{"title":"Post-Pleistocene patterns of shallow groundwater flow in the Delaware Basin, southeastern New Mexico and west Texas","authors":"T. Corbet, M. Wallace","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.321","url":null,"abstract":"_____ We used a numerical model to evaluate factors potentially affecting ground water flow in the Rustler and Dewey Lake Formations within a northern portion of the Delaware Basin. The model, which is based on the concept of the ground water basin, suggests that flow patterns respond significantly to changes in climate. We include the effects of climate change in the model by varying the amount of moisture that infiltrates to the saturated zone. Calculated hydraulic heads in confined units, such as the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation, change by as much as tens of meters in response to long-term changes in the infiltration rate. Results support the concept that patterns of ground water flow in confined units are strongly influenced by the relief of the overlying water table. A substantial portion of the water flowing in the confined units is derived from slow vertical leakage through underlying and overlying aquitards. Flow rates and directions at depth can apparently be affected by changes of only a few tenths of a millimeter per year in the rate of infiltration to the saturated zone. During the simulated period of time, reversals in the direction of vertical flow through the aquitards occur over extensive areas of the model domain. There is great uncertainty in many of the parameters used in our calculations. We do not, therefore, claim that these results are quantitatively correct. Instead, these results improve our intuitive understanding of regional ground water flow in the shallow portion of the Delaware Basin.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115474484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A contribution to the evolving stratigraphic framework of middle Permian strata of the Delaware Basin, Texas and New Mexico","authors":"C. Kerans, W. M. Fitchen, M. Gardner, B. Wardlaw","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.175","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a new scheme for correlation of upper Leonardian through Guadalupian units of the Permian Basin and focus on two key correlations within the older, San Andres equivalent, portion of this succession. The lower San Andres Formation of the Algerita Escarpment is here considered equivalent to the uppermost Victorio Peak Formation of the western Escarpment and not the Cutoff Formation as proposed by earlier workers. This revised correlation is derived from extensive measured section data from the Algerita Escarpment, Brokeoff Mountains, Cutoff Mountain and the Western Escarpment, and conodont biostratigraphic data from Lawyer Canyon on the Algerita Escarpment. Conodont data, when reconciled with existing fusulinid biostratigraphic data from Lawyer Canyon, establish the position of the Leonardian-Guadalupian boundary well within the San Andres and support the lower San Andres to upper Victorio Peak correlation that was originally derived from lithostratigraphic correlation. A second key correlation involves the position within the San Andres Formation platform carbonates of bypass surfaces coeval with basinal Brushy Canyon and Cherry Canyon siliciclastics. We assert that the shelf equivalent of the voluminous Brushy Canyon sandstone succession is reflected by a single bypass surface recorded on the Algerita Escarpment as the first widespread karstic surface within the San Andres. A basinward shift in the rampcrest facies tract of at least 5 mi also occurs across this karst-modified sequence boundary, emphasizing the significance of this surface in the platform stratigraphy. The Brushy Canyon bypass surface is 100 ft below the Lovington sandstones, which are in turn tied to the lower Cherry Canyon Formation or Cherry Canyon Tongue. Thus, two key bypass surfaces occur in the upper San Andres depositional sequence, one at the base, which is equivalent to the Brushy Canyon Formation and one in the middle, equivalent to the Cherry Canyon Tongue.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126026407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Geology and mineral resources in the Cornudas Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico and Hudspeth County, Texas","authors":"V. McLemore, James R. Guilinger","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.145","url":null,"abstract":"The Cornudas Mountains form the northern part of the Trans-Pecos magmatic province in southern New Mexico and northern Texas. Ten larger intrusive bodies and numerous dikes, sills and smaller plugs have intruded Permian and Cretaceous limestones and other sedimentary rocks. The intrusives range in age from 33 to 36 Ma. The Cornudas Mountains have been examined for potential economic deposits of gold, silver, beryllium, rare-earth elements, niobium and uranium but no economic deposits have been found. However, Addwest Minerals, Inc. recently began exploration and development of the Wind Mountain nepheline syenite for use in amber-colored beverage containers and ceramics. Production is expected within a few years. The Cornudas Mountains alkalic igneous rocks form the eastern limit of a progressive change from alkalic-igneous rocks in the eastern Trans-Pecos magmatic province to less alkalic and calc-alkalic igneous rocks in western Trans-Pecos Texas, Mexico and southwestern New Mexico. This change in magmatism corresponds in time to the transitional interval between Laramide compressional tectonics and younger Basin and Range extensional tectonics. Great Plains Margin gold-silver deposits (i.e., alkalic-related gold deposits), including those elsewhere in New Mexico and along the North American Cordilleran alkalic-igneous belt, appear to be related to back-arc extension, hot spots and complex, multiple cycles of magmatic differentiation resulting in both alkalic and calc-alkalic igneous rocks. If these constraints are required to form Great Plains Margin gold-silver deposits, the Cornudas Mountains may be unfavorable for such deposits.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"35 4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116016532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Outcrop permeabilities within four facies of a single depositional parasequence, upper San Andres Formation (Permian, Guadalupian/Leonardian), Lawyer Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico","authors":"M. Ferris, C. Kerans","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.205","url":null,"abstract":".","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"339 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132196710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Triassic stratigraphy in southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas","authors":"S. Lucas, O. J. Anderson","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.231","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.231","url":null,"abstract":"— Upper Triassic strata exposed in southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas are assigned to the Santa Rosa, San Pedro Arroyo and Dockum Formations of the Chink Group. In southeastern New Mexico (Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties) the Santa Rosa Formation is as much as 25 m thick and is mostly trough-crossbedded extraformational conglomerate and sandstone with minor beds of mudstone or siltstone. It disconformably overlies Upper Permian (Artesia Group or Quartermaster Formation) strata. The San Pedro Arroyo Formation conformably (?) overlies the Santa Rosa Formation and is at least 50 m of variegated smectitic mudstone and minor sandstone/conglomerate. Regional geologic maps have greatly overstated the extent of Upper Triassic exposures in southeastern New Mexico. In southwestern Texas (area from Pecos to Mitchell Counties) the Dockum Formation consists of the basal Camp Springs Member and overlying strata here assigned to a new stratigraphic unit, the Iatan Member. The Camp Springs Member is at least 15 m thick and is dominantly extraformational, siliceous conglomerate. It disconformably overlies the Upper Permian Quartermaster ( = Dewey Lake) Formation and is conformably(?) overlain by the Iatan Member, which is 80- 100 m thick and characterized by intercalated, persistent intervals of red smectitic mudstone and trough-crossbedded micaceous sandstone. Fossil vertebrates indicate the Camp Springs and Iatan Members are of late Carnian (Tuvalian) age. Physical stratigraphy and lithology suggest correlation of the Santa Rosa Formation with the Camp Springs Member and the San Pedro Arroyo Formation with the Iatan Member.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125872021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The upper Cenozoic Gatuna Formation of southeastern New Mexico","authors":"D. W. Powers, R. Holt","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.271","url":null,"abstract":"The Gatuňa Formation of southeastern New Mexico has been studied in the field for two landfill projects and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant project. Shafts, drilling and field mapping reveal the distribution, thickness and sedimentary features of the unit in an area where it was poorly known or assigned to other units. The Gatuňa is at least 300 ft thick in the study area. The formation was deposit ed in the north and east as elastic beds ranging from conglomerates to laminar claystones. Fining upward cycles are common, though depositional features and facies associations are consistent with braided river/stream environments, not meandering rivers. Laminar and thinly bedded siltstones to claystones were deposited in floodplain to playa environments. Pedogenic features superimposed on many fining upward cycles include soil fractures, slick ensides, MnO2, illuviated clay, bioturbation, probable ped structures and desiccation cracks. The upper Gatuňa more consistently includes pedogenic development. Beds of poorly indurated \"orange\" sand, consisting of rounded and well-sorted grains, are interpreted as eolian deposits. From southern Nash Draw to Orla, th e Gatuňa is fine-grained and gypsiferous, including displacive crystals and probable subaqueous deposits. These outcrops represent low energy environments, including playas, which were near local base level. The age of the upper Gatuňa is reasonably constrained by the Lava Creek B ash (0.6 Ma) within the Gatuňa along Livingston Ridge. The age of basal deposits is poorly or not constrained. An ash within probable Gatuňa near Orla, TX, is about 13 Ma based on both radiometric and geochemical data. The Gatuňa represents an important piece of the geological history of southeastern New Mexico. Further studies could include efforts to better determine the age of the formation; to obtain paleontological data; and to map Gatuňa structural relationships to older and younger beds in detail to determine the timing of and spatial evidence for, dissolution of evaporites and collapse of overlying beds, including the Gatuňa. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The Gatuňa Formation was investigated during the past few years in a broad area around Clayton Basin, Nash Draw and Pierce Canyon (Fig. 1). Here we report some geological information about the Gatuňa developed through two unrelated projects. A project for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was designed (1) to better understand Gatuňa lithofacies and their distribution, depositional environments and climatic implications, and (2) to understand the implications of the thickness, attitude and facies distribution for the timing and location of dissolution of underlying Permian rocks. Dissolution of Permian evaporites affected the hydrologic properties of the overlying units, including the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation. The distribution of Gatuňa facies may indicate possible patterns of recharge to and discharge from, the underlying units during th","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121039542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Ogallala and Gatuna Formations in the southeastern New Mexico region: A progress report","authors":"J. Hawley","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.261","url":null,"abstract":"_ The Ogallala Formation in the Southern High Plains section (Great Plains province) of southeastern New Mexico includes alluvial, eolian and playa-lake deposits and pedogenic calcretes of late Miocene and early Pliocene age (about 4-12 Ma). Beneath the Llano Estacado, it forms an almost continuous cover on rocks of Mesozoic age, is locally more than 400 ft ([20 m) thick and is a major aquifer. In the Pecos Valley section of the Great Plains and along the Portales Valley through the western Llano Estacado, fine- to coarse-grained elastics of late Miocene to middle Pleistocene age locally form thick fills (>1000 ft, 300 m) in large solution- subsidence depressions. These features are aligned along segments of the ancestral Pecos and Brazos Valleys and are underlain by evaporites of Late Permian age. Some of these deposits have always been included in the Ogallala Formation; but in the lower Pecos Valley area (Roswell, NM to Pecos, TX), correlative depression and valley fills have been mapped variously as \"older alluvium, quartzose conglomerate, valley-fill alluvial deposits,\" and as the Gatuňa Formation. Gatuňa-Ogallala chronologic and nomenclature problems have not yet been resolved in that area; however, it is clear that an ancestral \"lower\" Pecos fluvial system has existed since late Miocene time near the present valley position between the Roswell (artesian) and Delaware Basins. In the sediment source area west of the Great Plains, Ogallala and Gatuňa correlatives are discontinuous, commonly thin and only locally aquifers. The oldest deposits include piedmont fan alluvium, pediment veneers and valley and basin fills. They record semiarid climatic conditions, prior epeirogenic uplift and volcanism and ongoing Basin-and-Range tectonism in a broad area extending southward from the Southern Rocky Mountains through the Sacramento section of the Basin and Range province. Significant uplift of mountain fault blocks occurred along the Rio Grande rift margin in the western part of the (sediment) source region. The facies-distribution patterns of both the Ogallala and Gatuňa Formations are quite complex west of the Southern High Plains. The oldest units may form basal fills of structural basins, solution-subsidence depressions, or stream valleys, or they may be preserved as piedmont alluvium capping high divides and tablelands, with younger deposits occurring as inset valley fills. Rising western highlands not only contributed runoff and sediment to the High Plain depositional system but also had a major influence on regional climate. The occurrence of prominent zones of secondary-carbonate accumulation in paleosols of the High Plains eolian cover indicates increasingly dry and more continental conditions in late Cenozoic time. Episodic deflation of alluvial plains prograding eastward and southeastward from mountain and piedmont source areas also produced eolian sediments that are a significant component of the Ogallala Formation and overlying Plio-Plei","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115474301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Barite/celestite/selenite/calcite mineralization at Bell Lake sink, Lea County, New Mexico","authors":"C. Hill","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.317","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.317","url":null,"abstract":"Sulfur, carbon, oxygen and strontium isotope values of barite, celestite, selenite and calcite at Bell Lake Sink suggest that Bell Lake Sink may be a structure such as a breccia pipe which connects a brine reservoir at depth with the surface. The ultimate source of barium and strontium for the barite and celestite may be the anhydrites of the Castile and Salado Formations and also oil -field brines in the Bell Canyon Formation. Age of mineralization could be late Quaternary. INTRODUCTION AND PAST INVESTIGATIONS Bell Lake Sink is located in sec. 9, T24S, R33E, Lea County, New Mexico. Nicholson and Clebsch (1961, p. 46-47), who first discussed the origin of Bell Lake Sink, thought that it was a \"collapse depression\" and that the source of gypsum for the selenite dunes in the sink was \"ground water seeping upward . . . from the Permian and Triassic formations. . . .\" Anderson (1980a, p. 32) reported \"large nodules of barite and celestite\" occurring in selenite-gypsum dunes around the edge of a Pleistocene playa inside the sink. Anderson believed that Bell Lake Sink had developed due to collapse and that the selenite in the dunes originated from rising sulfate-rich water. Anderson also used Bell Lake Sink as a possible example of deep-seated dissolution and recent upward movement of fluids from a lower evaporite source (i.e., lower Salado and Castile Formations). Barrows et al. (1983) showed a gravity profile of Bell Lake Sink and concluded. that the sink had a complex density structure. Hill (1989a) reported on the celestite-barite-calcite mineralization at Bell Lake Sink to the Environmental Evaluation Group, Albuquerque, New Mexico. This paper is a condensed version of that report. DESCRIPTION OF MINERALIZATION Bell Lake Sink is a collapse structure along which \"Mescalero caliche\" and \"Old Mescalero soil\" has downdropped along sink-margin faults (Anderson, 1980b, p. 113, 115). The fault relationships suggest that the sink is younger than the \"Old Mescalero sand\" (less than about 100,000 years). Bell Lake playa, which is confined within the downfaulted center of the sink, is dry except in times of heavy rainfall. The playa is flanked by caliche and \"old red soil,\" which contains quartzite, chert, basalt and caliche clasts possibly derived from the Ogallala Formation. No barite-celestite-selenite-calcite mineralization was found around the margins of Bell Lake playa. Two smaller playas exist inside the larger playa and are directly surrounded by selenite-clay dunes approximately 5-10 m high. The southern small playa contains water (filled by ranchers for stock?), but the northern small playa is dry. Barite-celestite nodules occur around the dry northern playa at the contact between a red and yellow oxidized zone, located about 2 m above a former water level (small pond) in the playa. Selenite mineralization that composes the surrounding dunes occurs above the zone of barite-celestite mineralization in the playa. This sequence suggests a solubility-t","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126296628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"WIPP-related geological issues","authors":"L. Chaturvedi","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.331","url":null,"abstract":"—The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a proposed repository for disposal of defense transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste. Located in southeastern New Mexico, 25 mi (40 km) east of Carlsbad, the repository has been excavated in the Salado Formation bedded salt at a depth of 2150 ft (655 m) below the surface. The concept of geologic isolation of radioactive waste, with the half-life of the radionuclides measured in tens of thousands of years, is to primarily rely on the geologic barriers to keep the radionuclides from leaking to the biosphere. Several geologic features and processes have been identified during the site characterization of the WIPP site that could impact the performance of the repository for the 10,000 year regulatory period. These include salt dissolution, breccia chimneys, brine reservoirs, Salado Formation hydrology, hydrology of the overlying Rustler Formation water-bearing units, disturbed rock behavior and natural resources. These geologic factors are being considered in the analysis of breach scenarios from the WIPP repository for the next 10,000-year period.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126046067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Geologic walking tour of Carlsbad Cavern","authors":"C. Hill","doi":"10.56577/ffc-44.117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/ffc-44.117","url":null,"abstract":"ASSEMBLY POINT. The geologic scenic tour starts in front of the ticket desk, Carlsbad Cavern Visitor Center. This can also be a self-guided tour. The map of Carlsbad Cavern (Fig. 1) shows the general tour route and stop locations.","PeriodicalId":203655,"journal":{"name":"Carlsbad Region (New Mexico and West Texas)","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121127381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}