SEDL / STP / STP967-EB / STP25974S

Lineaments: Significance, Criteria for Determination, and Varied Effects on Ground-Water Systems—A Case History in the Use of Remote Sensing

Peter, KD
Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque,

Kolm, KE
Associate Professor of geological engineering, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO

Downey, JS
Research hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO

Nichols, TC
Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO

Pages: 23    Published: Jan 1988

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Abstract

Lineaments are present in western South Dakota as linear segments of trunk streams and tributaries, soil and vegetation tonal anomalies, and topographic or drainage offsets. Because there is evidence for paleotectonic activity associated with certain lineaments, they appear to represent surface expressions of major basement discontinuities. Crustal movements along these discontinuities affected depositional patterns intermittently throughout the past 600 million years. Accordingly, the permeability and thickness of aquifers and confining beds have been affected.

Potentiometric, hydrochemical, geothermal, and seismic anomalies found in at least two aquifers correlate with surface lineaments mapped by remote sensing techniques. The authors hypothesize that (1) the Madison aquifer of Mississippian age is more transmissive along the Cheyenne River lineament and (2) there is upward leakage through the confining layers from the Paleozoicage aquifers to the Lower-Cretaceous-age aquifers along parts of the Kimball Creek, Bad River, White River lineament, and Cheyenne River lineament.