These methods result from about four years of study of shales and recent fine-grained muds. Characterization of shales has been a topic of intensive research under the Eastern Gas Shales Project through a contract study to West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey funded by United States Department of Energy.

This dataset contain raw data files in kmz files (Google Earth georeference format). These files include volcanic vent locations and age, the distribution of fine-grained lacustrine sediments (which act as both a seal and an insulating layer for hydrothermal fluids), and post-Miocene faults compiled from the Idaho Geological Survey, the USGS Quaternary Fault database, and unpublished mapping. It also contains the Composite Common Risk Segment Map created during Phase 1 studies, as well as a file with locations of select deep wells used to interrogate the subsurface.