Uranium in West Texas -- paper delivered June 3, 1975, AAPG-SEPM Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico

In west Texas, the part north of the Pecos River, anomalous uranium concentrations occur in the Tecovas and Trujillo Formations of the Dockum Group of Late Triassic age, the Edwards Limestone of Early Cretaceous age, the caliche caprock of the Ogallala Formation of Pliocene age, and the Pleistocene Blanco and Tule Formations, Rita Blanca lakebed deposit, and Bandelier and Pearlette ashes. The occurrences in Pleistocene rocks are a mere curiosity at this time, except the Rita Blanca lakebed deposit is large and of higher grade than the rest. Several occurrences of low-grade rock in the caliche caprock of the Ogallala Formation southeast of Lubbock are of interest because of the recent discoveries of large deposits in calcrete (caliche) in Western Australia. The single occurrence of ore-grade material in Cretaceous limestone is probably insignificant. Most of the ore-grade material is found in the Dockum Group, chiefly in the Trujillo Formation and mainly near Post. I plan to briefly describe the geographic and geologic setting of each group of deposits and to assess each group's resource potential.