Page 165 - 1915, Springs of CA.

HOT SPRINGS. 149
Analysis of water from Warm Spring near Little Lake, Inyo County, Cal.
[Analyst, Oscar Loew (1876). Authority, Wheeler report. Constituents are in parts per million.]

Properties of reaction:
Primary salinity. ... . ..... ..................... 34
0
0
51
15
( >)
By Reacting
Constituents.
weight. values.
328 14.24
Potassium (K). ..................................................................... Trace. Trace.
Calcium (Ca).. . ..................................................................... 48 2.40
Trace. Trace.
54 1.13
Chloride (Cl). . ...................................................................... 163 4.60
Carbonate (CO3) .................................................................... 327 10.91
Trace. Trace.
920
COSO HOT SPRINGS (INYO 31).
Near the southwest corner of Inyo County there is a group of hot
springs that are especially remarkable because of the acid character
of their water. They have long been known as Coso Hot Springs,
as they are on the eastern slope of the Coso range of mountains. The
maui group is about 12 miles east of Haiwee railroad station, and is
beside a road that leads eastward to Coso and other mining camps.
The rocks of the region are largely granitic, but this material is
covered in some places by lava and by lava craters of a recent geo-
logic period of eruption.
At the principal spring, which is in granitic material, in a pit about
50 by 100 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep, vapor and hot, sour
water rise through a white mud that is apparently formed by the de-
composition from the rock. In summer the water in this pit is low,
but in winter, as a result of increased condensation and decreased
evaporation due to cooler weather, it is nearly half full.
The following analyses of the water show that it contains unusually
large amounts of sulphate and of iron, aluminum, and silica. The
most remarkable feature, however, is the high tertiary salinity. The
discordance of the two analyses is apparently due, in part at least,
to a change in the character of the water. In connection with the
large iron and sulphate content it is of interest to note that minute
crystals, apparently of pyrite (iron sulphide), collect as a film on the
water and also form on the clay at the side of the pool.