Three Indiana University agencies will collaborate under a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the feasibility of using subsurface Indiana rock formations for carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The Indiana Geological and Water Survey (IGWS) will lead this multi-year project and focus on data collection, analysis, and geologic interpretation. The Center for Rural Engagement (CRE) at IU Bloomington and the Polis Center at IUPUI, with assistance from Carbon Solutions LLC, will focus on engaging with and collecting data about areas of the state that could be affected by CCS projects.

Carbon capture is a multi-step process to contain carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes, including the burning of fossil fuels. At CO2 storage or sequestration hubs, CO2 is injected into deep geologic formations where emissions from carbon-intensive industries can be permanently stored under tight and impermeable rock horizons.

Indiana does not currently have sites where CO2 is being sequestered, but several aspects of Indiana geology make it a prime candidate for CO2 sequestration hub development, said Ashley Douds, an IGWS research scientist and the co-project director. Indiana contains several deep saline formations that have the potential to sequester large volumes of CO2, and it ranks No. 3 in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the country behind only Texas and Louisiana. This means that significant amounts of emissions could be stored near where they are being produced rather than being piped long distances.

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A grant-funded project to gather groundwater data in a previously unmonitored area of the state is underway.

The IGWS Water Team supervised the drilling of a 130-ft-deep hole on property owned by Citizens Energy Group in Owen County. Funded by the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN), the monitoring equipment enables IGWS staff to gather long-term data on the level and quality of groundwater in a critical area of the state.

“There are two significant water withdrawal facilities upstream that are public drinking water, Jasonville and Clay City, and then there’s one significant water withdrawal facility downstream that is industry, and that’s Bunge, that makes cornmeal for tortilla chips,” explained IGWS Research Scientist Ginger Davis, the project director. “Also, this is a heavily flooded area, so there’s not a lot of water wells; there’s not a lot of any subsurface information except for these water withdrawal facilities. So, we don’t have a lot of good data either as to what it looks like through here.”

The team drilled down to 130 ft to collect core samples, investigate the geology, and find the best aquifer, Davis said. After doing a separate analysis with gamma ray probes, they decided to backfill the hole and place the equipment between 28 and 38 ft below the surface, which will be conducive to monitoring the water in the alluvial sand aquifer below the Eel River. The core pulled from this well also was helpful to other IGWS scientists who are collecting data for STATEMAP-funded research in the Bloomington area.

The new well is part of a larger project the NGWMN has been funding with a series of grants since 2018. The aim is to determine how groundwater levels change over time to better understand aquifer responses to seasonal and longer weather patterns. The Greene-Owen-Clay County area has buried aquifers of “alluvial and glacial origin” (in sand and gravel) or deeper into bedrock, but the NGWMN and IGWS had no groundwater monitoring equipment there yet.

Since the well was drilled in April, Davis, Research Scientist McKailey Sabaj, Field and Lab Technician Alex Martinez, GIS Developer Ben Romlein, GIS Analyst Dana Bissey, Field Assistant Connor Miller, and Potter Intern Trent Stegink have been working to direct groundwater elevation data from IGWS water monitoring wells into one geodatabase. Previously, data for the various wells around the state had been going to separate databases; directing it to one will ensure that the most current data is being published to the NGWMN and available for folks in Indiana to access, and that data can be more cleanly compared against other data sets.

Davis estimates that a link to the new Owen County well data will be publicly available next year; some measuring and calibrating visits still need to be done.

At present, 13 IGWS monitoring wells feed data to the nationwide network. Two more are planned to be drilled and installed within the next two years, in Greene and Owen counties, to monitor the Mississippian principal aquifer that supplies water to numerous communities in Indiana.

“We want to monitor our water resources for the whole state, so right now we have a big gap here and we’re trying to fill that,” Sabaj said.

The IGWS’s fall plant event is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 5 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Room 2022 of the Geology Building. The event, conducted in the spring and the fall, raises money for the Indiana Geological Survey Graduate Research Fund.

Fall plant event offerings will include houseplants like shamrocks, Chinese evergreen, burro’s tail sedum, kalanchoe, and begonias; and landscaping plants, like black-eyed Susan, great blue lobelia, autumn joy sedum, and more.

Anyone wishing to donate labeled plants or cuttings may bring them to Room 2022 on Friday, Sept. 1 between 1 and 2 p.m. or Tuesday, Sept. 5 between 8 and 9 a.m.

The graduate research fund has been slowly building; when it hits its goal, a scholarship will be awarded to a graduate student anywhere in Indiana doing earth science research. To support the scholarship from afar, visit the IU Foundation online and type “Indiana Geological Survey Graduate Research Fund” in the search bar.

While drilling a water monitoring well in Owen County, geologists pulled out evidence of Indiana’s tropical past.

These are Lepidodendron (top photo) and Cyperites (bottom photo) fossils: parts of an extinct, tree-like form of a lycopod plant originated during the Silurian Period about 425 million years ago. Lycopod trees grew on much of what is now the eastern United States back when that land was situated near the Equator.

Lepidodendron is the form name given to the outer bark; Cyperites is the name of the thin, grass-like leaves. The roots are assigned the form name, Stigmaria.

IGWS Research Scientist McKailey Sabaj was on the drill site when the fossils came out in core samples. The long, carbon-rich cylinder of rock broke easily in just the right places to enable geologists to see and photograph them.

The IGWS Learning Lab has several samples in its cabinets of Lepidodendron, a bark with a distinctive, scaly, diamond-shaped pattern. It has fewer samples of Cyperites, as leaves are less apt to fossilize than bark, said Polly Sturgeon, IGWS education and outreach coordinator who has identified many fossils for the collection.

The new Lepidodendron and Cyperites samples are currently in core boxes awaiting analysis for the well project but may make their way to the Learning Lab later, Sabaj said.

• Research Scientist Dr. Isaac Allred left his job at the IGWS on Aug. 4 and moved his family to Idaho; he accepted a professorship in the geology department at Brigham Young University in Rexburg. Allred had worked at the IGWS since March 2021.

• Two new research geologists have been hired and will start work this fall; see next month’s newsletter for details.

• The IGWS Water Team will present at the Indiana Climate Services Summit at the Indiana State Fair on Friday, Aug. 11 from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., then will operate a booth with public engagement and interactive displays between 1:30 and 6 p.m. in the Purdue Extension Building.

• On Friday, Aug. 25, the IGWS Water Lab will host an educational seminar and discussion about titration and ion chromatography and how it is used for environmental testing. Metrohm, the maker of the IGWS Water Lab’s two newest instruments, will lead free the event, which begins at 8:30 a.m. and includes lunch. To register or for more information, visit this link.

• The IGWS Advisory Council met remotely on July 26 and heard presentations from Director Dr. Todd Thompson about the budget, staffing, external grants, and publications. Research Scientist Tracy Branam explained water-related research, Research Scientist Ashley Douds spoke about energy- and critical mineral-related research, and Assistant Director for Information Services Matt Johnson spoke about the status of the collections facility and history of appropriations. A video of the collections facility property, which needs renovations to fit the Survey’s needs, can be viewed here.

• At their July 26 meeting, Indiana Board for the Licensure of Professional Geologists (LPG) approved eight license applications (Thompson is pictured at right, signing them) and examined next steps in creating the rules for the continuing education of LPGs.

• Research Scientist Dr. Isaac Allred was the first author of a paper published in July in Lithosphere. It’s titled “There and Back Again: Recycling of the Appalachian Signature in DZ U-Pb Records of Phanerozoic North America.”

• Students in an IU summer science program were able to conduct field work using equipment on temporary loan from the IGWS.(See photo at right.) “Your multi probe was a big hit with the students,” Dr. Michael Hamburger wrote to IGWS Research Scientist Tracy Branam. “Even though we weren’t able to access the lake this year, we spent some time on Griffy Creek making water measurements.” The Jim Holland Summer Science program introduces high-achieving, underrepresented high school students to STEM careers “through interaction with faculty and hands-on projects in the field and in the laboratory.”

• Research Scientist Ginger Davis presented a poster about the Indiana Water Balance Network at the American Association of State Climatologists’ (AASC) first Mesonet Community Meeting in Davenport, Iowa, on July 26. Mesonets are collective groups of weather and environmental monitoring stations.

• Davis provided technical expertise to the USDA-NRCS State Technical Committee Sub-Committee in their goal to refine source water protection local priority areas, where conservation funding will help protect Indiana’s community drinking water supplies. More information about this initiative can be found at this link.

• Friends of Lake Monroe will host the 2nd annual Lake Monroe Day on Sunday, Sept. 17 with events held throughout the week including a kayak trip, a shoreline cleanup, drinking water treatment plant tours, a guided hike, and a celebratory fundraiser. Find more information at www.friendsoflakemonroe.org.

• The IGWS Learning Lab is restarting its popular drop-in, geology-inspired art events. See the schedule on the flyer posted below.