Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and paleogeography of coal-bearing strata in the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, central Grand Hogback, Garfield County, Colorado

Madden-McGuire, Dawn J.

doi:10.3133/pp1485

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This formation records the recession of the Western Interior Seaway with increasingly terrestrial strata overlying laterally extensive coastal plains and peat swamps (Stroker et al, 2013). Thick bituminous coal beds are found largely in the lower portion of the formation, as well as sandstone, shale, and carbonaceous shale deposits (Madden et al, 1989;Roehler et al, 1990).…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The Late Cretaceous, coal-bearing Mesaverde Group of western Colorado also records coastal plain to shallow marine deposition along the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway (Roehler et al, 1990;Stroker et al, 2013). Similar to the Blackhawk Formation, Mesaverde Group strata record clastic sediment transported eastward from the Sevier uplift and into the Western Interior Seaway (Madden et al, 1989;Roehler et al, 1990).…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado

Coe,

Birgenheier,

Fernandez

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

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This study aims to quantify rare earth element enrichment within coal and coal-adjacent strata in the Uinta Region of central Utah and western Colorado. Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals as defined by the U.S. Geological Survey. These elements are used for a wide variety of applications, including renewable energy technology in the transition toward carbon-neutral energy. While rare earth element enrichment has been associated with Appalachian coals, there has been a more limited evaluation of western U.S. coals. Here, samples from six active mines, four idle/historical mines, four mine waste piles, and seven stratigraphically complete cores within the Uinta Region were geochemically evaluated using portable X-ray fluorescence (n = 3,113) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (n = 145) elemental analytical methods. Results suggest that 24%–45% of stratigraphically coal-adjacent carbonaceous shale and siltstone units show rare earth element enrichment (>200 ppm), as do 100% of sampled igneous material. A small subset (5%–8%) of coal samples display rare earth element enrichment, specifically in cases containing volcanic ash. This study proposes two multi-step depositional and diagenetic models to explain the enrichment process, requiring the emplacement and mobilization of rare earth element source material due to hydrothermal and other external influences. Historical geochemical evaluations of Uinta Region coal and coal-adjacent data are sparse, emphasizing the statistical significance of this research. These results support the utilization of active mines and coal processing waste piles for the future of domestic rare earth element extraction, offering economic and environmental solutions to pressing global demands.

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Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%

Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado

Coe,

Birgenheier,

Fernandez

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

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Tectonically Controlled Nearshore Deposition: Cozzette Sandstone, Book Cliffs, Colorado, U.S.A

Madof¹,

Christie‐Blick²,

Anders³

2015

Journal of Sedimentary Research

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The Book Cliffs of eastern Utah and western Colorado have been pivotal in the development of outcrop-based sequence stratigraphic concepts for nonmarine to shallow marine siliciclastic depositional settings. Prior studies in this area, and more generally in the Cretaceous western interior foreland basin of North America, have concluded that nearshore accumulation is controlled for the most part by the interaction between oscillatory eustatic change and longer-term regional patterns of flexural subsidence. New outcrop and subsurface evidence reported here from the eastern Book Cliffs suggests that three-dimensional tectonic tilting at length scales of up to , 50 km (31 mi) and timescales of less than , 200 kyr also strongly influenced sedimentation. Continental ice sheets are thought to have been small at the time. Documented patterns of accumulation are inconsistent with those expected from interactions of eustasy and regional flexure alone.The upper Campanian Cozzette Sandstone Member of the Mount Garfield Formation consists of twelve lithofacies arranged into six lithofacies assemblages, inferred to have been deposited in shallow marine, marginal marine, and nonmarine depositional environments. Shallow marine facies are organized into six wedge-shaped units , 40 m thick, bounded by flooding surfaces, and separated into three larger-scale cycles, which display along-strike and time-equivalent aggradational and progradational stacking. These successions are interpreted as shoreface-foreshore-swamp parasequences, and are erosionally overlain by fluvial and estuarine deposits. Both fluvial and estuarine accumulations are underlain by composite erosional surfaces, belonging either to two distinct incised-valley fills or to one composite fill. The proposed interpretation is based on high-resolution correlations made from digital video and continuous photographs acquired during a helicopter survey of the member. This interpretation differs significantly from published cross sections of the Cozzette, in which the sandstone is inferred to consist of at least two sheet-like shallow marine parasequences, truncated by sequence boundaries.Facies variations, stratigraphic thickness trends, and geometrical relationships reveal that three basinward-landward cycles of syndepositional to postdepositional tectonic tilting in the southern Piceance basin controlled accumulation in the Cozzette Sandstone. Differential subsidence to the southeast led to the development of a northeast-trending clinoform rollover. Subsequent tilting to the north resulted in renewed accommodation creation, and reorientation of the rollover to an eastward trend. Following deposition of six shallow marine parasequences, tilting towards the northeast resulted in bypass and the development of a sequence boundary. The main conclusion of our study, that nearshore sedimentation was modulated by local tectonism at timescales of less than hundreds of thousands of years, casts doubt on the generally accepted eustatic paradigm at a location that was among the most...

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New age constraints on the Late Cretaceous lower Williams Fork Formation, Coal Canyon, Colorado

Walker

Aslan

Cole

et al. 2021

MT GEOL

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The precise age of terrestrial sediments in the Late Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation of western Colorado is poorly constrained due to a paucity of radiometric data. Sanidine and zircon dating of a volcanic ash encased in coal (i.e., the Coal Canyon ash) within the Cameo-Wheeler coal zone of the lower Williams Fork Formation in Coal Canyon, Colorado provides an important new age constraint for the southwestern Piceance Basin. A 10-30 cm thick, light gray, clayey mudstone encased in coal was sampled for both zircon U-Pb and sanidine 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. The presence of numerous euhedral zircon crystals, a lenticular geometry, and a clayey texture suggest that the mudstone is a minimally reworked and slightly altered volcanic ash. Analysis of the euhedral zircon crystals (n=108) in the ash produced a statistically robust U-Pb date with 93 grains yielding a weighed mean age of 74.52 ±0.11 Ma (1σ analytical uncertainty). 40Ar/39Ar sanidine analyses yielded a younger weighted mean age of 73.10 ±0.12 Ma (1σ analytical uncertainty) based on 6 of the 36 grains analyzed. Our preferred age is given by the weighted mean age of the sanidine as it is based on higher precision analyses that can better discriminate older inherited grains that are likely included in the zircon mean-age calculation. Isotopic data for the Coal Canyon ash overlap in age with a K-Ar date of 72.5 ±5.1 Ma for a widespread Williams Fork Formation tonstein, known as the Yampa Bed, found in coal-bearing outcrops and mine workings throughout the northern Piceance and Sand Wash basins and Axial Basin Uplift. Based on the similarity in isotopic age, sedimentologic context and stratigraphic position, we suggest that the Coal Canyon ash and the regionally extensive Yampa Bed are coeval. Additionally, this correlation corroborates that the Cameo-Wheeler coal zone of the Williams Fork Formation in the southwestern Piceance Basin is correlative with the Middle coal zone of the Danforth Hills and Yampa regions. Lastly, this proposed correlation may suggest that the Coal Canyon ash, like the Yampa Bed, correlates with the Baculites reesidei ammonite zone, which is associated regionally with a bentonite dated to 72.94 ±0.45 Ma. Detrital sanidine geochronology of two lower Williams Fork sandstone units that overly the Coal Canyon ash did not produce grains younger than the ash and thus do not quantitatively improve the chronostratigraphy of these specific units. Lastly, the Coal Canyon ash date serves as a basis for future evaluations of the diachroneity of non-marine strata of the Williams Fork Formation.

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Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and paleogeography of coal-bearing strata in the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group, central Grand Hogback, Garfield County, Colorado

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado

Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado

Tectonically Controlled Nearshore Deposition: Cozzette Sandstone, Book Cliffs, Colorado, U.S.A

New age constraints on the Late Cretaceous lower Williams Fork Formation, Coal Canyon, Colorado

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