The Barnett Shale is a natural gas source bed rock that stretches over 16 to 21 North Texas counties and is still actively being discovered. Its 6,000 + square-mile reservoir is already the second largest producing on-shore domestic natural gas field in the United States after the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado. At three different times spread out by 100 million years, Texas was actually a shallow ocean that stretched up the central plains and even carried up into and through Canada. The first 100 feet of ocean is considered the Photo Eukaric Zone since light can penetrate the first 100 feet. With light and heat being a factor in this shallow body of water we can assume these oceans had a huge phytoplankton and zooplankton population and with that, massive coral reef beds were created by filtering the massive plankton population. This was the environment in most of Texas some 300 to 600 million years ago as the ocean came in and out at least three different times in the Fort Worth Basin. The Barnett Shale gas field was discovered by wildcatters in the early 1950's who were pioneering the Conglomerate, Marble Falls, Pregnant Shale, and Strawn Zones.

For more information, visit the following links:

http://www.thebarnettshale.com/

http://www.tudorpickering.com/pdfs/TheBarnettShaleReport.pdf

http://www.barnettshale.com/