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Salt Dissolution And Surface Subsidence In Central Kansas: A Seismic Investigation Of The Anthropogenic And Natural Origin Models, Neil Lennart Anderson, Alex A. Martinez, John F. Hopkins, Timothy R. Carr

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gradual subsidence in the Punkin Center study area, northeast Reno County, Kansas, has resulted in ponding of surface waters, abandonment of at least one oil well, and damage to county roads. Because the Punkin Center area is within the Burrton oil field and is underlain by the Hutchinson Salt Member, surface subsidence historically has been attributed to salt dissolution of anthropogenic origin. Subsidence that occurred significant distances from any known well sites has been attributed to unrecorded abandoned wells or complex asymmetric patterns of salt dissolution that originated at a drillhole.

To ascertain the validity of the widely accepted anthropogenic …