NEHRP Clearinghouse

Title
Subsurface Structure of the East Bay Plain Ground-Water Basin: San Francisco Bay to the Hayward Fault, Alameda County, California.
File
PB2006113442.pdf
Author(s)
Catchings, R. D.; Borchers, J. W.; Goldman, M. R.; Gandhok, G.; Ponce, D. A.; Steedman, C. E.
Source
January 2006, 72 p.
Identifying Number(s)
USGS-OFR-2006-1084
Abstract
The area of California between the San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Santa Clara Valley, and the Diablo Ranges (East Bay Hills), commonly referred to as the 'East Bay', contains the East Bay Plain and Niles Cone ground-water basins (CDWR, 1967). The area has a population of 1.46 million (2003 US Census), largely distributed among several cities, including Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, Newark, Oakland, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Union City. Major known tectonic structures in the East Bay area include the Hayward Fault and the Diablo Range to the east and a relatively deep sedimentary basin known as the San Leandro Basin (Marlow et al., 1999; Stanley et al., 2002; Ponce et al., 2003) beneath the eastern part of the bay. Known active faults, such as the Hayward, Calaveras, and San Andreas pose significant earthquake hazards to the region, and these and related faults also affect ground-water flow in the San Francisco (SF) Bay area. Because most of the valley comprising the San Francisco Bay area is covered by Holocene alluvium or water at the surface, our knowledge of the existence and locations of such faults, their potential hazards, and their effects on ground-water flow within the alluvial basins is incomplete.
Keywords
Stratigraphy; Tectonics; California; Seismic reflection; San Francisco Bay; Subsurface structures; Geologic structures; Hydrogeology; Ground water; Earthquakes; Hazards; Alameda County (California); Basins; Sediments; Geological faults