38 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
POSSIBILITIES OF OIL AND GAS IN SALT LAKE 
AND CACHE VALLEYS. 
BY HYRUM SCHNEIDER. 
(Abstract). 
In both of these regions gas occurs in artesian wells 
and companies have been organized to drill for oil. 
Petroleum occupies a position of great importance in the 
successful prosecution of modern warfare. Its produc- 
tion is fast falling behind an increasing demand; therefore 
if these fields offer reasonable possibilities their explora- 
tion should be encouraged but if, on the other hand, 
Science indicates their barrenness, useless expenditures of 
money should be discouraged. 
Wherever oil and gas have been found in commercial 
quantities certain geologic conditions prevail. (1) There 
is a source, either in the form of organic matter from 
which oil or gas is derived or as_ disseminated 
oil, from which the oil or gas has accumulated into 
so-called pools. (2) The structure of the rocks, their 
porosity and ground water conditions are favorable for 
the accumulation of the oil or gas, or both, into pools. 
Do these conditions prevail in Salt Lake and Cache 
Valleys? Salt Lake Valley is a down thrown block, 
along the great Wasatch Fault. On this block there has 
accumulated, since the faulting, over 2,000 feet of detri- 
tal material or valley fill. A discussion of oil and gas 
possibilities in this region must take into account the val- 
ley fill and the rocks of the down thrown block on which 
the detrital material was deposited. In so far as the geo- 
logic story of the valley fill can be read, it seems that cli- 
matic and other conditions were unfavorable for the dep- 
osition in it of sufficient organic matter to produce oil or 
gas in commercial quantities. Even if the source of the 
oil were there, structural and ground water conditions 
are unfavorable for its accumulation into pools. The 
rocks of the down thrown block beneath the detrital 
material are the same as were the rocks at the surface of 
