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As previously described, the uppermost sand body is an incised channel deposit in the lower part of <br /> . the Modesto Formation It fines upward from gravel to fine sand and is more than 25 feet thick in <br /> places The base of the channel is approximately 50 feet below surface grade along the axis of the <br /> channel, but it rises to 40 feet to the north (Figure 3) In some places, the upper contact is less than <br /> 30 feet below grade and is gradational to silt (borings GT-6 and GT-13, Figure 4) The channel <br /> deposit has excellent aquifer characteristics, but has been above the water table for the past five <br /> years <br /> Underlying the Modesto Channel are several feet of indurated silt and (locally) clay These deposits <br /> have low permeability and form an aquitard in comparison to overlying and underlying sand beds <br /> North of the former UST facility, where the Modesto channel is thin, the underlying aquitard <br /> reaches a thickness of 20 feet in boring CPT-2 (Figure 4) and 30 feet in boring CPT-6 Beneath the <br /> UST facility, where the channel is thickest and had scoured into the underlying silt bed, the aquitard <br /> is as little as 5 feet thick, but it thickens southward to more than 10 feet in CPT-3 and CPT-5 <br /> (Figures 5 and 3) The aquitard is brown to reddish brown in color, contains decomposed plant <br /> fragments, has a blocky (pediform) structure, is locally fractured, and the fractures and vugs aie <br /> commonly filled with a white calcareous precipitate These features all indicate that the aquitard is a <br /> relict soil (paleosol) that formed on fine-grained overbank deposits prior to incision of the Modesto <br /> Channel <br /> Underlying the Modesto aquitard is the 1" Riverbank aquifer, which is not as thick or laterally <br /> extensive as the Modesto aquifer It is thin or absent at the south edge of the site (borings CPT-3 <br /> and CPT-5 in Figures 5 and 3) and thickens to more than 10 feet northward (boring GT-6, Figure <br /> 5) The base of this channel is only slightly scoured into the aquitard that underlies it, and in most <br /> borings occurs at a depth of 65 to 70 feet The channel is relatively thin in the vicinity of the former <br /> UST cavity, but it thickens northward toward boring GT-12 and the base is incised to a depth of 75 <br /> feet (Figure 3) The I" Riverbank aquifer is fine to coarse grained and micaceous, and contains <br /> fewer pebbles and lithic sand grains than the Modesto aquifer <br /> The 1 S` Riverbank aquifer exhibits evidence of moderate to strong weathering, particularly in the <br /> lower part The normally gray sand is oxidized and the color is mottled red and brown The basal <br /> few feet we a poorly sorted mixture ranging from gravel to clay, and thin red silt lenses were <br /> observed in GT-12 <br /> i <br /> The underlying aquitard consists of reddish brown silt Fractures are commonly filled with white <br /> precipitate (caliche?) In several borings, this aquitard is between 5 and 10 feet thick and is present <br /> in the depth interval 70-80 feet South of the UST cavity, however, where the overlying 1st <br /> Riverbank aquifer is either thin or absent, the sub-Modesto and sub-l" Riverbank aquitards are <br /> indistinguishable and form a relatively continuous aquitard that is more than 25 feet thick (borings <br /> CPT-5 and CPT-3, Figures 3 and 5) Like the sub-Modesto aquitard, the sub-I"Riverbank aquitard <br /> is interpreted as a paleosol formed during a period of landscape stability between two episodes of <br /> channel incision <br /> The next aquifer is present at depths ranging from 80 to 100 feet The 2"a Riverbank aquifer is a <br /> strongly incised channel deposit that is very gravel-rich in its lower part, but it fines upward to <br /> 4 <br />