The northern part of the basin is in the Plateau uplands province and the southern part is in the Central highlands province. Elevation ranges from over 12,000 feet above mean sea level in the San Francisco Mountains to about 1,600 feet above mean sea level in the south. The Mogollon Rim escarpment forms a topographic relief of as much as 2,000 feet and trends northwest across the basin.
Water quality is generally good.
Typically, confined conditions occur where buried lava flows are interbedded with clays and volcanic ash. Groundwater levels in wells range from above land surface due to confined conditions to over 200 feet below land surface. Discharges from the sub-basin include groundwater pumpage and surface water outflow. Groundwater outflow as underflow is negligible. The Verde Valley sub-basin includes 2,600 square miles bounded by the Mogollon Rim to the northeast, Big Black Mesa to the northwest, the Black Hills to the southwest, and Fossil Creek to the southeast.