Lower Cretaceous Sands of Texas: Stratigraphy and Resources

Lower Cretaceous sands have long been important aquifers in Central, North-central, and North Texas. In recent years these sands also have been sources of high-silica industrial or specialty-purpose sand. Lower Cretaceous sands of northern Texas and Cenozoic sands of the Texas Coastal Plain comprise the main resources of high-silica sands in the State. Knowledge of their occurrence, distribution, stratigraphic relation, quality, and suitability for industrial uses is necessary to their future development. Annual production of silica sands in Texas amounts to about 500,000 tons valued at $2.4 million. Annual consumption currently is about 700,000 tons and in recent years has increased steadily within the State, especially for such uses as glass manufacture, foundry moldings, and mineral fillers. A large part of the total State consumption of industrial or silica sand is by industries in North-central Texas, just east of the main belt of outcropping Lower Cretaceous sands. Other industrial sand resources recently investigated within Texas include Central Texas Cambrian sands (Barnes and Schofield, 1964); East Texas Cenozoic sands (Fisher, 1965); Texas coastal sands (Garner, MS. ), and South Texas Cenozoic sands (Maxwell, 1962). These and the deposits discussed in the present report include most of the current and potential industrial sand resources of the State. The area studied in this report is the outcrop of Lower Cretaceous sands in Central, North-central, North, and West-central Texas. Approximately 175 samples were collected and analyzed from 114 localities in the following counties: Bosque, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Denton, Erath, Hamilton, Hood, Montague, Nolan, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant, Taylor, Wise