Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve - 2014

The Stanford University Basin and Petroleum System Modeling Industrial Affiliates field trip visited the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, a 6,000-acre park located north of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the three oil and two gas petroleum systems in and around the Sacramento Basin. Located on the present‐day west flank of the basin, it is dug into the Eocene Domengine sandstone of such high purity that it was used to make glass in the early 1900s; it also contains a low rank coal. This non‐marine to shallow marine deposit extends over much of the San Joaquin and Sacramento basins.