BASAL/BASAL II - material-structural investigations of the genesis and distribution of flat-bedded rock salt
Country / Region: independent
Begin of project: November 1, 2013
End of project: December 31, 2025
Status of project: October 16, 2024
Schematic onshore distribution of halite-bearing stratigraphic sequences of various ages in Germany
Source: BGR
Against the background of the relaunch of the German-wide search for the site of a geologic repository for heat-generating, high-level radioactive waste, BGR, operating on behalf of the former BMWi, expands the information and data available on flat-bedded rock salt formations in Germany. These investigations supplement the data contained in the previous BGR evaporite rock studies.
As part of the BASAL project (“Distribution and properties of flat-bedded rock salt horizons in Germany”), BGR carried out a synthesis and focused enhancement of the current database on the distribution, depth, thickness, geological bedding constraints, and the composition and repository-relevant properties of flat-bedded rock salt formations. The first interim report was issued in December 2014, which summarised the current information available for the whole of Germany on the distribution, characteristics and bedding constraints of flat-bedded rock salt horizons. The study includes a reworked presentation of the distribution and characteristic findings from wells drilled within flat-bedded rock salt units of various ages.
Comparison of rock salt horizons altered by salt diapirism (left, Staßfurt-Hauptsalt, Gorleben salt dome) and predominantly flat-bedded rock salt horizons (right, rock salt from the Staßfurt Formation, Teutschenthal). Transmitted light photographs of polished core samples. Height of the cores approx. 1 m.
Source: BGR
In addition, calculations were carried out on the influence of selected model properties and material parameters in the numerical modelling of geologic repositories in flat-bedded rock salt formations, and for material-structural investigations on the composition and barrier-relevant properties of flat-bedded evaporite rocks.
This data is supplemented by the relevant material investigations of the rock salt as a host rock in flat-bedded formations as part of the follow-up BASAL II project (“Material-structural investigations on the genesis and distribution of flat-lying evaporite rocks”). The investigations comprise the mineralogical and geochemical analysis, and the structural overprinting of rock salt, and are used to evaluate the barrier properties, as well as to assess the spatial transferability of the geologic-repository-relevant lithological properties to flat-bedded rock salt as a host rock.
With the data generated by the BASAL/BASAL II projects, BGR makes a fundamental contribution to the characterisation of rock salt as a potential geologic repository host rock stipulated in the Site Selection Act (StandAG 2017).