In 1999, the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) Geologic Division conducted an aeromagnetic survey in southern Nye County.  The aeromagnetic survey of southern Nye County includes most of the Amargosa Desert, Pahrump Valley, Furnace Creek Wash, and intervening areas. This area includes a number of geologic structures identified in geologic mapping and geophysical studies that are critical to our understanding of the subsurface framework that controls ground water movement in the Death Valley Ground Water Flow System.  The particular areas of interest include:

• Devil's Hole and Point of Rock

• North-south Amargosa structural trough and bounding Ash Meadows fault zone

• State Line fault in Ash Meadows and Pahrump Valley

• Intersection of Rock Valley fault and Amargosa structural trough

• Southern boundary of the southwest Nevada volcanic complex

• Faults that may lie along Fortymile Wash

• Structures suspected to exist along Highway 95 near Amargosa Valley

• Areas immediately affecting Nye County's Early Warning Drilling Program

• Volcanic rocks of the Greenwater Range and southernmost Funeral Range

• Faults that may exist beneath Furnace Creek Wash

The final report and aeromagnetic data are available from the USGS for download: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/of00-188/

Blakely, R. J., V. E. Langenheim, D. A. Ponce, and G. L. Dixon, 2000. "Aeromagnetic Survey of the Amargosa Desert, Nevada and California: A Tool for Understanding Near-Surface Geology and Hydrology."