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Water resources of the Minnesota River-Hawk Creek watershed, southwestern Minnesota

Hydrologic Atlas 391
Prepared in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Waters, Soils, and Minerals
By: , and 

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Abstract

The Minnesota River – Hawk Creek watershed is located in southwestern Minnesota. The watershed has an area of 1,479 square miles and is drained along its southwestern edge by the Minnesota River (Minnesota Division of Waters, 1959). The major watercourse within the watershed is Hawk Creek, having a drainage area of 510 square miles. Other, shorter streams drain into the Minnesota River but are mostly ephemeral. The watershed has a gently undulating land surface formed on glacial deposits. Directly underlying the glacial deposits in most of the area are Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Paleozoic and Precambrian rocks are also locally in contact with overlying glacial deposits. Beds of sand and gravel buried at various depths within the glacial deposits are generally thin and discomtinuous but are the most accessible and widely used aquifers in the watershed. Beds of poorly consolidated sandstone in the Cretaceous rocks are locally good aquifers, generally yielding softer water, but in lesser quantities, than aquifers in the overlying glacial deposits. In the eastern part of the watershed, aquifers in Paleozoic and Precambrian sedimentary rocks are capable of high yields to wells and contain water of similar quality to water in the overlying Cretaceous and glacial deposits.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Water resources of the Minnesota River-Hawk Creek watershed, southwestern Minnesota
Series title Hydrologic Atlas
Series number 391
DOI 10.3133/ha391
Year Published 1972
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Washington, D.C.
Contributing office(s) Minnesota Water Science Center
Description 3 Plates: 38.5 x 45.5 inches or smaller
Country United States
State Minnesota
Other Geospatial Minnesota River-Hawk Creek watershed
Scale 250000
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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