Bureau of Geology News

The New Mexico Bureau of Geology’s Aquifer Mapping Program is excited to welcome new hydrogeologist and Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist Amanda Doherty. Amanda joins the program with a background in hydrogeochemistry and environmental consulting.

New Mexico Tech (NMT) graduate student Stephanie Roussel received the New Mexico Geological Society’s (NMGS) 2020 Frank E. Kottlowski Research Award worth $2,500 for her proposal “Riparian evapotranspiration recovery post-fire: using diurnal groundwater fluctuations and remote sensing to quantify phreatophyte interactions in a disturbed landscape.”

The New Mexico Bureau of Geology is excited to welcome new Senior Petroleum Geologist Luke Martin. Luke joins the Bureau with thirteen years of experience in the oil and gas industry.

The Bureau of Geology’s Aquifer Mapping Program has been collecting down-hole camera footage of the insides of water wells. The footage will fill in information about the wells’ internal structures and can help interpret aquifer level changes.

The Bureau of Geology and New Mexico Tech received a software donation from IHS Markit that will support petroleum education and research. The software acquired is the Kingdom Geoscience Bundle with two add-ons (Load PAK and Petrophysics), software commonly used by professionals in industry to study oil and gas reservoirs.

The Bureau of Geology received a grant from the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program to support a wide range of data preservation activities. The $155,000 award will support the conversion of legacy Bureau maps to modern digital formatting, reinforce shelving in one of the Bureau’s core sheds, develop an online archive of historic photos, and identify and inventory critical mineral deposits in New Mexico.

The Bureau of Geology received a grant from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to continue providing data to the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network. This is the fourth year the Bureau has received this award.

The Bureau of Geology in partnership with faculty at New Mexico Tech and the University of Alaska Fairbanks received a grant from the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) at New Mexico State University (NMSU) to study induced seismicity in the Permian Basin likely related to injection of produced waters.

The Bureau of Geology’s role in monitoring the decline of the Ogallala aquifer in eastern New Mexico is the subject of an NM Political Report article by Kendra Chamberlain. The aquifer's decline serves as an example of the value of the Water Data Act.

New Mexico’s water-related state agencies have been working hard to step up and build new connections for the Water Data Act (HB 651). We have re-defined collaboration in New Mexico - with leadership from Stacy Timmons at the Bureau of Geology, the Directing Agencies include the Interstate Stream Commission, Office of the State Engineer, New Mexico Environment Department, and Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, and with support from Duke University’s Internet of Water, Sandia National Labs, and the University of New Mexico’s Earth Data Analysis Center. Through agency-to-agency collaborations, we have been working to create a state data service using an open source platform. According to legislation, these Directing Agencies were asked to set up a data platform by January 1, 2020 – AND WE DID.