The Geology of a Portion of Newhall and Sylmar Quadrangles, Los Angeles County, California

Citation

Harshman, Elbert Nelson (1932) The Geology of a Portion of Newhall and Sylmar Quadrangles, Los Angeles County, California. Bachelor's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/5Q94-MX67. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:12042009-134826911

Abstract

The area mapped includes nine and one-half square miles of the southeastern portion of the Newhall quadrangle and the southwestern portion of the Sylmar quadrangle, Los Angeles County, California. The work was done as partial fulfillment for the degree of Bachelor of Science at the California Institute of Technology.

The area has been mapped before by W. S. W. Kew, whose work will be found in U.S.G.S. Bull. 753. At that time, how ever, maps were of a scale of one mile to the inch, and field work could not be plotted with great accuracy. Recently Los Angeles County maps have been issued with a scale of two thousand feet to the inch, enabling the writer to plot the field data very accurately.

The area mapped consists of sediments, and a metamorphic complex in which little was done. The sediments begin with the Middle Miocene Modelo, and include the Pliocene Pico formation as well as the Pliocene-Pleistocene Saugus. The sediments consist conglomerates, sandstones, and shales. In areal extent the conglomerates are the most important, and the shales the least, but economically the shales are more important as they serve as a source of oil.

The dominant structures in the region are the late Pleistocene folds, and the Sierra Madra fault of the same age. All structures trend in an east-west direction, although the fault makes a 45° turn in this area, and after running, in a northeast-southwest direction for about five miles turns again and continues its east-west trend.

Oil is found in the region, collected along the folds to the north and to the west of this area. There is a possibility of oil along the Pico anticline.

Quartz veins are present in the basement and may be of some economic value.

Thesis Files