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George I. Smith

Publications and source records attributed to George I. Smith.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Core logs from Owens, China, Searles, and Panamint basins, California

Detailed logs of drill cores are presented in this report. The drill cores are of sediments from four basins that were occupied during the Pleistocene by a continuous chain of lakes. Owens Lake basin (one hole, 920 feet) contains fine-grained sediments and includes locally many diatoms and ostracodes. China Lake basin (one hole, 700 feet) contains silt- to sand-sized clastic sediments and some calcite and gaylussite; a few diatoms, ostracodes, and mollusks are present. Searles Lake basin (one hole, 875 feet) contains many layers of gaylussite- or pirssonite-bearing sediments intercalated with beds of halite, trona, and lesser amounts of other minerals peculiar to Searles Lake; the top 120 feet consists of thicker evaporite bodies with a more complex mineralogy. Panamint basin (three holes, 500, 375, and 995 feet) contains clastic deposits ranging from clay to gravel, a small amount of gypsum, anhydrite, a trace of bassanite, and thick bodies of halite in the basin center; a few diatoms and ostracodes are present.

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Geology and petrology of the Lava Mountains, San Bernardino County, California

The Lava Mountains are a range of low mountains along the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, California. The pre-Tertiary rocks consist of a few swell pendants of metamorphic rocks in Atolia quartz monzonite. Overlying these are small patches of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, probably Tertiary, which project into the later formations. The major sedimentary unit is the middle Pliocene 3edrock Spring formation; it consists chiefly of arkosic sandstone and conglomerate with lesser amounts of siltstone and brecciated volcanic rocks. Overlying this formation are two late Pliocene formations, the Almond Mountain volcanic ant Klinker Mountain volcanics in the eastern and western parts of the area, respectively. Small areas of other late Pliocene(?) volcanic rocks are locally present. Overlying these are flaws of the Lava Mountains andesite of very late Pliocene age. The Pleistocene(?) Christmas Canyon formation is restricted to the eastern half of the area. A few small dikes of basalt cut this formation. Quaternary gravels, alluvium, and travertine are the youngest deposits.

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