Laserfiche WebLink
2.04.5(1) <br />• <br />The Rollins Sandstone forms a 100 to 140 foot high pink to tan <br />sandstone cliff, approximately one half mile south of the Red <br />Canyon # 1 D1ine and proposed # 2 Mine entrance. <br />Topograthically above, and primarily west of the Red Canyon #1 Mine <br />and proposed #2 Mine entrance, the surface is covered by Quaternary <br />Aqe younger glacial deposits (Pinedale age) consisting of sand, <br />sediment, and other alluvial gravels composed largely of basalt <br />boulders derived from the basalt flows capping Grand Mesa to the <br />north. These gravels cover a large percentage of the permit area <br />and are significant because they contain large amounts of ground <br />water affecting, to a large degree, the water in the Red Canyon #1 i <br />Mine itself, <br />The coal which is to be mined by Grand Mesa Coal Company consists <br />of the "D" and "E" coal seams. They are above the Rollins Sandstone <br />• in the lower Williams Fork Formation, referred to by some researchers <br />as the Howie Shale :fember and by others as the Cameo Shale Member. <br />The "D" coal seam is the thickest and most commerically mineable <br />coal deposit in this area, attaining a thickness of eleven feet. <br />Stratigraphically, the "D" seam exists approximately 150 feet above <br />the Rollins Sandstone and 130 feet below the "E" coal seam. The <br />Geology Map, 2.04.5-1, illustrates the outcrop and approximate <br />subcrop of both coal seams and their relationship to the other <br />stratigraphic units in the area. <br />STRUCTURAL GEOLQGY <br />The outcrop of the contact between the .+lesaverde Group and the Mancos <br />Shale generally defines the southern flank of the Piceance Creek Basin. <br />This very large northwest-southeast trending structural depression <br />represents the largest structural basin in northwestern Colorado <br />and contains 28,000 feet of accumulated sediments within its boundaries. <br />stratigraphic units within the basin dip towards a center axis, and <br />at this location the dip is approximately three to five degrees <br />• north, slightly northeast. ptear the surface, the beds tends to dip <br />more steeply in the same direction due to the erosion and unloading <br />d2 <br />