The Williston Basin

In Texas, there is an economic powerhouse that not only runs deep beneath fields of cotton, but also reaches miles beyond the green pastures of cattle. Its multitude of uses in daily life also far outweighs the benefits of technology. This resource, greater than any other in Texas, is oil. In 1866 the first commercial oil well was dug near Nacogdoches, Texas but unfortunately the well came up dry. Thirty years later in 1894 oil was discovered in Corsicana, Texas by accident while a water well was being dug. This was the first economically significant discovery of oil in Texas. On January 10, 1901, Texas was catapulted into the era of oil and gas with the discovery at Spindletop. The Spindletop well, located south of Beaumont produced roughly

The Atchafalaya Basin is the nation's largest river swamp, containing almost one million acres of America's most significant bottomland hardwoods, swamps, bayous, and backwater lakes.

Texas’ history with oil starts much earlier than the 1901 Spindletop gusher. As early as 1543, there were reports of natural oil seeps along the coast of Texas which was used as both medical treatments and caulking for boats by Spanish explorers (Wooster). In 1866, the first of Texas’ oil producing wells was drilled in Nacogdoches County, however the supply and profit was not high enough to justify further development. In 1895 in Corsicana, Texas there was a minor oil find that led to the creation of Texas’ first oil refinery in Nacogdoches, Texas. Another large oil find is the East Texas Oil Field which spans 140,000 acres and is considered to be the largest oil field in the United States (excluding Alaska); this oil field has produced over 5.2 billion barrels from its 30,340 historic and active oil wells (Smith).

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.

In the 1920’s, geologist J. Harlen Bretz challenged the current concept of how various geological formations happened. At the time, geologists believed in uniformitarianism, which meant that geologic change in the past resulted from the same slow, steady processes at work today.

First, we must examine the sedimentary formations; when they were formed, how they were formed, and what materials they consist of. About ninety-three to one hundred million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway rolled through the North American continent, eventually reaching the geographical area of today’s Mesa Verde National Park (National Park Service 2005). This sea deposited a thick, hard sandstone base that is called Dakota Sandstone, although this layer is not exposed in the park

The Copper Basin of southeastern Tennessee is an area that is climatically unique with a rich history rooted in copper mining. It is thought that man is responsible for the total destruction of the environment over this large area, but it is mostly contributed to the exclusive location. The Copper Basin was susceptible to negative environmental effects due to its topographical, geological, climatic, edaphic, and meteorological location. However, the copper mining had a transformative effect on the surrounding lands that of which are still recovering.

Why is the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin so important? Might it be because of the history it has with helping pilgrims settle in North Carolina? Or might it be because it drains not only parts of North Carolina, but also parts of South Carolinas. Some interesting information of the Yadkin River would be that there are a total number of 22 counties in the basin and, another fact would be that there is a total of 22988 acres of lakes in the basin. Another interesting fact would be that the population of the basin is about 1,463,535 people

The Atchafalaya Basin could be perceived as the embodiment of the Cajun Culture within the southern Louisiana region. It has not only been a home to the growing Cajun population but a safe haven for Native American settlers and French colonist that have been exiled. The Basin has existed for hundreds of years dating back to the 15th century. The basin itself is one of the most ecologically varied regions within the United States and has provided for over hundreds of different species. The benefits of the Atchafalaya Basin are endless and have continually provided the inhabitants of the area with bountiful resources, hunting grounds, homes, and transportation.

On January 10, 1901, a huge geyser of oil exploded from a drilling site at Spindle top Hill, by an underground salt deposit located near Beaumont in Jefferson County, southeastern Texas. Reaching a height of more than 150 feet, the “gusher” was more powerful than any previously seen in the world. A booming oil industry soon grew up around the oil field at Spindle top, and many of the major oil companies in America.

Multiple Japanese settlements started to increase in rustic communities of the Columbia River Basin, despite the Issei’s harsh labor in the early 20th century, the discrimination led to growing anti-Japanese arrogances on the West Coast, even the feeling had developed against the seeming Chinese competition. Nampa, and Caldwell Idaho drove out the Japanese workers this led to white mobs around Coeur d’ Alene and in Poland to threaten the Japanese railroad workers. Pressures led to the (“Gentleman’s Agreement”) between the U.S. which effectually limited the numbers of laborers that could travel from Japan in 1908.

The Arkoma Basin is one of several foreland basins that formed along the Ouachita Orogenic Belt during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian time periods. It covers approximately 33,800 square miles and extends from southeastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas (Perry, 1997). The Arkoma Basin is bounded to the north by the Ozark Uplift, to the south by the Ouachita Mountains, to the northwest by the Anadarko Basin, to the southwest by the Arbuckle Uplift, and to the southeast by the Mississippian Embayment (Figure 5). The red box in figure 5 denotes the general location of the study area, which is in the eastern Arkoma section.

The importance of oil in our society is so great that it affects developed and developing countries. It is a huge contributor to economic growth and environmental destruction. Although the Alberta Oil Sands has destroyed acres of local and global (indirectly) ecosystems, it has achieved and ensured that Canada stays as an economic power. The economical, cultural, and political benefits the oil sands give to Canada makes it an irreplaceable asset to our nation and our global community

Alberta has the second biggest recoverable oil patch in the world after Saudi Arabia, which hides underneath Canada’s boreal forest. Indeed, the Albertan oil patch consists of tar sands, also referred as oil sand, a combination of clay, sand, water and bitumen – a thick and sticky form of crude oil. Tar sands are mined and transported to extraction installations, where the oil-rich bitumen is extracted from the mixture. Alberta holds at least 175 billion barrels of crude bitumen throughout its vast territory, thus the industry disturbs a 149 000 square kilometers area – about the size of England –, where the land was removed due to the mining required to access the oil sands. The bitumen is separated from the mixture by using large amounts of fresh water – about four barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil – and is heated by natural gas, thus requiring larger quantities of energy and water than conventional extraction. Indeed, the industry itself results in the emission of more carbon dioxide in a year than all Canadian cars combined, thus accelerating climate change at an alarming rate. The Albertan industry exploits the water from the Athabasca River, which is fed by the Canadian Rocky Mountains’ glacier, which shrinks at a frightening rate and is further endangered by the carbon emission of the industry. Therefore, the extraction of oil sands in Alberta results in a cycle of consumption that truly endangers the environment. The clay and minerals from the oil

A lot Scientists and oil field experts have been collecting facts and scientific evidences to try to predict the period at which peak oil will occur. Two of the scientists working toward this discovery are Colin J. Campbell and Jean H laherre. Those two scientists wrote an article about the aftermath s of the 1970 's oil embargo sppured reachees over the decline of oil, which resulted in erroneous conclusions due to various factors (78). In order to truly cast light on the issue of oil decline, Campbell and Laherrère merged a variety of techniques which comprise the examination of “the decline of aging fields” and “the diminishing returns on exploration in larger regions”, the extrapolation of the size