Petroleum occurrences associated with Uinta mountains, Utah and Colorado

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984 · Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5590013

Osmond, J C

The Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado are among the rare major structures in the western United States with east-west trends. The east-west trend may have an ancestry in a Precambrian aulacogen and a lower Paleozoic arch. The area was quiescent until the Paleocene or Eocene when the mountain block began to rise and the basins on the trending arches formed during the Cretaceous, and it uplifted the belt of Sevier-Laramide overthrusts. The eastern part of the mountain block collapsed during the mid-Tertiary. The range is an anticline with a core of Precambrian metasediments and steeply dipping Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks on the flanks. Tertiary debris from the mountains overlaps onto older rocks. Anticlines along the flanks of the mountains produce oil and gas from Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks. Stratigraphic traps on the structures cut by the mountain block are enhanced by the intersection, and they produce from Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks. Uplift of the mountains was important in creating unconformity and stratigraphic traps in several oil and gas fields and in bituminous sand deposits. Geophysical work and drilling have shown the flanks of the mountains to be thrust over or to overhand the adjacent basins. The numerous structural intersections, overhanging flanks, and the facies changes caused by the Uinta Mountains provide good opportunities for continued exploration and success.

• OSTI ID: 5590013
• Report Number(s): CONF-8408161-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Journal Volume: 68:7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
ANTICLINES
CENOZOIC ERA
COLORADO
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
FEDERAL REGION VIII
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGIC TRAPS
GEOLOGY
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
TERTIARY PERIOD
USA
UTAH