. Figure 1. Cambrian lobopodian diversity. (A) Aysheaia pedunculata, middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (NMNH-83942). (B) Claws of Aysheaia pedunculata (NMNH-365608). (C) Hallucigenia sparsa, middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (NMNH198658; courtesy of M. Smith, University of Cambridge. Nature 523, 75–78). (D) Microdictyon sinicum, early Cambrian Chengjiang (ELRC-30060; courtesy of G. Edgecombe, Natural H...

We demonstrate the separation of sand stone reservoir from shale where gas sand and shale have almost similar P-, S-impedance contrast using Poisson Impedance (PI). The correlation coefficients between PI curve (with different c values) versus Gamma ray and Water saturation curve are computed. The c value corresponding to maximum correlation coefficient for GR is used to compute another attribu...

This study estimates the life cycle water consumption and wastewater generation impacts of a Marcellus shale gas well from its construction to end of life. Direct water consumption at the well site was assessed by analysis of data from approximately 500 individual well completion reports collected in 2010 by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Indirect water consu...

The use of horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing technologies has enabled the production of immense quantities of natural gas, to date principally in North America but increasingly in other countries around the world. The global availability of this resource creates both opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed in a timely and effective manner. There seems little...

We investigate the health impacts of unconventional natural gas development of Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania between 2001 and 2013 by merging well permit data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection with a database of all inpatient hospital admissions. After comparing changes in hospitalization rates over time for air pollution-sensitive diseases in counties with unconven...

The development of engineering activities involving shales such as the extraction of shale gas and shale oil, the nuclear waste geological storage and the sequestration of CO2, has led to an increasing interest toward the geomechanical behaviour of this geomaterial. In the context of such engineering applications, a deep understanding of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of shales is of primary si...

The conventional oil recovery system in the Fushun oil shale retorting plant has a low oil recovery rate. A large quantity of fresh water is used in the system, thereby consuming a considerable amount of water and energy, as well as polluting the environment. This study aims to develop a closed process of shale oil recovery from the circulating washing water for the Fushun oil shale retorting p...

Data on the content of benzo(a)pyrene (BP) in oil shale industry wastewater, the effectiveness of various effluent treatment processes (evaporation, extraction with butyl acetate, trickling filters, aeration tanks) in reducing the level of BP in oil shale wastewater, the level of BP in various bodies of water of Estonia, and in fish and other water organisms are reviewed. The quantitative deter...

The water leak-off during hydraulic fracturing in shale gas reservoirs is a complicated transport behavior involving thermal (T), hydrodynamic (H), mechanical (M) and chemical (C) processes. Although many leak-off models have been published, none of the models fully coupled the transient fluid flow modeling with heat transfer, chemical-potential equilibrium and natural-fracture dilation phenome...

Many assessments of the promise and pitfalls to shale gas development are incomplete. They tend to focus primarily on the benefits for electricity generation and gas producers, and therefore only address in a limited way the impact shale gas has on wider issues such as energy security and stewardship. We expand on the existing literature by considering a broad treatment of the energy security n...