Show OIL SANDS IX IN BASIN for several years the possibilities of oil from shale beds of iirth n ati wistern astern colorado and northeastern utah have gradually eclipsed we interest in petroleum in that which was paused by the discovery ot of tho the rangely langely field in rio blanco county colorado says glen I 1 INI ruby geologist of 0 denver in the red book during a recent investigation ot of tho the uintah basin of northeastern utah and northwestern northwest orn colorado tho the writer discovered discover cd geologic evidence of certain conditions condi eions of depo of the sediments in the lower part of the grean river formation which appeared to be very favorable to 0 the formation of oil A careful search over some or of these areas resu setd ud in the finding of 0 several sanda saturated with oil of asphalt lc base one of the sands was over 40 teet thick and a few inches back from the outcrop showed tho the oil bearing sands are in ill a heavy body of soft daik shale which shows none of the ties of the so called oil shale occurring several hundred feet higher in the geologic section while there is no areal bonnee kioa between this oil bearing portion at af the green river formation and the oil bearing formations in california I 1 they are of the same age and were V e re deposited under very similar although in separate seas it is not probable that the oil bearing sands of the green aher formation are as extensive as the oil shale deposits and they iannot cannot be expected lio do cover the area represent ed d by the california fields there are largo large areas of the green river foi motion in which no signs of pe tro eum euni have been found and furher her investigation will undoubtedly show that it exists in small email areas compared om pared to that covered by the oil Z h acle lie and in definite relation to tile the source of sediments the only region known to the writer in which the lower part of its ills formation carries oil is within zhe ae uintah basin and contiguous areas and although barren in many other localities it is probable other districts will lie be lound found where oil my be expected although not showing evidence at the surface oil residues the uintah basin has long been famous lor its and many beds of phallic as sands are known out these are mainly in other formations mat ions in fact formations from rr fr iassic to late tertiary are known to carry asphalt as lc sands but their origin has never been satisfactorily determined the youngest formation in which asphalt sands have been found Is the uintah formation overlying the green river formation most ot of the sidewalks in the t town own of vernal utah are made from asphalt taken from a quarry a raw few aeils out of town it has been long thought that this quarry Is in the waater vaa teli formation hut but a careful in esti gation shows it to be uintah and much later than the wasatch the asphalt however does n not ot originate in tho the uintah but hais hag found ts way into the sands through faulting and cannot be considered tor for petroleum tile the mesa verde for formation matio ai of the cretaceous cage age was found to contain several heavy sands showing saturation with asphalt lc oil and this may aso prove ito be a large reservoir tor for petroleum the book cliffs north or of the denver rio grande railroad are capped by the mesa mega verde sandstones and offer a larga larg area for prospecting the oil of the rangely langely field in northwestern colorado Is found below the mesa verde verae sandstones in the upper part of the afan janicos os shale and is ia the most valuable oil in the reg on oil while no sands exist in the porton portion of the shale body in which the ol 01 is found it is probable that this horizon may be correlated with the ferron sandstone rises toward the mesa verde as the outcrop Is 13 followed eastward and that north of 0 grand junction colorado it has changed completely to shale tile the term territory tory between grand junction arid and helper utah and north of the book cliffs contains sufficient sulli clent sand to at as a reservoir that a good field may be expected in the upper mancos under proper structure at least two such structures structure shave chave been found and will be drilled drilled this year but as only a small port portion q f n ot of the favorable area has been searched for folding it Is probable that more drilling sites will be lo 10 caged and prospected I 1 with at least three formations known to io be oil bearing and with an immense area of oil shale it is almost certain that the territory between aba the ajah mountainy ah ih the north and the denver ri ria i grande on the south kiil V ill he be a beav heavy ter er of our future gasoline from petroleum and oil shale western mineral survey |