photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several boxes of rock core are pictured Monday, December 23, 2024.

The Kansas Geological Survey’s library of drill cores, which currently includes over 73,000 boxes of rocks, is expanding to enhance its capabilities for analyzing and storing these geological samples.

The Kansas Geological Survey Drill Core Library is one of the largest public core depositories in the United States. The library houses thousands of rock cores – rock samples collected when drilling a well – that are available for analysis by universities across the state and experts from various industries, particularly oil and gas.

The facility has surpassed 80% of its capacity. Other state geological surveys have been forced to dispose of core samples due to limited storage space, and replacing them is costly. Collecting 2,000 feet of core can cost as much as half a million dollars. To support future growth, a 5,500-square-foot expansion will be added to the library located on the University of Kansas’ west campus.

photo by: PGAV Architects

Architect’s drawing of addition to the KGS Drill Core Library.

Construction for the addition will begin this month, and once completed it will almost triple the amount of storage space for rock cores. In addition, it will more than double the laboratory space for scientists and engineers to analyze a core’s mineral makeup, ages, material properties and the environments in which it formed.

Jay Kalbas, director of the KGS and state geologist, said these cores provide insight into the subsurface. Geologists use them to study fluid and gas movement and to identify resources like hydrocarbons, a key fuel source, and critical minerals for technologies such as electric cars and solar panels.

These rock cores are in a cylinder shape and are usually 2 to 4 inches in diameter, but they can range from hundreds to thousands of feet long. Each core provides a window into the subsurface that allows geologists to gain an understanding of how natural resources are distributed below our feet and move throughout the ground.

Currently, most of KGS’ cores are stored at the west campus core library or in a satellite storage facility north of Lawrence. Kalbas said that while it houses a majority of the core collection, that facility doesn’t have power or water and the KGS doesn’t evaluate the cores at that location. Instead, a core has to be transported from that location to the equipment where they can take a closer look.

The new addition will make it easier to look at these cores more closely while accessing more of the core at one central location on Constant Avenue. With federal grant funding, KGS acquired a Geotek Multi-Sensor Core Logger, which measures the mineral makeup of cores at extremely high resolution. The core logger and other advanced equipment will be housed in the new addition.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Rachel Smith, laboratory program director at the KGS, and Joseph Tierney, temporary research assistant at KGS, stand next to the multi sensor core logger, which takes detailed measurements of core on July 5, 2024.

“Very few laboratories in the country have one of these core scanners, but we have one,” Kalbas said. “Right now, we can’t house one here at the KGS; we have to house that over at Slawson (Hall) because of space limitations. What we’re going to do is build a lab to be able to house that here.”

As the Journal-World has reported, the multi-sensor core logger provides detailed data about the rocks in the cores. It gathers data on the concentrations of different elements, the rock density, magnetic susceptibility, natural radioactivity and more. There is also a camera equipped to take high-resolution images of the core.

Eventually, this information from the instrument will be archived and added to state and national databases so that anybody can evaluate it. This data could help the public make decisions about oil and gas and other natural resources.

“That allows us to put together a much more complete picture of what the subsurface looks like,” Kalbas said.

The new addition will be called the Watney Extension, in tribute to the late Lynn Watney, who was a senior scientist at KGS who conducted energy research across the state and played a key role in establishing the core repository. It will be built to the west of the current KGS library on Constant Avenue.

The building, designed by PGAV Architects in Westwood, is funded by a one-time state appropriation of $3.8 million. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this week, and construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

All of the shelves previously storing the rock cores, pictured Monday, December 23, 2024, at the Kansas Geological Survey’s location at the West District of the University of Kansas’ campus will be removed to house advanced technological equipment and the Geotek Multi-Sensor Core Logger.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The addition will be built to the west of the KGS building on Constant Ave, which is pictured on Monday, December 23, 2024.