Coalinga to the Pinnacles along the San Andreas Fault zone : field guide

92 Pages·1993·30.9 MB·English

FIELD GUIDE
GEOLOGY OF COALINGA, _
CENTRAL SAN ANDREAS FAULT ae
AND THE PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT
Sponsored by
U. S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
February 6, 1993

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FIELD GUIDE
COALINGA TO THE PINNACLES
ALONG THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT ZONE
Sponsored by
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
BAKERSFIELD DISTRICT OFFICE
Field Trip Leaders
Anne Falcon, Geologist
Gregg Wilkerson, Geologist
Contributors
Betty Acebedo and William Delco,
R. C. Baker Memorial Oil Museum Personnel
Charles Foss, Geologist
Craig H. Lewis, Coalinga Sulphur Baths & Plunge
Cynee O’Connor and family, Food Management
Pinnacles National Monument Personnel
Larry Vredenburgh, Geologist, BLM
and other BLM Personnel
For copies of this field guide write to:
Bureau of Land Management
800 Truxtun Ave. Room 311
Bakersfield, CA 93301
BLM Library
Denver Federal Center
Bldg. 50, OC-521
PO. Box 25047
Denver, CO 80225
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OVERVIEW
This trip begins at the R. C. Baker Memorial Oil Museum located at
297 Elm Street, Coalinga, Ca., and continues along State Highway
198 with stops at the Coalinga Sulphur Baths & Plunge (just outside
of Coalinga) and Coalinga Mineral Hot Springs County Park (farther
along State Highway 198). Proceed west on State Highway 198 to the
intersection of State Highway 25. Turn north at this intersection.
The road parallels the San Andreas Fault Zone for the rest of the
trip. The lunch stop is in Bitterwater Valley at a private home
located 0.4 of a mile before the Bitterwater School. The trip will
continue along State Highway 25 and end at the Pinnacles National
Monument.
FIELD STOPS
STOP # 1. R. C. Baker Memorial Oil Museun.
STOP “f"2: Coalinga Sulphur Baths and Plunge.
STOP # 3. Coalinga Mineral Springs.
STOP # 4. Overview of the San Andreas Fault Zone.
STOP # 5. Biedeawater Val leyetunck Stop.
STOP # 6. Pinnacles National Monument.
FIGURES
FIGURE # 1. Coalinga Oil Fields Surface Locations.
FIGURE # 2. Geologic Cross Section of Stone Canyon Coal Mine.
FIGURE # 3. California in Early Cenozoic.
FIGURE # 4. California today, with displacement shown.
FIGURE # 5. Geologic Cross Section of California today and before
the San Andreas Fault.
FIGURE # 6. Geomorphic Features of the San Andreas Fault.
TABLES
TABLE # 1. Geologic Time Scale.
TABLEOF? 2% Coalinga Area Oilfields.
MAPS
Maps of the Route from Coalinga to the Pinnacles.
2

ROAD LOG
0.0 STOP # 1. R. C. BAKER MEMORIAL OIL MUSEUM
The R. C. Baker Memorial Oil Museum is located at 297 Elm Street,
Coalinga, Ca., phone number 1-209-935-1914. The museum will be
open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. prior to the field trip especially
for our convenience. Our host is William Delco. The museum
normally opens on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Entrance to the museum is
free, but donations to support the organization are welcome. This
museum is named after a prominent oil pioneer, Ruben Carlton Baker,
founder of Baker Tools.
Coalinga
The town of Coalinga, incorporated in 1906, acquired its name from
the Southern Pacific Railroad. The name "Coalinga" is a
contraction of Coaling Station A, a siding to load up coal onto the
rail lines in the 1880’s. Coalinga is located at the western edge
of the San Joaquin Valley approximately 60 miles southwest of the
city of Fresno.
The area, as is common on the west side of the valley, has bad
water. Most establishments had three faucets, one for the drinking
water that was shipped in by rail, and other two for other usage
that was from well water pumped from the ground. For several
years, Coalinga had a desalinization plant to purify its water.
Currently all water comes from the California Aqueduct.
Earthquake of May 2, 1983
On May 2, 1983, 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) northeast of Coalinga in
the East Coalinga Extension Oil Field (east of State Highway 33) on
the Coalinga Anticline was the epicenter of a 6.7 magnitude
earthquake causing over $31 million dollars of damage. The main
shock was 16 miles (25.6 kilometers) beneath the surface on a
buried thrust/reverse fault. This event was not associated with
any previously known or suspected active fault. The shock was felt
in the south from Los Angeltoe 3s20 miles (512 kilometers) north
of Sacramento and as far east as Las Vegas. Major surface damage
and minor subsurface damage occurred in the oil fields in the
epicenter vicinity.
The San Joaquin Valley is a broad asymmetric trough paralleling the
San Andreas Rift Zone. Its sedimentary sequence ranges in age from
the Late Jurassic through Holocene and is chiefly marine origin
upward into the Pliocene sequence. The fill conceals the eastern
margin of Franciscan rocks, which underlie the Diablo Range
(directly west of Coalinga), and the western margin of the Sierran
basement.
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(In use by the
U. S. Geological Survey)
Era or System or Series (Epoch) Age Estimates
Erathem Period (boundary in
millions of
years ago)
Holocene
Quaternary Pleistocene
wen nnn rn enn 1.8------------
Pliocene
---------------------------- 5.0----
Miocene
o-------------------------- 22.5----
Cenozoic Oligocene
~-------------------------- 37.5----
Eocene
wee ee enn nnn nnn nne 53.5----
Tertiary Paleocene
wooo enn oo $$ 2 oo eo oe === 65.0------------
Cretaceous
22-2 $2 2-2-2 $$ $2 2 2 = 2 = = = = = 136.0------------
Mesozoic Jurassic
--------------------------------- 190-195. 0--------
Triassic
woe ee nnn oo nn no nnn nnn oe oo oo eo oo oo 2 = === 225.0------------
Permian
wen on enn nnn nn nnn nnn ne 280.0------------
Pennsylvanian
wn nnn nn ne en nn nn nn en nnn ene 320.0------------
Mississippian
aa 23 ---- + -----------~------------- 345.0------------
Paleozoic Devonian
Wo H HH 77-5 == 395.0------------
Silurian
—------------~+------------------- 430-440. 0--------
Ordovician
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Cambrian
----------------------------- $$ = 55-2 === == 570.0------------
TABLE # 1. Geological Time Chart. U. S. Geological Survey.
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