Structural Control of Ground-Water Movement in Miogeosynclinal Rocks of South-Central Nevada

Winograd, Isaac J.; Thordarson, William

doi:10.1130/mem110-p35

Cited by 28 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Fluids in the carbonate units of the Cordilleran miogeosyncline in Alberta with total dissolved solids of 20,000 -300,000 ppm and calculated resistivities of $0.03 ohm-m are found at deeper levels [Rostron et al, 1997]. We therefore conclude that it is possible that fluid resistivities at depths greater than those sampled by Winograd and Thordarson [1975] could be much lower and these fluids could be isolated from the shallower levels by aquitards in the carbonates themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Hydrogeochemical analyses of the formation waters in the carbonate aquifers reveal a narrow range of 13-16 ohm-m for the fluid resistivities from springs in the Ash Meadows discharge zone [Winograd and Thordarson, 1975]. From additional geochemical analyses of water sampled in boreholes near Ash Meadows [Claassen, 1985], we calculated a water resistivity of 9.4 ohm-m and therefore conclude that 10 ohm-m is a reasonable average resistivity for zones 2, 4, 6, and 7.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…This secondary porosity contributes to the high permeability (up to 4.4 darcies) and therefore interconnected porosity of the carbonate aquifers [Winograd and Thordarson, 1975]. Permeabilities in the aquifers are up to 900,000 times larger than those for the aquitards.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hydrological system in the region has generally been characterized by an arrangement of aquitards and aquifers defined by the structural disposition of clastic and carbonate strata, respectively, of the Cordilleran miogeocline [Winograd andThordarson, 1968, 1975]. In particular, at the eastern end of the MT profile, a major south directed interbasinal flow system moves through the carbonate section, and includes the Ash Meadows and Furnace Creek regional discharge zones [Winograd, 1971].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PreTertiary strata include the Pahrump Group (Zp) and unconformably overlying miogeosynclinal strata whose lower part is predominantly clastics (ZCc) and upper part mainly carbonates (CM, PTr). Unit CM is a major aquifer in the southern Great Basin region, and thus its geometry is an important element in interpreting the shallow crustal conductivity structure [Winograd andThordarson, 1968, 1975]. Unconformably overlying Tertiary units are divisible into lower, middle and upper Miocene strata (lM, mM, and uM, respectively), Pliocene non-volcanic (P) and volcanic strata (Pb), and Pliocene to Quaternary fill of the modern valleys (PQ).…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Park

Wernicke

2003

Tectonics

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Comparison of an electrical resistivity section derived from magnetotelluric (MT) data to a geologic section extending eastward from the Sierra Nevada near latitude 36°20′N shows that the crust is dominated by steeply dipping conductive features that correlate with active strike‐slip faults. While there is a subhorizontal conductor at a depth ∼20 km beneath some of the profile, it is broken by vertical structures associated with the active strike‐slip faults. The continuous subhorizontal anomalies in the lower crust typically observed in extensional regions are therefore absent in the resistivity section. The present‐day strike‐slip tectonic regime as indicated by geodetic data in this part of the Basin and Range is not producing features that could be inferred to indicate subhorizontal shear zones resulting from lateral crustal flow during extension. Because the Miocene tectonic regime resulted in the formation of metamorphic core complexes and thus was accompanied by such flow, the present regime appears to represent a fundamental transition in the mode of crustal deformation in the region. A serendipitous result of our study was the identification on resistivity sections of carbonate aquifers in the upper crust. Comparison of resistivities from the MT section to measured fluid resistivities from springs and boreholes suggests that the aquifers must be heterogeneous, with more saline brines occupying the deepest portions of the carbonates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Park

Wernicke

2003

Tectonics

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Radioactive waste storage in the arid zone

Winograd

1974

EoS Transactions

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By the turn of the century, nuclear power may generate more than one‐half of the electric energy, and about one‐third of the total energy consumed in the United States [Thompson, 1971; Chapman et al., 1972]. By 2020, the total quantity of high‐level radioactive wastes (HLW) generated as a byproduct of nuclear fuel reprocessing for such power generation may total about 900,000 m3 as liquid or 70,000 m3 as solid [Gera and Jacobs, 1972]; the radioactivity of long‐lived nuclides in the HLW will total about 8.7×1010 Ci [Gera and Jacobs, 1972]. (High‐level wastes are defined as wastes containing at least 1 Ci of radioactivity per liter of liquid, or 70 Ci/kg of solid [American Institute of Chemical Engineering, ANSI Standard N5.8‐1967]. Wastes from chemical processing of irradiated nuclear fuels typically contain several hundred to several thousand curies per gallon [Fox, 1969].)

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Heat flow in the western United States

Sass¹,

Lachenbruch²,

Munroe³

et al. 1971

J. Geophys. Res.

223

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Between 1962 and late 1970, subsurface temperature measurements were attempted at more than a thousand drilling sites in the western United States. Temperatures from over 150 boreholes at about 100 distinct sites were suitable for estimates of the vertical geothermal flux. These results more than double the data from the western United States and confirm that heat flow is variable but generally high in this region. Within the over-all pattern of high heat flow, there are several distinct geographical regions, each occupying several hundred square kilometers, characterized by low-to-normal heat flow. Normal values were measured in the Pacific northwestern coastal region and the northwestern Columbia Plateaus. Additional results confirm the previously reported trend of very low heat flow in the western Sierra Nevada, increasing to normal near the crest of the range. The present work also confirms that heat flow is high in the northern and southern Rocky Mountains and somewhat lower in the central Rockies. The north-central part of the Colorado Plateau is a region of normal heat flow with higher values near its eastern border with the southern Rockies. The Basin and Range province as a whole is characterized by high heat flow that extends to within 10 to 20 km of the eastern scarp of the Sierra Nevada. The abrupt thermal transition between the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and Range province may occur partly in the Sierra Nevada physiographic province. Between Las Vegas and Eureka, Nevada, there. is a large previously undetected zone of low-to-normal heat flow that is most probably the result of a systematic, regional water circulation to depths of a few kilometers. North of this zone, there is an area of several hundred square kilometers characterized by heat flows of 2.5 HFU (gcal/cm • see) or greater. In central California and adjoining western Nevada, a preliminary contour map suggests a heat-flow pattern with alignment parallel to the strike of the major geologic structures. Since radioactivity was first discovered, the heat flowing from the earth's deep interior has been considered an important constraint on geophysical and geochemical models of the earth. Until fairly recently, however, the measurement of heat flow on land was accorded a low priority compared with other geophysical measurements, so much so that Birch [1954] could report only three reliable measurements for the whole of the United States, and only a dozen or so independent regional determinations (attributable largely to E. C. Bullard and his colleagues) for all the continents. During the late 1950's and 1960's, the early efforts of Francis Birch in the United States, J. C. Jaeger in Australia, and A.D. Misener in Canada, among others, were followed up by these workers, their colleagues, and their students, with the result that the number of reports of reliable heat-flow data from continents is approaching one thousand. Roy et al. [1968b] recently summarized the work of almost a decade by Birch and his students in the conterminous United States....

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Structural Control of Ground-Water Movement in Miogeosynclinal Rocks of South-Central Nevada

Cited by 28 publications

References 4 publications

Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range

Radioactive waste storage in the arid zone

Heat flow in the western United States

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