Snake River Aquifer
ground water reservoir in Idaho, USA
The Snake River Aquifer is a large reservoir of groundwater underlying the Snake River Plain in the southern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. Most of the water in the aquifer comes from irrigation recharge. Measuring about 400 miles (640 km) from east to west, it is an important water source for agricultural irrigation in the Plain. The Snake River Aquifer is commonly defined as two separate parts, separated by Salmon Falls Creek: the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer and Western Snake River Plain Aquifer.
Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer
The Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer north of the Snake River is a remarkable aquifer of great resource and economic significance. It is not a single homogeneous geologic formation. Rather it consists of a volcanic pile of the Quaternary Snake River Group basalts. In eastern Idaho, these basalts may be about 1 mile (1.6 km) thick. The individual flows are 20–30 feet (6–9 m) thick with the upper 3–6 feet (1–2 m) consisting of a very permeable rubble zone. Interbedded alluvial sediments are also found between many of the flows.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7547067. The Library of Congress control number is sh2006001498. Authority coordinates are 42.800, -114.000. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Snake River Aquifer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.