Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Coal resources of the Denver and Cheyenne Basins, Colorado

Book ·
OSTI ID:6121107
The Denver and Cheyenne Basins are major coal- and lignite-bearing regions in Colorado. About 36% of the area within Colorado that is underlain by coal at a depth of less than 3,000 ft (900 m) is within these two basins. Subbituminous coal and lignite occur in the Upper Cretaceous Laramie Formation and lignite occurs in the Upper Cretaceous--Paleocene Denver Formation. A total of 130,196,330 tons of coal and lignite have been mined from these two formations in the Denver and Cheyenne Basins. About 20 to 25 billion tons of Laramie Formation coal and 10 to 15 billion tons of Denver Formation lignite remain in place in the study area. This report presents a part of the first-year findings from a 2.5-year study of the environmental impacts of energy-resource development in the area. A primary goal of the investigation is to develop a thorough understanding of the various environmental impact that may result from energy resource development. Another goal is to identify areas underlain by valuable energy resource deposits, both fossil fuel and uranium, that need to be protected from alternate land uses that may prohibit or inhibit future resource development. Detailed geological information is provided on 5 plates in this packet. Plate 1 contains data on the Laramie Formation coal, Denver and Cheyenne Basins; Plate 2, Denver Formation lignite, Denver Basin; Plate 3, Watkins Area, Adams and Arapahoe Counties; Plate 4, Station Creek Area, Elbert County; and Plate 5, cross sections of the Denver Formation lignite beds, Denver Basin. (MCW)
OSTI ID:
6121107
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English