A new study of subsurface geology in northeastern Pennsylvania shows that methane from deep shale formations, like the Marcellus, has been found as a natural condition in the shallow drinking water aquifer system of the region. The peer-reviewed study, “A Geochemical Context for Stray Gas Investigations in the N. Appalachian Basin: Implications of Analyses of Natural Gases from Neogene-Through-Devonian-Age Strata,” was published this month in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The research shows that Marcellus-type gas has migrated over geologic time and has mixed with shallow, less-thermally-mature methane.

The study’s authors are Fred Baldassare, a senior geoscientist; Mark McCaffrey, a petroleum geochemist; and John Harper, a Ph.D. recently retired from the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey. Baldassare is a former state geologist who was the lead author for Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas regulations (25 Pa. Code Ch. 78, §§78, 89) for stray gas incident response and he has been a researcher on the application of isotope geochemistry, i.e., “chemical fingerprinting,” to identify the origin of hydrocarbons since 1992. His experience as an investigator and researcher on the application of isotope geochemistry exceeds most, if not all, scientists in the Appalachian Basin. Baldassare is now a principal of Echelon Applied Geochemistry Consulting located in Murrysville, Pa.

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