Catahoula Formation of the Texas Coastal Plain: Depositional Systems, Composition, Structural Development, Ground-Water Flow History, and Uranium Distribution

摘要

The Catahoula Formation of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain consists of two depositional systems-the Gueydan bedload fluvial system of the Rio Grande embayment and the Chita-Corrigan mixed load fluvial system of the Houston embayment. Both systems contain distinctive fluvial channel-fill, crevasse splay, floodplain, and lacustrine facies, which tend to persist vertically through the section. The paleoclimate varied from subarid in the Gueydan system to humid in northeastern parts of the Chita-Corrigan system. Gueydan sands are dominated by plagioclase feldspar and volcanic rock fragments reflecting a western source; in contrast, Chita-Corrigan sands are quartzose and were primarily reworked from mixed sedimentary terranes. Clay composition reflects alteration to montmorillonite and kaolinite of large volumes of volcanic ash deposited in both systems in response to pedogenesis and shallow burial diagenesis. Growth faults initiated by early Tertiary deltaic progradiation extend up into the Catahoula and profoundly influence trends of fluvial sand units and post-depositional ground-water flow. Consequently, fault zones may localize uranium mineralization, but faulting is not necessary for development of commercial deposits. Diagenetic features, distribution of trace uranium in fine-grained tuffaceous facies, and reconstructed ground-water flow history in the Catahoula provide the basis for interpretation of a terrigenous coastal plain uranium cycle. The inferred uranium cycle provides criteria that can be used to compare the uranium potential of the Gueydan and Chita-Corrigan fluvial systems and to determine the possible distribution and nature of mineralization within each depositional system. These criteria apply similarly to other potential coastal plain uranium host systems. 93 references, 31 figures, 2 tables. (ERA citation 09:025388)