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.

Professional Paper↗

USGS1979

Geology of the Cooper Ridge NE Quadrangle, Sweetwater County, Wyoming

The Cooper Ridge NE 7?-minute quadrangle is 18 miles southeast of Rock Springs, Wyo., on the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift. Upper Cretaceous rocks composing the Rock Springs Formation, Ericson Sandstone, Almond Formation, Lewis Shale, Fox Hills Sandstone, and Lance Formation, Paleocene rocks composing the Fort Union Formation, and Eocene rocks composing the Wasatch Formation are exposed and dip 5?-8? southeast. Outcrops are unfaulted and generally homoclinal, but a minor cross-trending fold, the Jackknife Spring anticline, plunges southeastward and interrupts the northeast strike of beds. Older rocks in the subsurface are faulted and folded, especially near the Brady oil and gas field. Coal beds are present in the Almond, Lance, and Fort Union Formations. Coal resources are estimated to be more than 762 million short tons in 16 beds more than 2.5 feet thick, under less than 3,000 ft of overburden. Nearly 166 million tons are under less than 200 ft of overburden and are recoverable by strip mining. Unknown quantities of oil and gas are present in the Cretaceous Rock Springs, Blair, and Dakota Formations, Jurassic sandstone (Entrada Sandstone of drillers), Jurassic(?) and Triassic(?) Nugget Sandstone, Permian Park City Formation, and Pennsylvanian and Permian Weber Sandstone at the Brady field, part of which is in the southeast corner of the quadrangle, and in the Dakota Sandstone at the Prenalta Corp. Bluewater 33-32 well near the northern edge of the quadrangle. Other minerals include uranium in the Almond Formation and titanium in the Rock Springs Formation.

Professional Paper↗

USGS1979

Geology and mineral resources of the Mud Springs Ranch Quadrangle, Sweetwater County, Wyoming

The Mud Springs Ranch quadrangle occupies an area of 56 mF (square miles) on the southeast flank of the Rock Springs uplift in southwestern Wyoming. The climate is arid and windy. The landscape is mostly poorly vegetated and consists of north-trending ridges and valleys that are dissected by dry drainages. Sedimentary rocks exposed in the quadrangle are 5,400 ft (feet) thick and are mostly gray sandstone, siltstone, and shale, gray and brown carbonaceous shale, and thin beds of coal. They compose the Blair, Rock Springs, Ericson, Almond, and Lewis Formations of Cretaceous age and the Fort Union Formation of Paleocene age. The structure is mostly homoclinal, having southeast dips of 5?-12? in the northern part of the quadrangle, but minor plunging folds and one small fault are present in the southern part of the quadrangle. Three coal beds in the Fort Union Formation and 15 coal beds in the Almond Formation exceed 2.5 ft in thickness, are under less than 3,000 ft of overburden, and are potentially minable. Geographic stratigraphic, and resource data are present for each bed of minable coal. The total minable coal resources are estimated to be about 283 million short tons. Nine coal and rock samples from outcrops were analyzed to determine their quality and chemical composition. Four dry oil and gas test wells have been drilled within the quadrangle area, but structurally controlled stratigraphic-trap prospects remain untested.

Professional Paper↗

USGS1978