| Kern River Beds Formation | |
| Type: | Formation |
| Age: | Neogene |
| Namedfor: | Kern River |
| Region: | San Joaquin Valley, Kern County, California |
| Country: | United States |
| Underlies: | Pleistocene alluvium |
| Overlies: | Etchegoin Formation, Chanac Formation |
| Thickness: | 500feet-2600feetft (-ft) |
The Kern River Beds Formation is a Neogene Period geologic formation in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, within Kern County, California.[1]
The Kern River Beds Formation crops out in a roughly crescent-shaped belt, about 12miles wide at its widest, from Caliente Creek on the south to the Terra Bella vicinity on the north, a length of around 50miles.[1] It ranges from 500feet-2600feetft (-ft) in thickness. Where it does not outcrop, it is overlaid by Pleistocene Period alluvium.[1]
The 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]
The 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]
The Kern River Beds Formation preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene Period of the Cenozoic Era.[1] [2]