Summary of the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and mineralogy of Pennsylvanian and permian rocks of Oklahoma in relation to uranium-resource potential
Pennsylvanian-Permian strata in Oklahoma were deposited in environments which ranged from deep marine to alluvial fan. The former was most common in the Ouachita geosyncline during Early Pennsylvanian, but parts of the Anadarko basin were also relatively deep water during Middle and Late Pennsylvanian. Alluvial-fan deposits in Oklahoma are related primarily to the Amarillo-Wichita-Criner, Arbuckle, and Ouachita uplifts. As a result of erosion of the Wichita and Arbuckle areas during the Pennsylvanian-Permian, Precambrian and Cambrian felsic igneous rocks were exposed and became sources of significant quantities of feldspar in the sandstones and conglomerates, especially those on the flanks of the uplifts, and possibly sources of significant uranium concentrations in basinal waters. The Ouachita uplift, Sierra Grande-Apishapa uplift to the northwest, and possibly the Appalachian system also furnished feldspar to form the rather common subarkoses in the Upper Pennsylvanian-Permian. Feldspar is an apparent source of uranium which is present in the alluvial-fan deposits associated with the Wichita and Arbuckle uplifts, the Permian sandstones on oil-producing structures in southern Oklahoma, the lenticular sandstones on the Muenster-Waurika arch, and the tidal-flat sandstone-siltstones in western Oklahoma and possibly in north-central Oklahoma. Radioactive anomalies associated with Cherokee sandstones may be related to the Desmoinesian phosphatic shales, local depositional environments of deltaic complexes which influenced diagenetic conditions, and/or the pre-Pennsylvanian unconformity with respect to the radioactive Woodford Shale.
- Research Organization:
- Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 7359728
- Report Number(s):
- GJBX-20(76)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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