62 Natural Brines of Oil Fields [260 



elsewhere/ results in attributing a connate origin to the 

 water present. 



THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF THE WATER 



The following is a mean analysis of 8 brines collected 

 from strata of Mississippian age expressed in parts per 

 million parts of water : 



Si0 2 137 Na 41585 



Fe 26 K 307 



Ca 12740 Br 44 



Mg 2295 



Hc0 3 19 Total 153000 parts of 



S0 4 1530 dissolved matter per million 



Cl 95043 parts of water 



The outstanding feature of the water is its high chlorine 

 content. This makes up about the entire acidity of the water 

 and comprises 61.12 per cent, of the total dissolved matter 

 present. The other negative ions present, HC0 3 and S0 4 , 

 occur in small amounts, making up but about one per cent, 

 of the salts present. Sodium is by far the most abundant of 

 the basic ions and comprises 21.18 per cent, of the material 

 in solution. Calcium is about one-third as abundant as so- 

 dium and consists of 8.33 per cent of the total salts present. 

 The other basic ions occur in unimportant amounts. 



In addition to their peculiar chemical nature the brines 

 are also to be distinguished by their concentration, which is 

 from three to seven times as great as ocean water. Another 

 interesting feature is the similarity in content of the consti- 

 tuents carried by the waters. Reference to the analysis on 

 page will show that the various salts are always present 

 in about the same relative amounts. This is the more strik- 

 ing when it is considered that the waters were collected at 

 points over an area of 10,000 square miles and from horizons 

 of different geologic age occurring at depths of from 1000 to 



beeves, Frank: A Discussion of the Absence of Water in Certain 

 Petroleum-bearing Strata of the Appalachian Oil Fields. Disserta- 

 tion in Johns Hopkins University Library. 



