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Kern River Beds
The Kern River Beds Formation is a Neogene Period geologic formation in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, within Kern County, California.[1] GeographyThe Kern River Beds Formation crops out in a roughly crescent-shaped belt, about 12 miles (19 km) wide at its widest, from Caliente Creek on the south to the Terra Bella vicinity on the north, a length of around 50 miles (80 km).[1] It ranges from 500–2,600 feet (150–790 m) in thickness. Where it does not outcrop, it is overlaid by Pleistocene Period alluvium.[1] GeologyThe Kern River Series is composed of non-marine gravels, sands, and clays unconformably overlying the marine Miocene Period rocks in the Kern River area of the San Joaquin Valley.[1] The Kern River Series is divided into an upper unit, the Kern River Beds Formation, and a lower unit named the Chanac Formation, with the wedge of the Etchegoin Formation in the middle in the central and western sections.[1] The Kern River Beds consists mostly of pale-yellow to light-brown sandstone and conglomerate, with interbeds of greenish-gray or greenish-brown siltstone and mudstone.[1] Oil sandsThe Kern River Oil Field wells are located on a section of the formation north of the Kern River Bluffs and Bakersfield.[1] The producing interval in the Kern River Formation of the Kern River oil field has been divided into two zones separated by water-bearing sand lentils. The lower producing zone is called the China Grade Zone, and the upper is the Kern River Zone.[1] FossilsThe Kern River Beds Formation preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene Period of the Cenozoic Era.[1][2] See also
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