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Research about New Mexico

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including New Mexico.

At least 937 records · Page 52Linked to original sources
USGS1960

Experimental drill hole logging in potash deposits of the Carlsbad district, New Mexico

Experimental logging of holes drilled through potash deposits in the Carlsbad district, southeastern New Mexico, demonstrate the considerable utility of gamma-ray, neutron, and electrical resistivity logging in the search for and identification of mineable deposits of sylvite and langbeinite. Such deposits are strongly radioactive with both gamma-ray and neutron well logging. Their radlioactivity serves to distinguish them from claystone, sandstone, and polyhalite beds and from potash deposits containing carnallite, leonite, and kainite. These latter strata and deposits are radioactive with gamma-ray logging but yield no radiation with neutron logging. Porous beds, such as sandstone strata, and solution cavities, such as those commonly formed in potash deposits by rotary drilling of evaporites, are less resistive than other materials. Low resistivity provides a means for differentiating between potash deposits and polyhalite beds on electrical resistivity logs of holes drilled with fresh-water and salt-base muds.

New Mexico↗
USGS1959

Thickness, character, and structure of upper Permian evaporites in part of Eddy County, New Mexico

Between Project Gnome site and the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation's plant site, in central eastern Eddy County, N. Mex., unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age and redbeds of Triassic age attain a thickness of about 700 feet, and rest unconformably on evaporites of late Permian age. The upper Permian evaporites are 3,000 to 3,800 feet thick, and they are divided, in descending order, into the Rustler, Salado, and Castile formations. The Rustler is largely gypsum rock, the Salado is dominantly halite rock, and the Castile contains both anhydrite rock and halite rock. The salt and anhydrite beds of the Salado and Castile are intruded by narrow dikes of alkalic rock along which the evaporites are little altered. The sedimentary rocks have a generally southeastward regional dip, but locally are warped in gentle folds of low amplitude and fairly small lateral dimensions.

New Mexico↗
USGS1959

Annual water-level measurements in observation wells, 1951-1955, and atlas of maps showing changes in water levels for various periods from beginning of record through 1954, New Mexico

This report tabulates the annual measurements of water level in the observation wells in the various irrigated areas, primarily from 1951 through 1955. It summarizes changes in water level by discussion and with an atlas of nearly all the maps of change of water level for the period of record to 1955 for each area in which observations are being made. Included also are hydrographs for the period of record through 1954 of several selected wells in the various areas irrigated from ground-water sources. The annual measurements of water level before 1951, seasonal measurements, and daily records of water levels in wells equipped with recording gages have been published in an annual series of U. S. Geological Survey water-supply papers.

New Mexico↗
USGS1958

Stratigraphy of Upper Pennsylvanian and lower Permian rocks in the Sand Canyon area, Otero County, New Mexico

The Magdalena Group of Pennsylvanian age and, in ascending order, the lower tongue of the Abo Sandstone (herein named the Danley Ranch Tongue), the Hueco Limestone, the upper tongue of the Abo Sandstone (herein named the Lee Ranch Tongue), and the Yeso Formation of Permian age are well displayed in the southern part of the Sacramento Mountains. The contact of the Pennsylvanian rocks with the overlying Permian rocks is unconformable throughout the area. Locally the relief before deposition of the Abo was so great that in places the Danley Ranch Tongue of the Abo is absent because of nondeposition. At these places there is prominent angular discordance between the Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks. The red beds of the Danley Ranch Tongue interfinger with and grade southward into the overlying Hueco Limestone. Red beds of the Lee Ranch Tongue of the Abo Sandstone also grade southward into the Hueco and cannot be traced south of the southern part of the Sacramento Mountains. The Lee Ranch Tongue is believed to be stratigraphically lower than the Deer Mountain Red Shale Member of the type Hueco Limestone. The herein named Otero Mesa Member of the Yeso Formation is believed to occupy an intermediate stratigraphic position between the Lee Ranch Tongue and the Deer Mountain Red Shale.

New Mexico↗
USGS1957

Effects of radon in drill holes on gamma-ray logs

Drill holes in uranium deposits in the Todilto limestone of Late Jurassic age near Grants, New Mexico, do not yield duplicate gamma-ray logs when probed at different times; some logs show equivalent uranium greatly in excess, in thickness and grade, of the chemical and laboratory radiometric analyses. Radon and its daughter products principally cause the discrepancies. Experimental work was undertaken by the writers to learn the relations of the radon to the uranium deposits and its behavior under different physical conditions. The work is based on the interpretation of about 600 gamma-ray logs, taken from 480 drill holes.Abnormally high amounts of radon, referred to here as contamination, ranged from barely detectable amounts to amounts that emitted as much radiation as ore-grade material. Most contaminated holes were in the higher-grade ore, and the contamination increased with elapsed time after drilling. Geologic conditions favorable for contamination by radon and its daughter products in drill holes are: proximity to uranium deposits and fractured or highly permeable rocks above the water table. Most drill holes can be decontaminated by blowing them out with compressed air or filling them with water. Water, however, tends to reduce the thickness-times-grade figures below the amounts determined in air.

New Mexico↗
USGS1956

Ephemeral streams - Hydraulic factors and their relation to the drainage net

The hydraulic factors of width, depth, velocity, and suspended sediment load of ephemeral streams near Santa Fe, N. Mex., were measured during flood flow. Later, channel slope was measured. These flood-flow data, in conjunction with an analysis of drainage-basin configuration by the methods proposed by Horton, are used to determine the generalized interrelation of stream order and hydraulic variables. The method developed for determining this interrelation allows an integration of the geographic and physiographic characteristics of a drainage basin with the channel characteristics; specifically, the interrelation of the length, number, and drainage area of streams of various sizes with their respective discharge, width, depth, velocity, slope, channel roughness, and suspended-sediment load.

New Mexico↗