TopographyThe central Utah area is a part of the Colorado Plateaus physiographic province. It is characterized by high plateaus bounded by steep cliffs cut by deep canyons, by precipitous rock ridges, by rock pinnacles and monuments, and by isolated mountain peaks. These are described briefly below.At the north edge of the area is the Roan (or Tavaputs) Plateau, which is divided into east and west parts by the canyon of the south-flowing Green River (called Desolation Canyon to the north and Gray Canyon to the south).The plateau is bounded on the south by the precipitous Book Cliffs.Elevations on the plateau reach nearly 3,140 m above sea level west of the Green River and 2,900 m east of the river. The plateau is dissected by deep canyons that contain streams tributary to the Green River or that flow generally southward across the Book Cliffs.At the west edge of the area is the Wasatch Plateau, which is bounded on the east by high cliffs similar to the Book Cliffs. Elevations on the higher drainage divides of the Wasatch Plateau range between about 2,900 m and 3,445 m above sea level.At the southern end of the area are the north-northwest-trending Henry Mountains, which are characterized by high domal peaks several miles apart separated by broad dissected saddle areas. Mount Ellen, the northernmost and highest peak, is 3,540 m above sea level. In the central part of the area is the north-northeast-trending San Rafael Swell, an uplifted area about 40 km wide and 113 km long marked by bare rock ridges, pinnacles, and narrow

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In the few years that have elapsed since uranium first became important in fields of atomic energy, a vast fund of geologic and related information has been collected by personnel of the U.S. Geological Survey; the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission or its predecessor organization, the Manhattan Engineer District ; and, to a lesser extent, by staff members of other Federal and State agencies and by geologists in private industry. In this collection of geologic information are data of different kinds that bear directly on an understanding of the fundamental geology controlling the distribution of uranium in veins and that aid in understanding various hypotheses of origin for veins. Veins, as defined herein, are masses of introduced minerals in and adjacent to fractures and fissures; the definition excludes any implications as to crystallization temperatures or to special mineral assemblages. Veins may contain uranium largely in the 4-valent state, entirely in the 6-valent state, or, most commonly, in both states. A descriptive and arbitrary classification based on mineral content of these veins is used in this report; 8 mineralogic classes of uranium-bearing veins are established, 7 of which are known to occur in the conterminous United States. The pre-1940 history of uranium mining and geology is concerned largely with veins in widely separated parts of the world: included are deposits in Europe, South Africa, northern Canada, South Australia, and, to a limited extent, the United States. During and since the 1940's, many uranium-bearing veins were discovered in the conterminous United States; but, in general, these discoveries were completely overshadowed by the discovery and developnien't of a number of very large nonvein deposits in New Mexico; in Big Indian Wash and White Canyon, Utah; and in the Gas Hills, Wyoming. Very large deposits of uranium in northern Saskatchewan, Canada; near Blind River, Canada ; and in the Witwatersrand, South Africa, also were discovered and developed during this period. Hundreds of uranium-bearing veins have been reported in the conterminous United States, in perhaps as many as 900 different localities. Most of the known uranium-bearing veins are in the western United States in such areas as the Front Range mineral belt of Colorado; the