In Situ Stresses Adjacent to Salt Formations of the Elk Point Group, Eastern Alberta and Western Saskatchewan

This Special Report is the public release of a consultant report by Advanced Geotechnology Inc. submitted to the Alberta Geological Survey in 2001. The report describes a three-phase investigation of in situ stresses in and adjacent to salt formations of the Devonian Elk Point Group in eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan carried out in 2000 and 2001, with a focus on salt cavern design considerations for the potential storage of greenhouse gases.
The report contains a comprehensive literature review of salt rock mechanics, with a particular focus on storage caverns, provides an analysis of relevant data in the study area to determine the orientation and magnitudes of in situ stresses in and adjacent to the Lotsberg, Cold Lake, and Prairie Evaporite formations, and includes recommendations for further studies to quantify in situ stress and rock mechanical properties in salt formations, which could potentially host greenhouse gas storage caverns.