A Basin Analysis Case Study: The Morrison Formation, Grants Uranium Region, New Mexico

This volume summarizes results of a U.S. Geological Survey multidisciplinary basin analysis research effort that encompasses all aspects of the geology of the Morrison Formation in the Grants uranium region, located in the San Juan basin of northwestern New Mexico, U.S.A. Tectonic, stratigraphic, sedimentologic, structural, petrographic, mineralogic, geochemical, and resource studies are drawn together to provide a geologic synthesis of the Jurassic Morrison Formation, the main uranium host rock in the region, and to provide background data for the formulation of genetic models for ore genesis. The result is a compendium of 21 papers that incorporates many recent and significant advances in our understanding of factors that favored uranium mineralization in the Morrison, and several new genetic models that incorporate these recent advances. The basin analysis approach used here has proved fruitful in that ore genesis can now be viewed in the context of the evolution of a sedimentary basin rather than as an isolated event. This approach to ore genesis has application not only to uranium deposits but also to all sediment-hosted ore deposits.
Structural Control of Sedimentation Patterns and the Distribution of Uranium Deposits in the Westwater Canyon Member of the Morrison Formation, Northwestern New Mexico—A Subsurface Study
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Published:January 01, 1986
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CiteCitation
Allan R. Kirk, Steven M. Condon, 1986. "Structural Control of Sedimentation Patterns and the Distribution of Uranium Deposits in the Westwater Canyon Member of the Morrison Formation, Northwestern New Mexico—A Subsurface Study", A Basin Analysis Case Study: The Morrison Formation, Grants Uranium Region, New Mexico, Christine E. Turner-Peterson, Elmer S. Santos, Neil S. Fishman
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Abstract
Approximately 1,800 geophysical logs and 100 measured sections provided data for several types of isopleth maps of the Westwater Canyon and Brushy Basin Members of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in the southern San Juan basin, New Mexico. These types of maps include: isopach, sandstone:mudstone ratio, percent sandstone, net sandstone, and average number of mudstone interbeds per 100 ft (30 m) of section. We also constructed a paleotopographic map on the base of the Westwater Canyon and a structure contour map on the base of the Upper Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone.
These maps illustrate depositional unit geometry, sandstone depocenter distribution,...