The Greater Green River Basin (GGRB) is a 21,000 square mile basin located in Southwestern Wyoming . The Basin was formed during the Cretaceous period sourced by underlying Permian and Cretaceous deposits. The GGRB is host to many anticlines created during the Laramide Orogeny trapping many of its hydrocarbon resources. It is bounded by the Rawlins Uplift, Uinta Mountains , Sevier overthrust belt, Sierra Madre Mountains, and the Wind River Mountain Range . The Greater Green River Basin is subdivided into four smaller basins, the Green River Basin, Great Divide Basin , Washakie Basin, and Sand Wash Basin. Each of these possesses hydrocarbons that have been economically exploited. There are 303 named fields throughout the basin, the majority of which produce natural gas; the largest of these gas fields is the Jonah Field .
42-732: The GGRB was formed during the Laramide Orogeny and is split into an east and west region by the Rock Springs Uplift ; an intrabasin anticline uplift that consists of units formed at the end of the Cretaceous into the Eocene . Prior to the basins formation in the Cretaceous , many of the basins source rocks come from the Permian Phosphoria Formation . The Phosphoria Formation of Wyoming
84-522: A foreland basin created by the Cretaceous seaway . The marine shales experienced subsidence from the erosion of the Sevier Orogeny as well as Progradational accumulation that topped these anoxic marine shales with clastic alluvium. The clastic alluvium units now serve as a great reservoir rock for the marine shales deposited from the Permian into the Cretaceous . Phosphoria Formation
126-464: A decent source for oil. The Mesaverde Group is predominately sealed by marine shales that overlie the group. The Mesaverde Group experiences anticline traps , fault traps , and stratigraphic pinch-out traps in the fields it functions as source rock for throughout the GGRB. The Mesaverde has an estimated production level of 2.3 million barrels of oil, and about 25.83 trillion cubic feet of gas making
168-528: A high sulfur content making it Type-IIS kerogen . This is important to note because sulfur rich oils have been known to mature at much lower temperatures than normal. The Tensleep Formation is the most prominent reservoir rock hosting approximately 142 million barrels of oil with about 12 fields producing from this unit. The Phosphoria Formation was sealed by the marine shale units of the Triassic Dinwoody Formation . This shale seal
210-405: A mixed assemblage of vertical ( Arenicolites , Skolithos , unwalled sinuous shafts, shafts with discoidal lenses of sediment), sub-vertical ( Camborygma and Thalassinoides ) and horizontal ( Scoyenia , Rusophycus , Taenidium , Planolites and Palaeophycus ) burrows. Large, vertically oriented burrows ( Camborygma , cf. Ophiomorpha , Spongeliomorpha and Thalassinoides ) are
252-527: A sudden change in the tectonic and/or climatic regimes, that caused an influx of laterally-continuous, fine, coarse and locally conglomeratic sands into the basin. The type section of the Molina is located near the small town of Molina on the western edge of the basin and is about 90 metres (300 ft) thick. These sandy strata of the Molina Member form continuous, erosion-resistant benches that extend to
294-642: Is White Mountain containing Mid- Eocene exposure. The North and South margins of the basin are composed of gravels and conglomerates that are Tertiary in age. Eocene deposits dominate the outcrops in the Green River Basin. The Great Divide Basin is located in the Northeastern part of the GGRB. Earned its name due to its location right on the Continental Divide . The basin is 3,500 square miles with no significant outcropping. It
336-799: Is a tight gas reservoir rock in the Greater Natural Buttes Field in the Uinta Basin of Utah and Colorado. The formation is characterized by porosity ranging from 6 to 20% and permeability of up to 1 mD . Based on 409 samples from the Wasatch Formation, average porosity is 8.75 percent and average permeability is 0.095 mD. The production rates after 2 years are 100–1,000 mscf/day for gas, 0.35–3.4 barrel per day for oil, and less than 1 barrel per day for water. The water:gas ratio ranges from 0.1 to 10 barrels per million standard cubic feet, indicating that free water
378-802: Is an unconventional tight gas reservoir formation in the Uinta and Piceance Basins of Utah and the coal seams of the formation are mined in Wyoming. At the Fossil Butte National Monument , the formation crops out underlying the Green River Formation . In the Silt Quadrangle of Garfield County, Colorado , the formation overlies the Williams Fork Formation . The Wasatch Formation
420-1015: Is an extensive highly fossiliferous geologic formation stretching across several basins in Idaho , Montana , Wyoming , Utah and western Colorado . It preserves fossils dating back to the Early Eocene period . The formation defines the Wasatchian or Lostcabinian (55.8 to 50.3 Ma), a period of time used within the NALMA classification , but the formation ranges in age from the Clarkforkian (56.8 to 55.8 Ma) to Bridgerian (50.3 to 46.2 Ma). Wasatch fauna consists of many groups of mammals, including numerous genera of primates , artiodactyls , perissodactyls , rodents , carnivora , insectivora , hyaenodonta and others. A number of birds, several reptiles and fish and invertebrates complete
462-568: Is made up of Permian Shales. It is believed that the organic rich shales are the primary source to much of the oil in the region. It is thought that the oil from these shales have migrated into the Pennsylvanian Tensleep Formation , and Paleozoic reservoirs of Central and Eastern Wyoming . Due to its carbonate and chert rich depositional environment, the oil found in the Phosphoria Formation as
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#1732772458852504-582: Is made up of low hills, dunes, alkali flats, and arid lakes. It is a desert plains environment separated from the Green River Basin by the Rock Springs Uplift to the West. The Washakie Basin is a 3,000 square mile, rimmed basin in the South central part of the GGRB just below the Great Divide Basin. The rimmed parts of the basin are about 1,000 ft higher than the basin floor and are capped by
546-671: Is produced along with water dissolved in gas in the reservoir. Oil in the Bluebell-Altamont Field in the Uinta Basin and gas in the Piceance Creek Field in the Piceance Basin are produced from the Wasatch Formation. As of May 2019, tight gas from the Wasatch Formation and underlying Mesaverde Group has been produced more than 1.76 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas from over 3,000 wells in
588-752: The Colorado Plateau sedimentary province and Yellowstone province. In Montana, the formation overlies the Fort Union Formation and is overlain by the White River Formation . There is a regional, angular unconformity between the Fort Union and Wasatch Formations in the northern portion of the Powder River Basin. Many local subdivisions of the formation exist, the following members have been named in
630-781: The Green River Formation is exposed along these ridges followed by the Wasatch Formation . Similar to the Washakie Basin just to the North. There are many source rocks in the GGRB, up to 9 viable units, but the most abundant producers of hydrocarbons are the Permian Phosphoria Formation , the Cretaceous Mowry Shale , and the Cretaceous Mesaverde Group . The Cretaceous source rocks are all marine shales that were deposited in
672-472: The Green River Formation , which are about 300 feet (91 m) thick. The Wasatch Formation ranges from about 3,000 feet (910 m) in the western part of the Uinta Basin, thinning to 2,000 feet (610 m) in the east. In the Silt Quadrangle of Garfield County, Colorado , the formation overlies the Williams Fork Formation . The formation is exposed in the Desolation and Gray Canyons pertaining to
714-586: The Mesaverde Group the ideal source for gas exploration. Laramide Orogeny Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 551883819 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:40:59 GMT Wasatch Formation The Wasatch Formation ( Tw )
756-650: The Paleocene , followed by lower Eocene Wasatch Formation . Most of these are easily eroded marine shale units deposited from Late Cretaceous into the Early Eocene . The Green River Basin is the largest sub-basin in the GGRB area at 10,500 square miles. It is defined by multiple outcrops the most prominent being Oyster Ridge, a North to South angled hogback that exposes the Cretaceous Frontier Formation sandstone. The next outcrop
798-567: The Sentinel Butte and Golden Valley Formations of the Williston Basin . The Wasatch Formation is the defining formation for the Wasatchian , ranging from 55.8 to 50.3 Ma, within the NALMA classification . The Wasatchian followed the Clarkforkian stage (56.8-55.8 Ma) and is defined by the simultaneous first appearance of adapid and omomyid euprimates, hyaenodontid creodonts, perissodactyls and artiodactyls. The deposits of
840-612: The Uinta Basin , mostly from the Natural Buttes gas field in the eastern part of the basin. In the Piceance Basin , the Mesaverde Group and Wasatch Formation produced more than 7.7 TCF from over 12,000 wells, mostly from the central part of the basin. Coal is mined from the Wasatch Formation in Wyoming. Together with the Fort Union Formation, the Wasatch Formation represents the thickest coal bed deposits in
882-680: The Colorado Plateau in northeastern Utah, and in Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area at the border of southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah. The Wasatch Formation is found across six states in the northwestern United States, from Montana and Idaho in the north across Utah and Wyoming to Colorado in the southwest. The formation is part of several geologic provinces; the eponymous Wasatch uplift , Uinta uplift , Green River , Piceance , Powder River , Uinta and Paradox Basins and
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#1732772458852924-724: The Greateat Divide, Washakie, and Sand Wash Basins to the East. The Baxter Shale is extremely eroded forming a deep depression surrounded by sandstone escarpments that are part of the Mesaverde Group . Above the Mesaverde Group escarpments are incised valleys that contain the Lewis Shale , Fox Hills Sandstone , and the Lance Formation . The next unit exposed is the Fort Union Formation deposited in
966-540: The Laney Member of the Green River Formation (Mid- Eocene ). Below the Laney Member is the exposure of the Wasatch Formation (Lower Eocene ). The Sand Wash is the smallest of the four sub-basins at just 2,000 square miles in size. It is in the Southeastern portion of the GGRB and dips into Northwestern Colorado . There are a few central exposures of Eocene aged rocks that form ridges. The Laney Member of
1008-507: The Rocky Mountain Region. The Mowry Shale is oil prone for the most part due to the collection of Type-II kerogen at deposition. The Mowry is unique because it is sealed by marine shales and trapped by both anticlines and faults. The Mowry Shales are estimated to hold 6.6 million barrels of oil and about 2 billion cubic feet of gas. The Cretaceous Mesaverde Group supplies much of the gas to GGRB. The Mesaverde Group
1050-694: The coeval Willwood Formation in the Bighorn Basin west of the Bighorn Mountains. Cobbles and pebbles in the Wasatch are rich in feldspathic rock fragments, with individual samples containing as much as 40 percent, derived from erosion of the Precambrian core of the Bighorn Mountains. Part of the feldspar has been replaced by calcite cement. Glauconite is present in the Wasatch, although always in volumes of less than 1 percent of
1092-704: The core of the Bighorn Mountains . The sparse Proterozoic grains were likely derived from the recycling of Paleozoic sandstone units. The analysis concluded that the Wasatch sandstone is a first cycle sediment, the Archean core of the Bighorn uplift was exposed and shedding sediment into the Powder River Basin during time of deposition of the Wasatch Formation and the Powder River Basin Wasatch detrital zircon age spectra are distinct from
1134-427: The diverse faunal assemblages. Fossil flora and ichnofossils also have been recovered from the formation. The formation, first named as Wasatch Group in 1873 by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden , was deposited in alluvial , fluvial and lacustrine environments and comprises sandstones , siltstones , mudstones and shales with coal or lignite beds representing wet floodplain settings. The Wasatch Formation
1176-643: The dominant forms within fluvial channel deposits. Among the following fossils have been found in the formation: The mammal fauna of the formation is part of the fourth phase of herbivore expansion spanning about 115 Ma from the Aptian to Holocene , and correlated with the Wind River and Wilcox Formations of the United States and the Laguna del Hunco Formation of Argentina. The Wasatch Formation
1218-486: The formation in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, where the Wasatch Formation reaches a thickness of more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) were gathered for U-Pb geochronological analysis. The detrital zircon age spectrum ranged from 1433 to 2957 Ma in age, and consisted of more than 95% Archean age grains, with an age peak of about 2900 Ma. The 2900 Ma age peak is consistent with the age of Archean rocks at
1260-529: The formation were laid down during a period of globally high temperatures during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Mean annual temperatures were around 25 °C (77 °F) and temperature variations were minimal during this time. At the Fossil Butte National Monument , the Wasatch Formation preserved ichnofossils attributed to arthropods and described as Lunulichnus tuberosus . Trace fossils are common within
1302-513: The grains. It most probably was derived from the nearby, friable, glauconite-bearing Mesozoic strata of the eastern Bighorn Mountains. The presence of the Kingsbury Conglomerate at the base of the Wasatch Formation indicates that tectonic activity in the immediate vicinity of the Powder River Basin was intensifying. The conglomerate consists of Mesozoic and Paleozoic rock fragments. The lack of Precambrian fragments indicates that
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1344-730: The literature: In the Fossil Basin at the Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming, the Wasatch Formation consists primarily of brightly variegated mudstones with subordinate interbedded siltstones , sandstones , and conglomerates and represents deposition on an intermontane alluvial plain . In Mesa County, Colorado , the formation comprises interbedded purple, lavender, red, and gray claystones and shales with local lenses of gray and brown sandstones, conglomeratic sandstones, and volcanic sandstones that are predominantly fluvial and lacustrine in origin. Along
1386-532: The metamorphic core of the Bighorn Mountains had not been dissected by this early deformation. Deformation in the upper part of the formation has been interpreted as the result of the last phase of uplift during the Laramide orogeny . The basal part of the Wasatch Formation is equivalent to the Flagstaff Formation in the southwest part of the Uinta Basin. The Wasatch Formation is correlated with
1428-487: The mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term wasattsi , meaning "blue heron". At the base of Fossil Butte are the bright red, purple, yellow and gray beds of the Wasatch Formation. Eroded portions of these horizontal beds slope gradually upward from the valley floor and steepen abruptly. Overlying them and extending to the top of the butte are the much steeper buff-to-white beds of
1470-469: The north of the type section for approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi). The benches are cut by canyons or "gulches", from which the Atwell Gulch and Shire Gulch members get their names. The Molina forms the principle target within the Wasatch Formation for natural gas exploration, although it is usually called the "G sandstone" in the subsurface. Detrital zircons collected from the middle part of
1512-584: The upper part of the Main Body Member. These traces occur in three distinct alluvial depositional settings: flood basin/alluvial plain, crevasse splay, and fluvial channel. Flood basin deposits (dominated by alluvial paleosols with pronounced color variegation) are characterized by common Planolites , rare Skolithos and small, meniscate plug-shaped burrows, possibly Celliforma . Crevasse splay deposits (current-rippled to planar laminated, fine-grained sandstone to siltstone) are characterized by
1554-650: The western margin of the Powder River Basin, the Wasatch Formation contains two thick conglomeratic members (in descending order, the Moncrief Member and Kingsbury Conglomerate Member). The Molina Member of the formation is a zone of distinctly sandier fluvial strata. The over- and underlying members of the Molina are the Atwell Gulch and Shire members, respectively. These members consist of infrequent lenses of fluvial-channel sandstones interbedded within thick units of variegated red, orange, purple and gray overbank and paleosol mudstones. The Molina Member represents
1596-507: Was a product of two major transgressions and regressions that lasted approximately 6 million years followed by another sequence that lasted 3 million years. Though much of the Mesaverde units were eroded and this is observed by the unconformity that splits the lower Mesaverde Group from the Upper. The Mesaverde Group is dominated by Type-III Kerogen making it a great source for gas and
1638-591: Was broken during the Laramide Orogeny leading to the migration of oil into the Tensleep Formation . The oil now is trapped in anticlines formed by the Laramide . The Mowry Shale is a well-known source rock of Paleozoic reservoirs in Wyoming with the highest total organic content in the area. It is known to source the Dakota Sandstone and Frontier Formation both prolific reservoirs in
1680-489: Was deposited in a Successor Basin (a basin that is formed directly after a tectonic event) that lies between the Sevier Orogeny to the west and the ancient Rocky Mountain orogeny to the east. The Phosphoria Sea was a shallow, sediment starved sea that produced lots of carbonates and phosphorus rich sediments that source many of the hydrocarbon reservoirs found in the Rocky Mountain region today. The Laramide Orogeny
1722-826: Was first named as the Wasatch Group by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden in the 1873 edition of his original 1869 publication titled "Preliminary field report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico: U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories", based on sections in the Echo and Weber Canyons, of the Wasatch Mountains . In the language of the native Ute people , Wasatch means "mountain pass" or "low pass over high range." According to William Bright ,
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1764-405: Was not a single event, but a prolonged tectonic event that had different affects across the large Greater Green River basin. Due to the GGRB size each sub-basin has its own unique geologic history and deposition. The Rock Springs Uplift is a 1,200 square mile asymmetric anticline composed of Late Cretaceous Baxter Shale. This anticlinal uplift separates the Green River Basin to the West from
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