The Utica Shale is an Ordovician organic-rich mudstone throughout the Appalachian basin that is of interest as an unconventional hydrocarbon reservoir, with a focus in Eastern Ohio. There are preliminary data on source rock potential, broad-scale mineralogy and general structure of the formation, but detailed analysis will be beneficial to understanding the origins and locations of the hydrocarbons present. This research explores mineralogy, depositional cycles and structure of the Utica Shale to better understand the depositional environment, oceanic conditions and climate during the Middle Ordovician in Ohio through Visible Near Infrared Spectrophotometry and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrophotometry, along with traditional techniques including total carbon, organic carbon and inorganic carbon, X-Ray Diffraction, thin section and isotope analysis on four cores located across Ohio. These tools will help build a model for origin of organic shales that may be applicable to many different hydrocarbon plays. Advances in core-logging spectrometry have made it possible to obtain quantitative and qualitative information about variation in core mineralogy, chemistry, and physical properties at much higher resolution than is feasible using destructive sampling techniques, and complement the more standard, time-intensive measurement techniques. In order to extrapolate the obtained data, well logs will be correlated with the data and then extrapolated to adjacent wells in order to obtain a more complete, regional representation of the subsurface. Preliminary results have shown that there is a complex mixture of clay minerals and carbonates alternating throughout the formation. Extensive work still needs completed on mineralogy, chemistry and digitizing well logs.