HELIUM 



289 



Table 56. — Some known deposits of helium in the United States and Canada 



State or province 



Field (except last 



entry, which is 



a well) 



Age and name of host rock 



Concentration (percent) 



Geologic associations 



Possible source rocks 



Large reserves ' (1 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas) 



HuKOton Permian (Wolfcampian) Her- 



infirton and Krider Limestone 

 Members of Nolans Lime- 

 stone, Winfield and Fort Riley 

 Limestones, and Towanda 

 Limestone Member of Doyle 

 Shale and equivalents. 



Teias Panhandle Permian (Wolfcampian) equiva- 

 lent to Herington and Krider 

 Limestone Members of Nolans 

 Limestone and Winfield and 

 Fort Riley Limestones. 

 Pennsylvanian granite wash. 



Kansas Greenwood Pennsylvanian (Virgilian) To- 



peka Limestone and (Mis- 

 sourian) Lansing Group. 



0-11.7 Uraniferous asphal- 

 tite and basement 

 igneous rocks. 



Hugoton embayment 

 of the Anadarko 

 basin. 



On Amarillo- 

 Wichita uplift. 



Oklahoma Keyes 



-Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) 

 Keyes sand of subsurface 

 usage. 



0- 3.1 Rocks equivalent to 

 Heebner Shale Mbr 

 of Oread Ls below 

 reservoir beds. 

 .1-16.8 Dark shales of Mor- 

 rowan age. 



Adjacent to the west 

 edge of Hugoton 

 field. 



On the Cimarron 

 uplift updip from 

 Greenwood field. 



Moderate or small reserves ' (less than 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas) 



Texas Cliffside Permian (Wolfcampian) equiva- 

 lent to Herington and Krider 

 Limestone Members of Nolans 

 Limestone. 



Kansas Otis-Albert Cambrian-Ordovician basal 



sand (Cambrian Reagan (7) 

 Sandstone). 



Colorado Model Dome Permian Lyons(7) Sandstone — 



New Mexico Hogback Pennsylvanian Hermosa Forma- 

 tion. 

 Rattlesnake Mississippian Leadville Lime- 

 stone and Devonian Ouray 

 Limestone. 



Arizona Pinta Dome Permian Coconino Sandstone — 



Utah 



1.2-2.3 9.1-31.0 



6.7-83 

 1.4-8.0 

 7.B-8.0 



B.6-9.8 

 .3-1.1 



Harley Dome Jurassic Entrada Sandstone 



Woodside Dome Permian Coconino Sandstone 



_Tip Top Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite — 



76.7-77.9 

 16.5-79.9 

 71.3-76.6 



86.3-93.7 

 6.7-17.7 



84.6 

 64.0 



0.4— 0.8 Uraniferous asphal- 

 tite in reservoir 

 rocks. 



.1— .4 Precambrian granite, 

 schist and quartz- 

 ite. 

 13.9-14.8 Precambrian crystal- 

 line rocks. 

 ,1—20.3 Deep-seated igneous 



intrusion. 

 1.9- 3.8 —do 



On the Amarillo 

 uplift. 



On Central Kansas 

 uplift. 



On Apishapa uplift. 



0- .9 



-do 



21.1—31.3 Mississippian and 

 Devonian shales 

 and Pennsylvanian 

 Molas Formation 

 and regolith. 

 1.0 Precambrian rocks _ 



30.0 



-do 



-Cabin Creek Cambrian sandstone 



SW. Saskatchewan, Wilhelm well 1-9 Cambrian siltstone and mud- 

 Canada, stone. 



.7 —-.do 

 _._do 



Igneous plugs and 

 dikes in the area. 



Gas in Pennsylvan- 

 ian Hermosa For- 

 mation has very 

 little He. 



On Uncompahgre 



uplift. 

 On San Rafael 



SweU. 

 From one well that 



penetrates thrust 



plate. 

 Fault and fractures 



on west flank. 

 Gas at 200 ft above 



Precambrian 



erosion surface. 



'Identified deposits from which gas can be extracted profitably with existing technology and under present economic conditions. 



fine broad areas of uplift in much of the country 

 where helium might be expected to accumulate. 



The principal submarginal resources of helium are 

 in the earth's atmosphere, where the average helium 

 content is about 5 ppm (Rankama and Sahama, 

 1950). Even at this low concentration, the total 

 quantity in the atmosphere is about 690 trillion 

 cubic feet. 



PROBLEMS FOR RESEARCH 



Analyses of the uranium and thorium content of 

 igneous and metamorphic rocks underlying the sedi- 

 mentary rock section would be useful in identifying 

 the sources and explaining the distribution of helium 

 in natural gases. The basement rock map of the 

 United States (Bayley and Muehlberger, 1968) 

 shows the locations of wells that have penetrated 

 the sedimentary rocks to the basement. 



The many thousands of analyses of natural-gas 

 samples made and published by the U.S. Bureau of 

 Mines since World War I are a store of data that 

 lends itself to a statistical approach in the investi- 

 gation of the origin, occurrence, and distribution of 

 helium. 



In gases unsuitable for fuel because of high nitro- 

 gen or carbon dioxide content, evaluation of helium 

 resources is a problem because of lack of further 

 drilling after the original discovery wells. Such 

 gases represent some of the best potential resources, 

 and proved reserves of helium possibly could be 

 established with further drilling. 



In much natural gas used as fuel, helium is not 

 being recovered and thus is wasted. Most helium is 

 now recovered in big plants located where a large 

 flow of pipeline gas from an extensive producing 

 area can be diverted through the plant. If a better 



