New Report—Geology and Geophysics of White Pine and Lincoln Counties
Geology and Geophysics of White Pine and Lincoln Counties, Nevada, and Adjacent Parts of Nevada and Utah: The Geologic Framework of Regional Groundwater Flow Systems
Authors: Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, Edward A. Mankinen, Keith T. Pari, Darcy K. McPhee, Edwin H. McKee, Andrew G. Burns, James M. Watrus, E. Bartlett Ekren, William G. Patrick, and Judith M. Brandt
Year: 2017
Series: Report 56
Format: text: 146 pages; 4 plates: color, with cross sections
Scale: 1:250,000
Download/purchase:
http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Geol-geophys-White-Pine-Lincoln-p/r056.htm
This report describes the geologic framework of a >65,000 km2 area that straddles the Nevada-Utah border. The studied region includes most of White Pine and Lincoln counties and adjacent counties in eastern Nevada, as well as parts of Tooele, Juab, Millard, Beaver, and Iron counties in western Utah. This study represents more than a 20-year effort by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to understand the groundwater resources of this part of the Great Basin. This first step, which includes a compilation of all the information on the geologic and geophysical setting, was necessary for hydrological and biological investigations. To understand the geologic framework, we compiled all known geologic mapping at a scale of 1:250,000, and constructed 25 geologic cross sections at the same scale. We also present new geophysical data, consisting of gravity surveys and audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) profiles, plus assembly of available aeromagnetic data, contracted from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as well as additional AMT profiles by the SNWA. This report focuses on two large regional groundwater flow systems: the White River and Great Salt Lake Desert systems. Although the map boundaries presented here bound these aforementioned flow systems, the maps, cross sections, and text are intended to serve as a modern multidisciplinary regional geological and geophysical review, comparable to many old county reports in Nevada and Utah.
View the geospatial PDFs for the four plates that accompany this report:
http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Geol-geophys-White-Pine-Lincoln-p/r056.htm
Plate 1—Geologic map of the northern part of the study area, Nevada and Utah
Plate 2—Geologic map of the southern part of the study area, Nevada and Arizona
Plate 3—Geologic cross sections of the northern part of the study area, Nevada and Utah
Plate 4—Geologic cross sections of the southern part of the study area, Nevada and Arizona
GIS files for these plates will be available soon.
This report was prepared with support from the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
“This report is dedicated to Gary L. Dixon, who died at age 73 from cancer on January 14, 2017 as the manuscript was being reviewed and edited. Gary, a great field geologist, led the 20-year study presented here through the strength of his competence and personality. He began the study when he was a Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. After retirement, he continued with it as a consulting geologist. Perhaps more important to his coauthors and many others, we loved Gary and can attribute major parts of our careers to mentorship by him and to collaboration with him. To his wife, Wendy Dixon, and his children, Chris Dixon and Natalie Dixon Pique, he was a loving husband and father and a loyal friend to them and most others he met. His passions were geology, golf, and supporting Wendy’s equally extraordinary career with the U.S. Department of Energy. All of us miss him.” (Report 56)