The Eureka plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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−7° on Nov. 13, 1916, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1888. Next is −5° in 1955.
Eureka’s center stands about 6,600 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,150 ft to 8,170 ft, a difference of 2,020 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Diamond Peak, about 10,570 ft, 9 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older gravels (gravel, sand), from the Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gravel, sand. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone, shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Middle Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 394 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Eureka reaches the Great Basin by way of Simpson Creek and Slough Creek: about 25 river miles. The Great Basin has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Often dry. About 100% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Eureka; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Eureka has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in December. A normal year brings about 47 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Eureka normally reaches 48° and falls to 25°. The record high is 67°, in 1906; the record low 4°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.87 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1888 at Eureka, here, 170 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
