Devonian shale minerals

These oil shales represent two trillion barrels of oil in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and an additional one trillion barrels of oil of Devonian shale formation in the eastern United States. Eastern Devonian shale is quite different from western Green River shale. The noticeable differences are in geological age, kerogen structure, oil content, pyrite, and other mineral compositions. In the past, little effort has been focused on Devonian shales. However, the increasing role of eastern shales has now... 

Figure 3. DSC thermal analysis of pyrite in (A) pyrite mineral (Rico, Colorado), (B) Devonian shale kerogen, and (C) pyrite-reduced kerogen of...

This study has shown that the sample of Devonian shale is composed primarily of silicates with much lower amounts of carbonate minerals. Here, as with the Green River shale sample, the silicate minerals were associated primarily with the organic-rich areas of the shale, and when present, the carbonate minerals were found mainly in the organic-poor areas. The siliceous minerals of this Devonian shale sample were found to be quartz, illite, and muscovite, with trace amounts of kaolinite. Calcite, dolomite, Fe-rich dolomite or magnesite, and siderite were observed in the carbonate regions of the Devonian shale. However, the... 

The black shale of the Chattanooga Formation in Tennessee is an example of a large low-grade resource of uranium. The mineralized portion of this Devonian. shale occupies. several counties, but mineralized horizons tens of metres thick average only about 0.0. % U,0,(. For the mo.st part, rocks of this type are not of economic importance, unless political considerations dictate otherwise. 

Estimates of oil shale deposits by continent are given in Table 1 (2). Characteristics of many of the world s best known oil shales are summarized in Table 2 (3,4). Oil shale deposits in the United States occur over a wide area (Table 3). The most extensive deposits, covering ca 647,000 km (250,000 mi ), are the Devonian-Mississippian shales of the eastern United States (5). The richest U.S. oil shales are in the Green River formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Typical mineral and organic analyses for Green River oil shale are given in Table 4. 

Hasenmueller, N R., "Resource Assessment of the New Albany Shale (Devonian and Mississippian) in Southeastern Indiana — Preliminary Report," in Proceedings, 1981 Eastern Oil Shale Symposium, 173-80, Univ. of Kentucky, Institute for Mining and Minerals Research, Lexington, 1981. 

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