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Chapter J, Railbelt Fossil Fuel and Geothermal Energy Sources for Local Use in Alaska Susitna and Nenana basins are candidates for exploration under active State-issued exploration licenses. The Susitna basin is regarded as a northern extension of the Cook Inlet basin, separated by the Castle Mountain – Lake Clark fault, one of several arcuate strike-slip fault systems that traverse south-central Alaska. Nonmarine Cenozoic sedimentary strata reach a thickness of at least 3.7 km in the axis of the Susitna basin, indicating the region witnessed much less subsidence than the Cook Inlet basin. The origin and tectonic history of the Susitna basin is poorly known; subsidence may reflect activity on steep basin-bounding faults (Ehm, 1983; Kirschner, 1988), or deeper processes associated with a colliding crustal fragment to the southeast (Finzel and others, 2011). Miocene and younger basin-filling units are recognized in Susitna lowland outcrops (Reed and Nelson, 1980; Dickinson, 1995), and Paleocene to Eocene age strata are believed to be penetrated in the deeper exploration wells (R. Stanley, USGS, written communication). Two wells were drilled in the Susitna basin west of the Susitna River, in 1964 and 1980. Some 3,470 km2 of the basin, including its deepest parts, are eligible for new drilling within the two adjacent exploration licenses issued on State lands in 2003. The Nenana and Minchumina interior basins lie at the north end of the Railbelt region, along the northern flank of the Alaska Range. The Nenana basin is bound to the north by the Yukon–Tanana uplands and the Minchumina basin occupies the lowlands between two range-bounding fault systems, the Farewell fault zone to the south and Iditarod fault zone to the north. Only the shallow southern and eastern part of the Nenana basin and the northeastern part of the Minchumina basin fall within the Railbelt energy region; the remainders of both basins are located in the Yukon–Koyukuk/ Upper Tanana energy region. The Nenana basin contains Eocene and younger nonmarine deposits overlying metamorphic basement. The coal-bearing Usibelli Group and Nenana Gravel are exposed in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range (in an area sometimes referred to as the Healy basin). However, broad, low-lying areas of the greater basin are covered by Quaternary surficial deposits, limiting direct examination of the stratigraphy. The source of these sediments is interpreted to change over time; the older Usibelli Group was deposited by streams that flowed southward from the ancient Yukon– Tanana uplands, whereas the Nenana Gravel was deposited by streams flowing north out of the Alaska Range following major uplift in late Cenozoic time (e.g., Stevens, 1971; Buffler and Triplehorn, 1976; Wahrhaftig, 1987; Stanley and others, 1992; Trop and Ridgway, 2007). The age of sediments deposited in the Minchumina basin is poorly constrained. Upper Cenozoic (Neogene) gravels are locally exposed at its eastern periphery, and their equivalents probably extend beneath surficial cover throughout most of the basin. Lower Cenozoic (Paleogene) nonmarine sedimentary strata are inferred to be present in the subsurface near the Farewell fault zone (Kirschner, 1988), but they do not appear in outcrop (Wilson and others, 1998). Constraints on the thickness of the Nenana and Minchumina basins come from integrating regional gravity and local seismic data with the observed depth to basement in the two wells with publicly available data: the Union Nenana 1 (located in the adjoining Yukon–Koyukuk/ Upper Tanana energy region) and the ARCO Totek Hills 1 (located just inside the boundary of the Railbelt energy region). Both wells were drilled at the edge of the main fault-bounded Nenana basin, and penetrated basement at depths less than 1.1 km. A third well was drilled in the basin in 2009 (Nunivak 1) and although most of the data remain confidential, it is known to have targeted a prospect at approximately 3.2 to 3.3 km depth, located between even deeper fault bounded depressions containing up to 4–6 km of sedimentary strata (Petroleum News, 2009; Petrotechnical Resources and Doyon, Ltd., undated; Frost, 2003; Grether and Morgan, 1988). This sector of the Nenana basin is sufficiently deep to host an effective conventional petroleum system based on thermogenic-sourced hydrocarbons. This part of the basin is mostly encompassed by the exploration license issued in 2002, and is located outside the Railbelt energy region. No oil or gas wells have been drilled in the Minchumina basin. Gravity data indicate basement lies at shallow depths (a kilometer or less) across much of the basin, although deeper fault-bounded depressions appear to be present in localized areas and are presumably filled with nonmarine Tertiary strata. (Meyer and Krouskop, 1986; Kirschner, 1988; Meyer, 2008). Most of the Minchumina basin that falls within the Railbelt energy region is encompassed by Denali National Park and Preserve, and is unavailable for energy resource development. Source rocks. Natural seeps of oil and gas in the Iniskin Bay–Chinitna Bay area on the northwest side of Cook Inlet are associated with outcrops of the Middle and Upper Jurassic formations, and were reportedly known in Russian colonial times (Martin, 1905; Martin, 1921; Detterman and Hartsock, 1966). Modern geochemical analysis suggest that nearly all the oil (and associated gas) produced from upper Cook Inlet oil fields, is sourced from thermogenic maturation of thick, widespread organic rich marine siltstone and shale of the Middle Jurassic Tuxedni Formation (Magoon and Anders, 1992). In contrast, most of the natural gas fields in Cook Inlet have a different source. This gas is biogenic in origin, sourced by low-temperature bacterial decay of the abundant coals present in Cenozoic formations (Claypool and others, 1980). A critical factor in developing conventionally exploitable biogenic gas accumulations is late-stage uplift, which lowers the subsurface pore pressure, allowing the dissolved gas to desorb from the coal so it can coalesce as a free gas phase and migrate into reservoir pore space. Most of the Cook Inlet gas fields probably owe their existence to significant uplift Railbelt Page 104PDF Image | FOSSIL FUEL AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY SOURCES FOR LOCAL USE
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