New Mexico Graduate Student Abstracts New Mexico Geology Recognizes the Important Research of Graduate Students Working in M.S
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New Mexico graduate student abstracts New Mexico Geology recognizes the important research of graduate students working in M.S. and Ph.D. programs. The following abstracts are from M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations completed in the last 12 months that pertain to the geology of New Mexico and neighboring states. New Mexico Institute of Mining USING HEAT AS A TRACER TO QUANTIFY quantify mixing relationships and identify sta- and Technology DAILY SURFACE WATER-GROUNDWATER tistically significant differences between water EXCHANGE IN THE EAST FORK JEMEZ types and data sets. RIVER, VALLES CALDERA, NM Multiple lines of evidence supported a close SOIL CHRONOSEQUENCE STUDY OF Paulino Céspedes, Eva R., M.S. connection between groundwater supplying LONG VALLEY, NEW MEXICO: INSIGHTS domestic wells and anthropogenic recharge INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOILS Studying the temporal and spatial variations derived from acequias. Groundwater mounding ON PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE of flow is critical to understand the fate and around the ditches produces a seasonal move- MORAINE CATENAS transport of solutes within hyporheic environ- ment of the groundwater table, corresponding Feldman, Anthony D., M.S. ments. Exchange fluxes can vary with time due with the yearly groundwater recharge cycle. to hydrologic drivers such as seasonal variability Water level variations observed in the alluvial The history of glacial advance and retreat cycles in regional groundwater flow and discharge aquifer varied significantly with the logarithm in mountain watersheds is recorded in glacial changes due to snowmelt and precipitation of distance from acequia, the well depth, landforms. The Sangre De Cristo mountain range events. From an observational perspective, and seasonal applications of flow allotments. in northern New Mexico contains some of the exchange fluxes and their dynamics can be Surface waters low in TDS and high in bicar- southernmost expansion of glacial activity in the estimated with the analysis of temperature time bonate are broadly distributed at these times, Southwest during the Quaternary but there have series collected within the stream sediments. In driven by infiltration of seasonal snowmelt and been few studies correlating its glacial chronol- this work, we explore the strengths and lim- peak streamflow. Geochemical mixing analysis ogy to the Rocky Mountain glacial record. itations of two analytical methods to estimate suggested that about 27% of the domestic Glacial deposits within Long Valley, a glaciated vertical exchange fluxes from temperature supply control-volume was mixed with water valley in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, were time series. Both methodologies were sensitive recharged recently from the surface, and this correlated with the glacial history of the south- to sensor spacing, instrument resolution, and should be regarded as a minimum estimate. ern Rocky Mountains and Wind River Range magnitude and direction of the flux which Likewise, the heterogeneity of higher utilizing soil and landform properties. A soil resulted in overestimation, underestimation, or tritium values in the alluvial aquifer reflects profile development index (PDI) was calculated incorrect estimation of the velocity. The meth- that the groundwater recharge to the domestic utilizing soil texture, structure, consistency, and ods were used to estimate fluxes in the Jemez well supply derives significantly from vertical color data. Organic carbon, hydroxalamine River located in The Valles Caldera Natural infiltration out of the acequia system. Some extractable (FeO) and dithionite extractable Preserve, NM, which served as an example of wells access mixtures more strongly supplied (FeD) iron oxides, and clay accumulation were a typical low-gradient, meandering mountain by long-residence time recharge from the also utilized to differentiate moraine age correla- stream where temporal and spatial variability mountain block that has flowed across the tions. Soil development is observed to increase of vertical exchange fluxes were analyzed along Sangre de Cristo Fault (SDCF). Groundwater with age between soil catenas and at individual a riffle-pool-riffle sequence reach. Vertical fluid signatures of the endmembers show that solutes catenary positions. Utilizing the calculated PDI velocities varied from –1 to 1 m/d and ground- derived from primary chemical weathering of values, chemical and physical proxies, as well water-surface water exchange was attributed to the Latir Peak Volcanic Field have the largest as field and DEM observations of moraine pressure gradients due to the topography of the mixing fraction just west of the SDCF. Calcium morphology, four Pleistocene glacial periods streambed, local groundwater flow systems, and is associated with high sulfate in the ambient are observed within the Long Valley moraine localized small lateral flow paths originated at geological system, reflecting the presence of sequence as well as two smaller rock glacier and the meander bends. gypsum in the caldera source watershed. The peri-glacial periods during the Holocene. These areas dominated by the two major background cycles were correlated to the Bull Lake, Pinedale, groundwater types, bicarbonate and sulfate, are Oldest Dryas, Youngest Dryas, and two periods HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE QUESTA AREA: found downgradient of the regions of recharge during the latter half of the Holocene. Among END MEMBER MIXING ANALYSIS OF through alkaline rock types and metaluminous moraine morphology parameters, summit width SHALLOW GROUNDWATER bodies respectively. This pattern requires signifi- and flank slope best distinguished moraines of Robinson, Kylian, M.S. cant subsurface connectivity across Quaternary different ages. Profile mass content of FeD iron normal faults of the eastern rift. and clays increased with age while FeO iron and In order to understand a pattern of seasonal In the volcanic aquifer, longer-residence organic carbon profile mass content decreased well failures at Questa, New Mexico, we devel- groundwater flow predominates. Small but with age. The soil PDI chronofunction had oped an endmember mixing analysis (EMMA) consistent declines in the head of the volcanic the highest correlation with the glacial age model that embraces the small scale geological aquifer amounting to 0.14 feet/ year were determinations, with chronofunctions for clay complexities of the northern Rio Grande Rift. measured over the course of our study. Head and the FeO/FeD ratio also representing good Geochemical measurements from multiple levels in this region do not respond significantly age discriminators. organic carbon, FeO, and datasets were compared to quantify the connec- to seasonal forcing, except where the aquifer FeD iron were not as useful in differentiation tion of surface water with the mountain block is overlain and partially confined by saturated of moraine ages. Chronofunctions for catenas aquifer with the alluvial aquifer, and the alluvial alluvium. Identification of the key distinguishing and moraine summits possessed the best age aquifer with the volcanic aquifer. tracer boron at the Dacite Fault Zone crosscut- correlations, while toeslope chronofunctions did Wells and springs were sampled once for ting Guadalupe Mountain establishes that the not correlate well with age. major ions, trace metals, water and sulfur volcanic aquifer receives measurable inflow isotopologues, and age tracers 14C and 3H, from a deep-circulating hydrothermal system. while hydraulic head was measured seasonally Groundwater flow converges on the volcanic throughout the course of three years. These data complex from northeast to east, as far north as were analyzed under the rubric of EMMA to Latir Creek West and as far east as the alluvial Spring 2019, Volume 41, Number 1 44 New Mexico Geology valley where the Red River emerges at the SDCF. stratigraphy and 36Cl ages imply climatic con- Grande and routes through typical formations These cool and chemically variable waters mix trols on river incision from terraces that have found in the middle Rio Grande Valley. Two thoroughly with upwelling fluids, creating a surface-exposure ages of 26–29, 64–70, and 135 years of observations reveal a channel that geochemically homogeneous solute composition ka. Carbon-14 ages from detrital charcoal show floods 3–5 times a year from summer mon- in the volcanic aquifer. We conjecture that the that the most recent aggradation event persisted soon rains. Rainfall and water depth were observed aquifer head decline results from until at least 3 ka during the transition from gla- recorded continuously at two locations in the decreasing streamflow and watershed discharges cial to modern climate conditions. Our terrace watershed. According to these instruments, a observable at gaging stations that bracket the chronology supports existing climate-response minimum rainfall intensity of 3.5 mm/15min Red River Spring Zone (RRSZ). models of terrace formation in arid environ- is required to generate runoff, regardless of Contaminant loading from the tailings ments and links tributary responses to the axial location in the basin. Water depth, velocity, impoundment into the RRSZ and elsewhere Rio Grande system throughout the central Rio and vertically integrated suspended sediment within the groundwater system increased Grande rift. Soil characteristics from dated ter- samples were collected at the basin outlet. In in recent years (-2017) despite cutbacks in race surface provide rates of dust and carbonate total, 35 suspended sediment