10 



Pico Canyon Area. 

 Introduction. 



Although the area of Pico Canyon was one of the first oil 

 producing localities in the state, the only account of the geology 

 of the area is that of Eldridge. He mapped the beds near the centre 

 of the Pico anticline as Vaqueros, which was seemingly conformably 

 overlain by Fernando gravels. Prom a hasty examination of the Santa 

 Susana mountains from Pico canyon to San Fernando pass the writer has 

 come to the conclusion that the beds which form the axis of the Pico 

 anticline are part of the Fernando series, and are not Vaqueros. 



Stratigraphy. 



Lithologically the strata is the axis of the Pico anticline 

 are fine grained, chocolate colored, oil stained and slightly 

 indurated sandstones and sandy shales, which have in places been 

 affected by pressure so as to become spheroidal and jointed. These 

 beds are only 400 or 50 feet thick, above which the finer beds are 

 interstratif ied with gravels and conglomerates, which latter become 

 gradually more abundant, until about 2500 feet above where they first 

 appeared the coarse beds entirely replace the fine sandy shales and 

 sandstones. 



On the north limb of the anticline the beds dip to the north 

 at angles of from 20 to 70, the steeper dips being near the axis 

 of the anticline and the lesser ones at the edge of the valley. At 

 no place was any structural evidence of uncomformity found, although 

 the section ia well exposed, due to the steep slopes, and the absence 

 of vegetation. 



