Abstract

The Wind River Basin is a large Laramide (Late Cretaceous through Eocene) structural and sedimentary basin that encompasses about 7,400 square miles in central Wyoming. The basin is bounded by the Washakie Range and Owl Creek and southern Bighorn Mountains on the north, the Casper arch on the east and northeast, and the Granite Mountains on the south, and Wind River Range on the west. The purpose of this report is to present new vitrinite reflectance data collected mainly from Cretaceous marine shales in the Wind River Basin to better characterize their thermal maturity and hydrocarbon potential.

First posted February 4, 2013