Ground Water Atlas of the United States -
Segment 1 California Nevada
Butte Valley
Butte Valley, which contains one of the more intensively developed aquifers of
the northern California basin-fill aquifers, is located in north-central California
just south of the Oregon border (fig. 132). The
valley is one of several intermontane basins in northern California that is filled
with alluvial deposits or lake deposits, which are a major source of ground water.
However, Butte Valley is unique in that fractured volcanic rocks that underlie
the basin fill and basalt interbedded with the basin fill also are major sources
of water. Population in the valley is small, and irrigated agriculture accounts
for most ground-water use.
Butte Valley, which was formed by faulting, is a closed basin approximately 18
miles long from north to south and has a maximum width of 13 miles (fig. 133).
The valley floor is an ancestral lake bed that encompasses an area of about 130
square miles. Volcanic rocks surround the valley and underlie it at depths of
about 400 to 1,500 feet (fig. 134 next page). Streams drain into the valley from the west,
and the water either infiltrates permeable deposits or flows into Meiss Lake
(fig. 133), which is a small remnant of the large lake that once filled the
valley. Discharge from the valley is by subsurface flow through fractured
volcanic rocks to adjacent basins.
The valley floor receives approximately 12 inches of precipitation annually as
rain or snow, mostly from October to June. The basinwide average is about 18
inches, but as much as 40 inches falls at the higher altitudes. Summers in the
valley are warm and dry, and winters are cool and humid.
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