Puente Hills Region, Southern California
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Hubert Work, Secretary U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY George Otls Smith, Director Bulletin 768 GEOLOGY AND OIL RESOURCES OF THE PUENTE HILLS REGION, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BY WALTER A. ENGLISH WITH A SECTION ON THE CHEMICAL CHARACTER OF THE OIL BY PAUL W. PRUTZMAN WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT FEINTING OFFICE 1926 * ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 40 CENTS PER COPY CONTENTS Page. "Introduction. _ _ _ _ _ ___ ______ 1 Area covered _ . 1 Purpose and scope of examination___________________ 1 Character and methods of field work__________________ 3 Acknowledgments _______ _,, 4 Geography __________________________________ 5 Definitions of geographic names_____________________ 5 Topography and drainage-____ _ _ _..___ 6 Climate _ _ _______ _____.___ _ _ 8 Natural vegetation__________________._______ ___ 8 Culture ____ __ 9- Previous publications______________________________ 10 Geology- 11 Stratigraphy _____________________ _ 11 General character of formations______ _ 11 Conditions of Tertiary deposition_________________ 14 Triassic slate and associated formations________ ___ 15 Trabuco formation (Cretaceous)__________________ 17 Chico formation (Upper Cretaceous)____________ ___ 18 Martinez formation (lower Eocene) __ 19 Tejon formation (upper Eocene)__________ __ __ 21 Sespe and Vaqueros formations (Oligocene? and lower Mio cene) _________________________________ 23 Topanga formation (middle Miocene) _ ___ _ 24 Puente formation (middle and upper Miocene)__ ___ ___ 26 General character _ ____ _ j._____ 26 Lower shale 33 Middle sandstone_________________________ 34 Upper member 36 Age ____ ___ _______ _____ 39 Evidence of oil in Puente formation______________ 39 Fernando group undifferentiated (Pliocene) 39 San Pedro (?) formation (Pleistocene)_______ _ _______ 44 Terrace deposits .. 44 Valley fill and alluvium ___________ 45 Igneous rocks ___________________________ ______ 46 Structure _ _ _ 47 Periods and intensity of deformation _ 47 Major faults of southern California_______________ 50 Principal structural divisions_ ___ ______,. _ 52 General features-_________ _ _ _ _ 52 San Gabriel Range _ _ _ _ 53 San Bernardino Range______ 54 ni IV CONTENTS Geology Continued. Structure Continued. Principal structural divisions Continued. Page San Jacinto fault block______..______________ 54 Perris fault block__________________________ 54 Santa Ana Mountains__________________ ___ 55 Puente Hills_____________________________ 56 Santa Monica Mountains, Repetto and Verdugo hills __ 60 San Gabriel Valley________________________ 60 Santa Ana coastal plain __ _ 61 South side of Whittier fault___________________ 62 Physiography_________ ___ _____ 63 Oil resources T 69 Occurrence of oil_____ _ _ 69 History of producing fields____ _____ ___ 73 Proved fields_____________________________ __ 77 Whittier field______________________________ 77 Brea Canyon and Olinda field. _ __ 78 Santa Fe Springs field_ ___________ 81 West Coyote Hills field________________________ 83 East Coyote Hills field_______________________ 84 Richfields field__..__________________________ 85 Santa Ana Canyon field _ _____ 87 Old Puente field_________ __________________ 87 Possible productive areas outside of proved territory ___ 88 South side of Whittier fault__________________.___ 88 Puente Hills north of Whittier fault________________ 88 Santa Ana Mountains __ _ __ 91 Santa Ana Plain____________________________ 91 San Gabriel Valley__________________________ 93 San Bernardino Valley _____ ___ _ 94 Probable future production of district________________ 94 Technology of production.. __ ________________ 96 Drilling methods_________ ___________________ 96 Cable tool drilling_________________________ 96 Rotary method _ ______ _ 97 Geology as an aid in development of proved fields________'- 98 Character of the oil, by Paul W. Prutzman_______________ 101 General features of southern California oils____________ 101 Whittier field______________________________ 102 Puente field_______________________________ 103 Brea Canyon and Olinda field____________________ 103 West Coyote Hills field________________________ 105 East Coyote Hills field_________________________ 106 Richfields field_____________________________ 106 , Santa Ana Canyon field_______.._______________ 107 Santa Fe Springs field_________________________ 108 Index ________________ 109 ILLUSTRATIONS Face PLATE I. Geologic map and cross sections of Puente Hills region In pocket. II. A, Superficial gypsum deposit; B, Flood plain of Santa Ana River _______________________________ 8 III. Map showing principal structural divisions of southern Cali fornia _____________________________ In pocket IV. Generalized topographic map of Santa Ana coastal plain__ In pocket. V. A, View in Santa Fe Springs oil field; B, Old wells in Whittier oil field _____________________________ 76 VI. Map showing structure of Whittier oil field___ _ In pocket. VII. A, Olinda oil field; B, Brea Canyon oil field_________ 77 VIII. Map showing structure of Brea Canyon-Olinda oil field In pocket. IX. Area of town-lot drilling in Santa Fe Springs oil field_____ 82 X. Map showing structure of Santa Fe Springs oil field_ In pocket. XI. Craters caused by gas blow-outs in Santa Fe Springs oil field 83 XII. Map showing structure of West Coyote Hills oil field In pocket. XIII. Map showing structure of East Coyote Hills oil field___ In pocket. XIV. Map showing structure of Richfields oil field________ In pocket. FiGUKEl. Index map of a part of southern California___________ 2 2. Production statistics of Whittier-Fullerton district ___ 74 3. Map showing structure of Santa Ana Canyon oil field 86 NOTE. The small tract near the west end of the area shown on Plate VIII, just east of the tract of the Fullerton Oil Co., should be marked "Birch Oil Co." GEOLOGY AND OIL RESOURCES OF THE PUENTE HILLS REGION SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA , By WALTER A. ENGLISH INTRODUCTION AREA COVERED The area described in this report occupies a block roughly 25 miles square, the northwest corner of which is 10 miles east of the center of the city of Los Angeles. It includes parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. (See fig. 1.) About a third of the block is hilly or mountainous country, includ ing the Puente, San Jose, and Coyote hills and the north end of the Santa Ana Mountains. The rest is comparatively level valley or coastal plain and is highly cultivated, much of the land being the most valuable citrus land of the State. The proved oil fields occupy only comparatively small areas and with the exception of the Richfields and Santa Fe Springs fields are along the edge of or within the hills, where the land is less valu able for agriculture than elsewhere. There are nine productive fields, of which four are along the south side of the Puente Hills, two in low detached hills, two on the plain south of the Puente Hills, and one in Santa Ana Canyon. These fields form a majority of the productive fields of southern California, and their combined produc tion is normally a third of the State's total. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF EXAMINATION A study of this district was undertaken in continuation of the Geological Survey's policy of investigating the geology and oil resources of the California fields. It is hoped that publication of the results of such work will lead to the more efficient development of known resources and will aid wildcatters in finding new pools with a minimum of unsuccessful drilling. In recent years there has been considerable study of the geologic conditions in developed fields as an aid to the drilling of wells. This study is being carried on by the State Mining Bureau as well as by most of the larger companies in greater detail than would be possible for the Survey. Furthermore, such detailed work, if it is to be of any great value, must be constantly revised to include 1 2 PUENTE HILLS REGION, CALIFORNIA the results of the latest drilling, and revision of that sort is impossible under the Survey's methods of study and publication. For these reasons the writer has confined his work to the broader features of geology in their relation to the proved and prospective fields. Only such descriptions of. the developed fields are included dependence JOwens L Area mapped a cussed in this Areas on which reports ha already been published Other oil-producing dis- tricts ofthe State INDEX TO PUBLISHED REPORTS ON OIL San Joaquin Valley north of Coalinga (Bull.603) alley (Bull 581) 3 Coalinga (Bull. 398) 4 SalinasValley-Parkfield(Bull.69l) 5 Northwestern Kern County (Bulls.721 and 406) 6 McKittrick-Sunset(Bull.4O6) 7 Sunset-Midway (Prof. PaperllG and Bull47l) 8 CuyamaValleyCBull.621) 9 Santa Maria (Bull.3Z2) 10 Summer-land! Bull.3Zl) 11 Santa Clara River valley(Bull.309} IZ Simi Valley(Bull.69l) 13 LosAndeles(Bull.309) 14 Puente Hills (Bull.309) 15 Barstow-Kramer(Bull.54l) 16 LosAngeles-VenturaCBull.753) 17 Puente Hills(final report,Bul 1.768) Fio0BB 1. Index map of a part of southern California as are necessary to the understanding of the relation of the geologic structure and sequence of formations to the occurrence of oil. Sub surface conditions in the developed fields as worked out by well logs are treated from the viewpoint of the structural geologist rather than from that of the development engineer. INTRODUCTION 3 CHARACTER AND METHODS OF FIELD WORK The writer spent approximately six months in the field and was assisted for three months by W. S.