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<br /> <br />I <br />~ <br /> - <br />. <br />~ - <br />e ~ <br />I' - 1 <br />--- <br /> , <br />~ <br /> <br />Oil-shale country: the <br />three-stale Mountain West <br />area contams vast deposits <br />of oil. Colorado's Piceance <br />Creek Basin holds the nch. <br />eSl shales. and will prob- <br />ably supply 80 percent or <br />more of shale-oil produc- <br />tion. <br /> <br />, PICEANCE <br />CREEK BASIN <br /> <br />.unassaVedorlo....V.e1d <br /> <br />Oo! Shale Mote T~an 15 Fl <br />.TllIC~&Y'eld'ng2SGallons <br />OIOrl Pet Ton 01 Shale <br />ofMo<e <br /> <br />11 <br /> <br />\ <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />UTAH. <br /> <br />6 f\ICl TI\I \\fq IU"<( H"'A~" (OHIO... f,'II",~" l<l-~ <br /> <br />"^ .. the great Creator. through His ser- <br />r\ vants oi old, caused water to flow from <br />the rock in the wilderness, so through <br />twentieth-century science, He is causing oil, <br />ior ages locked up in the shales oj America, to <br />be released ior the relief of human neces- I <br />sity. . . <br /> <br />"No man who owns a motor-car will fail to <br />rejoice that the United States Geological Sur- <br />vey is pointing the way to supplies of gasoline <br />which can meet any demand that even his <br />children's children lor generations to come <br />may make of them. The Horseless vehicles' <br />threatened dethronement has been definitely <br />averted and the uninviting prospect of a <br />motorless age has ceased to be a ghost stalk- <br />ing the vista of the future. . . " <br /> <br />,,",arional CeoW.lphiC 1918 <br /> <br />Oil shale is hard Iv .1 modern discovery; rather it has <br />received r,He revie\\s, <ouch as this one, periodically <br />through the pa<,t centurv. herv time the prospect of an <br />energv crisi.. (omp<, up, plans for oil-shale develop- <br />ment .up dustt'd oti and pre..pnted as the hope for the <br />iUfuH'. The 1<}70.. are no exception. Today's energy <br />uisis has spurrf'd the ft'deral government into opening <br />I.Hgt' trach oi publiclv-O\\nt'd oil-shale land for lease, <br />and lull'~cal{' (ommercial production is closer to real. <br />It v than it ha.. e\t'r been before. <br />The much-lalked-about oil shalt~ is actualh not oil; it <br />is a rock, marISl0nl', that conlaim a ..olid substance <br />knO\\n as kerogen. \\'hen heated, kerogen bre,lks <br />dO\\n fa lorm heavy shale oil. .\1.111\ g{'ologists bt'lien> <br />I..Nogt'n i.. <lCtualh .ln incompletl?h d{~\eloped oil. <br />\\hich. like other lo"..illuel..., began with micro<;copic <br />planls and animal.. buried in ..holUm\ \\aters. But in Iht. <br />C.1.,e 01 !.{'ragen. geologic condition.. never pro'vided <br />the heat or pressure necessary to COI1\'t'rt it to oil. <br />In the Mountain \\'e<;f, lwo prehistoric fresh water <br />