Geology of the Four Corners Country最新文献

{"title":"Dakota Sandstone and lower Mancos Shale stratigraphy at the Red Wash measured section and nearby wells in the Four Corners platform, Navajo Reservation, San Juan County, New Mexico","authors":"Donald E. Owen, C. F. Head, Nicolas R. Brandes","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.107","url":null,"abstract":"The Dakota Sandstone of the Four Corners Platform consists of a thick White Rock Mesa Member with thin westward edges of the Whitewater Arroyo Shale and Twowells Sandstone Members, overlain by the complete Graneros Shale and Greenhorn Limestone Members of the Mancos Shale. A key outcrop is at Red Wash on US highway 64 west of Shiprock, NM. Paleocurrent interpretations of fluvial crossbedding indicate an ENE transport direction. Logs of 100 wells in the nearby subsurface provide details that show thinning of the lower fluvial section and thickening of the upper marine section to the east.","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130337448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Oil and gas resources of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico and Colorado","authors":"J. Fassett","doi":"10.1130/DNAG-GNA-P2.357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/DNAG-GNA-P2.357","url":null,"abstract":"A BSTRACT — The San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado is the second-largest gas basin in the conterminous United States, second in total estimated gas reserves to the Hugoton field of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The basin is in the Four Corners area, near the common Corners of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. The major tectonic element of the basin is the monocline bounding the central basin on the east, north, and west sides. The central basin has no southern structural boundary; its southern limit for purposes of this report is drawn roughly along the outcrop of the Pictured Cliffs Sandstone. Outside the monocline, rocks generally dip less steeply toward the basin’s structural axis. The San Juan Basin comprises three elements: the central basin, Chaco slope, and Four Corners platform. All of the oil and gas fields discussed herein are within the San Juan Basin and the production statistics for the San Juan Basin are for fields within this area. The structural axis, or deepest part of the central basin is arcuate and generally trends northwest in the northern part of the basin. Except along the monoclinal rim of the central basin, dips are gentle and range from less than one degree to commonly less than two degrees. Precambrian rocks crop out north of the San Juan Basin on the San Juan uplift, to the east on the Nacimiento uplift, to the south on the Zuni uplift, and to the southwest on the Defiance uplift. Oil and gas production in the San Juan Basin through 2009 been from more than 300 fields or reservoirs in New Mexico and Colorado. Most production has come from Upper Cretaceous rocks. Most the basin’s historical gas production come from stratigraphic traps in fractured-sandstone but in Fruitland Formation coal- methane enormously. gas all San Juan Basin fields late 2009) is 42.6 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCFG) with 26 TCFG coming from fractured sandstone reservoirs, 16 TCFG from Fruitland coal beds, and the remainder from smaller oil and gas fields. Cumulative oil production is 381 million barrels of oil (MBO) with 175 MBO coming from Tocito Sandstone fields. This “oil” production includes nearly 100 million barrels of condensate from the basin’s three fractured-sandstone, gas-producing reservoirs. Nearly all the fields in the central basin area produce from stratigraphic traps whereas the relatively small oil and gas fields on the Four Corners Platform produce from structural traps. The Fruitland Formation’s coal-bed methane is trapped by adsorption of the gas in the coal, and thus is in a category of trap all its own.","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126648756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cretaceous rocks of the San Juan Basin and mineralization in La Plata mountains: Second-day road log from Cortez to La Plata and Durango, Colorado, to Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico","authors":"J. Fassett, M. Gillam, D. González, K. Miskell-Gerhardt","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.35","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.35","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122909732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distribution, origin, and mineral resource potential of Late Cretaceous heavy mineral, beach-placer sandstone deposits","authors":"V. McLemore","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.197","url":null,"abstract":"Beach-placer sandstone deposits are concentrations of heavy minerals that formed by mechanical concentrations (i.e. settling) of heavy minerals on beaches or in longshore bars in a marginal-marine environment. Numerous deposits are found in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico that contain high concentrations of Ti, Zr, rare earth elements (REE), Sc, Y, U, Th, Nb, Ta, Fe, and other elements. Potential sources of these deposits include Proterozoic granitic and metamorphic rocks, such as those found in the Zuni Mountains, the Jurassic arc volcanism and magmatism forming the Mogollon Highlands to the south and west, and recycling of older sediments. Many of these elements, especially Ti and REE (including Y and Sc), are increasingly becoming more important in our technological society and are used in many of our electronic devices, such as cell phones, computer monitors, televisions, wind turbines, etc. It is unlikely that any of the heavy mineral, beach-placer sandstone deposits in the San Juan Basin will be mined in the near future because of small tonnage, low grades, high degree of cementation through lithification, high iron content, and distance to processing plants and markets. However, as the demand for some of these elements increases because of increased demand and short supplies, the dollar value per ton of ore rises, enhancing deposit economics. Detailed mapping and exploration drilling of some of these deposits, particularly the Sanostee deposit and the deposits on the Ute Indian Reservation (northern San Juan Basin), are essential to fully evaluate the economic potential. Although, Zech et al. (1994) provided chemical analyses of the deposits on the Ute Indian Reservation, detailed chemical analyses of the remaining deposits in the San Juan Basin are essential to fully evaluate their resource potential in today’s ever changing economic market.","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134197642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Jurassic rocks of the Four Corners region - First day road log","authors":"C. Turner, F. Peterson","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123846748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uranium in the Sanostee district, San Juan County, New Mexico","authors":"W. L. Chenoweth, V. McLemore","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.213","url":null,"abstract":"The Sanostee district (also known as the Chuska district) is located within the Navajo Indian Reservation, San Juan Basin, San Juan County, New Mexico. On the Reservation all prospecting, leasing and mining was controlled by the Navajo Tribal Council and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All prospectors had to have a permit. Uranium ore has been produced from the Salt Wash and Recapture Members of the Jurassic Morrison Formation and a small amount of ore has been mined from the Jurassic Todilto Limestone. Total production from the district amounted to 139,399 short tons of ore grading 0.12% U3O8 and 0.14% V2O5 and containing 332,721 pounds of U3O8. During the period 1952 through 1982, the large underground mine on Enos Johnson’s mining permit, west of the village of Sanostee, produced 136,665 short tons of ore that averaged 0.12% U3O8 and contained 325,927 pounds of U3O8. Ores that were analyzed for vanadium averaged 0.14% V2O5. This production makes the Enos Johnson mine the largest uranium mine in New Mexico, outside the Grants uranium district. It is likely that additional small deposits could occur in the Sanostee district. However, the Navajo Indian Reservation now has a moratorium on any uranium exploration and mining within its boundaries. Furthermore, the known deposits in the Sanostee district were relatively small compared to the larger more extensive deposits in the Grants uranium district. It is unlikely that any of the deposits in the Sanostee district will be mined in the foreseeable future.","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128581344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geologic implications of an 40AR/39Ar single-crystal sanidine age for an altered volcanic ash bed in the Paleocene Nacimiento Formation in the southern San Juan Basin","authors":"J. Fassett, M. Heizler, W. Mcintosh, E. James","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.147","url":null,"abstract":"A BSTRACT — The first 40 Ar/ 39 Ar single-crystal age for Paleogene strata in the southern San Juan Basin was obtained from sani- dine crystals recovered from an altered volcanic ash bed in the Paleocene Nacimiento Formation at Mesa de Cuba near Cuba, NM. The age, 64.0 ± 0.4 Ma (2 sigma), is based on single crystal sanidine results relative to Fish Canyon sanidine at 28.02 Ma and a total 40K decay constant of 5.543E-10/a. Due to significant contamination by older K-feldspar crystals, this date is considered a maximum depositional age. Stratigraphically, the dated ash bed is 119 m above the Cretaceous-Tertiary contact and 76 m above the Nacimiento/Ojo Alamo Sandstone contact. This age places the ash bed near the bottom of magnetochron C28n. The lower part of chron C29n was identified within the underlying Ojo Alamo Sandstone at Mesa Portales, about 12 km south of the Mesa de Cuba ash-bed locality; the base of this chron is 98 m below the dated ash bed. This age determination allowed a calculation of the rate of sedimentation for underlying Paleocene strata of 73 m/m.y. (not corrected for compaction). Extrapolating this rate of deposition to overlying Nacimiento Formation strata to the base of the Eocene San Jose Formation places that formation boundary at 61.42 Ma. Because the Paleocene-Eocene contact is 55.8 Ma, a long-lasting hiatus of at least 5.6 m.y. must be present at the Paleocene-Eocene contact at Mesa de Cuba (assuming there are no significant, intervening unconformities present in Nacimiento strata overlying the dated ash bed).","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126941540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coal mining in the western San Juan Basin, San Juan County, New Mexico","authors":"J. Mercier","doi":"10.56577/ffc-61.173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-61.173","url":null,"abstract":"A BSTRACT — Coal mining in New Mexico essentially began in the mid 1800s driven by the expanding network of railroads into the West. An early peak in production occurred around the end of World War I and then began a long decline until the late 1950s. After this long stagnant period for the coal industry, a new market was defined by changing demographics and large- scale mining accelerated in the early 1960’s to meet the energy demands of the rapidly growing population of the Southwestern US. More recent development of coal resources has focused on the creation of thermal electric energy. In San Juan County, New Mexico, the economic coal seams of the Fruitland Fm. exposed along the margins of the San Juan Basin, offer easy access to significant resources amenable to surface- mining methods. In a notable exception, an underground longwall operation has successfully extended coal extraction in a location where increasing overburden created unfavorable economics for further surface operations. With the clustering of coal-fired power plants adjacent to the various coal mines, new controversies have arisen in recent years focused on regional air quality, economic development of natural resources, global warming, and impacts to the indig-enous Native community. Improved mining and innovative reclamation methods, as well as the infusion of hundreds of mil- lions of dollars of environmental technology into local power plants, suggest that coal mining is still a viable industry in New Mexico.","PeriodicalId":283482,"journal":{"name":"Geology of the Four Corners Country","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125345861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}