Digital data sets that describe aquifer characteristics of the Elk City aquifer in western Oklahoma

This data set consists of digitized water-level elevation
contours for the Elk City aquifer in western Oklahoma. The
aquifer covers an area of approximately 193,000 acres and
supplies ground water for irrigation, domestic, and industrial
purposes in Beckham, Custer, Roger Mills, and Washita Counties
along the divide between the Washita and Red River basins.

The Elk City aquifer consists of the Elk City Sandstone and
overlying terrace deposits, made up of clay, silt, sand and
gravel, and dune sands in the eastern part and sand and gravel
of the Ogallala Formation (or High Plains aquifer) in the
western part of the aquifer. The Elk City aquifer is unconfined
and composed of very friable sandstone, lightly cemented with
clay, calcite, gypsum, or iron oxide. Most of the grains are
fine-sized quartz but the grain size ranges from clay to cobble
in the aquifer. The Doxey Shale underlies the Elk City aquifer
and acts as a confining unit, restricting the downward movement
of ground water.

Water-level elevations were measured in July 1973 and ranged
from about 2,200 feet above sea level at the northwestern edge
of the aquifer to about 1,700 feet above sea level at the
southeastern edge of the aquifer. The water-level elevation
contours were digitized from a photocopy of a paper map from a
ground-water modeling thesis. The source map was published at a
scale of 1:63,360.