Search USGS⌕ Search

Geology topics

R. W. Page

Publications and source records attributed to R. W. Page.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1984

Ground-water conditions and well yields in fractured rocks, southwestern Nevada County, California

This report describes the availability of ground water in the southwestern part of Nevada County, and suggests general guidelines for selecting sites for future ground-water development in the study area. Ground water in this area occurs chiefly in fractures in hard pre-Tertiary metavolcanic and plutonic rocks generally above a depth of 215 feet. Some ground water is found at the contact between alluvium or decomposed granite and the underlying hard rock; little is found in alluvium or colluvium. Mean yield is less than 18 gallons per minute. (USGS)

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS1983

Data for ground-water test hole near Nicolaus, Central Valley aquifer project, California

Preliminary data are provided for the third of seven test holes drilled as a part of the Central Valley Aquifer Project which is part of the National Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis Program. The test hole was drilled in the SW 1/4 NE 1/4 sec. 2, T.12N., R.3E., Sutter County, California, about 1 1/2 miles northwest of the town of Nicolaus. Drilled to a depth of 1,150 feet below land surface, the hole is cased to a depth of 100 feet and equipped with three piezometer tubes to depths of 311, 711, and 1,071 feet. A 5-foot well screen is set in sand at the bottom of each piezometer. Each screened interval has a cement plug above and below it to isolate it from other parts of the aquifer, and the well bore is filled between the plugs with sediment. Thirty-one cores and 34 sidewall cores were recovered. Laboratory tests were made for minerology, consolidation, grain-size distribution, Atterberg limits, X-ray diffraction, thermal conductivity, and chemical analysis of water. Geophysical and thermal gradient logs were made. The hole is sampled periodically for chemical analysis of the three tapped zones and measured for water level. This report presents methods used to obtain field samples, laboratory procedures, and the data obtained. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1983

Data for ground-water test hole near Butte City, Central Valley aquifer project, California

This report provides preliminary data for the third of seven test holes drilled as part of the Central Valley Aquifer Project which is part of the National Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis Program. The test hole was drilled in the SW 1/4 NE 1/4 sec. 32, T. 19 N., R. 1 W., Glenn County, California, about one-half mile south of the town of Butte City. Drilled to a depth of 1,432 feet below land surface, the hole is cased to a depth of 82 feet and equipped with three piezometer tubes to depths of 592 feet, 968 feet, and 1,330 feet. A 5-foot well screen is at the bottom of each piezometer. Each screened interval has a cement plug above and below it to isolate it from other parts of the aquifer , and the well bore is filled between the plugs with sediment. Nine cores and 49 sidewall cores were recovered. Laboratory tests were made for mineralogy, hydraulic conductivity, porosity , consolidation, grain-size distribution, Atterberg limits, X-ray diffraction, and chemical quality of water. Geophysical and thermal gradient logs were made. The hole is sampled periodically for chemical analysis and measured for water level in the three tapped zones. This report presents methods used to obtain field samples, laboratory procedures, and the data obtained. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1983

Geology of the Tulare Formation and other continental deposits, Kettleman City area, San Joaquin Valley, California, with a section on ground-water management considerations and use of texture maps

The Tulare Formation and other continental deposits of Pliocene to Holocene age crop out over most of the area near Kettleman City in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The deposits range in thickness from 0 to more than 4,000 feet and overlie the upper Mya zone of the San Joaquin Formation of Pliocene age. Some features of their base reflect structural deformation during Quaternary time. Many freshwater fossils occur in the Tulare Formation itself, including the largest fossil assemblage of clams and snails known on the Pacific Coast. Sediments in the Tulare Formation and other continental deposits consist mainly of unconsolidated deposits of clay, silt, sand, and gravel. Texture maps of the Tulare Formation and other continental deposits show the distribution, both laterally and vertically, of the coarse- and fine-grained sediment in the area. Such maps can be used by water managers for selecting areas for recharge and discharge operations and by ground-water modelers for assigning relative values of hydraulic conductivity and storage coefficient.

California↗
USGS1983

A Pleistocene diatomaceous clay and a pumiceous ash, Yolo County ( California).

Discusses a diatomaceous clay of Pleistocene age, cored from 534-544ft, and a pumiceous ash found at a depth of 453ft in a test hole. Tests on the clay indicate that it is highly susceptible to compaction, and therefore, it could contribute, or perhaps has contributed, to land subsidence in the area of the test hole. The pumiceous ash is considered to be younger than about 450 000 yr. -from Authors

California Geology↗
USGS1982

Data for ground-water test hole near Zamora, Central Valley Aquifer Project, California

Preliminary data are presented for the first of seven test holes drilled as a part of the Central Valley Aquifer Project which is part of the National Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis Program. The test hole was drilled in the SW 1/4 SE 1/4 sec. 34, T. 12 N. , R. 1 E., Yolo County, California, about 3 miles northeast of the town of Zamora. Drilled to a depth of 2,500 feet below land surface, the hole is cased to a depth of 190 feet and equipped with three piezometer tubes to depths of 947, 1,401, and 2,125 feet. A 5-foot well screen is at the bottom of each piezometer. Eighteen cores and 68 sidewall cores were recovered. Laboratory tests were made for mineralogy, hydraulic conductivity, porosity , consolidation, grain-size distribution, Atterberg limits, X-ray diffraction, diatom identification, thermal conductivity, and chemical analysis of water. Geophysical and thermal gradient logs were made. The hole is sampled periodically for chemical analysis and measured for water level in the three tapped zones. This report presents methods used to obtain field samples, laboratory procedures, and the data obtained. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1980

Ground-water conditions at Beale Air Force Base and vicinity, California

Ground-water conditions were studied in a 168-square-mile area between the Sierra Nevada and the Feather River in Yuba County, Calif. The area is in the eastern part of the Sacramento Valley and includes most of Beale Air Force Base. Source, occurrence, movement, and chemical quality of the ground water were evaluated. Ground water occurs in sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Tertiary and Quaternary age. The base of the freshwater is in the undifferentiated sedimentary rocks of Oligocene and Eocene age, that contain water of high dissolved-solids concentration. The ground water occurs under unconfined and partly confined conditions. At Beale Air Force Base it is at times partly confined. Recharge is principally from the rivers. Pumpage in the study area was estimated to be 129,000 acre-feet in 1975. In the 1960's, water levels in most parts of the study area declined less rapidly than in earlier years or became fairly stable. In the 1970's, water levels at Beale Air Force Base declined only slightly. Spacing of wells on the base and rates of pumping are such that excessive pumping interference is avoided. Water quality at the base and throughout the study area is generally good. Dissolved-solids concentrations are 700 to 900 milligrams per liter in the undifferentiated sedimentary rocks beneath the base well field. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1977

Appraisal of ground-water conditions in Merced, California, and vicinity

Merced is in the northeastern part of the San Joaquin Valley, California. The fresh-ground-water basin is about 1,200 feet thick. Five aquifers are defined in the Merced area: (1) The Mehrten Formation (Miocene and Pliocene), (2) a confined aquifer , (3) an intermediate aquifer, (4) a shallow aquifer, and (5) a probable unconfined aquifer. Ground water moves generally westward or southwestward. Recharge to the aquifers is from ground-water flow, leakage, and irrigation water. Discharge is by seepage, evaporation, transpiration, and pumping. Fluctuations in water level vary from place to place. The chemical quality of ground water is good and is generally a bicarbonate-type water.

California↗
USGS1977

Guide for data collection to calibrate a predictive digital ground-water model of the unconfined aquifer in and near the city of Modesto, California

The city of Modesto encompasses about 12 square miles in the northeastern part of the San Joaquin Valley, Calif. The ground-water model encompasses about 542 square miles. In the Modesto area, ground water occurs in an unconfined aquifer a confined aquifer. both of which are composed of unconsolidated materials, and a consolidated-rock aquifer. Only the unconfined aquifer was modeled, using several simplifying assumptions concerning hydrologic conditions in the ground-water basin. A program is used that computes the net rate of recharge and discharge under steady-state conditions. The model was then modified until reasonable values of recharge and discharge were computed. Testing of the model indicated that simulated water levels were especially sensitive to tansmissivity, storage coefficient, irrigation return, and riverbed hydraulic conductivity; amond the parameters that affected water levels least were the vertical hydraulic conductivity and specific storage of the confining bed, the so-called E-clay. (Woodard-USGS)

California↗
USGS1975

Ground-water reconnaissance in the Fresno Northeast area, Fresno County, California

The Fresno northeast area includes about 133 square miles (344 square kilometres) in the central part of California. Four physiographic units occur in the area, the largest of which is the compound alluvial fan of the intermittent streams north of the Kings River. Geologic units consist of consolidated rocks and unconsolidated deposits. The consolidated rocks yield only small quantities of fresh water to wells. The unconsolidated deposits immediately overlie the consolidated rocks and, within their upper part, yield large quantities of water to wells. The dominant structure of the unconsolidated deposits is that of a homocline. Although the deposits are inferred to be faulted, the fault does not have any demonstrated effect on the movement of ground water. Total storage capacity in the area in the upper 200 feet (61metres) is about 1,100,000 acre-feet (1,360 cubic hectometres). The total volume of ground-water underflow moving out of the area was estimated to be about 60,000 to 70,000 acre-feet per year (74 to 86 cubic hectometres per year). Two water-level contour maps indicate that changes in water use over a 12-year period have not greatly affected the direction of ground-water movement. Long-term records show that rises and declines in water level, indifferent parts of the area, often occur during the same period of time. The records also show that most of the storage changes in the reservoir have occurred in the upper 100 feet (30 metres) through a long-term water-level fluctuation of less than 40 feet (12 metres). Short-term trends show that, in general, water levels rise during winter, level off during spring, and decline from summer through autumn.

California↗
USGS1974

Base and thickness of the Post-Eocene continental deposits in the Sacramento Valley, California

The Sacramento Valley, which forms most of the northern one-third of the Central Valley, is a broad structural trough. The study area comprises the valley floor and some of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges, a total area of about 6,000 square miles. Beneath most places in the valley, the base of the post-Eocene continental deposits is equivalent to the base of the Tehama Formation of Pliocene age, which in some places at least may be of late Oligocene and early Miocene age. The deposits consist of intercalated beds of gravel, sand, silt, clay, tuff, conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, and claystone. And beneath large areas along the eastern side of the valley the deposits consist of basaltic and andesitic mudflows, tuff, tuff breccias, volcanic sandstones and conglomerates, and sand and gravel, as well as overlying nonvolcanic sediments. They contain most of the fresh ground water in the valley. The structure of the base of the continental deposits is that of a large northward-trending syncline whose trend is interrupted only by the Sutter Buttes. In the subsurface, faulting has occurred mostly within the basal part of the deposits. Beneath the northeastern part of the valley, along the Chico monocline, faulting has occurred through probably the total thickness of the deposits. The deposits range in thickness from zero near the margins of the valley to about 3,500 feet beneath the south-central part of the valley. The thickest sections occur along the axis of the syncline, but near Sutter Buttes the deposits are thinner than at any other locale near the central part of the valley.

California↗
USGS1973

Geology and quality of water in the Modesto-Merced area, San Joaquin Valley, California, with a brief section on hydrology

The Modesto-Merced area includes about 1,800 square miles on the northeast side of the San Joaquin Valley. The physiographic units in the area are (1) Sierra Nevada, (2) dissected uplands, (3) low alluvial plains and fans, (4) river flood plains and channels, and (5) overflow lands. Geologic units consist of consolidated rocks and unconsolidated deposits. The dominant structure of the geologic units is that of a homocline, which reflects the southwestward-tilted fault block of the Sierra Nevada. The consolidated rocks include: (1) basement complex (pre-Tertiary), (2) marine sandstone and shale (Cretaceous), (3) Ione Formation and other sedimentary rocks (Eocene), (4) Valley Springs Formation (late? Miocene), and (5) the Mehrten Formation (Miocene and Pliocene). In the eastern part of the area, the consolidated rocks generally yield small quantities of water to wells except for the Mehrten Formation which is an important aquifer. The unconsolidated deposits include: (1) continental deposits (Pliocene and Pleistocene?), (2) lacustrine and marsh deposits (Pleistocene), (3) older alluvium (Pleistocene and Holocene?), (4) younger alluvium (Holocene), and (5) flood-basin deposits (Holocene). The continental deposits and older alluvium are the main water-yielding units in the unconsolidated deposits. The lacustrine and marsh deposits (E-clay) and the flood-basin deposits yield little water to wells, and the younger alluvium in most places probably yields only moderate quantities of water to wells. There are three ground-water bodies in the Modesto-Merced area: (1) the unconfined water body, (2) the confined water body, and (3) the water body in consolidated rocks. The unconfined water body occurs in the unconsolidated deposits above and east of the E-clay, except in the western and southern parts of the area where clay lenses occur and semiconfined conditions exist. The confined water body occurs in the unconsolidated deposits below the E-clay and extends downward to the base of fresh water. The water body in consolidated rocks occurs under both perched and confined conditions. Ground-water movement in the unconfined and the confined water bodies is generally westward toward the valley trough. In the unconfined water body, the water also moves toward the major rivers, and toward pumping depressions at Modesto and near El Nido. Because of the higher head in the unconfined water body, water slowly moves from it through the E-clay to the underlying confined water body. Surface water is used extensively for irrigation in most of the study area; consequently, shallow water in the unconfined water body has to be controlled by pumping. Nevertheless, water levels near Modesto declined about 6 feet between 1958 and 1962, for the most part during the dry years 1959-61. Near El Nido, water levels declined about 70 feet between 1942 and 1967. In the confined water body, water levels were high in the winter and spring and low in the summer and fall, reflecting irrigation practices. In the southwestern part of the area, water levels in the confined water body declined about 14 feet from 1962 to 1968 and rose slightly after 1968, whereas in the northwestern part water levels remained fairly constant. Water from the upper reaches of the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, and Chowchilla Rivers is calcium bicarbonate in chemical type and is of excellent quality. As those rivers cross the valley floor, their water quality is generally degraded by return flows from irrigated land, and in the Tuolumne River by saline water discharged from abandoned gas wells. Average dissolvedsolids content in the major rivers, as indicated by chemical analyses, do not exceed 400 mg/1 (milligrams per liter) except in the San Joaquin River where average dissolved-solids content has not exceeded 1,050 mg/l. Water from minor streams in the area is bicarbonate in chemical type with dissolved-solids content ranging from 56 mg/1 to about 350 mg/l. Although chloride-type fresh ground water occurs in the unconfined and confined water bodies and in the water body in consolidated rocks, most of the fresh ground water is a bicarbonate type that has a dissolved-solids content of less than 500 mg/l. Water having dissolved solids in excess of about 2,000 mg/1 is considered to be saline. Saline water extends below the base of fresh water to the basement complex and, except in the extreme eastern part, underlies most of the study area. Saline water also occurs as lenses above the base of fresh water in the unconfined and confined water bodies.

California↗
USGS1971

Base of fresh ground water approximately 3,000 micromhos, in the San Joaquin Valley, California

The southern eight-ninths of the San Joaquin Valley, about 10,000 square miles, is a broad structural trough bordered by the Sierra Nevada on the east and by the Coast Ranges on the west. In that area, fresh ground water is contained in principally unconsolidated continental deposits of Pliocene to Holocene age that extend to depths ranging from less than 100 to more than 3,500 feet. Because of widespread pumping of ground water, water levels have declined rapidly beneath extensive areas of the valley. Consequently, it becomes necessary to delineate the base of fresh water so that changes in thickness of the fresh-water zone can be monitored, and limiting depths of water wells can be determined. For the purpose of this study, a specific conductance of 3,000 micromhos per centimeter (about 2,000 milligrams per liter dissolved solids) was selected as a measure of the base of fresh groulid water. The base of fresh water was determined from data from electrical logs of wells, chemical analyses of ground water, and from numerous hydrologic and geologic reports. Because of the estimations of various factors used to interpret salinity from electrical logs, the base of fresh water as shown in this report must be considered to be only approximate. The base of fresh water is commonly in the continental deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age, but in places along the eastern and western boundary of the valley it occurs in marine and continental sedimentary rocks of Tertiary age. In addition, it occurs locally in the igneous and metamorphic rocks of pre-Tertiary age of the Sierra Nevada. The configuration of the base of fresh water in places reflects underlying structure, but in other places, particularly along the eastern boundary of the valley, the base transgresses the structure. Furthermore, along and near the southwestern boundary of the valley, the base transgresses the major confining bed in the valley. Locally, the fresh-water body is overlain by water with a dissolved-solids` content that approaches and exceeds 2,000 milligrams per liter. And nearly everywhere in the valley, the fresh water is underlain by a basal, salinewater body of a sodium chloride type.

California↗
USGS1971

Data for wells in the Modesto-Merced area, San Joaquin Valley, California

The Modesto-Merced area is in the northeastern part of the San Joaquin Valley. The area includes about 1,800 square miles that lie in the eastern portions of Merced and Stanislaus Counties. Specifically the boundaries are: North, the Stanislaus River; south, the Merced-Madera County line; east, the Merced-Mariposa and the Stanislaus-Tuolumne County lines; west, the San Joaquin River. Between September 1970 and May 1971, 859 wells were selectively canvassed in the area. The resulting data are on file in the U.S. Geological Survey office at 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, Calif. Selected well data are tabulated in table 1, and the location of these wells is shown on maps 1-65. Selected chemical analyses are shown in table 2. Table 3 is a listing of the well numbers of all wells canvassed in the area by the U.S. Geological Survey through April 1971.

California↗