The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-01-12
THE GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY BULLETIN

Leucite Hills of Sweetwater County
Estimated BY the United States
Geological Survey to Contain Mil
lions of T. MS of Potash - Present
Availability Dependent Upon Sue
cess of Process For Extracting the
Potash.
The Leucite Hills of Wyoming, To-
Gated in the Rock Springs coal dis
trict, have long been known among
biologists as interesting examples of
volcanic outfows of an unusual lava.
They now assume possible economic
Importance as a source of potash to
meet, in part at least, the steadily in
lcreasing demand for this fertilizing
material, for which the United States
must now look to Germany. The an
lnouncement that a western company
intends to erect plant in the Leucite
Hills area for the extraction of potash
and alumina from these rocks makes
opportune report just issued by the
United States Geological Survey de-
lscribing the character and distribu.
tion of this lava formation and esti.
mating the amount of potash and
IaIumina it contains
Possible Potash Resource.
Assuming that the process intended
to be employed proves commercially
feasible, it is highly interesting to
note that the survey places the potash
content of the leucite rock "in sight"
at 197,349,617 tons. This estimate is
based on a careful geologic examina-
ton of the area and a series of anal
Uses of the rock, which show an aver
age potash (K2O) content of over 10
per cent.
During the past 80 years survey
geologists have studied and described
| in their reports these lava deposits, so
that the present brief report by Geol-
ogists Whitman Cross and A. r.
Schultz is simply a realization on the
earlier regular geologic work of the
survey. An examination of the area
was made by Mr.. Cross in 1884, fol-
lowed by careful study, describing
in exact terms these exceptional rock
types, which at that time held only
scientific interest.
Investigations incidental 10 Coal Land
Classification.
In 1907 and 1908 Mr.. Schultz, who
was engaged in government coal land
classification work in the Rock Springs
area, made incidental observations of
these igneous rocks, and only the press
of other work prevented his publishing
before this time a scientific cont. bu-
ton on the area which has now come
to have economic interest aud possible
value to industrial chemists who are
attacking the problem of furnishing
an American potash supply. Should
this feature of the potash situation be
worked out successfully the potential
value of the Leucite Hills would of
course be large.
The report by Biologists Cross and
Schultz is a detailed description of the
character of rock including twenty
mesas or lava cappings, constituting
the Leucite Hills, with careful esti-
mate of the area and rock tonnage Of
each and the number of tons of potash
as well as of alumina stored in them
The largest rock mass is known as
Zirkel Mesa, which is estimated to
contain 1O4 4,234,127 short tons of pot
ash Steamboat Mountain contains ia
its rocks 20,61S,1S0 tons of potash and
several other lava bodies contain over
100000 tons each. The several
areas are described by section, town.
ship, and range, and those which are
believed to be unappropristed public
land are noted
A copy of the report may be obtain
ed free on application to the Director
of the Geological Survey, Washington,
d. c.