Mineral appraisal of the Harney Lake and Malheur Lake candidate areas of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, north-central Harney County, Oregon

The Harney Lake and Malheur Lake candidate areas are in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, north-central Harney County, Oreg. The two areas occupy the shallow center of the Harney Basin, a broad structural and physiographic depression filled by several varieties of silicic to mafic volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and unconsolidated surficial deposits. Although some of the rocks in the Harney Basin are of Miocene age, all the rock in the two candidate areas are of Pliocene or younger age. Northwest-trending normal faults form prominent scarps in and near the two areas.