General Facts
Newhall sits atop many hundreds of feet of alluvium that was deposited by the tributaries of the Santa Clara River during the last few thousand years. The surrounding hills are composed of rocks from the 1.7 to 2 million year old Plio-Pliestocene Saugus Formation. Those hills were uplifted during the latter part of the Coast Ranges Orogeny about 1.5 million years ago.
Rivers and Drainage
Newhall Creek is tributary to the South Fork Santa Clara River which in turn is a tributary to the Santa Clara River. Newhall Creek enters the South Fork near 16th Street. This photo shows the creek as it runs under the railroad tracks and San Fernando Road north of Lyons Avenue.
The creek is considered an intermittent stream because it doesn't run the entire year along its entire course. There are two major drainage basins in this end of the valley. One is to the southwest (Wiley, Rice, East, Gavin, Towsley, Pico Canyons) and another to the southeast (Newhall, Whitney, Elsmere Canyons). Only the upper reaches of Newhall, Elsmere, and Towsley Canyons have water running within them most of the year.
Elsmere Creek in Elsmere Canyon. Note oil seeps covering slope to the left.
Faults and Folds
There are numerous faults that run in the area. One in particular, the San Gabriel Fault, is an fairly inactive branch of the San Andreas Fault. The fault runs within two miles north of Newhall. There are also numerous folds in the area. The Pico Anticline is famous for its many oil wells, one, CSO #4, was the longest continuously operating oil well in the world. It ran for over 100 years!
View of the Pico Anticline from the East Canyon trail
This oil seep is one of many found in Wiley Canyon.
This photo was taken along SR-14 just south of the San Gabriel Fault near Golden
Valley Road. This oil seep is natural and flows quite well. I include this in the Newhall
section as it still lies within the Ventura Basin, an oil-rich sedimentary basin, while
closer Canyon Country sits within the Soledad Basin, an oil-poor sedimentary basin.