Publications

Conversion of the Big Hill geological site characterization report to a three-dimensional model

Stein, Joshua S.; Stein, Joshua S.; Rautman, Christopher A.

The Big Hill salt dome, located in southeastern Texas, is home to one of four underground oil-storage facilities managed by the U. S. Department of Energy Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Program. Sandia National Laboratories, as the geotechnical advisor to the SPR, conducts site-characterization investigations and other longer-term geotechnical and engineering studies in support of the program. This report describes the conversion of two-dimensional geologic interpretations of the Big Hill site into three-dimensional geologic models. The new models include the geometry of the salt dome, the surrounding sedimentary units, mapped faults, and the 14 oil storage caverns at the site. This work provides a realistic and internally consistent geologic model of the Big Hill site that can be used in support of future work.