Postcards from the Field

The Collaborative Groundwater Monitoring Network tracks groundwater levels across the state as part of the Aquifer Mapping Program for the Bureau of Geology. This program is actively seeking wells to fill in gaps around the state where groundwater information and trends are lacking. Working in collaboration with well owners and operators, our team uses tools for groundwater level tracking that include manual measurements with steel tapes, acoustic devices, and pressure transducers.

Studying carbonatites in the Lemitar Mountains, north of Socorro, New Mexico during a pandemic! Carbonatites are carbonate-rich rocks containing more than 50% magmatic carbonate minerals, less than 20% SiO₂, are of magmatic derivation, and typically found in zoned complexes consisting of alkaline igneous and/or carbonatite stocks, ring dikes, and cone sheets.

Faults are fractures in Earth’s crust where blocks of rock move in opposite directions relative to one another. The Jornada fault, pictured here near Radium Springs (north of Las Cruces, New Mexico), beautifully displays the juxtaposition of units from fault slip.