Hydraulic and Mechanical Properties Affecting Ground-Water Flow and Aquifer-System Compaction, San Joaquin Valley, California

By Michelle Sneed

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Open-File Report 01-35

ABSTRACT

This report summarizes hydraulic and mechanical properties affecting ground-water flow and aquifer-system compaction in the San Joaquin Valley, a broad alluviated intermontane structural trough that constitutes the southern two-thirds of the Central Valley of California. These values will be used to constrain a coupled ground-water flow and aquifer-system compaction model of the western San Joaquin Valley called WESTSIM. A main objective of the WESTSIM model is to evaluate potential future land subsidence that might occur under conditions in which deliveries of imported surface water for agricultural use are reduced and ground-water pumping is increased. Storage values generally are components of the total aquifer-system storage and include inelastic and elastic skeletal storage values of the aquifers and the aquitards that primarily govern the potential amount of land subsidence. Vertical hydraulic conductivity values generally are for discrete thicknesses of sediments, usually aquitards, that primarily govern the rate of land subsidence. The data were compiled from published sources and include results of aquifer tests, stress-strain analyses of borehole extensometer observations, laboratory consolidation tests, and calibrated models of aquifer-system compaction.

CONTENTS

1. Location of selected features in the Central Valley, California.
2. Relation of WESTSIM (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) model domain and RASA (U.S. Geological Survey)
   model domain.

1. Storage coefficients estimated from results of aquifer tests near Pixley, California, February 1961 and
   March 1963.
2. Aquifer-system properties estimated from results of stress-strain analyses of borehole extensometer
   observations, San Joaquin Valley, California.
3. Consolidation test summaries.
4. Aquifer-system properties estimated from results of calibrated models, San Joaquin Valley, California.
5. Aquifer-system properties used in Regional Aquifer-System Analysis simulations.

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Water Resources of California

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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Persistent URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/of/2001/ofr01-35/ Page Contact Information: USGS Publishing Network Last modified: Wednesday, December 07 2016, 06:24:25 PM

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