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Geology and energy resources of the Sand Butte Rim NW Quadrangle, Sweetwater County, Wyoming

January 1, 1979

The Sand Butte Rim NW 71-minute quadrangle occupies 56 square miles of an arid, windy, sparsely vegetated area of ridges and valleys on the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift in southwest Wyoming. The area is underlain by a succession of sedimentary rocks, about 20,000 feet thick, that includes 28 formations ranging in age from Cambrian to Tertiary. Upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary formations crop out and dip 3?-6? southeast. They are unfaulted and generally homoclinal, but a minor anticlinal nose is present. Older rocks in the subsurface are faulted and folded.

Coal resources are estimated to be nearly I billion short tons of subbituminous coal, in beds more than 2.5 feet thick, under less than 3,000 feet of overburden, in the Fort Union Formation of Paleocene age and the Lance and Almond Formations of Cretaceous age.

Publication Year 1979
Title Geology and energy resources of the Sand Butte Rim NW Quadrangle, Sweetwater County, Wyoming
DOI 10.3133/pp1065A
Authors Henry W. Roehler
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Professional Paper
Series Number 1065
Index ID pp1065A
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse