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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Economic Geology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1434785
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploration, Development, and Protection of Earth’s Resources and Environment: Methods, Techniques, Applications, Prospects, Insights, and Problems View all 18 articles

Applications in Utilizing Soil Gas Geochemistry Along With Geological and Potential Field Geophysical Data to Construct Helium Exploration Statistical Models on the Four Corners Platform, USA

Provisionally accepted
Daniel T. Halford Daniel T. Halford 1*Ruta Karolyte Ruta Karolyte 2Joseph T. Dellenbach Joseph T. Dellenbach 3Bill Cathey Bill Cathey 4Michael Cathey Michael Cathey 4Dalton Balentine Dalton Balentine 5Mark W. Andreason Mark W. Andreason 6Gary K. Rice Gary K. Rice 5
  • 1 University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • 2 Other, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • 3 Division of Energy and Mineral Development, Lakewood, California, United States
  • 4 Earthfield Technology LLC, Richmond, California, United States
  • 5 GeoFrontiers Corporation, Rowlett, Texas, United States
  • 6 Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company, St. Michaels, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    A key challenge in helium exploration is determining the efficacy of surface soil gas surveys. While soil gas surveys can detect helium, the mechanisms leading to these signals are often poorly understood, hindering reliable interpretation for exploration purposes. Here we present the results of seven new soil gas He gas surveys (n=1974) at the Akah Nez Field, Beautiful Mountain Field, Porcupine Dome area, Rattlesnake Field, Tom area, Tohache Wash area, and White Rock area, on the Colorado Plateau, Four Corners area, USA. Utilizing 2D seismic, well logs, and geophysical potential field data, structural maps are constructed of potential He reservoirs at depth and examine relationships. Given geospatial relationships are being examined using the soil gas survey data, it is important to understand the mechanism that allows subsurface He to migrate upwards into the soil. In several fields interpreted basement faults act as migration conduits from the basement to the surface (i.e., leaky reservoir seals), and in other cases there is evidence for reservoir flank/crest fracturing likely due to differential compaction. Based on the regional geologic history, advection systems are likely responsible for the observed He soil gas signatures. Additionally, based on the Tohache Wash data (most prospective He area) an effective and risk-reducing novel technique is presented that constructs a predictive He exploration model utilizing soil gas geochemistry, high-resolution geophysical data, well data and seismic data using Bayesian ANOVA techniques, which may be translated to areas outside of the Four Corners Area, USA.

    Keywords: helium exploration, Geophysics, geochemistry, statistics, Soil gas, structural geology

    Received: 18 May 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Halford, Karolyte, Dellenbach, Cathey, Cathey, Balentine, Andreason and Rice. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Daniel T. Halford, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

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