Date of Graduation

Summer 2013

Degree

Master of Science in Geospatial Sciences

Department

Geography, Geology, and Planning

Committee Chair

Thomas Plymate

Abstract

The Lamotte Sandstone, the basal Cambrian sedimentary rock unit continuous throughout Missouri, was investigated as a potential unit for shallow geologic carbon sequestration. A detailed petrographic analysis of the Lamotte Sandstone is one of the necessary factors to determine if this rock unit could be a viable reservoir for carbon sequestration. The Lamotte Sandstone has a variable composition throughout the state, but detailed petrographic analyses had not been conducted at the proposed potential injection sites. Thin sections were created from samples taken approximately every ten feet from four separate cores, and a standard 1000-point count modal analysis was conducted for each thin section. The data from new core sites in north-central and eastern Missouri are consistent with previous analyses of the Lamotte in southwestern Missouri in that the lithology alternates between quartz arenite and quartz wacke. The Lamotte at the new study sites differs from the Lamotte at the sites studied previously in southwestern Missouri in an absence of feldspar at the base of the rock unit. The interpreted depositional environments also agree with the literature that the Lamotte was first deposited in a stream environment, and then transitioned to a near-shore, shallow marine environment. The Lamotte at the Thomas Hill site is more favorable than the Luecke site for CO2>sequestration due to a higher porosity and higher clay content.

Keywords

Cambrian stratigraphy, sandstone petrology, carbon sequestration, point counting

Subject Categories

Geology | Mineral Physics

Copyright

© Stephen Andrew Shields

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