The Mesilla Basin is one of the southernmost basins of the Rio Grande Rift system, extending from south-central New Mexico across state and international boundaries into west Texas and northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The hydrology of the Mesilla Basin region has been subject to extensive investigations for over a century (e.g., Slichter, 1905; Theis, 1938; Sayre and Livingston, 1945; Conover, 1954; Leggat et al., 1962; Hawley et al., 1969; King et al., 1971; Wilson and White, 1984; Hawley and Lozinsky, 1992; Nickerson and Myers, 1993; Kennedy et al., 2000), as summarized by Hawley et al. (2001), who is paraphrased here. The eastern margin of the Mesilla Basin is defined by the Organ-Franklin-Juarez mountain chain, and the western margin by fault block and volcanic uplands of the East Potrillo Mountains and West Potrillo basalt field. The Robledo and Doña Ana Mountains define the northern end of the Mesilla Basin. The northeast end of the basin is transitional with the Jornada del Muerto Basin. The southern basin boundary with the Bolson de los Muertos in northern Chihuahua state is less well-defined. The entrenched Mesilla Valley of the Rio Grande crosses the eastern margin of the Mesilla Basin, where the cities of Las Cruces, NM, El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico exploit groundwater resources from the basin aquifers. Regional groundwater and surface water flow is to the southeast toward El Paso, through a gap separating the Franklin Mountains from Sierra Juarez to the south.
The Tularosa Basin is an elongate, north-trending intermontane basin of the greater Rio Grande Rift system, occupying approximately 6,500 square miles in south-central New Mexico. The basin is bordered by Sierra Blanca and the Sacramento Mountains to the east; and the San Andres, Organ, and Franklin Mountains to the west. The basin merges to the south with the Hueco Bolson, extending into west Texas. Extensive fault systems with several thousand feet of vertical displacement separate the basin from the east and west-flanking uplifts (Lozinsky and Bauer, 1991). As regional uplift progressed, concurrent erosion of the surrounding highlands has resulted in deposition of more than 6,000 feet of alluvial basin-fill material, consisting of unconsolidated to weakly-cemented gravel, sand, silt and clay deposited in a series of coalescing alluvial fans around the margins of the basin. The basin fill is underlain by consolidated bedrock, thought to consist largely of Paleozoic carbonates.
Northeastern New Mexico is a geologically diverse area that includes the upper Pecos and Canadian river valleys, the eastern margin of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and the Raton and Las Vegas Basins, two north-trending assymetric structural basins formed during the late Cretaceous-Paleogene Laramide orogeny. The Raton and Las Vegas Basins are separated by igneous intrusive rocks of the Cimarron Arch, near Cimarron, NM. The gently-dipping eastern margins of these basins are defined by the Sierra Grande Arch and the Raton-Clayton volcanic field (Kelley, 2015; Broadhead, 2015).
The Jemez Mountains volcanic field, in northwestern New Mexico, has been active for at least the past 16.5 million years, and has produced a large number of explosive and effusive volcanic eruptions during that time. Volcanic ash from the Jemez Mountains volcanic field provides a temporal record of the young eruptions from the caldera and many such deposits have been recognized in a number locations in New Mexico. The ash is present as thick deposits near the eruptive source, and as thinner deposits interbedded in ancestral Rio Grande river sediments at greater distances from the vent.
This study focused on the shallow aquifer that occurs in the dune field with depth-to-water ranging from 1 to 3 feet below interdunal surfaces. We used hydrologic and geochemical data to identify water sources that contribute to the shallow groundwater system in the dune field and to assess how this system responds to water level fluctuations in the adjacent regional basin-fill aquifer. Hydrologic modeling was used to assess the effects of projected additional groundwater pumping in Alamogordo on the shallow dune aquifer on the Monument.
The San Juan Basin is a large structural basin in northwestern New Mexico that formed during the late Cretaceous-Paleogene Laramide orogeny about 75 million years ago. The basin comprises all or parts of San Juan, McKinley, Rio Arriba, and Sandoval Counties, with a northern portion that extends into southwestern Colorado. The basin is bordered by basement-cored Laramide highlands, including the Nacimiento Uplift to the east, the Zuni Mountains to the south, the Defiance uplift to the west, and the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to the north. Laramide-age monoclines form the remaining boundaries of the basin (Kelley et al., 2014). The San Juan Basin region is a major producer of hydrocarbons, primarily natural gas, and extensive studies of the petroleum geology of the region have been conducted over the past several decades. Basin-wide hydrogeological assessments of the San Juan Basin were conducted by Stone et al. (1983), Craigg et al. (1989; 1990), Kaiser et al. (1994), Kernodle (1996), and Levings et al. (1996). Kelley et al. (2014) conducted a thorough hydrologic assessment of oil and gas resource development of the Mancos Shale in the San Juan Basin, which includes detailed discussions of groundwater salinity in the basin by depth and individual aquifers.
The Socorro and La Jencia Basins are located in Socorro Co., New Mexico, and define a transition where the Rio Grande Rift system broadens into a series of parallel basins separated by intra-rift horst blocks (Chapin, 1971). This broadening represents a general southward increase in crustal extension along the Rio Grande Rift (Adams and Keller, 1994). The Socorro Basin is hydraulically connected to rift basins to the north and south by flow-through drainage of the Rio Grande and southward flow of groundwater through alluvial sediments of the Rio Grande valley. By contrast, the La Jencia Basin has no perennial stream drainage (Anderholm, 1983). The two basins are separated by the Socorro Peak-Lemitar Mountains intra-rift horst, which splits the rift into two semi-parallel halves (Chapin, 1971), and restricts groundwater flow between the basins.
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.
Currently seeking a graduate student to work on minor mid-Cenozoic igneous occurrences in eastern New Mexico, which form a patchy discontinuous belt representing the most distal periphery of Cordilleran magmatism emplaced approximately 50-200 km east of the closest major alkaline magmatic centers. They have received little attention and present excellent opportunities for exciting fieldwork, novel research, and impactful student mentorship. Initial reconnaissance of these igneous rocks is building towards holistic studies addressing basic aspects of these occurrences through mapping, petrography, geochemistry, and geochronology. This work will lead to bigger questions on the relationship between these peripheral intrusions and more major alkaline magmatic centers, exhumation and heat flow histories recorded in these rocks, and significance for tectonics of paleo-plate dynamics of the SW US Cordilleran margin!
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.
