BULLETIN OF THE 
MPlffllOFAfflOlM 
No. 61 
Contribution from the Bureau of Soils, Milton Whitney, Chief. 
June 30, 1914. 
(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 
POTASH SALTS AND OTHER SALINES IN THE 
GREATpASIN REGION. 1 
By G. J. Young. 
GEOCHEMICAL CONDITIONS. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The area under consideration in this bulletin embraces practically the entire State 
of Nevada, the southern part of Oregon, the western part of Utah, and certain sections 
of eastern and southeastern California. It is confined on the north by the watershed 
of the Columbia, Snake, and Klamath Rivers, on the south and southeast by the 
Colorado River, on the west by the Sierra Nevada, on the east by the Wasatch Moun- 
tains, and on the southwest by the mountains bordering on the Mojave Desert. It 
includes the drainage of the Humboldt, Truekee, Carson, Walker, Quinn, Bear, 
Weber, Jordan, Salt, Sevier, Beaver, Amargosa, Mojave, and Owens Rivers and their 
tributaries, besides numerous smaller creeks and streams. It is considered as a unit 
because it has no surface drainage to the sea. Climatologically, it is a part of the 
arid region of the West. 
The total area is estimated at between 208,500 and 210,000 square miles. The term 
"Great Basin " has received such widespread use and acceptance that we may consider 
the designation fixed, although it must not be considered as a single basin, but rather 
as a series of individual basins separated by mountain ranges. These basins are 
roughly of north-and -south trend. Five major systems may be separated and desig- 
nated as the Bonneville; the Lahontan; the Amargosa and Death Valley; the Owens, 
Searles, and Panamint system; and the Oregon Lake system. Of the other lake basins 
not included in these systems the following may be named: Rhodes Marsh, Teels 
Marsh, Columbus and Fish Lake Valley, Clayton Valley, Alkali Lake (Paradise Val- 
ley, Cal.), Big Smoky Valley, White River, Mono, Saline Valley, Ivanpah, 
Bristol, Cadiz, and Danby. A complete list of the individual basins making up the 
Great Basin has been prepared by E. E. Free, and the following table is taken from 
his paper (The Present and Past Topography of the Undrained Areas of the United 
States) : 
Basin. 
Description. 
Area. 
Basin. 
Description. 
Area. 
Lahontan 
Square 
miles. 
47. 600 
Humboldt-Carson. . 
Part of Lahontan. . . 
do 
Square 
miles. 
27, 575 
Black Rock. .. 
10, 500 
445 
890 
340 
270 
2,660 
2.975 
90 
215 
. .do... 
xVllan Springs 
do 
235 
Sand Springs 
do 
200 
Jungo 
do 
Buena Vista 
Buffalo Springs 
Gibson 
Part of Humboldt 
drainage. 
do 
...do 
4,000 
Hot Springs 
.....do 
Honey Lake. . . 
.do 
500 
do... 
1,150 
.do... . 
Clover (snow water) 
Walker 
do.. 
1,075 
Warm Springs 
do 
20 
Part of Lahontan . . . 
3,-850 
i This bulletin embodies the results of investigations carried on in cooperation with the United States 
Geological Survey and the Mackay School of Mines, Reno, Nev., with a view to determining the existence 
or nonexistence of sources of potash salts in the basin region. 
