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Digital database for the Surficial Geologic Map of the Owlshead Mountains 30' X 60' Quadrangle, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California

Dates

Publication Date
Start Date
2000
End Date
2008

Citation

Menges, C.M., and Cossette, P.M., 2024, Digital database for the Surficial Geologic Map of the Owlshead Mountains 30' X 60' Quadrangle, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9LSW65B.

Summary

This geodatabase contains all of the map information used to publish the Surficial Geologic Map of the Owlshead Mountains 30’ X 60’ Quadrangle,Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map SIM-3496. The geodatabase and associated map delineate primarily surficial geology and neotectonics structure across the entire extent of this quadrangle, which includes 32 complete 7.5’ quadrangles located in the Owlshead Mountains, southern Death Valley, and adjoining basins and highlands in the southwestern section of Inyo County and the northeastern part of San Bernardino County in eastern California. The datasets contained in this Scientific Investigation Map describe the surficial geology [...]

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Attached Files

Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.

sim3496_Owlshead_database.zip
“Owlshead GIS and supporting data”
144.62 MB application/zip
Owlshead_README.docx
“Owlshead_README”
26.65 KB application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

Purpose

The Owlshead Mountains quadrangle database was prepared by U.S Geological Survey staff under the auspices of a series of geodatabase mapping projects sponsored by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) of the U.S. Geological Survey. This database was initiated within a Northern Mojave Desert Geology and Ecosystem Project located in the northeastern Mojave Desert of eastern California. After cessation of this project, compilation of the OM geodatabase component was transferred to and continued within three succeeding projects in the greater Southern California area, Basins and Landscape Coevolution (BALANCE) and the San Andreas Fault System in Southern California (SAFSOC), and Western Basin and Range-Eastern California Shear Zone (WBR-ECSZ). The Owlshead Mountains dataset itself represents a part of an ongoing effort to create a regional GIS geologic database for this southern California area. This regional digital database is also being developed as a contribution to the National Geologic Map Database of NCGMP. The Owlshead Mountains quadrangle dataset has been generated specifically to expand and refine our scientific understanding of the surficial geology and neotectonic deformation within a critical, but hitherto poorly understood, area centered on southern Death Valley and adjoining areas of the northeastern Mojave Desert. As noted previously, this region spans a major transition between several major regional geographic and geologic provinces, including the major basins and mountain systems of the southwestern Basin and Range province to the north and the complex irregular troughs, highlands, and low-relief plains of the northeastern Mojave Desert to the south. This dataset represents the first regional geologic compilation across the SDV area that contains a high-resolution uniform representation of surficial geology and Pliocene-Quaternary deformation throughout the mapped area. This map and associated datasets thus provide significant new regionally coherent information on these units and structures that define the temporal-spatial framework of the diverse system of interacting neotectonic faults and folds observed in this section of the plate-margin boundary. This geodatabase also provides regionally consistent data on patterns of alluvial and eolian erosion, transport, and deposition that potentially underlie interpretation of geomorphic process and landscape evolution in the region. Furthermore, these elements of the database potentially contribute supportive scientific data for a number of land management decisions by various local, county, and state agencies in the region, such as seismic hazard studies, flooding potential evaluations, and identification of near-surface resources, even if geodatabase development was not specifically designed or supported by these agencies. The California Geological Survey and the San Bernardino County Environmental Hazard section have already expressed interest in using the completed geodatabase for development of derivative hazard maps and evaluations of active faults and flood potential. This geologic map database is accompanied by a report, which includes the formatted geologic map and explanatory pamphlet, available at https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3496. The authors ask that users of the geologic map database cite both the report and the database: Report: Menges, C.M., and Cossette, P.M., 2023, Surficial Geologic Map of the Owlshead Mountains 30' x 60' Quadrangle, Inyo, and San Bernardino Counties, California: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3496, pamphlet 46 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:62,500, https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3496. Database: Christopher C.M and Cossette, P.M. 2024, Digital database for the Surficial Geologic Map of the Owlshead Mountains 30' X 60' Quadrangle, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California, U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9LSW65

Additional Information

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DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P9LSW65B

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