U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

icon-dot-gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

icon-https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Modeled Top of the Saddle Mountains Basalt Geomodel Unit (smtop_f)

The smtop_f grid represents the modeled elevation of the top of the Saddle Mountains Basalt geomodlel unit at a 500 foot resolution. It is one grid of a geomodel that consists of eleven grids and a spatial extent polygon shapefile. As part of a U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Resources Program study, a three-dimensional geomodel was constructed for approximately 53,000 mi2 of the Columbia Plateau in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. This geomodel was constructed to define the general aquifer system geometry for use in a regional numerical groundwater flow model. Simplifications and assumptions consistent with this ultimate goal and the uncertainty in the available data were made. The geomodel units consist of Miocene age Columbia River Basalt Group strata and younger alluvial overburden covering approximately 44,000 mi2. Data were compiled from numerous databases and detailed studies completed during the past three decades. These data include stratigraphic interpretations made on more than 13,000 wells and a contiguous compilation of surficial geology and structural features spanning the study area. These data were simplified and used to construct piecewise-smooth trend surfaces that represent upper and lower subsurface geomodel unit boundaries in this complex folded and faulted terrain. The smoothness of the surfaces implicitly represents uncertainty in prediction of each surface resulting from data gaps, errors in borehole interpretations, errors in mapped contact locations, and uncertainty in the shape of the paleo-surface upon which flood basalts were emplaced. Using a rule-based algorithm, surfaces were then recombined to construct a fully three-dimensional model with a 500-foot grid resolution that is consistent with the data and for which error estimates may be made. The modeling process yielded improved estimates of unit volumes, refinement of location of large structural features, and identification of features that may be important for ongoing groundwater studies.

Get Data and Metadata
Author(s) United States Geological orcid
Publication Date 2010-10-01
Beginning Date of Data 2010-10
Ending Date of Data 2010-10
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9UEQ2KM
Citation Geological, U.S., 2010, Modeled Top of the Saddle Mountains Basalt Geomodel Unit (smtop_f): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9UEQ2KM.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2020-11-17
Related Publication
Citations of these data No citations of these data are known at this time.
Access public
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Loading...
Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2024-08-24T04:55:37.909Z