page_title: Greater Green River Basin
section_title: Geologic setting
hierarchical_section_title: Greater Green River Basin / Geologic setting
caption_attribution_description: English: Study area of the Mesaverde Group in the Green River Basin, WY.
context_page_description: The Greater Green River Basin is a 21,000 square mile basin located in Southwestern Wyoming. The Basin was formed during the Cretaceous period sourced by underlying Permian and Cretaceous deposits. The GGRB is host to many anticlines created during the Laramide Orogeny trapping many of its hydrocarbon resources. It is bounded by the Rawlins Uplift, Uinta Mountains, Sevier overthrust belt, Sieria Madre Mountains, and the Wind River Mountain Range. The Greater Green River Basin is subdivided into four smaller basins the Green River Basin, Great Divide Basin, Washakie Basin, and Sand Wash Basin. Each of which possesses hydrocarbons that have been economically exploited. There are 303 named fields throughout the basin the majority of which produce natural gas, the largest of these gas fields is the Jonah Field.
context_section_description: The GGRB was formed during the Laramide Orogeny and is split into an east and west region by the Rock Springs Uplift; an intrabasin anticline uplift that consists of units formed at the end of the Cretaceous into the Eocene. Prior to the basins formation in the Cretaceous, many of the basins source rocks come from the Permian Phosphoria Formation. The Phosphoria Formation of Wyoming was deposited in a Successor Basin (a basin that is formed directly after a tectonic event) that lies between the Sevier Orogeny to the west and the ancient Rocky Mountain orogeny to the east. The Phosphoria Sea was a shallow, sediment starved sea that produced lots of carbonates and phosphorus rich sediments that source many of the hydrocarbon reservoirs found in the Rocky Mountain region today. The Laramide Orogeny was not a single event, but a prolonged tectonic event that had different affects across the large Greater Green River basin. Due to the GGRB size each sub-basin has its own unique geologic history and deposition.
caption: Study area of the Mesaverde Group in the Green River Basin, WY.
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