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U.S. Department of Energy
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Paleocene coal-bearing sediments of the Williston Basin, North Dakota: an interaction between fluvial systems and an intracratonic basin

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5911317
Outcrop and test hole data for 225 sites in a 33,700-km/sup 2/ area of southwestern North Dakota were examined. Seven sedimentation intervals were identified for the Paleocene Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte Formations. The intervals extend from the top of the harmon coal (lower Bullion Creek) to the top of the Twin Buttes coal (upper Sentinel Butte). Each interval consists of medium and fine clastics underlying a persistent lignite coal, or some other lithology at the stratigraphic position of the coal. Clastics are finer-grained upwards within intervals and within both formations to the upper Sentinel Butte. Sand-rich zones align northwest-southwest-southeast, parallel to the axis of the Williston Basin. Southwest of the axis, clay and silt dominate, and coal beds are few but thick; to the northeast, fine sand an silt dominate, and coal beds are many but thin.
OSTI ID:
5911317
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English