Wayne R. Belcher

Hydraulic-property estimates for use with a transient ground-water flow model of the Death Valley regional ground-water flow system, Nevada and California

The Death Valley regional ground-water flow system encompasses an area of about 43,500 square kilometers in southeastern California and southern Nevada. The study area is underlain by Quaternary to Tertiary basin-fill sediments and mafic-lava flows; Tertiary volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks; Tertiary to Jurassic granitic rocks; Triassic to Middle Proterozoic carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks; and Early Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks. The rock assemblage in the Death Valley region is extensively faulted as a result of several episodes of tectonic activity. This study is comprised of published and unpublished estimates of transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, storage coefficient, and anisotropy ratios for hydrogeologic units within the Death Valley region study area. Hydrogeologic units previously proposed for the Death Valley regional transient ground-water flow model, were recognized for the purpose of studying the distribution of hydraulic properties. Analyses of regression and covariance were used to assess if a relation existed between hydraulic conductivity and depth for most hydrogeologic units. Those analyses showed a weak, quantitatively indeterminate, relation between hydraulic conductivity and depth.

Comment on “Testing the Interbasin Flow Hypothesis at Death Valley, California”

In the 1960s, a major hydrogeologic investigation was conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS, Figure 1) that included drilling, hydraulic testing, and hydrogeochemical studies in conjunction with geologic mapping and geophysical surveys. This work demonstrated that a large part of south central Nevada is underlain by thick (several kilometers) highly fractured Paleozoic carbonate rocks that typically act as an aquifer. The aquifer flanks and underlies most of the intermontane basins from east central Nevada southward, through the NTS, to the southern Funeral Mountains east of Death Valley (Figure 1). Water levels measured in many test holes demonstrate that the potentiometric surface in the carbonate aquifer generally is uninterrupted by the ridges that separate the many topographically closed basins of the region.