Fractures and veins in strata of the Palo Duro Basin area, Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico, are characterized using data from outcrop and core studies and from fracture identification log analysis.

Ground water that moves downward from aquifers in clastic rocks of the Triassic Dockum Group and Neogene Ogallala Formation dissolves bedded halite and anhydrite in the Upper Permian evaporite section along the perimeter of the Southern High Plains in the Texas Panhandle.

Permian strata in the Palo Duro Basin consist of multicyclic sequences of carbonate, nodular and laminated anhydrite, bedded halite, chaotic mudstone-halite, and terrigenous clastic sediments.

Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) strata of the Palo Duro Basin consist of thick, terrigenous clastic and carbonate facies that were deposited in (1) fan-delta, (2) high-constructive delta, (3) carbonate shelf and shelf-margin, and (4) slope and basinal systems.

A broad zone of salt dissolution that affects parts of the Permian Salado, Seven Rivers, San Andres, Glorieta, and upper Clear Fork Formations occurs beneath the Canadian River Valley from New Mexico eastward toward Amarillo, Texas, and southeastward parallel to the eastern Caprock Escarpment.

The Palo Duro Basin seemingly has all the elements necessary for hydrocarbon generation and accumulation: reservoirs, traps, source rocks, and sufficient thermal maturity. Porous facies in pre-Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian strata are potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Geologic characterization of evaporite deposits as potential host rocks for burial of radioactive waste must include hydrogeologic investigations at both local and regional scales.

Pre-Pennsylvanian rocks in the Palo Duro Basin include (1) basal transgressive marine Cambrian(?) sandstones deposited over Precambrian basement, (2) overlying Lower Ordovician dolomites of the Ellenburger Group that formed when shallow seas covered much of the North American continent, and(3) Mi

The San Andres Formation in the Palo Duro Basin is a middle Permian carbonate-evaporite sequence situated between two red-bed units, the underlying Glorieta and the overlying undifferentiated Queen-Grayburg sequences.

A conceptual hydrogeologic model of the Palo Duro Basin, Texas Panhandle, subdivides the basin into three hydrogeologic units: (1) the shallow Ogallala and Dockum aquifers (Upper aquifer), (2) the Permian evaporite aquitard (Evaporite aquitard), and (3) the deep, confined, underpressured, princip