95,000 square miles of shale deposits have been found around the Appalachian Basin but the only way to reach these deposits of shale is through fracking. “Fracking is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling

Fracking in North Dakota alone went from 4,600 to 6,600 wells just from 2009-2012. Due to the increase in wells, natural gas extraction went from 7.5 million to 16.9 million barrels of oil (Loris 2). This increase in the oil and gas industry also provides jobs in several fields such as geology, engineering, rig working, truck driving, pipe welding, and many more, which means that the US unemployment will go down as long as this economic boom keeps up. However, fracking provides more than just jobs; it provides an economic boost to the communities where fracking occurs. States like Louisiana and Oklahoma practice fracking in more rural areas and it is seen as an economic boost more so in those places than in states like Colorado, where fracking

Colorado has a very rich history that often gets overlooked due to other big states that generally take up most of the headlines; however, that does not mean that there has not been big movements and big names to come through the Centennial State. Colorado has had many attractions, such as open land, beautiful landscapes, mining, and the hot springs to name a few. The ladder in that group of attractions brought to Colorado a man that was known in the west, and would forever be remember and one of the most famous gunman, Doc Holliday. Doc Holliday had a short, but eventful life and making his way towards Colorado at the end was what he had hope would save his life.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process used to excavate oil and gas trapped in shale rock.

Fracking is a shorter form of Hydraulic Fracturing which is the extraction process of both natural gas and oil. The process involves drilling deep into the Earth’s surface. Fractures are then created by “pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure down a welfare and into the target rock formation” (EPA, 2016). After making these openings for the gas or oil to come up (known as “flowback”) the materials can be stored. The reason the fracking process occurs is because “more usual methods of extraction may not be able to fully reach the deposits of shale gas and oil” (2015).

I became a part of Colorado history Twenty-One years ago. I came to Colorado in search of a new life. A new place to start my family, and twenty years later I am here with my family. I was originally born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico. I am daughter of Lidia and Jesus Ponce. Sister to Jesus Ramon and Perla Rocio Ponce. Colorado, has been a second home to me. I feel as if I have the best of both worlds. I feel as if I have the best of the American culture and the Hispanic culture. I am also a part of history because I had all three of my children in Greeley Colorado.

The lower Bakken shale thins drastically across the Painted Woods region. This thinning greatly reduces the amount of hydrocarbons generated across the region.

The formation is located in western North Dakota, southern Saskatchewan, northeastern Montana, and southwestern Manitoba, and has a depth of approximately 130 feet to 12,000 feet deep. The upper and lower Bakken shale layers contain large amounts of organic-rich black mudstone. During the Lower Bakken Member deposition, an increase in the rate of siliciclastic sedimentation (quartz and orthoclase feldspar) caused more organic material to be preserved in bottom sediments. During Upper Bakken Member deposition, an increase in biological productivity in the water column resulted in more organic carbon reaching the bottom where it was subsequently preserved (Bustin & Smith, 1995). The middle layer is made up of mostly mudstone and sandstone. This layer can be tapped by both conventional and continuous oil

In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.“Today’s methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it’s bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire,” says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What’s causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox’s investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox’s interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.

The definition of fracking is, creating fractures in rock formations by putting a specially made liquid into cracks to make them open up more to allow more oil and gas to pass through. The use of fracking to help the extraction of oil and natural gases dates back to the 1860’s. At the time nitroglycerin or dynamite was used to increase output. It wasn’t until the 1940’s when hydraulic fracking started being experimented with. However, the first successful use of the process was done in 1950. Ever since then fracking has been used worldwide.