United States Bureau Of Mines Research Articles

Crude-Oil Correlations and Their Role in Exploration

Sufficient parameters for most petroleum correlations are provided by correlation indexes, which measure the relative amounts of paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics in each distillation fraction, and by the sulfur and nitrogen contents of the oils. Such data are available from the United States Bureau of Mines for several thousand crude oils, and they provide a chemical profile of the entire petroleum. Correlation indexes are similar to computed ratios of hydrocarbons derived from more detailed analytical methods. There are geological examples and scientific reasons which are not in agreement with Barton's concept of the maturation of petroleums from aromatic to paraffinic oils with increasing age and burial depth, although A.P.I. gravities were found to increase and the sulfur content to decrease with depth in accordance with Barton's hypothesis. Mild subsurface thermal cracking can explain the sulfur and nitrogen decrease, because the residuum undergoes conversion mostly to gases with only small amounts of light liquids being formed. Mild cracking could cause the A.P.I. gravity to increase while the correlation index character remains almost unchanged. However, the character of extensively cracked deep-seated petroleums may be changed greatly. Geological examples exist which are inconsistent with the hypothesis that ligno-humic compounds from terrestrial sources are the principal suppliers of aromatics to petroleums. Lacking any reasonably large quantities of both naturally occurring aromatics and naphthenes, the writer concludes that these cyclic compounds are formed by conversion from other materials, which most likely are straight-carbon-chain compounds of lipids. The dehydrogenase activity of anaerobic bacteria appears to be the most important mechanism for the creation of naphthenes, aromatics, and asphaltenes from lipids, judging from geological examples. Anaerobic bacterial activity in source sediments appears to be related to the degree of aeration, and it is reflected mineralogically. Examples show that paraffinic crudes are related to oxidized source sediments, aromatic-asphaltic crudes are related to euxinic source sediments, and naphthenic crudes are intermediate in character. Nitrogen compounds in crudes are believed to have been derived solely from nitrogenous source materials, which most likely are proteins and amino acids. High nitrogen contents in crudes have been related empirically to high phosphate content in source rocks. This is consistent with Emery's observations in Recent sediments that nitrogen regeneration parallels phosphate regeneration. Nitrogen analyses provide an independent correlation parameter that is not related directly to the oxidation-reduction state of the source environment. Inspissation of crudes through leakage or surface seepage can explain the alteration of some shallow accumulations. Paraffins appear to have been selectively removed from these petroleums as the gases were expelled, which is in accord with the principle of homology. Thus the correlation indexes increase as the A.P.I. gravity decreases. Components of the residuum appear to be relatively unaffected, with the result that ratios between components such as sulfur and nitrogen remain essentially unchanged. Anaerobic bacteria do not appear to have caused any significant changes in petroleum after they have been expelled from source rocks, except where the oils have come in direct contact with large deposits of sulfate minerals. The effects of selective filtration, selective adsorption, and water washing on the correlation indexes of certain crudes were found to be small. Therefore, except for shallow, inspissated oils and deep, thermally altered oils and distillates, the correlation indexes of petroleums appear to be relatively free from post-diagenetic change. Several fields in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado provide illustrations of the use of oil correlations to identify parent source rocks and to detect cross-formational migration. Correlations make it possible to determine whether certain formations have their own indigenous oil source, and they permit the recognition of major sources of oil. Correlations lead to the conclusion that the oils in Permo-Pennsylvanian Minnelusa reservoirs in eastern Wyoming were derived from Permian Phosphoria source rocks in western Wyoming, thus requiring regional pre-Laramide, or Mesozoic, migration to have occurred. Exceptionally low gas saturations in the original Phosphoria-source petroleums preclude the application of Gussow's principle of differential entrapment in this case. This concept of Mesozoic migration of Phosphoria-source oils through the Tensleep to the Minnelusa in eastern Wyoming may assist in tracing the migration of petroleum to favored areas or favored traps.

TEMPERATURE CHANGES OF HUMAN CORNEA AND TEARS UNDER A CONTACT LENS. I. THE RELAXED OPEN EYE, AND THE NATURAL AND FORCED CLOSED EYE CONDITIONS.

School of Optometry, University of California Berkeley, California *Submitted on October 22, 1964 for publication in the January, 1965 issue of the American Journal of Optometry and Archives of American Academy of Optometry. †Optometrist, Ph.D., presently Associate Professor at the Ohio State University, School of Optometry. Fellow, American Academy of Optometry. ‡Research Engineer, M.S., United States Bureau of Mines, San Francisco.

PHYSIOLOGICAL TIME COURSES ASSOCIATED WITH CONTACT LENSES. TEMPERATURE

School of Optometry, University of California Berkeley, California *Submitted on February 28, 1963, for publication in the August, 1963, issue of the American Journal of Optometry and Archives of American Academy of Optometry. †Optometrist. Ph.D. Member of faculty. Fellow, American Academy of Optometry. ‡Research Engineer. M.S., United States Bureau of Mines, San Francisco.

Regional setting and mineralogic features of the Howell zinc prospect, Jefferson County, West Virginia

Renewed exploration of an old zinc prospect in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in 1953 by the United States Bureau of Mines and Tri-State Zinc, Inc., led to a field study, sampling, and a petrographic study of thin sections and polished sections of the samples. Resulting descriptions of the deposit show that it constitutes an additional member locality of the Appalachian low temperature zinc a convenient designation proposed for a series of analagous deposits containing sphalerite in the Valley and Ridge sections of Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.The prospect is developed in the Cambrian Tomstown dolomitic limestone near its contact with the underlying Antietam sandstone on the east side of the Great Valley at the base of the Blue Ridge. There is stratigraphic and structural control of the mineralization as it is in steep westward-dipping breccia zones that roughly follow the bedding. Both cavity filling and replacement were methods of deposition from solutions probably rising from magmas during upper Paleozoic time.Fine fracture cleavage and persistent feldspar typical in the prospect samples have not been recorded as characteristic of the other deposits of the province. However, rosette or halo zoning of the minerals in several patterns and the assemblage of dolomite, quartz, pyrite, sphalerite, and galena, which are characteristic of the other deposits of the province, are also common at the Howell prospect. The paragenic sequence is (1) pyrite, (2) early white dolomite, (3) feldspar, (4) quartz contemporaneous with a second stage of white dolomite and, in some places, followed by still later white dolomite, (5) sphalerite, (6) galena. The prospect is not large enough or of high enough tenor to be of much commercial promise but its description is merited as it bears on definition of the metallogenic province and also represents the richest hydrothermal base metal deposit recorded in West Virginia.

Synthetic Fuels from Coal and Shale

IN THIS issue we present, in considerable detail, the interim report of the National Petroleum Council's Subcommittee on Synthetic Liquid Fuels Production Costs, issued on July 29 and the Annual Report (1951) of the Secretary of the Interior on Synthetic Liquid Fuels, released on July 31. Producing synthetic liquid fuels by coal hydrogenation as proposed by the United States Bureau of Mines is a highly controversial subject—not the technology but the economics involved if private enterprise is expected to finance, build, and operate such plants and to market profitably the fuels and chemicals produced. We prefer to let each reader evaluate for himself the figures presented by the NPC and the USBM. Secretary of the Interior, Oscar L. Chapman, admits that something in the way of government incentives to private industry appears to be required at this time but adds Sooner or later our nation will rely in part on synthetic liquid ...

Mineral Resources of the United States

THE pre-eminent industrial position of the United States is based upon her vast mineral resources. In many fields, her production of mineral raw materials exceeds that of any other country, a fact which had an important effect upon the course of the Second World War. The war-time acceleration of production revealed, however, that some branches of the mining industry were not equal to the strain, emphasizing, in addition, that for a few essential mineral commodities, the United States are necessarily dependent on foreign sources. To meet anxious questionings at the end of the War, a quantitative appraisal of mineral reserves was jointly undertaken by the United States Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey, these organisations having carried out, with Congressional authority, very extensive investigations for new and marginal sources of supply. The results of the survey were given in evidence before a sub-committee of the Senate Committee on Public Lands, a small edition being published late last year. This does not appear to have been available in Great Britain. The present edition, with the text unchanged, is Welcome because it will bring the facts to a wider public ; and because the mineral resources of the United States have more than a purely domestic interest. Mineral Resources of the United States By the Staffs of the Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey. Pp. x + 212. (Washington, D.C. : Public Affairs Press, 1948.) 5 dollars.

Structural control of ore deposition at Kasaan Peninsula, southeastern Alaska

Copper‐bearing magnetite deposits and associated copper deposits at Kasaan Peninsula, Prince of Wales Island, southeastern Alaska, have been known for many years and have been mined to some extent for their copper content. At the beginning of World War II, the development of war industries in the Pacific northwest focused attention on the deposits as possible sources of iron ore. From 1942 through 1944 the United States Geological Survey made detailed studies of most of the ore deposits and at a few of the more promising localities diamond‐drilling operations were carried on by the United States Bureau of Mines. The deposits are for the most part small and irregular but of relatively high grade. The chief ore minerals are magnetite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite, and the gangue consists largely of skarn minerals, including garnet, epidote, diopside, and hornblende. The deposits are presumably of pyrometasomatic origin, but whereas deposits of this type are commonly replacement bodies in limestone, at Kasaan Peninsula limestone seemingly was a poor host rock for the ore.

An X-Ray Study of the Copper-Manganese Binary Alloy System

The powder method of x-ray analysis has been applied to a series of slowly cooled copper-manganese alloys to ascertain whether anomalous physical effects of these alloys, detected by the Metallurgical Division of the United States Bureau of Mines, may be ascribed to the presence of superstructures. The x-ray analysis does not indicate superstructures, but it presents results quite different from those one would expect from examination of the accepted equilibrium diagram of the copper-manganese binary alloy system. Slowly cooled and annealed samples both give identical results; namely, that copper enters into a continuous series of solid solutions with manganese, crystallizing in a face-centered cubic lattice with a gradually increasing parameter as the manganese content is increased from zero to sixty percent. Above sixty percent manganese, and up to ninety percent manganese, the lattice is face-centered tetragonal. Between ninety and one hundred percent manganese, two phases are present, one phase being the solid solution phase corresponding to an alloy with ninety percent manganese, the other phase being that of alpha-manganese.

The nickel deposits of Yakobi Island, southeastern Alaska

Some of the large, low‐grade nickel‐copper deposits of Bohemia Basin, Yakobi Island, south‐eastern Alaska, which previously had been mapped and studied by the United States Geological Survey, were explored during parts of 1941 and 1942 by the United States Bureau of Mines. The Gealogical Survey interpreted the geologic features of the deposits as revealed by the work of the Bureau of Mines. The explorations were made largely by diamond‐drilling. The three deposits most extensively tested are arranged around a small valley.

Helium Production in the United States

THE developments of the last twenty years in helium production in the United States are described in Engineering of January 26. Reference is made to a lecture delivered recently in the College of Engineering of the University of Maryland by Dr. C. W. Siebel, supervising engineer of the Government-owned helium plant near Amarillo, Texas, and to a memorandum issued by the United States Bureau of Mines. The present helium-producing plant at Amarillo has a capacity of 24 million cubic feet of helium of 98·2 per cent purity a year, but it is stated in the Bureau of Mines memorandum that, by installing another production unit in existing buildings, the output could be raised to 36 million cubic feet a year. As the present military and commercial requirements, aggregating approximately 6 million cubic ft. a year, are met by operating the plant at about one quarter of the installed capacity, there is a large reserve for emergencies.

Part I—History and activities of the section of geophysics of the United States Geological Survey

Historical—From the beginning of time, all ingenuity of mankind has been concentrated upon the methods of finding gold and unusual deposits in the earth. An illustration (Fig. 1) from the old treatise by Agricola, “De Re Metallica,” published in 1580, will serve to show the implicit faith of that generation in divining methods. However, it was not until 1920 that real progress was made in prospecting by using the latest advances of the physical sciences. The public interest was stimulated by the successes of these methods on the part of commercial operators, and governmental agencies received many requests for information concerning their reliability. There were also, in the late 1920's, high‐pressure mine‐promotion schemes which used geophysical methods in a very questionable manner, symbolized in Figure 2 as of 1928 by an electrified forked stick. Authoritative information concerning such practices for public protection was needed to curb such notorious undertakings. Dr. Scott Turner, then Director of the United States Bureau of Mines, thoroughly understood the situation and was first in the governmental departments to recognize the possible value of a study of modern prospecting methods. The Bureau of Mines began this investigation by employing Drs. A. S. Eve and D. A. Keys of McGill University for short periods in the summer in 1927. Their first publication [see 1 of “References” at end of paper] served to illustrate the fundamental scientific principles which underlie geophysical prospecting. This was followed by a second publication [2] giving the results of field‐tests. In the light of the rapid improvements during the intervening ten years, these two papers take a historical position.

Natural Gas Developments and Possibilities East of the Main Oil and Gas Fields of Appalachian Region

Since the discovery, during the past several years, of productive gas fields in south-central New York and northern Pennsylvania, interest has been aroused in prospecting for gas in this general region. This commodity is not subject to over-production in the eastern Appalachian and adjacent regions where adequate market facilities are available. A belt of country immediately east of the old developed oil and gas fields of the Appalachian region is believed to possess possibilities for the development of additional natural gas supplies. Gas in paying quantities has been found east of the 63 or 65 carbon-ratio line, which is usually regarded as the limit for the discovery of oil in commercial amounts. Carbon-ratio lines for this eastern belt are shown on a map which has bee prepared by using available coal analyses published by the United States Bureau of Mines.

RESPONSE OF PERITONEAL TISSUE TO DUSTS INTRODUCED AS FOREIGN BODIES

The response of the body tissues to various kinds of dust has been a subject of much interest in recent years. Mavrogordato, Gardner, Gye and others have conducted experiments on the action of inhaled dusts. Kettle1has studied the response to dusts injected into the subcutaneous tissues and intratracheally, and Policard2has used the cornea and conjunctiva in his recent studies. In 1924 experiments were begun at the Pittsburgh Station of the United States Bureau of Mines to determine the action and fate of various dusts when injected into the peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs.3The conclusions reached at that time were that live animal tissue in all parts of the body tends to react in essentially the same manner to foreign bodies and that fibrous tissue is formed in the peritoneal cavity by quartz and is not formed by limestone and coal. This paper is a continuation

Safety in Mines Research Board

THE Safety in Mines Research Board has just issued its twelfth annual report this report is always looked forward to with a good deal of interest by all connected with coal mining in Great Britain, and this twelfth report is especially interesting because it includes a report on matters that come under the purview of the Health Advisory Committee. The subjects dealt with are exceedingly wide, but all have bearing on the safety of men engaged in any way in coal mining. A number of the detailed reports, which are contained in appendixes to the main report, have already been published, chiefly in the Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, and these are exceedingly important. It is also of the greatest interest to find that this Board is co-operating with similar bodies in other countries, and especially with the United States Bureau of Mines, with the French, German, Belgian and other interested bodies.

The Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Petroleum Industry

MR. H. C. FOWLER in his paper on “Petroleum and Natural Gas Studies of the United States Bureau of Mines” (Information Circular 6737, July 1933) gives an important resume of the work of the petroleum and natural gas division of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The chief motive of the Bureau is to collect and correlate the best available knowledge and information regarding physical phenomena, and thereafter make analyses of the data received with the view of delineating laws and fundamental relationships having practical application to problems of economic production, transportation and manufacture of gas and oil. During recent years, with the rapid growth of the industry, innumerable complex problems have arisen and in consequence the scope of the Bureau's work has changed and enlarged materially since its inception in 1914. The technique of practical oil and gas production is now more generally known and the Bureau is, therefore, able to concentrate on studies of a fundamental nature and on problems incapable of solution by individual concerns. Technical problems now confronting the Bureau concern refining; production of gas and oil, including related problems of pipe-line transportation of natural gas; engineering field studies; and special engineering problems, including technical research for information sought by the industry. The chief value of the Bureau's work, however, lies not in the multiplicity of problems under investigation but in the fact that all published information is definitely based on results of commercially independent experimentation and investigation. No statistics or data are published without being first subjected to rigorous scrutiny within the Bureau, and frequently such information is critically reviewed by recognised national authorities in the industry before release. Finally, the Bureau places its detailed and valuable findings without reservation at the disposal of a world-wide technical public, long since mindful of its obligation to a most efficient and learned body.

World Oil Production

THE Petroleum Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Mines has recently published results of its annual statistical survey of the world crude petroleum production for 1932 (Mineral Market Reports No. 183). During this year the total amount produced was 1,305 million barrels, representing a decrease of nearly 67 million barrels, or 5 per cent, of the total recorded for the previous year. The analysis of production by countries is interesting. For example, in 1930 the second largest producer was Venezuela, while in 1931 Russia came second on the list, the United States taking as hitherto prior place. In 1932 the production of Venezuela still further decreased, Russia again taking second place to the United States, the total output of which was 781 million barrels, or about 60 per cent of the world's total. Of the British Empire resources, Trinidad is tenth on the list with a production of 10 million barrels. British India was responsible for 8 million barrels; Sarawak for a little more than 2 million barrels; Egypt for 13/4 million barrels; Canada for 1 million barrels, a noteworthy decline. The output of oil from Persia showed an increase over the previous two years with a total of 49 million barrels, while that from Iraq remained much the same at a little less than 1 million barrels. It is probably safe to say that the general decrease in production for the year of some 67 million barrels is due rather to such measures of conservation as may have been satisfactorily adopted and also to general marketing conditions, rather than to any noteworthy decline in the actual natural resources of petroleum.

THE CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF SILICOSIS

Comments on the clinical manifestations of silicosis as reported in this paper are based on a study1carried out among 7,722 men employed as miners in the Picher District of Oklahoma. This work was done during the year 1928 by officers of the United States Bureau of Mines and the United States Public Health Service, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the mine operators' association. In commenting on the similarity of these observations to those noted by Dr. Irvine and his associates in their study of the silicosis problem in South Africa, it will be recalled that Irvine2summarized, in his report to the international conference held in Johannesburg in 1930, the results of the important work done by that group of investigators. The disease has been divided, both in South Africa and in the United States, into two classes: simple silicosis and silicosis plus

Geophysical work at the United States Bureau of Mines

Resistivity‐surveys were made at the Legrande oil‐pool in Hart County, Kentucky, to correlate, if possible, oil‐ and gas‐structures with resistivity‐measurements. The results of this work are presented in Technical Paper 521 (in press).A careful study of magnetic anomalies measured by an Askania balance was made upon three representative iron ore‐deposits. From the geophysical viewpoint they represent three different types of deposits. The results of this investigation are very interesting and are being published by the Bureau as Technical Paper 528 (in press).

Some Properties of Carbon Black

Abstract The term “carbon black” will be used in this paper to include all the varieties of moderately pure carbon existing in the form of soot. So far as the rubber industry is concerned, four distinct types of carbon black are in general use, as follows: (1) Gas Black.—Sometimes itself called carbon black, made by the incomplete combustion of natural gas, the principal component of which is methane. The flames of burning gas impinge on metal surfaces, on which the black is deposited. (Cf. Neal and Perrott, Bull. No. 192, United States Bureau of Mines, 1922.) (2) Acetylene Black.—Produced by the explosive combustion of purified acetylene in closed chambers. (3) Lamp Black.—Obtained by incomplete combustion of fats, oils, tars, etc. Unlike the gas black particles, which are removed from the interior of the flame, those of lamp black pass through the outer layer before deposition. (Twiss, India Rubber J., 65, 607, 651, 393 (1923)). (4) Thermatomic Black.—Made by thermal decomposition of natural gas out of contact with air. The difference in physical properties of these blacks depends largely on differences in heat treatment during manufacture. They are arranged above in order of the size of the individual particles, those of gas black easily averaging the smallest.

Acute Response of Guinea Pigs to Vapors of Some New Commercial Organic Compounds: I. Ethylene Dichloride: Report of the United States Bureau of Mines to the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation

Acute Response of Guinea Pigs to Vapors of Some New Commercial Organic Compounds: I. Ethylene Dichloride: Report of the United States Bureau of Mines to the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation