[Obo-envo] New terms for hydrocarbon production

[William C. N. <wcn...@us...>]

Hi,

I'm working on a project that studies the microbiology of hydrocarbon 
production, mostly oil sands and coal bed methane.

Regarding the oil sands, I was thinking along the lines of:
environmental feature:geographic feature:physiographic feature:sand deposit
   definition = A sedimentary mass composed mainly of sand.
environmental feature:geographic feature:physiographic feature:sand 
deposit:bituminous sand deposit
    definition = A sedimentary mass composed mainly of a mixture of 
bitumen and sand.

In addition, we are sampling the tailings ponds associated with 
processing the oil sands. For these, I am proposing:
environmental feature:geographic feature:anthropogenic feature:waste 
reservoir
    definition = A construction meant to hold waste materials.
environmental feature:geographic feature:anthropogenic feature:waste 
reservoir:mining waste reservoir
    definition = A construction meant to hold waste materials resulting 
from mining activity.
environmental feature:geographic feature:anthropogenic feature:waste 
reservoir:mining waste reservoir:tailings pond
    definition = Constructed ponds into which water borne mining 
tailings are pumped to allow the sedimentation (meaning separation) of 
solid particles from the water and natural degradation of remaining 
hydrocarbon material.
It could also be listed as:
environmental feature:geographic feature:hydrographic feature:water 
body:lake:pond:artificial pond:tailings pond

And for the coal beds:
environmental feature:geographic feature:physiographic 
feature:underground physiographic feature:coal stratum
    definition = A stratum of coal.
although I'm not sure how to then distinguish between seams containing 
the various ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous coal, anthracite, etc). 
Would those be environmental materials with "part_of" relationships, or 
should strata of specific types be created (e.g. 'lignite stratum')?

thanks for your attention,
Bill

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------
William C. Nelson, PhD
Research Asst Professor
University of Southern California
Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Marine Environmental Biology Division
Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies
310-510-4097
wcn...@us...