A comprehensive geochemical and stratigraphic study of Cretaceous coal-bearing strata in Utah and western Colorado was performed to evaluate geologic trends in REE-enrichment, as well as elucidate enrichment mechanisms. Preliminary portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyses (n = 5659) was combined with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses (n = 135) on particularly REE-enriched samples. Sampling and analyses from active and historic mines as well as nearby cores and outcrops were performed with an emphasis on sedimentary, stratigraphic, geographic, and mining context.
This study aims to quantify rare earth element enrichment within coal and coal-adjacent strata in the Uinta Region of Utah and western Colorado. Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals used for renewable energy technology in the transition toward carbon-neutral energy. This data contains samples from seven active mines and seven stratigraphically complete cores within the Uinta Region, geochemically evaluated via portable X-ray fluorescence (n=3,113) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (n=143) elemental abundance methods. Historical evaluations of geochemical data on Uinta Region coal and coal-adjacent data are sparse, emphasizing the statistical significance of this study’s analyses. These results support the utilization of active mines and coal processing waste piles for the future of domestic rare earth element extraction, offering economic and environmental solutions to pressing global demands.
This project was a NSF-funded collaborative research project entitled: Collaborative Research: Deciphering Eolian Paleoenvironmental and Hydrodynamic records: Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Colorado Plateau, USA This was a multifaceted interdisciplinary study of the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone (Ss)--a unique and distinctive unit in all of geologic history. This unit represents the largest known ancient desert (erg), and is typically classified as a record of a hyperarid environment. Furthermore, the Navajo Ss was deposited at a time when mammals were undergoing their first major diversification, and dinosaurs began to dominate the landscape in number and diversity. Our goal was to examine sedimentary features of the erg margin that recorded the active paleohydrology of the desert regime, and examine abundant trace- and body-fossil material to more fully document the structure and evolution of the biota in a variably arid landscape through Navajo Ss deposition. Field studies involved sedimentology and paleoecology. Laboratory studies involved isotope geochemistry of carbonate deposits, as well as thin section petrography.