Geologic model of hydrostratigraphic units under the northwestern Albuquerque Basin
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This photo illustrates the upper part of the Zia HSU. The top of the Zia has notably clayey intervals, such as the reddish brown playa sediment seen in the middle of the outcrop, but the lower half (not visible in photo) is much more sandy and appears to be quite extensive in the subsurface.
× This photo illustrates the upper part of the Zia HSU. The top of the Zia has notably clayey intervals, such as the reddish brown playa sediment seen in the middle of the outcrop, but the lower half (not visible in photo) is much more sandy and appears to be quite extensive in the subsurface.
Dan Koning
This photo depicts the Lower Rio Rancho HSU, which correlates to an extensive, sandy facies at the top of the Cerro Conejo Formation.
× This photograph shows an outcrop of the Arroyo Ojito Formation, which correlates to the Middle Rio Rancho HSU and has notable proportions of mud beds.
The fourth photograph shows the reddish, coarse-grained Picuda Peak Member (Arroyo Ojito Formation), which comprises the lower part of the Upper Rio Rancho HSU. Based on our well-based stratigraphic correlations, the Picuda Peak Member is saturated under the southeastern part of Rio Rancho.
× The fourth photograph shows the reddish, coarse-grained Picuda Peak Member (Arroyo Ojito Formation), which comprises the lower part of the Upper Rio Rancho HSU. Based on our well-based stratigraphic correlations, the Picuda Peak Member is saturated under the southeastern part of Rio Rancho.
Dan Koning
October 28, 2022
I am drawing on my experience in mapping the badlands northwest and west of Rio Rancho to make a geologic model of hydrostratigraphic units (HSUs) under the northwestern Albuquerque Basin. Hydrostratigraphic units are differentiated based on inferred groundwater-related properties of an aquifer, like permeability or porosity, as opposed to strictly outcrop-related criteria used to differentiate lithostratigraphic units (note the latter includes formal stratigraphic formations and members). The four photos included in this post illustrate outcrops of the HSUs that Luke Martin (a NMBGMR colleague) and I correlated from exposures into the subsurface using Kingdom software. These HSUs are layer-cake in geometry and include components of earlier published lithostratigraphic units -- The photographs show HSUs from oldest to youngest (bottom to top).
The associated open-file report of the geologic model is planned to be released this Fall.
