New Mexico Geology — Current Issue

Located about 5 miles northeast of Socorro, the Ojo de Amado is a spring that feeds a pool that is an important source of water for local wildlife. “Ojo” literally means “eye” in Spanish, but the word is used dialectically in New Mexico to refer to a spring. The Ojo de Amado is also known to locals as Bursum Springs, one of several geographic features in the state named after Holm Bursum (1867– 1953), a longtime resident of Socorro and an important political figure of the New Mexico Territory who ultimately served in the U. S. Senate from 1921 to 1925. The steeply dipping strata around the Ojo de Amado are Upper Pennsylvanian clastic and carbonate rocks of the Atrasado Formation. They are faulted up just east of the local eastern edge of the Rio Grande rift and along the western flank of the Cerros de Amado, a set of rugged hills developed in Upper Paleozoic strata.