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Geospatial datasets developed for a hydrogeologic conceptual model of brine discharge to the Dolores River, Paradox Valley, Colorado

Metadata Updated: November 21, 2025

Geospatial datasets were developed to estimate the altitude of the top of bedrock, altitude of the top of the Paradox salt, altitude of the water table in the alluvial aquifer, and the thickness and extent of saturated alluvium in the Paradox Valley in western Colorado. This study was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation for modeling of brine discharge to the Dolores River (Heywood and others, 2024; Paschke and others, 2024). One point dataset and 11 surfaces (shapefiles or rasters) are published in this data release. The point dataset (Paradox_well_data.zip) contains water-level and geologic data for groundwater, observation, test, and production wells in the Paradox Valley compiled from several sources in 2010. Five of the surfaces (breccia_extent.zip, brsurface.zip, topbrcontour.zip, topsaltcontour.zip, and valley_alluvium.zip) were derived from published geologic maps and well logs and provide a hydrogeologic framework for the valley. The remaining six surfaces (alluvium_sat_bndy.zip, alluvium_sat_ci5m.zip, alt_wl_krig.zip, paa_sat.zip, wlalt_dwr_m.zip, and wlalt_ed_smooth.zip) were derived from the well dataset and mainly describe the thickness and extent of saturated alluvium in the valley floor. Details of how these geospatial datasets were created are provided in the 'process step' section of the metadata file associated with this data release. In addition to the geospatial datasets, this data release also includes a drilling report and results of several aquifer tests. The text file 'JensenBrineWell#2log.txt' contains the drilling report for Brine Well #2 from an unpublished report titled "Prospectus for Paradox Salt Company, Appendix F" by Jensen and Sorensen, Inc., 1959. The text file 'Specific_capacity_tests_pvu.txt' contains the results of 36 specific-capacity aquifer tests conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation between 1977 and 1984.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 21, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 21, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-60e787ccd34e2a7685d131c1
Data Last Modified 2024-05-03T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ba7ce8db-1a70-495e-889e-43a64fc200a3
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ff1b094fe9db32aeedf2226a1af132e7122a5b272ce8e5c1b6dacb1a7c0fbdc5
Source Schema Version 1.1

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