National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project - Uinta-Piceance Province (020) Pod(s) of Mature Source Rock
Published By U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior
Issued about 9 years ago
Summary
Description
The Pod (or pods) of Mature Source Rock is a critical element of the Total Petroleum System and incorporates all source rocks that potentially have generated hydrocarbons within the system. The Pod(s) of Mature Source Rock is shown here as a geographic boundary defined and mapped by the geologist responsible for the province, and incorporates the known limit of thermally mature, organic-rich source rock(s) that is responsible for generating and expelling discovered and undiscovered petroleum accumulations, shows, or seeps within the Total Petroleum System. The Pod(s) of Mature Source Rock boundary was mapped by the province geologist after studying the extent of the source rock facies and the temperature and burial histories of the source rock within the province or basin. Thermal maturity studies are typically performed through investigations of geothermal gradient using well data, and thermal modeling calculations and commercial computer programs, such as BasinMod.