The Española Basin is one of the northernmost basins of the Rio Grande Rift in New Mexico, and has been subject to extensive investigations in the past several decades (e.g., Kelley, 1978; Manley, 1979; Cordell, 1979; Golombek, 1983; Biehler et al., 1991; Johnson et al., 2008; Grauch et al., 2009). Although the Española Basin has the general form of a west-dipping half-graben, it exhibits a high level of structural complexity, consisting of a series of narrow, deep axial troughs in an otherwise shallow basin (Ferguson et al., 1995). The basin is ~50 miles long and 18 to 40 miles wide, and is linked to the east-dipping Santo Domingo Basin to the south at the La Bajada constriction. The basin is connected to the north with the east-dipping San Luis basin at the Embudo constriction. The Santa Fe Embayment occupies the southeast corner of the basin.
In 2022, the NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources completed a multiyear study with faculty and students at New Mexico Tech, as well as researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, on a hydrogeologic assessment of the Salt Basin region. This research project evaluated the water availability of the region by 1) filling data gaps, where there is currently little or no information about the groundwater system; 2) estimating the overall balance of water in the region including groundwater recharge, storage, evaporation and pumping; 3) updating the current hydrologic model and hydrogeologic framework; and 4) running simulations in the revised model. These efforts will help assess the ability of the region to sustain current groundwater withdrawals in the Salt Basin with implications for future development in New Mexico.
Many metals can be harmful to humans when they are taken into the body. We often think of drinking water when we think of these sources, however, toxic metals can also be taken into the body as inhaled particles or as part of our food. In this study, dust particles were mixed with one of two simulated lung fluids in an airtight glass reactor (configured as the figure to the right) where the solution was heated to a constant temperature of the standard human body temperatures – 37?C (98.6 ?F) – in a vessel purged with oxygen just before adding the dust sample. The study found that the uranum in some dust samples (and lab standards) dissolved better in one or the other of the fluids and that this phenomenon seemed to be based on the mineralogy and available surface area of the dust and the pH of the fluid.
The Roswell Artesian Basin occupies over 4,000 square miles in the lower Pecos Valley in Chaves and northern Eddy Counties, and is one of the most intensively farmed regions in the state outside the Rio Grande Valley (Welder, 1983; Land and Newton, 2008). The eastern margin of the basin occurs just east of the Pecos River; the northern boundary is approximately defined by Macho Draw north of Roswell; and the southern end of the basin is located at the Seven Rivers Hills north of Carlsbad. The western margin of the basin is not as well-defined, but is usually located west of Roswell on the Pecos Slope near the Chaves-Lincoln County Line. The basin derives virtually all of its irrigation and drinking water from groundwater stored in a karstic artesian limestone aquifer contained within the Permian San Andres and Grayburg Formations, and from a shallow unconfined aquifer composed of Tertiary-Quaternary alluvial material deposited by the ancestral Pecos River. The Roswell Basin has been described by many workers as a world-class example of a rechargeable artesian aquifer system (e.g., Fiedler and Nye, 1933; Havenor, 1968).
Between 1598 and the 1880s, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (El Camino Real) served as a 1,600 mile long trade route between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo/Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (north of Santa Fe). El Camino Real transects the Jornada del Muerto, located in southern New Mexico (see below figure). This stretch of the trail is thought to have been one of the most feared sections along El Camino Real due, primarily, to the scarcity of water.
The study area is located primarily in the central portion of the Jornada del Muerto Basin, extending from just North of Engle to just south of Point of Rocks and spanning the entire basin from the Caballo Mountains in the west to the San Andres Mountains to the east.
We characterized the local geology and hydrogeology of the central Jornada del Muerto with a purpose of identifying features that likely influenced the location of El Camino Real de Tierro Adentro. This study aimed to assess the relationship between the location of the trail and parajes (campsites) and water sources that would be available to travelers on the trail. The study was funded by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) and is the fulfillment of one of the measures specified in a mitigation plan that identifies a series of measures specifically intended to mitigate adverse effects to El Camino Real.
The Palomas Basin is an east-tilted half graben ~35 miles long by 12 miles wide, bordered to the east by the Caballo Mountains and Red Hills, and to the west by the Black Range, Animas Hills, Salado Hills, and southern Sierra Cuchillo. The north end of the Palomas Basin is defined by the Mud Springs Mountains and several faults that intersect near Truth or Consequences, which separate the Palomas Basin from the Engle Basin to the north. The basin merges to the south with the eastern Mimbres Basin (Chapin, 1971). The Palomas Basin contains up to 6,500 feet of Tertiary alluvial fan and lacustrine sediments of the Santa Fe Group along its deep eastern margin, overlain by ~500 feet of alluvial fan and axial-fluvial sediments of the Plio-Pleistocene Palomas Formation (Mack, 2012).
The Department of Energy has awarded New Mexico Tech a contract to examine rare earth elements (REE) and other critical minerals (CM) in coal and associated strata in the San Juan and Raton basins in northern New Mexico. Critical minerals are mineral resources that are essential to our economy and whose supply may be disrupted (/publications/periodicals/earthmatters/23/n1/em_v23_n1.pdf). Most CM are 100% imported into the U.S. Many CM are found in the San Juan and Raton basins of New Mexico.
The recent discovery of manganese oxides on Mars suggests more oxygen was present in the Martian atmosphere the originally thought. A pilot project was recently funded by NASA to test the feasibility of discovering biosignatures in manganese deposits on Mars with payload instruments. There are two primary goals for this project; the first is to identify key chemical signatures and second to identify key mineralogical signatures in natural biologic and abiologic manganese materials. The pilot project will focus on three field sites in New Mexico that display features of formation that range from at or near the surface then extend to the deeper subsurface; essentially examining manganese deposits from surface, cave, geothermal springs, finally fossil hydrothermal environments. Should sufficient variation be noted during the pilot project, additional funding to the project will further characterize terrestrial occurrences for comparison to Mars by utilizing rover payload instruments
The Tibetan plateau is a product of the most dramatic tectonic event of recent geological history: the collision of the Indian sub-continent with Eurasia. In spite of the topographic and tectonic implications of the plateau, the mechanisms for its uplift remain controversial. The controversy is in large part a result of poorly constrained uplift history. Types of evidence that have been adduced for the uplift history include paleoecological date, cooling histories of plutonic and igneous rocks, and geomorphic interpretations. Some lines of evidence indicate relatively gradual uplift since the mid-Tertiary, while others support rapid acceleration of uplift during the latest Cenozoic, with the greatest portion during the Quaternary.
