The Trout Creek and Twentymile Sandstones (Mesaverde Group) in Moffat and Routt Counties, Colorado, are thick, upward-coarsening sequences that were deposited along the western margin of the Western Interior basin during Campanian time. These units trend northeast-southwest and undergo a facies change to coal-bearing strata on the northwest. Surface data collected along the southeastern rim of the Sand Wash basin were combined with well-log data from approximately 100 drill holes that have penetrated the Trout Creek or Twentymile in the subsurface. The sandstones exhibit distinctive vertical profiles with regard to grain size, sedimentary structures, and biogenic structures. A depositional model that incorporates the key elements of the modern Nile River (northeast Africa and Nayarit (west-central Mexico) coastal systems is proposed for the Trout Creek and Twentymile Sandstones and associated strata. The model depicts a wave-dominated deltaic, strand-plain, and barrier-island system. Depositional cycles are asymmetrical in cross section as they are largely progradational and lack significant transgressive deposits. Source rock-reservoir rock relationships are ideal as marine shales underlie, and coal-bearing strata overlie sheetlike reservoir sandstones. Humic coal, the dominant source of Mesaverde gas, generates major quantities of methane upon reaching thermal maturity. Existing Mesaverde gas fields are largely structural traps, but stratigraphic and combination traps may prove to be equally important. The sparsely drilled deeper part of the basin warr nts testing as large, overpressured-gas accumulations in tight-sandstone reservoirs are likely to be found.

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