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At least 559 records · Page 31Linked to original sources
USGS1963

Geologic and hydrologic features of the San Bernardino area, California; with special reference to underflow across the San Jacinto fault

This is the second in a series of interpretive reports on subsurface outflow from the ground-water basins of San Bernardino County, Calif., prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the San Bernardino County Flood Control District. One principal purpose of the study was to estimate the ground-water outflow from the Bunker Hill basin to the Rialto-Colton basin across the San Jacinto fault, which, except locally, forms a nearly impermeable boundary between the two basins. In addition, the report deals qualitatively with the geology, the fault barriers that divide the area into several ground-water basins, the physical nature and degree of imperviousness of the barriers, the occurrence and movement of ground water and fluctuations of water level in the basins, and the chemical quality of surface and ground waters in the San Bernardino area. The report includes a geologic map and sections, water-level-contour maps and profiles, and hydrographs of selected well. The Santa Ana River, the principal stream, flows generally westward across the area. Channels of the river and its tributaries overlie a large irregular structural depression filled with alluvial deposits ranging in age from late Tertiary to Recent and forming a valley bounded on the north by the San Gabriel Mountains, on the east by the San Bernardino Mountains, and on the south by an irregular group of hills. Large alluvial fans underlie most of the area, but its landforms also include alluvial benches and terraces near the mountains, stream channels, and elongate hills, ridges, and scarps along the trace of the San Jacinto fault, which strikes northwestward across the valley about in the center of the area. This fault and others divide the area into ground-water basins, which include the Bunker Hill, Rialto-Colton, upper and lower Lytle and Chino basins. The water-bearing deposits include the following units: the younger alluvium. of Recent age, which occupies principally the backfilled channels beneath the Santa Ana River and its tributaries and through which ground water moves from Bunker Hill basin to Rialto-Colton basin; the older alluvium, of Pleistocene age, which is the principal water-bearing unit of the area and yields water to more than a thousand wells; and continental deposits of Tertiary to Quaternary age, which crop out along the southern margin of the area and locally along the San Gabriel Mountains on the north. The younger alluvium attains a maximum thickness of about 125 feet beneath the Santa Ana River south of San Bernardino. Locally in the Bunker Hill basin it is composed of two members, an upper member of relatively impermeable clay and a lower member of highly permeable material in which water is confined by the upper member. The older alluvium locally has a known thickness greater than 700 feet; elsewhere in the San Bernardino Valley it may exceed 1,400 feet. Locally, where ground water is confined in Bunker Hill basin, the older alluvium is divided into three permeable water-bearing zones separated from each other and from the younger alluvium above by less permeable zones. In parts of Chino and Rialto-Colton basins the alluvium consists of a coarse-grained facies along a former course of a major stream that is interfingered with and overlain by relatively fine-grained deposits. The permeability of the younger alluvium in the area beneath the Santa Ana River downstream from the San Jacinto fault was determined from tests to be about 2,700 gallons per day per square foot. The permeability of the coarse water-yielding materials of the older alluvium several miles downstream was estimated from tests to be about the same magnitude. Rocks that yield practically no water include continental rocks of Tertiary age, which are not exposed in the area but are tapped by wells in Rialto-Colton basin, and crystalline and metamorphic rocks of pre-Tertiary age that form the bedrock of the area.

California↗
USGS1905

The hydrology of San Bernardino Valley, California

The San Bernardino basin lies near the eastern end of the valley of southern California. Under the latter term is included that general lowland area which is definitely limited on the north by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino ranges and on the east by the latter range and the San Jacinto group, but whose southern boundary is irregular and difficult to define. In this direction there is an interdigitation of ridges and valleys as the Sierra Madre Range of San Diego County dies out toward the north. The more or less indefinite heights that represent its extension in this direction are separated by lowlands, which in turn are to be regarded as southwest lobes of the well-defined east-west valley that lies along the base of the San Gabriel Range.

California↗
USGS1957

Ground water in the Crow Creek-Sand Lake area, Brown and Marshall Counties, South Dakota

The Crow Creek Sand Lake area is in the northeastern part of South Dakota and consists of flat to gently rolling land. It is roughly 25 miles square and is bounded on the west by the James River, on the north by the North Dakota State line, and on the south and east by arbitrary land lines. Natural drainage, which is very poor, is augmented by a now very dilapidated system of man made drains; undrained or poorly drained potholes and sloughs are common. Most of the report area is in the drainage basin of Crow Creek, a tributary of the James River. About 60 square miles along the west border of the area is drained directly by the James River; and about 36 square miles in the northeastern corner of the area is drained by the Wild Rice River, a tributary of the Red River of the North. Granite and other related rocks of Precambrian age underlie the entire area below a depth of about 1,100 to 1,200 feet. Under part of the area these rocks are overlain by the Sioux quartzite, also of Precambrian age. Next above is the Dakota sandstone of Cretaceous age, which is about 250 feet thick and is the aquifer tapped by more than 600 deep wells in the area. The Dakota sandstone in turn is overlain by younger formations of Cretaceous age, which include the Graneros shale, Greenhorn limestone, Carlile shale, Niobrara formation, and Pierre shale. These younger formations have an aggregate thickness of about 700 to 950 feet and generally do not yield water. Mantling, the consolidated stratified rocks are unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age that are absent locally but in places are as much as 200 feet thick. These deposits consist principally of glacial outwash, glacial till, and lake sediments and are the source of water for all shallow wells in the area. Precipitation is the principal source of recharge to the ground-water reservoir tapped by the shallow wells. The water table ranges in depth from less than 1 foot to a little more than 30 feet below the land surface; in July 1951 the depth to water was less than 5 feet in 15 percent of the area and 5 to 10 feet in an additional 25 percent of the area. Because the hydraulic gradient in most of the area is less than 10 feet per mile and because much of the water-bearing material is only slightly permeable, lateral movement of the ground water in the unconsolidated deposits is exceedingly slow. Transpiration by vegetation and evaporation account for most of the ground water discharged in the area; relatively little ground water is discharged by streams, wells, and springs, or as underflow out of the area. Much of the low-lying land is waterlogged. However, by improving and cleaning both the natural and artifical drains and by lowering the water table by pumping, waterlogging can be materially decreased and its recurrence prevented.

North Dakota↗