TERRESTRIAL DEPOSITS OF OWENS VALLEY 707 



INTRODUCTION- 



From September 9 to December 1, 1909, the writer in company 

 with James A. Lane was in the southern half of Owens Valley, 

 California, studying and mapping the general geology in a semi- 

 detailed manner, and gathering data on the terrestrial deposits. 

 The deposits studied particularly lie in the Mt. Whitney Quad- 

 rangle of the United States Geological Survey, though work was 

 done in the Olancha Quadrangle, and beyond the limits of both 

 these sheets, as problems demanded. The results of this work are 

 used as a Doctor's thesis in the University of Chicago, this article 

 being one chapter of that thesis. 



The purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to describe the char- 

 acteristics of the terrestrial deposits of Owens Valley; (2) to dis- 

 cuss the causes and processes involved in their deposition; and (3) 

 to deduce certain criteria whereby materials so deposited may be 

 distinguished from other deposits such as those of lakes and seas, 

 even after cementation has taken place. The adequate study of 

 such deposits should lead to the establishment of criteria by which 

 terrestrial deposits of earlier ages may with certainty be separated 

 from marine deposits. It should also lead to the establishment 

 of criteria for the recognition of various kinds of non-marine depos- 

 its. It is recognized that such criteria have already been discussed, 

 and to a certain extent established. But many of these are appli- 

 cable only to formations of pronounced characteristics, and there are 

 yet many formations of one age and another whose origins are not 

 yet established beyond doubt. 



Owens Valley is an area about 100 miles long north and south, 

 by 12-15 miles broad. It is situated in extreme eastern California, 

 about east of a point on the coast midway between San Francisco 

 and Los Angeles. The valley includes the villages of Bishop, 

 Big Pine, Independence, Long Pine, and Keeler, which can be 

 reached by the California and Nevada Narrow Gauge Railroad, 

 connecting with the Southern Pacific at Mina, Nevada. 



Physiographically, Owens Valley is located between the Great 

 Basin on the east and the Sierra Nevada Mountain province on the 

 west. The east wall of the valley is the west face of the Inyo 

 Mountains, one of the semi-arid basin ranges, while the west valley 



