Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons (liters) of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a mile (1.6 kilometers) underground are opening up "unconventional" gas fields touted as a key to the nation's energy future.
These deposits, where natural gas is so tightly locked in deep rocks that it's costly and complicated to extract, include the Barnett Shale in Texas, the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas, and the Haynesville Shale of Louisiana. But the mother lode is the Marcellus shale underlying the Appalachians.
Geologists call the Marcellus a "super giant" gas field. Penn State geoscientist Terry Engelder …
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