Potentiometric surface, carbonate-rock province, southern Nevada and southeastern California, 1998-2000

The carbonate-rock aquifer that underlies most of southern Nevada occupies part of what is known as the carbonate-rock province, a physiographic region that encompasses the eastern two-thirds of the Great Basin. The potential for development of water resources in this aquifer has prompted Federal, State, and local authorities to seek additional information about the quality and quantity of ground water in the carbonate-rock province.

Investigations of the region's hydrogeology have been ongoing since the early 1900's. U.S. Geological Survey studies dating from 1975 to 1996 used these data to identify temporal changes of water levels in wells, regional potentiometric surfaces, and the direction of regional ground-water flow in southern Nevada. In the current study, the ground-water potentiometric surface in a 20,000-square-mile section of the regional carbonate-rock aquifer in southern Nevada and southeastern California was identified based on interpretation of water-level data collected from 1998 through 2000. Also included are hydrographs that were constructed from water-level data collected from 1985 through 2000. The hydrographs and accompanying map provide a generalized picture of water levels in consolidated rocks of the southern portion of the carbonate-rock province. Interpretation of the potentiometric surface was constrained by the limited number of wells completed in the carbonate-rock aquifer.