Revisiting Uranium Favorability of Cordilleran Metamorphic Core Complexes - 40 years later
The AZGS is releasing the ‘Cordilleran Metamorphic Core Complexes and their Uranium Favorability’ report published in 1980 as part of the U.S. National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program. Principle investigators Peter J. Coney and Steven J. Reynolds led a team of geologists and geochemists in evaluating uranium favorability of metamorphic core complexes. NURE publications can be difficult to find, so we are making this report and data appendices available for the benefit of the geosciences community.
Elements of the report:
• Overview of metamorphic core complexes
• Structural features and kinematic expression
• Role of listric normal faulting
• Conceptual basis for occurrence of uranium
• Geochemistry of Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes
• Uranium favorability summary
• Five (5) appendices totaling hundreds of pages.
Steve Reynolds, ASU Earth and Space Sciences Exploration, graciously scanned the 600 pages of report and appendices included in the metamorphic core complex research. This AZGS contributed report (CR-20-A) includes the entire report and appendices.
Figure. Cordilleran Metamorphic core complexes - solid black features.
Background. In 1973 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), now the Dept. of Energy (DOE), launched the NURE program to identify uranium resources in the United States. The NURE program included the Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) program as one of nine components. This extraordinarily ambitious program planned systematic sampling of the entire United States under the responsibility of four DOE national laboratories: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL), Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP), and Savannah River Laboratory (SRL). Program funding ended in 1983-1984.
Citation. Reynolds, S.J., Cordilleran Metamorphic Core Complexes and their Uranium Favorability - Final Report & Appendices. Arizona Geological Survey Contributed Report, CR-20-A.
