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The Raton-Clayton area is known for its intertwined geologic, biologic, and human histories. Over thirty years have passed since the NMGS Fall Field Conference was last held in northeastern NM. Recently, numerous workers have focused on Mesozoic stratigraphy, Laramide tectonics, late Quaternary volcanism, landscape evolution, groundwater characterization, and induced seismicity. The field conference will highlight aspects of the current and ongoing research. The area hosts spectacular and diverse geology, often overlooked by travellers to this part of the state. We will examine the geologic, biological, and human histories of the mesas, volcanic peaks, and numerous valleys that riddle the landscape of the hi-lo country.

Few places in the U.S. boast as rich a diversity of landscape and public lands as northern New Mexico. Here in one volume is an authoritative overview of the geology of these parks, monuments, and public lands, with information on the regional setting, the rock record, and the most prominent geologic features. The book includes chapters on nine national parks and monuments, seventeen state parks, and many of the most popular Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service units in this part of the state. Also included are chapters on two of our newer units, the Valles Caldera National Preserve and Kashe-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. With nearly 300 full-color geologic maps, graphics, and photographs, the book is a perfect introduction to the some of New Mexico's most significant geologic landscapes.

Free sample chapter—Ghost Ranch (4 MB PDF)

This boxed set of six volumes provides the most comprehensive and extensive review of New Mexico’s energy and mineral resources to-date. Each volume focuses on the geologic nature of the resource, the history of the resource development in New Mexico, and their importance to the world and New Mexico’s economy. Written by New Mexico’s own experts in the fields, this set covers energy resources of petroleum, natural gas, coal, uranium, and geothermal, along with the resources of metals and industrial minerals and rocks.

This memoir is published jointly by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources and the New Mexico Geological Society.

Energy and Mineral Resources of New Mexico, NMBGMR, Memoir 50 and NMGS Special Publication 13 (six-volume boxed set)

A: Petroleum Geology — Ronald F. Broadhead

B: Coal Resources — Gretchen K. Hoffman

C: Uranium Resources — Virginia T. McLemore and William L. Chenoweth

D: Metallic Mineral Deposits — Virginia T. McLemore and Virgil W. Lueth

E: Industrial Minerals and Rocks — Virginia T. McLemore and George S. Austin

F: Overview of the Valles Caldera (Baca) Geothermal System — Fraser Goff and Cathy J. Goff

This report gives a detailed treatment of the geology of the eastern Plains of San Agustin and the upper (northern) reaches of Alamosa Creek (aka Alamosa basin). We synthesize previous studies of geology and provide new detail on basin fill stratigraphy and sedimentology. This report is a complement to a hydrogeologic study (due to be released 2021; summarized in OFR-615) regarding groundwater movement, age, and storage under the Plains of San Agustin and the upper Alamosa Creek watershed.

The Plains of San Agustin is a 55 mi long, 10–20 mile wide geographic feature located about 120–150 miles southwest of Albuquerque. It is comprised of a series of hydraulically closed basins that collectively form a northeast-southwest topographic depression. A set of low hills south of Datil divide the topographic depression into the West and East San Agustin basins. This report focuses on the East San Agustin basin, which hosts the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope observatory. It is also where the Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC, has proposed a contentious, large-scale groundwater extraction and artificial recharge project. Three grabens have been identified in the East San Agustin basin, where the Earth’s crust has subsided along fault lines and the sedimentary basin fill is relatively thick. The Augustin Plains Ranch project is located in the north-south trending North graben, which has a bedrock floor and overlying strata that are tilted westwards towards faults at the base of the eastern Datil Mountains. Basin fill thickens westwards towards these faults, where it is at least 3,500 ft thick.

The upper reaches of Alamosa Creek flows 15 miles south in a ~9 mi wide, north-south trending topographic low that we call the upper Alamosa basin. This basin coincides with the northern Winston graben. This geologic structure is tilted westwards towards faults at the eastern foot of the Black Range. Basin fill thus thickens westward, as it does for the North graben, and is estimated to be as thick as 4,600 ft.

The geology of the study area has four main components: older sedimentary bedrock, volcanic bedrock, basin fill, and valley-fill alluvium The bedrock consists of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field that overlie 750–1,900 ft of sandstones and mudstones of the Eocene-age Baca Formation. The lower Spears Group, composed mainly of tuffaceous debris flows and mud flows, comprises the lower 1,500–2,000 ft of the Mogollon-Datil field volcanic package and is interpreted to be an aquitard. Above the lower Spears Group lies 1,300–5,900 ft-thick sequence of interbedded ash-flow tuffs (ignimbrites), lava flows, volcaniclastic sediment (assigned to the middle-upper Spears Group) and minor tongues of non-volcanic, windblown sand (eolianites). The volcaniclastic sediments of the middle to upper Spears Group probably are poor aquifers. Eolianites are inferred to have both intergranular and fracture flow, and likely have higher permeability than the volcaniclastic sediments.
In addition, fracture networks may be sufficiently open and connected in the lava flows and tuffs, particularly the regionally extensive and thick ignimbrites, to allow appreciable groundwater movement.

Basin fill strata of the Santa Fe Group can be subdivided into the following facies: proximal to medial piedmont, distal piedmont, basin floor (or alluvial flat), and playa. In the southern part of the North graben, we recognize piedmont versus basin floor facies using geophysical-well-log and cuttings criteria from three wells with detailed wireline logs and/or cuttings records. Here, we interpret a western piedmont facies interfingering eastward with a finer-grained basin floor facies, which in turn interfingers eastward with an eastern piedmont facies. Two to three, “layer-cake” stratigraphic intervals can be locally recognized using inferred disconformities in wireline data or abrupt lithologic changes, but mapping their lateral extent away from wells awaits further study.

Overall, the texture of the basin fill in the southern North graben, the location of the proposed well field by Augustin Plains Ranch, is sand and clayey-silty sand that is capped by a 300–350 ft-thick, upper gravel-bearing interval with a notably high proportion of clay. This upper gravel-bearing interval experienced a dramatic eastward progradation in the Pleistocene that could be related to a slow down of faulting or paleoclimatic changes. Analyses of sonic and density-porosity well-log data from the 3,500 ft-deep SA-221 well indicates a general range in sand porosity of 5–25%, decreasing with depth. The notable clay content of subsurface sediment here—and also inferred for the northern part of the North graben and most of the C-N embayment—makes these areas susceptible to groundwater-related subsidence if there is large-scale pumping. In addition, the high clay content in the coarse, uppermost western piedmont unit of the southern North graben may impede infiltration from the surface to the water table. In the North graben, piedmont deposits of the lower part of the upper Santa Fe Group appear to have the highest proportion of high-porosity sands.

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The Rio Grande is the fourth longest river in North America. Flowing nearly 2,000 miles from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, in New Mexico it occupies the Rio Grande Valley, where it provides water for habitat, agriculture, and a growing population. In northern New Mexico, where the river has carved a pair of spectacular canyons, the Rio Grande also provides some of the most exceptional recreation opportunities and scenery in North America. This comprehensive, spiral bound, waterproof, 122-page river guide provides detailed, full-color maps of 153 miles of the Rio Grande, from Lasauses, Colorado to Cochiti Dam in New Mexico. Divided into eleven river stretches—including the popular whitewater runs in the Taos Box, Racecourse, and White Rock Canyon—the guide covers stretches that range in difficulty from placid canoe tours to gripping kayak descents. The river maps are developed on an aerial photographic base (digital orthophoto quads), allowing the user to more easily identify locations.

The geology of the region is likewise exceptional. The river spills from the San Juan Mountains into the Rio Grande rift, where several million years of erosive action have exposed a geologic cornucopia, including three major volcanic fields (including the Jemez supervolcano), seismically active faults, extinct Pleistocene lakes, and ancient rocks of the Rocky Mountains. The guide uses non-technical language and lavish illustrations to interpret the evolution of this magnificent landscape.

Although the focus of the guide is on geology and landscape, the guide is packed with information and photos on geography, hydrology, climate, boating safety, river management, rock art, and much more. Providing detailed information on access and trails, history and landscape, railroads and mining, this guide is also an invaluable resource for hikers, anglers, cyclists, day trippers, historians, philosophers, and casual visitors.

• Winner, 2011 National Outdoor Book Award for best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook
• Winner, 2012 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in Travel category
• Winner, 2012 New Mexico Book Association, Southwest Book Design & Production Award for Guide & Travel Books
• Silver Award, 2012 PubWest Book Design Award for Guide/Travel Book

Southern New Mexico has a wonderful combination of spectacular scenery and a sparse population. The state’s diverse and interesting geology is reflected in its numerous National and State parks and monuments (including Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands) as well as other publicly accessible lands, which range in size from the multi-million acre Gila wilderness to small roadside turnoffs and picnic areas. This book, crafted by geoscientists but written for the interested public, provides an understanding of the exposed rock units that record more than 1.7 billion years of geologic and biologic changes in this region. With nearly 400 full-color photographs, geologic maps, and illustrations, this book illuminates not just the rocks and fossils of southern New Mexico, but also archaeological/historical sites as well as the water, mineral, and energy resources of the region.

Free sample chapter — White Sands

East-central New Mexico is dependent on groundwater from the High Plains aquifer for agricultural, municipal, industrial, and domestic uses. Ongoing declines of water levels in the High Plains aquifer are well-known and have led residents and decision-makers to speculate on the usable life of the aquifer. This Bulletin presents aquifer lifetime projections for eastcentral New Mexico based on projecting historical water-level trends into the future using over 1,500 wells. Projections for the useful lifetime of the aquifer for agricultural and municipal/domestic-use scenarios are described. Several quantitative measures of the reliability of the results are presented. The results are stark, with projected usable lifetimes in many areas only ten years or less. Much of the region already has insufficient saturated thickness for the operation of large-capacity irrigation wells.

The Valles caldera, located in the heart of the Jemez Mountains in north-central New Mexico, is the world’s premier example of a resurgent caldera, a giant circular volcano with an uplifted central floor and a near-perfect ring of roughly 15 postcaldera lava dome and flow eruptions.

This new Valles caldera map and cross sections represent the cumulative research efforts of countless geologists over the past 40 years, and several state and federal agencies. GM–79 compiles detailed geologic mapping completed in the past eight years from parts of the nine 7.5–min USGS topographic quadrangles that encompass the caldera. More than 150 map units are described in detail. Also incorporated are new geochronologic data and recent refinements to nomenclature.

Available folded or rolled (additional charge of $5.00 for rolled).
$18.95 plus $6.50 for shipping and handling and 5% gross receipts tax for NM residents.

There is also a bandana and puzzle version of this geologic map available.

This Resource Map locates and describes 246 mining areas in New Mexico (excluding coal fields). The included booklet begins with a brief description of the history of mining in New Mexico and is followed by discussions of previous work, mining claims, the definition of a mining district, mining methods, and classification of mineral deposits. Short descriptions of individual mining districts and prospect areas in New Mexico are in Appendix 1. Appendix 2 includes metal production from selected districts. Appendix 3 is a summary of previous mining districts maps. This report updates File and Northrop (1966), Howard (1967), and Mardirosian (1971), the last comprehensive summaries of all mining districts in New Mexico.