Ground Water Contributions to Death Valley
from Southeast California Desert Basins
By
M. S. Bedinger
P.O. Box 790
Carlsborg, WA 98324
bedinger@ olympus.net
and
J.R. Harrill
608 Highland Street
Carson City, NV, 89703
jimharrill@aol.com
Hydrogeologic Consultants to the National Park Service
Transcript of the paper presented at the GSA 2003 Annual Meeting and
Exposition, Seattle, Washington, November 2-5, 2003
Slides refer to the accompanying PowerPoint presentation of the same title
Slide 1: Introduction
Ground-water models of the Death Valley flow system have
focused primarily on problems in Nevada. The inflow to Death
Valley from the southeast California desert basins has been largely
excluded from previous models. For the past few years Jim
Harrill, my co-author in this paper, and I have been consultants to
the U. S. National Park Service on ground-water issues related to
Death Valley. As a part of this work we are doing oversight of the
USGS model of the Death Valley flow system. This paper is a
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brief summary of our work sponsored by the National Park Service
for a quantitative appraisal of the ground-water flow to Death
Valley from the California basins. The results of our study have
been included in the current version of the Death Valley flow
system model by the simulation of boundary flows.
Slide 2: Regional potential showing area of contribution to Death
Valley
This map shows the extent of the Death Valley flow system of
Nevada and California. The boundary of the Death Valley (DV)
flow system is outlined by red. The DVRFS (Death Valley
Regional Flow System) model boundary of the U. S. Geological
Survey is shown by the yellow line. The gradients on the regional
potentiometric surface, the blue contours, show the potential for
inflow to Death Valley from the California basins.
Slide 3: Hydrogeologic Units
The outcrop of hydrogeologic units is generalized from the state
geologic map. The boundary of the Basin and Range is generally
marked by the igneous rocks shown in red with the Sierra Nevada
on the west and San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains on the
south. A divide on the potentiometric surface, shown in the
previous slide, separates the Death Valley flow system and the
Lower Colorado River flow system to the southeast. Basin fill is
the predominant rock, yellow, in the area of study. The arcuate
trace of the Garlock fault marks the line between the Mojave
Desert and the Great Basin. We can discern a distinct change in
out crop pattern and rock types between the two physiographic
areas. Bedrock in the Mojave Desert is largely intrusive and
metamorphic rocks with some volcanic rocks. The Great Basin
contains a great amount of carbonate rocks some extensive areas of
non-carbonate sedimentary rocks in addition to crystalline and
volcanic rocks. The carbonate rocks make up the more significant
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bedrock aquifers. Permeability of bedrock is related to a large
extent to fractures and faults with solution enhanced permeability
zones in carbonate rocks.
Slide 4: Relief Map
The climate of the area is one of the most diverse in the country.
Climate is largely controlled by elevation which has an extreme
range from below sea level in Death Valley to 14,000 ft in the
White Mountains. The region is basically a complex of rain
shadow deserts. It exhibits severe conditions of winter cold at
high elevations; and, great annual ranges in temperature occur
throughout the area. Low elevations exhibit subtropical properties
such as mild warm winters, great summer heat, and summer
convectional rainfall (Rowlands, 1993).
Precipitation increases in proportion to elevation. We see from the
relief map that the Great Basin portion of the area contains the
higher mountain ranges; the higher elevations are in green and
gray.
The Mojave Desert section, shown mostly in yellow and brown is
generally below 4,000 ft in altitude.
Slide 5: Regional Potential for Ground-Water Flow
This map shows the regional ground-water potential (blue lines)
and the area contributing to Death Valley, outlined by red. The
boundaries of the topographically closed basins in southeastern
California are delineated by white lines. Ground-water
evapotranspiration areas are shown in green.
Ground-water basins that have been studied in detail include the
Mojave Basin (M), Indian Wells and Searles Basins (IS) and
Owens Valley (O). The basin fill and alluvial deposits in these
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basins make up the principal aquifers. Studies of these basins
conclude that the bounding consolidated rock does not contribute
significantly to the water supply of the basins.
Slide 6: Thermal Springs
Thermal springs, shown by the blue dots, are more common in the
Great Basin part of the area. Thermal springs are commonly
located near valley floors as indicated by their proximity to areas
of evapotranspiration. These springs can provide us with
inferences regarding ground-water flow in the consolidated rock
including zones of permeability and depth of flow. Two areas of
hydrothermal convective systems border the eastern flank of the
Sierra Nevada, the Coso geothermal field (C) and the Long Valley
geothermal field (L), shown in light blue. These geothermal areas
are high temperature systems in which water-steam transitions
occur. These systems are associated with young volcanics.
The other hot springs in the Death Valley flow region are surface
manifestations of hydraulically forced fluid convection of
geothermal energy. The temperatures of hot springs are due to
heating by the great geothermal heat flow of ground water
circulating at depth.
Slide 7: Pluvial Drainage
A map of major surface water features that existed in southeastern
California and adjacent parts of Nevada during the Pleistocene,
with some Pliocene features included, are shown in this slide.
Pluvial lakes are shown in dark blue. Marshes are shown in light
blue. Death Valley, the ultimate destination of both surface and
ground water, was beneficiary of a large integrated surface-water
drainage system.
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The Pluvial drainage was marked by a chain of lakes along the
flank of the Sierra Nevada, beginning at its maximum extent, with
its headwaters at Mono Lake (M) and extending downstream
through an integrated chain of lakes – Adobe Lake (A), Owens
Lake (O), China Lake, Searles Lake (China and Searles Lakes
merged at high stages to form one lake) (CS), Panamint Lake (P),
and finally Lake Manly (ML) that occupied Death Valley.
A chain of lakes punctuated the Mojave River as it drained into
Death Valley. Lake Manix (MX) occupied lowland of the Mojave
River valley between present-day Barstow and Afton Canyon.
Lake Mojave (MV) occupied the present day playas of Soda Lake
and Silver Lake. Several Pleistocene lakes, without apparent
connecting streams to the Mojave River, occupied shallow basins
west and northwest of the Mojave River.
During the Pleistocene, the Amargosa River (AG) was, as it is
today, a tributary to Death Valley. Lake Tecopa (T), named for its
location near the town of that name, occupied the channel of the
Amargosa River in the Pliocene. The basins of Pahrump (PR),
Mesquite (MQ), and Ash Meadows (AM) did not hold lakes but
were inferred to have been occupied by marshes of somewhat
larger extent than the early settlers found when they entered the
region.
Slides 8 and 9: Contributing Ground-Water Basins
Basins bordering Death Valley in southeastern California that
contribute the greater part of the California inflow to Death Valley
are largely undeveloped for ground-water supplies.
Bordering Death Valley to the northwest are Deep Springs,
Eureka, Racetrack Playa and Saline Valleys, all topographically
closed basins. The bedrock is composed of granitic intrusions,
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Paleozoic carbonate, volcanic and clastic rocks. The water budget
of these basins was made using the Maxey-Eakin method.
The balance of water, that is the recharge minus the ground-water
loss by evapotranspiration, from these basins, plus the estimated
inflow to the basins from Owens Valley, is about 13,000 m3d. The
regional potentiometric map indicates that this flow would enter
Death Valley largely from Saline Valley with some inflow across
the Eureka-Death Valley boundary.
Panamint Valley, a closed topographic basin, lies along the
western margin of Death Valley. Panamint Valley is separated
from Death Valley by the Panamint Range.
A reconnaissance water budget was made by Jim Harrill. The
balance of ground water, 14,000 m3/d, is tributary to Death Valley.
Panamint Valley also receives ground water by underflow from
parts of Owens, Mojave, Indian Wells, and Searles Lake Valleys.
The inflow from these basins is estimated by Darcy calculations to
be less than 2,000 m3/d. Panamint Valley and the upgradient
basins contribute an estimated flow to Death Valley of 16,000 m3d.
The contributing area to the southern part of Death Valley includes
several basins. These basins for the most part are of elevations
lower than 4,000 feet and receive less than 6 inches of precipitation
per year. Recharge rates are very low. Most of the recharge to
Valjean, Shadow Mountain, Mesquite and Soda Lake Valleys
discharge by evapotranspiration at Mesquite and Soda Lake Valley
playas. The ground-water gradient is parallel to much of the
boundary between these basins and Death Valley. Most of the
inflow to Death Valley as indicated by the regional potential is
through the western part of this boundary segment. Darcy
calculations show a flow of about 1,000 m3d to Death Valley.
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In summary the contribution to Death Valley from the California
basins is about 30,000 m3/d. Most of this inflow is derived from
recharge to the higher mountain ranges of Deep Springs, Eureka,
Saline and Panamint Valleys. The results of our study have been
included in the current U. S. Geological Survey model of the Death
Valley flow system by the simulation of boundary flows to the
model.
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