U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey USGS Core Research Center Jeannine Honey John F. Rhoades

 Established in 1974  Goal to Rescue Valuable Rock Cores Threatened with Disposal or Destruction and make them Available to Scientists and Educators from Government, Industry, and Academia  1500 Visitors Each Year  Currently Located in Building 810 on the Denver Federal Center

CRC Collections  Cores  Archived (Slabbed)  Unprocessed  Well Cuttings  Thin Sections  Core Photos  Analysis

Core Examination Room

Cuttings Examination Room

Warehouse: 80,000 Square Feet

States Represented in Collection

Core Collection  1.7 Million Feet of Core from 8500 Wells in 35 States  Most from Rocky Mountain Region  Majority Drilled for Oil and Gas Exploration and Donated by Private Companies  Collection Includes some Mining Cores  Small Percentage Drilled by USGS for Special Scientific Purposes  Annual Cost of Storage  About 0.5 percent of the original cost of drilling  0.05 percent of what it would cost to drill the cores today  The USGS can store the cores for at least 200 years before reaching the original cost of drilling

 Archived Cores  Slabbed  Re-boxed in Tray-Style Boxes  Photographed  Stored on Shelves Like Books in a Library  Reduces Storage Space  Slabbing Provides Clean, Flat Surface that Reveals Details in the Rock  Unprocessed Cores  Same Condition as Received  May be Full Diameter, Thick Slab (Butt), Thin Slab, or Split  All Sizes and Shapes of Boxes  Stacked on Pallets

Archived Core Storage  Storing the Archived Cores Like Books in a Library Allows Easy Access for One Box or Many  The CRC Collection has 40,000 Archive Boxes Containing over 400,000 feet of Core from 4500 Different Wells

Electric Order Picker Used to Reach Boxes on High Shelves

Efficient Storage for Unprocessed Cores  Four-High Pallet Racks  Narrow Aisles  Side-Loading Forklift

Side-Loading Forklift

Cuttings Collection  238 Million Feet of Drilling Represented by Over 50,000 Wells from 28 States  Most from Rocky Mountain Region  125,000 Boxes Stored on 1,785 Feet of Shelving 16 Feet High  Most of Collection Came from a Single Donation  Estimated Replacement Cost of Over $10 Billion  New Drilling Methods are Not Producing Cuttings

Cuttings Storage  Cuttings Stored in Paper Envelopes Marked with Depth  The Envelopes are Kept in Cardboard Boxes  Variety of Sizes and Shapes of Boxes

Cuttings Collection on Shelves

USGS Rescue Of Cuttings Collection  Entire American Stratigraphic Company Cuttings Collection was Donated to the CRC in 1993  Packing, Moving, Re-shelving took an Entire Year  125,000 Boxes, 1300 Pallets of Cuttings

Thin Section Collection  17,000 Thin Sections from Sampling of the Core or Cuttings Collections  Stored in Metal or Paper Holders  Holders Filed in Drawers  Petrographic Microscope Available for Viewing and Photographing Thin Sections

Analysis Files  Sampling of Core or Cuttings is Permitted Provided that Enough Material is Available  Results of Analyses Must be Returned to the CRC  Data is Available to All  Data Files Have Been Scanned  Now Returned Data Should be Provided in Digital Form

Data Management  Collections Cataloged in Database  Data Entry Screens Created for Accuracy and Ease of Use  Legacy Card Catalog is Still Maintained

Digital Data Project and Transition to Web  Well Catalog  Online  Core Photos  50% Digital 2% Online  Scans of Thin Sections  50% Scanned 2% Online  Analysis  98% Scanned 2% Online  Well Locations in GIS  In Progress

Web Catalog

Web Core List (Excel Friendly)

Pilot Web List with Links

Links to Additional Materials

Links to Images

Photos, Thin Sections, Data

GIS Web Prototype

USGS Core Research Center Contacts  Betty Adrian   Jeannine Honey   John Rhoades   Web   Phone 