LOWER CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS CALIFORNIA AND OREGON

28 LOWER CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS INT CALIFORNIA AND OREGON
In discussing the physiographic aspects of this region during Cretaceous
time, Diller (1S93, p. 205-224) says, in part:
"Near At hand, too, by the present streams, there are coaiao shore conglomcrateB,
including gravels of the Cretaceoiu streams that flowed down from the Klamath
Mountain* on the northwest into the ancient buy of the Sacramento Valley, and one
ia surprised to find some evidence that the valleys of the ensbouching streams of
early Cretaceous times are still occupied by streams."
Although Diller did not indicate the location of these streams, many
cany their own evidences of these facts. Their aggregate contributions of
sediment to the western zone have not been great as compared to that
coming from a single river system, but their historical significance is of
great interest. As many as four such streams are to be seen within a
distance of 20 miles to the west of Ono, Shasta County. Others may be
seen farther south along the west border of the Sacramento Valley, some
of them carrying at present a considerable volume of water.
The vast volume of sediments outcropping on the west border of the
Sacramento embayment should make it evident that it could not have
been derived from local sources. In western Tehama County and southwestern
Shasta County, north of Themes Creek, in an area into which
no large streams now enter, the volume of Cretaceous sediment exceeds
4900 cubic miles, without including that carried beyond the limits of this
area during the time of deposition. This volume of material is obviously
the work of a large river system draining a basin of proportionate dimensions,
aa iB indicated also by the character of the sediments themselves
and by other attendant circumstances. If this drainage area be assumed
to have been 2800 square miles, it would require the removal of nearly
1.8 vertical miles of surface materials from the whole of it to produce the
sediment now found within the western zone north of Thomes Creek.
The volume of sediment lost f rom this area by denudation since Cretaceous
time is, of course, unknown, but this is not a part of the present problem.
Tbe drainage of the present Trinity River system approximates 2800
square miles. It is not necessary, of course, to assume that the volume
of sediment computed for tbe area north of Thames Creek came exclusively
from the basin of Trinity River. Under tbe physiographic conditions
assumed for this region during Cretaceous time, one may suppose
that the valley of the Klamath River and its many branches had been
at tbat time tributary to the Trinity River, and thus the drainage area of
the latter would have been about doubled.
The drainage area of the lower Klamath River, west of the eastern
outposts of Klamathonia, near Mount Shasta, covers about 2500 square
miles. The combined area would accordingly approximate 5300 square
miles, and the amount of denudation necessary to produce the sediments
within the designated area would be correspondingly reduced, or fall
within the limits of 5000 feet vertically. Denudation would not, of course,