Catahoula formation of the Texas Coastal Plain: origin, geochemical evolution, and characteristics of uranium deposits
This report is the product of a study of the distribution, genesis, and potential of uranium resources in the Catahoula Formation, and emphasizes both the geochemical and hydrologic habitats of known uranium deposits and the geochemical evolution of uranium within a coastal plain aquifer system. The similar evolutionary patterns of Coastal Plain aquifers, combined with geologic attributes of the Catahoula depositional systems and their contained uranium deposits, suggest a generalized uranium cycle of mobilization, migration, and accumulation consisting of two distinct phases. The primary mineralization included four events, which are essentially contemporaneous: (1) uranium was released from volcanic ash by reactions occurring at shallow depths soon after deposition; (2) mobilized uranium entered the ground-water flow system in areas of regional ground-water recharge; (3) reactive, oxidizing ground water containing dissolved uranium migrated through semi-confined aquifers, producing salients of altered ground within regionally reduced portions of the aquifer system; and (4) uranium and other metals were concentrated along the interface between altered and unaltered portions of the aquifers as flow traversed the abrupt Eh and associated pH gradients extant at this boundary. The modification phase includes later events that have modified and obscured primary mineralization patterns. 84 references, 56 figures, 8 tables.
- Research Organization:
- Texas Univ., Austin (USA). Bureau of Economic Geology
- OSTI ID:
- 6819296
- Report Number(s):
- NP-4901167; ON: TI84901167
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Catahoula formation of the Texas coastal plain: origin, geochemical evolution, and characteristics of uranium deposits
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