Groundwater processes and sedimentary uranium deposits |
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| Authors: | D K Hobday W E Galloway |
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| Institution: | (1) Energy & Geoscience Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA e-mail: dhobday@egi.utah.edu, US;(2) Department of Geological Sciences The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA, US |
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| Abstract: | Hydrologic processes are fundamental in the emplacement of all three major categories of sedimentary uranium deposits: syngenetic,
syndiagenetic, and epigenetic. In each case, the basic sedimentary uranium-enrichment cycle involves: (1) leaching or erosion
of uranium from a low-grade provenance; (2) transport of uranium by surface or groundwater flow; and (3) concentration of
uranium by mechanical, geochemical, or physiochemical processes. Although surface flow was responsible for lower Precambrian
uranium deposits, groundwater was the primary agent in upper Precambrian and Phanerozoic sedimentary uranium emplacement.
Meteoric or more deeply derived groundwater flow transported uranium in solution through transmissive facies, generally sands
and gravels, until it was precipitated under reducing conditions. Syndiagenetic uranium deposits are typically concentrated
in reducing lacustrine and swamp environments, whereas epigenetic deposits accumulated along mineralization fronts or tabular
boundaries.
The role of groundwater is particularly well illustrated in the bedload fluvial systems of the South Texas uranium province.
Upward migration of deep, reducing brines conditioned the host rock before oxidizing meteoric flow concentrated uranium and
other secondary minerals. Interactions between uranium-transporting groundwater and the transmissive aquifer facies are also
reflected in the uranium mineralization fronts in the lower Tertiary basins of Wyoming. Similar relationships are observed
in the tabular uranium deposits of the Colorado Plateau.
Received, May 1998 · Revised, July 1998 · Accepted, September 1998 |
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| Keywords: | uranium groundwater processes paleohydrology sedimentary rocks |
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