Laserfiche WebLink
III.B. Geology <br />• 1. Existing Environment <br />The Hawk's Nest Mine is located in the Southern Rocky Mountain geomorphic <br />province near it's western margin with the Colorado Plateau. Rock ages in <br />this area range from the Precambrian to Cenozoic eras. The Southern Rocky <br />Mountain Province can be characterized as high, rugged mountains and inter- <br />mountain plains resulting from anticlinal uplifts and doming of basin sedi- <br />ments and volcanics. Elevations in this area typically range from 10,000 to <br />14,000 feet. In contrast, the Colorado Plateau province is an area of high <br />plateaus with steep escarpments and deep canyons in an area of horizontal <br />strata broken by faults and monoclines. Elevations in the Colorado Plateau <br />range from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. <br />• Four major geologic formations exist in the region encompassing the <br />Hawk's Nest Mine leases. These are, in ascending order, the Mancos Shale, <br />Mesa Verde, Ohio Creek Conglomerate and Wasatch (Ruby) formations (Johnson <br />1948, BLM 1979). A map of the surface geology of the Paonia Coal Field as <br />described by Johnson (1948) is given in Appendix B. Surface outcroppings <br />in the vicinity of the Hawk's Nest Mine consist mainly of material of the <br />Mesa Verde formation. A general stratigraphic cross-section of the Hawk's <br />Nest Mine Leases is given in Figure III.B.1, More detailed stratigraphic <br />information is available from Hawk's Nest Mine drill logs given in Appendix B. <br />Mineral resources of waste central Colorado include uranium, oil shale, <br />oil, natural gas, coal, limestone and gypsum (BLM 1979). Of these, only <br />coal is known to exist on the Hawk's Nest Mine Leases. The potential for <br />• <br />24 <br />