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USGS2007

2007 Rocky Mountain section Friends of the Pleistocene field trip - Quaternary geology of the San Luis basin of Colorado and New Mexico, September 7-9, 2007

Prologue Welcome to the 2007 Rocky Mountain Cell Friends of the Pleistocene Field Trip, which will concentrate on the Quaternary geology of the San Luis Basin of Colorado and New Mexico. To our best knowledge, Friends of the Pleistocene (FOP) has never run a trip through the San Luis Basin, although former trips in the region reviewed the 'Northern Rio Grande rift' in 1987 and the 'Landscape History and Processes on the Pajarito Plateau' in 1996. After nearly a decade, the FOP has returned to the Rio Grande rift, but to an area that has rarely hosted a trip with a Quaternary focus. The objective of FOP trips is to review - in the field - new and exciting research on Quaternary geoscience, typically research being conducted by graduate students. In our case, the research is more topically oriented around three areas of the San Luis Basin, and it is being conducted by a wide range of Federal, State, academic, and consulting geologists. This year's trip is ambitious?we will spend our first day mainly on the Holocene record around Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the second day on the Quaternary stratigraphy around the San Luis Hills, including evidence for Lake Alamosa and the 1.0 Ma Mesita volcano, and wrap up the trip's third day in the Costilla Plain and Sunshine Valley reviewing alluvial stratigraphy, the history of the Rio Grande, and evidence for young movement on the Sangre de Cristo fault zone. In the tradition of FOP trips, we will be camping along the field trip route for this meeting. On the night before our trip, we will be at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve's Pinyon Flats Campground, a group facility located about 2 miles north of the Visitors Center. After the first day's trip, we will dine and camp in the Bachus pit, about 3 miles southwest of Alamosa. For the final night (after day 2), we will bed down at La Junta Campground at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild and Scenic Rivers State Recreation Area, west of Questa, New Mexico, overlooking a majestic canyons of the Rio Grande and Red River. This is the 48th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of FOP, which was initiated by Gerry Richmond (USGS-Denver, deceased) in 1952 (see the following table, which lists all the Rocky Mountain Section field trips). The Rocky Mountain Section has been inactive for three years owing to a series of problems, including an unfortunate cancellation of Dennis Dahms' trip to the southern Wind River Range in 2005. Hopefully, this year's trip will provide the logistical initiative and scientific momentum for future Friends of the Pleistocene trips in the Rocky Mountain region.

Colorado, New Mexico↗
USGS1981

Geophysical log suite from drill hole No. 4, Mariano Lake-Lake Valley drilling project, McKinley County, New Mexico

In the fall of 1980, the U.S. Geological Survey contracted with .Longman Drilling Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico to rotary drill and core twelve holes along a north-south line from Mariano Lake to the vicinity of Lake Valley, New Mexico. This report incorporates the logs from drill hole no. 4. Similar reports on holes no. 1, 2, and 3 were released by the U.S. Geological Survey (1981a, b). The drilling project is funded under a reimbursable interagency agreement between the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The program was designed by representatives of the BIA, USGS, and the Minerals Department of the Navajo Tribe.

New Mexico↗
USGS2013

Geochemical results from stream-water and stream-sediment samples collected in Colorado and New Mexico

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are studying the relationship between watershed lithology and stream-water chemistry. As part of this effort, 60 stream-water samples and 43 corresponding stream-sediment samples were collected in 2010 and 2011 from locations in Colorado and New Mexico. Sample sites were selected from small to midsize watersheds composed of a high percentage of one rock type or geologic unit. Stream-water and stream-sediment samples were collected, processed, preserved, and analyzed in a consistent manner. This report releases geochemical data for this phase of the study.

Colorado;New Mexico↗
USGS1998

Geology and mineral resources of the Lake Valley area, Sierra County, New Mexico

At the request of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed the Lake Valley Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), which includes the historic Lake Valley townsite and silver-manganese mining district, for undiscovered mineral resources. The Lake Valley ACEC is along the southeastern margin of the Black Range of western Sierra County, New Mexico. The Black Range contains eleven mining districts from which silver, lead, zinc, manganese, copper, gold, and tin have been recovered. As part of the study, an area of over 75 square mi (195 square km) in the area of the Lake Valley ACEC was mapped to understand ore controls and to assess mineral-resource potential. Lake Valley mining district is in Mississippian Lake Valley Formation carbonate rocks, but much of the surrounding terrane consists of volcanic rocks on the southeastern edge of the Emory cauldron which formed about 34.9 Ma. Volcanic rocks are part of the Mogollon-Datil volcanic province which include flows, breccias, ash-flow tuffs, and intrusive rhyolites. The Lake Valley mining district is located about 20 mi (32 km) south of the Late Cretaceous Laramide copper-gold porphyry intrusion at Hillsboro. It is also located at the western boundary of the Rio Grande rift basin.The Lake Valey fault is the major structural feature of the study area. Geological and geophysical data suggest the fault is composed of two segments: a southern, northwest-striking segment that may have a pre-Tertiary history and a northerly-striking segment that is part of the Emory cauldron ring fracture. The mining district is bounded by the southern, northwest-striking segment of the fault which may have up to 800 ft (240m) of normal offset. Deposit types identified in the Black Range, and for which we assess mineral potential, are Laramide porphyry, Laramide skarns, Laramide veins, gold placer, carbonate-hosted, volcanic-epithermal, and rhyolite tin; no Rio Grande Rift baritefluorite-galena deposits are known, but they are included in the assessment. The most likely deposits to be discovered in the Lake Valley district are carbonate-hosted silver-manganese deposits. These deposits could be deposited by hydrothermal fluids or be related to intrusion of Oligocene rhyolite or Laramide porphyry. An aeromagnetic high south of the district probably reflects a small felsic intrusion of unknown age. We assess the Lake Valley ACEC as having low to moderate potential for undiscovered carbonate-hosted deposits associated with volcanic rocks or Laramide porphyry plutons, and low potential for gold placer and rhyolite tin deposits.

New Mexico↗
USGS2013

Water quality, streamflow conditions, and annual flow-duration curves for streams of the San Juan–Chama Project, southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, 1935-2010

The Albuquerque–Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority supplements the municipal water supply for the Albuquerque metropolitan area, in central New Mexico, with water diverted from the Rio Grande. Water diverted from the Rio Grande for municipal use is derived from the San Juan–Chama Project, which delivers water from streams in the southern San Juan Mountains in the Colorado River Basin in southern Colorado to the Rio Chama watershed and the Rio Grande Basin in northern New Mexico. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Albuquerque–Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, has compiled historical streamflow and water-quality data and collected new water-quality data to characterize the water quality and streamflow conditions and annual flow variability, as characterized by annual flow-duration curves, of streams of the San Juan–Chama Project. Nonparametric statistical methods were applied to calculate annual and monthly summary statistics of streamflow, trends in streamflow conditions were evaluated with the Mann–Kendall trend test, and annual variation in streamflow conditions was evaluated with annual flow-duration curves. The study area is located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado and includes the Rio Blanco, Little Navajo River, and Navajo River, tributaries of the San Juan River in the Colorado River Basin located in the southern San Juan Mountains, and Willow Creek and Horse Lake Creek, tributaries of the Rio Chama in the Rio Grande Basin. The quality of water in the streams in the study area generally varied by watershed on the basis of the underlying geology and the volume and source of the streamflow. Water from the Rio Blanco and Little Navajo River watersheds, primarily underlain by volcanic deposits, volcaniclastic sediments and landslide deposits derived from these materials, was compositionally similar and had low specific-conductance values relative to the other streams in the study area. Water from the Navajo River, Horse Lake Creek, and Willow Creek watersheds, which are underlain mostly by Cretaceous-aged marine shale, was compositionally similar and had large concentrations of sulfate relative to the other streams in the study area, though the water from the Navajo River had lower specific-conductance values than did the water from Horse Lake Creek above Heron Reservoir and Willow Creek above Azotea Creek. Generally, surface-water quality varied with streamflow conditions throughout the year. Streamflow in spring and summer is generally a mixture of base flow (the component of streamflow derived from groundwater discharged to the stream channel) diluted with runoff from snowmelt and precipitation events, whereas streamflow in fall and winter is generally solely base flow. Major- and trace-element concentrations in the streams sampled were lower than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency primary and secondary drinking-water standards and New Mexico Environment Department surface-water standards for the streams. In general, years with increased annual discharge, compared to years with decreased annual discharge, had a smaller percentage of discharge in March, a larger percentage of discharge in June, an interval of discharge derived from snowmelt runoff that occurred later in the year, and a larger discharge in June. Additionally, years with increased annual discharge generally had a longer duration of runoff, and the streamflow indicators occurred at dates later in the year than the years with less snowmelt runoff. Additionally, the seasonal distribution of streamflow was more strongly controlled by the change in the amount of annual discharge than by changes in streamflow over time. The variation of streamflow conditions over time at one streamflow-gaging station in the study area, Navajo River at Banded Peak Ranch, was not significantly monotonic over the period of record with a Kendall’s tau of 0.0426 and with a p-value of 0.5938 for 1937 to 2009 (a trend was considered statistically significant at a p-value ≤ 0.05). There was a relation, however, such that annual discharge was generally lower than the median during a negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation interval and higher than the median during a positive Pacific Decadal Oscillation interval. Streamflow conditions at Navajo River at Banded Peak Ranch varied nonmonotonically over time and were likely a function of complex climate pattern interactions. Similarly, the monthly distribution of streamflow varied nonmonotonically over time and was likely a function of complex climate pattern interactions that cause variation over time. Study results indicated that the median of the sum of the streamflow available above the minimum monthly bypass requirement from Rio Blanco, Little Navajo River, and Navajo River was 126,240 acre-feet. The results also indicated that diversion of water for the San Juan–Chama Project has been possible for most months of most years.

Colorado;New Mexico↗
USGS2008

Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation 22 — Groundwater budget for the Straight Creek drainage basin, Red River Valley, New Mexico, with a section on Sulphur Gulch water budget

In April 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) began a cooperative study to infer the pre-mining ground-water chemistry at the Molycorp molybdenum mine site in the Red River Valley. The Molycorp mine has been in operation since the 1920s. Because ground-water conditions prior to mining are not available, sites analogous to the pre-mining conditions at the mine site must be studied to infer those pre-mining conditions. The Straight Creek drainage basin (watershed) was selected as the primary analog site for this study because of its similar terrain and geology to the mine site, accessibility, potential for well construction, and minimal anthropogenic activity. The purpose of this report is to present results of a water-budget analysis of the debris-flow aquifer in the Straight Creek watershed. The water budget is based on mean annual conditions and is assumed to be steady state. For this study, the Straight Creek watershed was divided into sub-watersheds on the basis of locations of seismic lines, which were used to calculate cross-section area through the Straight Creek debris-flow deposits and underlying fractured and weathered bedrock (regolith). Water-budget components were calculated for areas upstream from and between the seismic lines. Components of the water budget were precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface-water flow, and ground-water flow under a steady-state mean annual condition. Watershed yield, defined as precipitation minus evapotranspiration, was separated into surface-water flow, ground-water flow through the debris-flow deposits and regolith, and ground-water flow through fractured bedrock. The approach to this calculation was to use Darcy's Law to calculate the flow through the cross-section area of the saturated debris-flow deposits and underlying regolith as defined by the interpreted seismic data. The amount of watershed yield unaccounted for through this section then was attributed to either surface-water flow or the component of ground-water flow through fractured bedrock. The inflow to the watershed, calculated to be 701 gallons per minute, is from precipitation. The calculated outflow from the watershed at or upstream from seismic-line 5 (the downstream-most line in Straight Creek prior to entering the Red River Valley) is 540 gallons per minute of evapotranspiration in the watershed upstream from line 5 (77.0 percent of precipitation), 5 gallons per minute of surface-water flow (0.7 percent of precipitation), 122 gallons per minute of ground-water flow through the debris-flow deposits and underlying regolith defined by the seismic data (17.4 percent of precipitation), and 34 gallons per minute of ground-water flow through fractured bedrock below the defined seismic line (4.9 percent of precipitation). The ground-water flow through the alluvium and inter-tonguing debris-flow deposits of the Red River Valley was calculated to be 5,227 gallons per minute at seismic-line 7, the first seismic line in the Red River Valley downstream from Straight Creek. The water budget indicates the amount of ground-water flow that enters the Red River alluvium from the debris-flow deposits and regolith in Straight Creek is small (about 2.3 percent; 122 gallons per minute) compared to the volume of flow that moves through the Red River alluvium. The total amount of ground-water flow from Straight Creek (156 gallons per minute; 122 gallons per minute from debris-flow deposits and regolith plus 34 gallons per minute through fractured bedrock) is about 3.0 percent of the ground-water flow calculated at line 7 for the Red River alluvium.

New Mexico↗
USGS1975

Water-quality data from oil and gas wells in part of the Permian Basin, southeastern New Mexico and western Texas

Approximately 8,000 chemical analyses of water produced from formations of several geologic ages in south eastern New Mexico and western Texas are tabulated by both geographic location and geologic formation. Empirical and mathematical relationships between (1) the dissolved solids and the measured and computed resistivity of water, the chloride-ion concentration and the density, and (2) the concentration of chloride-ion and the density and the resistivity of water, were established. Resistivities of water computed following a method developed by Moore, Szasz, and Whitney (1966) using the concentration of the six most common constituents dissolved in natural water correlate favorably with the measured resistivities of natural water. The water analyses were obtained chiefly from oil companies and oil-service companies operating in the western part of the Permian basin. The data were associated with the proper well by searching location, operator, and reference number cross indexes prepared from the Permian Basin Well Data System files. The cross indexes were determined to be essential to efficient data processing operations. After preliminary screening for nonrepresentative data, all data were indexed to the Permian Basin Well Data System magnetic tape file scout records by the unique reference number. The data were then coded, punched into tabulating cards, and stored on magnetic tape for computer operations. Data verification steps not normally required when using data received from a laboratory following standardized analytical techniques on samples obtained under standardized and controlled procedures were performed in order to upgrade reliability of the information. Data errors detected included poorly located or identified samples; mistakes including reproducing, or key punching; laboratory errors; inconsistent reporting; and nonrepresentative or contaminated samples.

New Mexico, Texas↗
USGS2005

Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation. 10. Geologic influences on ground and surface waters in the lower Red River watershed, New Mexico

This report is one in a series that presents results of an interdisciplinary U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study of ground-water quality in the lower Red River watershed prior to open-pit and underground molybdenite mining at Molycorp’s Questa mine. The stretch of the Red River watershed that extends from just upstream of the town of Red River, N. Mex., to just above the town of Questa includes several mineralized areas in addition to the one mined by Molycorp. Natural erosion and weathering of pyrite-rich rocks in the mineralized areas has created a series of erosional scars along this stretch of the Red River that contribute acidic waters, as well as mineralized alluvial material and sediments, to the river. The overall goal of the USGS study is to infer the premining ground-water quality at the Molycorp mine site. An integrated geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical model for ground water in the mineralized—but unmined—Straight Creek drainage (a tributary of the Red River) is being used as an analog for the geologic, geochemical, and hydrologic conditions that influenced ground-water quality and quantity in the Red River drainage prior to mining. This report provides an overall geologic framework for the Red River watershed between Red River and Questa, in northern New Mexico, and summarizes key geologic, mineralogic, structural and other characteristics of various mineralized areas (and their associated erosional scars and debris fans) that likely influence ground- and surface-water quality and hydrology. The premining nature of the Sulphur Gulch and Goat Hill Gulch scars on the Molycorp mine site can be inferred through geologic comparisons with other unmined scars in the Red River drainage.

New Mexico↗
USGS2018

Determination of representative uranium and selenium concentrations from groundwater, 2016, Homestake Mining Company Superfund site, Milan, New Mexico

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, collected data on isotopes, age dating, and geochemistry including aqueous uranium concentrations of samples from 20 locations in the vicinity of the Homestake Mining Company Superfund site near Milan, New Mexico. The 20 sampled locations include 19 groundwater wells and 1 treatment plant for water used for injection into aquifers. At 6 of the 19 wells, multiple samples were collected by several different sampling methods, including passive, micropurge, and volumetric methods. Aqueous uranium concentrations were adjusted on the basis of comparisons between three sampling methods (called sample adjustments). These adjustments were specific to passive sample results because they underestimated uranium concentrations compared with results from purge samples (micropurge and volumetric). Sample adjustments were also made on aqueous selenium concentrations from previously published data for passive sampler results following a similar procedure. Aqueous uranium concentrations in dissolved and total form were adjusted from the original analytical values (called laboratory analytical adjustments) on the basis of a rigorous comparison to several external tests, including reruns and analysis by a different laboratory after accuracy issues were identified in data from the original laboratory. The original laboratory analytical results were found to be two to five times greater than historical concentrations at the same locations, which prompted further evaluation, as described in this report.

New Mexico↗