Gretchen Hoffman
Senior Coal Geologist / Database Manager
New Mexico Bureau of Mines & Mineral Resources
New Mexico Tech
801 Leroy Place
Socorro NM 87801-4796
Phone: (575) 835-5640
Fax: (575) 835-6333
Education
- Adams State College, Alamosa, CO 1972-1976 - B.A. -- One of the coldest places in the US, known as the Land of the Cool Sunshine. ASU is a terrific small college. I took geology as a science credit at ASC and ended up majoring in geology and archeology.
- University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 1976-1979 - M.S.--One of the hottest places in the US--The U of A was a real culture shock for me coming from Adams State, a school of about 2000 students, to a campus of over 60,000 students. I was lucky enough to get an assistantship, have a great thesis committee and an interesting thesis area looking at an early Cretaceous rudist patch reef near Bisbee, AZ.
Professional Experience
- Gretchen has worked at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines for 20 years
as a coal geologist. During this time, she has done field mappig in west-central
New Mexico, ran a drilling program for a 3-year coal
quality evaluation study in the San Juan Basin, and done numerous coal
resource evaluation studies primarily in the San Juan Basin. Developing
coal
databases has been a integral part of her work at the Bureau, and she
has had US Geological Survey cooperative grants for the past 20 entering
data into the National Coal Resource Data System. During the last four
years, Gretchen has been the principal investigator for three Coal
Availability studies, funded by the US Geological Survey, evaluating
coal resources using GIS. Other interests include looking at industrial
minerals associated with coal, such as humates, clinker and fly ash. As
part of the Bureau's outreach program, Gretchen has written articles on
coal geology and mining for Lite
Geology and has taught topographic map reading to teachers at Rockin'
Around New Mexico workshops. She has also been involved for several
years in Science
Olympiad running the Road Scholar Event.
Current Research Projects
- Coal resources of New Mexico: Fruitland and Menefee Coal Availability Studies
- Fly Ash Usage in the Western US-
- Presentation to Western Regional Ash Group on Fly Ash Usage in the Western US, April 25, 2000
Other Areas of Interest:
- Clinker deposits in the Southwest
- Humate resources of New Mexico
- Coal quality
Recent Publications, Published Abstracts
- Hoffman, G.K., and Jones, G.E., 1998, Availability of coal resources in the Fruitland Formation, San Juan Basin, northwest New Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Open-file report 438, 15 p. Introduction
- Hoffman, G.K., 1999, New Mexico's Coal Industry: New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting, Socorro, NM, New Mexico Geology vol. 21, no. 2, p. 31. Abstract
- Hoffman, G.K., and Jones, G. E., February 2000, Coal Availability Studies, Fruitland and Menefee Formations, San Juan Basin, New Mexico: Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah. Abstract
- Hoffman, G.K., May 2000, Fly Ash Utilization in the Western United State, 36th Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals and 11th Extractive Industry Geology Conference, Bath, England. Abstract
Vita, Publication List, Coal Research
- Vita
- Publications, Open-files, Talks with Abstracts
- Coal Research, Databases, Importance of Coal in New Mexico
Coal related links
Coal Companies Operating Mines in New Mexico:
There are now (Feb 2000) six operating coal mines in New Mexico. Three are owned by BHP, and two by Pittsburg and Midway. Five of the six are in the northwest part of the state in the San Juan Basin. The remaining mine is near Raton, in the northeast part of the state in the Raton Basin.Coal and Energy related links on the Web:
- United States Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Resources
- Coal and Coke Links page
- Energy Information Administrations link page
- Public Service of New Mexico Homepage
- NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Dept., Mining and Minerals Division
New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources
New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
801 Leroy Place
Socorro, NM 87801-4796
information: (575) 835-5420
fax: (575) 835-6333
http://geoinfo.nmt.edu
The New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources is a research and service division of:
