Sedimentologic studies in the Henry basin of south-central Utah indicate that uranium deposits in sandstones of the Morrison Formation are related to the depositional environment in which the host sandstone bed and nearby mudstones were deposited and to the tectonic setting at the time of deposition. Thus, an understanding of environments of deposition and contemporaneous tectonism may be helpful exploration guides for uranium deposits in sandstones.

Discontinuous tabular uranium orebodies are present in fluvial and marginal lacustrine sandstone beds that lie just above, below, or a short lateral distance from offshore lacustrine gray mudstone beds. The mudstones are present only in the distal part of the lowermost alluvial-plain sequence of the Morrison where fluvial energy regimes and rates of sedimentation were low, allowing lakes to form while the Henry basin was slowly subsiding. The lakes were restricted to the east side of the basin where the least amount of clastic sedimentation by streams occurred. Palynomorphs, carbonized plant debris, and scarce pyrite in the mudstones indicate that the lakes were sufficiently persistent and deep during most of their lifetimes for reducing conditions to persist in the offshore muds. The also indicate that the mudstones were originally gray and are not bleached red mudstones. The gray mudstones are not present in other alluvial-plain sequences of the Morrison because little or no basin subsidence occurred after deposition of the lowermost sequence.

Plant debris and palynomorphs in the gray lacustrine mudstones suggest deposition in humus-producing lakes in which humic and fulvic acids (degradation products of plant tissues) were generated in the lake sediments. The close spatial association of the ore-bearing sandstones and the gray mudstones suggests that pore fluids containing these organic acids were expelled by compaction or seepage from the mudstones into nearby sandstones where they were fixed as tabular humate deposits. Subsequently, uranium in groundwater passing through the sandstone was concentrated by the humate to form the ore deposits.

Gray mudstones which cannot be used as exploration guides are bleached red mudstones and primary gray mudstones containing the alga Botryococcus. Sandstone beds adjacent to these gray mudstones are barren of uranium because (1) the gray color in bleached red mudstones is an alteration feature and does not indicate primary reducing conditions, and (2) Botryococcus thrives in humus-free lakes whereas humus-producing lakes are considered necessary to form ore deposits.

Thus, the requisites for mineralization appear to have been active crustal downwarping to cause ponding of fluvial sediments, and formation of humus-producing lakes on the alluvial plain, in the most sediment-starved part of the area undergoing basinal downwarping.

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