Geology topics
Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Great Basin.
This report lists the streamflow and reservoir stations in The Great Basin for which records have been or are to be published in reports of the Geological Survey for periods through September 30, 1967. It supersedes Geological Survey Circular 510.
Betweeen the northwest-trending Sierra Nevada and the north-northeast-trending ranges that characterize most of the Great Basin section of the Basin and Range province is a belt of confused and divergent topographic forms, which is approximately 50 miles wide and 300 miles long. Along the eastern part of this belt is a topographically low lineament called the Walker Lane. A number of the ranges along the belt have an arcuate form which is controlled by the structure of rocks that are mainly of pre-Cretaceous age; locally, in the southern part of the belt, rocks as young as early Miocene show the arcuate form. The strike of tilted beds, fold axes, and in places elongate plutons, parallels the trend of the arcuate ranges, herein called “oroflexes”—defined as mountain ranges with arcuate trends that result from tectonic bending of the crust. The gross structural pattern of pre-middle Miocene rocks along the belt is a series of sigmoidal bends that suggest gigantic dextral drag. The sigmoidal bends define the oroflexes, facies boundaries, and structural trend lines. These features are cut in places by at least three, and probably five, major northwest-trending faults having right-lateral separations of many miles. Along the strike, the two largest faults seem to die out and the movement is believed to be taken up by bending. The indicated total horizontal displacement by bending and faulting along the belt is 80–120 miles, the Great Basin having moved southeastward relative to the Sierra Nevada. This movement is most likely restricted to the crust, which at some depth is thought to have moved freely over deeper material —either a deeper segment of the crust or the mantle. Available evidence permits the interpretation that the deformation began possibly as early as late Early Jurassic and that the same movement pattern has prevailed ever since. The bending and major strike-slip faulting must have been completed by early or middle Miocene time but much of it may have taken place as long ago as the Jurassic. More recent movements have been restricted to faulting.
The probable magnitude of floods of any recurrence interval between 1.1 and 50 years for any stream in the Great Basin can be determined by methods presented in this report. The Great Basin comprises nearly all of Nevada, western Utah, eastern California, and parts of Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming. The physiography of the basin is a series of mountain ranges and desert valleys, which trend in a north-south direction. Extreme variations in climate from arid to humid are attributed to the mountains, which, in general, are at right angles to the prevailing westerly winds. The area is subject to cloudburst floods and mud-rock flows, and this situation often results in high rates of runoff and heavy erosion from small drainage basins. The greater part of the basin is desert, and because of the paucity of flood data, the flood characteristics are poorly defined. Two sets of curves are provided for estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods: (1) curves that represent the ratio of a flood of any frequency to the mean annual flood, and (2) curves that relate the mean annual flood to the size of the drainage basin and, where significant, to the mean altitude of the basin. Using these curves, a flood of a selected frequency can be determined for any site within the range of the base data. Separate 50-year flood graphs are shown for most of the larger rivers that are affected by regulation or diversion. The report also contains station descriptions and lists of peak discharges for 364 gaging stations at which flood records have been collected for 5 or more years.
This report lists the streamflow and reservoir stations in The Great Basin·for which records have been or are to be published in reports of the Geological Survey for periods through December 31, 1963. It supersedes Geological Survey Circular 390.
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This index lists the streamflow and reservoir stations in The Great Basin for which records have been or are to be published in reports of the Geological Survey for periods prior to September 30, 1955. Periods of record for the same station published by other agencies are listed only when they contain more detailed information or are for periods not reported in publications of the Geological Survey.
Investigation of water resources by the United States Geological Survey has consisted in large part of measurements of the volume of fl.ow of streams and studies of the conditions affecting that flow, but it has comprised also investigation of such closely allied subjects as irrigation, water storage, water powers, underground waters, and quality of waters. Most of the results of these investigations have been published in the series of water-supply papers, but some have appeared in the bulletins, professional papers, and annual reports.