. Geology and water resources of Big Smoky, Clayton, and Alkali Spring valleys, Nevada. 46979°—wsp 423—17 4 50 BIG SMOKY VALLEY, SPRING TERRACES AND MOUNDS. The largest topographic feature produced by spruigs m this valley isat the Spencer Hot Springs, which are 6 miles east of Spencers ranchand a short distance north of the road leadhig from Austin to Potts(PL I). Here a terrace nearly a mile long and m some places half amile wide borders the low mountain ridges at the edge of the valley(fig. 6). This terrace, composed largely of travertme, or calcareoustufa, is about 25 feet high at its oute
. Geology and water resources of Big Smoky, Clayton, and Alkali Spring valleys, Nevada. 46979°—wsp 423—17 4 50 BIG SMOKY VALLEY, SPRING TERRACES AND MOUNDS. The largest topographic feature produced by spruigs m this valley isat the Spencer Hot Springs, which are 6 miles east of Spencers ranchand a short distance north of the road leadhig from Austin to Potts(PL I). Here a terrace nearly a mile long and m some places half amile wide borders the low mountain ridges at the edge of the valley(fig. 6). This terrace, composed largely of travertme, or calcareoustufa, is about 25 feet high at its outer margin, whence its surfaceascends toward the mountain border. On this surface are severalspring-built, tufaceous mounds and ridges (fig. 6) which are about25 feet high and give the entire structure a rehef of about 100 feet. The materialforming the ter-race and moundswas not, how-ever, all deposit-ed by the springwaters, some ofit having beenwashed from theridges and someblown from thedesert. Spring-builtmounds arefound also in afew places onthe Millett flat,the most impor-. ra ^ ES lii- m ii-avertuie VaUejrfill lava aadtuff Granitic rock limestone Spring FiGUEE 6.—Map of the vicinity of the Spencer Hot Springs. tant locality being at the Charnock Springs, where a typical moundfrom which water was oozmg and supporting a growth of grass meas-ured 200 feet in length and 8 feet in height. BUTTE S. In the lower vaUey the smooth surface produced by stream aggra-dation is in a number of places interrupted by hills or ridges of rockthat project abruptly from the valley fill and form conspicuous land-marks. The character of these hills and ridges is determined larg-clyby the kind of rock composing them. Many of the outcrops of thesoft Tertiary strata form only low inconspicuous mounds or producepractically no modification of the topography of the alluvial fans. In the upper vaUey no hills or ridges of bedrock project above thesmooth surface formed by the valley fill. BIG SMOKY
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