Preliminary study of the uranium potential of the Dan River Triassic Basin System, North Carolina and Virginia
A preliminary geologic investigation was conducted to determine the uranium potential of the Triassic strata in the Dan River basin system (Dan River, Danville, and Davie County Triassic basins) of North Carolina and Virginia. The pre-Triassic Inner Piedmont basement rocks adjacent to the basins were investigated as potential sources of uranium. Outcrops of Triassic and basement rocks were examined and measured for surface radioactivity by scintillometer. Representative rock and saprolite samples were collected for laboratory analyses. The pre-Triassic basement terrain contains weathered granites which have contributed detritus to the basin system and which may have served as primary sources for uranium. The intertongued, hematitic arkoses and black, carbonaceous pyritic shales that constitute the Triassic sequence are favorable uranium host rocks; and possible structural, stratigraphic, and porosity traps for uranium are abundant throughout the basins. On the basis of these factors and the chemical uranium anomalies of 5X and 10X background detected at the surface, uranium mineralization at depth in the Triassic strata of the Dan River basin system is suggested. Applying data gathered by the surface investigation to conditions expected in the subsurface, four specific areas are anticipated as favorable sites for uranium mineralization: (1) along the unconformable contact between the Triassic sequence and the pre-Triassic basement rocks; (2) along the contacts between bleached aureole rocks (associated with diabase dikes) and unaltered, red clastics; (3) within structural and porosity traps created where faulting has positioned black shales adjacent to red arkose and by impermeable barriers such as diabase intrusives or shear zones; (4) within stratigraphic traps created by lithosomal intertonguing of black shales and red sandstones.
- Research Organization:
- Bendix Field Engineering Corp., Grand Junction, CO (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-13-1664
- OSTI ID:
- 6499703
- Report Number(s):
- GJBX-131(78)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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