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Hydrogeologic Evolution of Estancia Valley, a Closed Basin in Central

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Hydrogeologic Evolution of Estancia Valley, a Closed Basin in Central o Bureau. of Mines and Min Resources Open-fileReport 69 HydrogeologicEvolution of Estancia Valley, a Closed Basin in Central New Mexico by Frank B. Titus Socorro, 1973 PREFACE i ABSTRACT iii INTRODUCTION 1 J?tqose and Scope 1 Location and Geography 2 Toposraphy of the Valley 5 Regional To-aphic Setting 8 Previous Work 9 Salt Earvest from the Playas 13 PRE-LACUSTRINE GWLOSY 15 Distribution of Pre-Tertiary ;9ocks 15 Stratigraphy and Hydrologic Properties of Pre-Tertiary Rocks 20 Precambrian 20 Pennsylvanian ' 23 Permian 34 Triassic 80 Jurassic and Cretaceous 40 ,. StructuralFeatures of the Basin 41 STR4TIGRApEFI AND HYDWIlXIC PROPERTIES OF THE KQ,LEY FIIL 45 Estancia ValleyFonmtion 47 ' Stratigraphy 50 Environment of Accumulation-AThrough-flowing River 60 Age 62 Irrigation Wells Pumping f$on?klluviwn 65 7. Dog Lake Fomtion 67 Stratigraphy 69 Hydrologic Properties 85 QQ4ORPHOLKXOF BASIN, DESCRIPTION OF POST-LAKE 86 Erosion of Estancia ValleyFormation 86 Geomrphic Features Formed by Faly Lake Estancia 90 Hill Area 91 Lobo.,;. North End of Basin 95 West Side of Basin 96 lbpgraphic Sill, its Valley, and its Ancestral River 99 Geona3rphc Features Fomd by Ute Lake Estancia 108 LacustrineFeatures Formed in Shallow Rejuvenated Lake 113 GWLKX OF THE PLAYA DEPRFSSIONS AND DUNES 117 Small Dunes 120 Great Dunes 123 PlayaDepressions 128 Playa Sediment and Hydrolqy 141 HYDRXLXY OF THE BASIN 164 Subsurface Leakage 164 Modern HydrologicConditions 170 SUWARY OF EVASIN HISTORY, OUA- COFXEZATIONS 17 8 me-LacustrineHistory 178 LacustrineHistory and Correlations 181 .._ -. RE;-m%REJcEs 191 CONETiXS Page 3 APPENDICES 196 ., . ~. A -- Selected Drillers' Logsof Water Wells 19 6 B -- Sample Logs from Deep Test Holes 205 C -- Chemical Analysesof Water from Playasand Sel.eta W€ !llS 210 .. CONTENTS Page 4 FIGURES 1 -- Index mp sh.7inglocation of study3 2 -- Toposraphic map of Estancia Valley 6 3 -- Geologic map of EstanciaValley 16 4 -- hroducible water wells drilled in Madera Formation 26 5 - High-yield water wells and carbon dioxide wells 31 6 - Relief map of Precambrian surface 42 7 -- Geolcgic map of valley fill showing outcrops and shorelines 46 8 - Map shming thicbess of valley fill 48 9 - Fencediagram of test holes drilled in T. 6 N., 'R. 93. :68 10 - Graphic sections of Cog Lake Formation in T. 6 N., R. 9 E. 71 11 - lbpxpaphic mp, Tps. 4 and 5 N., R. 8 E., showing Estancia Valley Formation 88A 12 - lbmaphic map, 9s. 8 and 9, Rs. 9 and 10 E., showing shoreline i~ features 92A 13 - Map of Pinos Wells andEncino Basins 102 14 - Map for playas, great dunes, and gypsiferousoffshore bar 114 15 - Aerial photsqaph, central Laguna del Perro and nearby playa depressions 119 16 - Scatter of playadepressions and playa shapes 130 17 - Hypthetical cross section through playa-depression field 135 18 - Sch-tic cross section through playadepression ,149 19 - Schatic crosssection of the valley 165 20 - Correlation chart for late Pleistocene kdRecent 182 .. 1 PREFACE This project was completed with the considerable help of many individuals and.with information and data provided byseveral agencies. The New Mexico StateEngineer District Office in Albuquerque provided logs of many water wells in the area and also provided copies of several maps that are theresult of their administrative work inEstancia Valley. ' J. T. Everheart,geohydrologist with that office, was' always available to discuss hydrologic phenomena in the basin and to provide conclusions that have resulted.from . his analyses of considerable data. Personnel of the U.S. GeologicalSurvey in Albuquerque analyzedthe water samplesfor the project: funding for the ar!alyses was provided by the New Mexico. Bureau of Mines & MineralResources under a cooperative agreement between the two agencies. Lynn Brandvoldand X. W. Foster,with the New MexicoBureau of Minesand NineralResources, provided chemicaland X-ray ana.lysesrespectively of sediment samples. B. E. DeBrine,graduate assistant at New Mexico Institute ofMining and Technology, worked long and irregularhours collecting data for the project. He, alongwith R. G. Hauboldand J. C. Halepaska,did most of the test-hole drilling and well construction onwhich are based the subsurface stratigraphic .correlations and hydrologicinterpretations. Bore-hole logs were runin the test holes by J. D. Hudson of the U.S. Geological Survey. Financialsupport covering travel, part of the drilling costs, and a significant part of salaries. for two years was providedby the Office of WaterResources Research, Department of Interior, through the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute under grant number B005-WRI-151. S. A. Wengerd, V. C. Kelley,and R. Y. Anderson reviewed an early version script and offered at that time many helpfultechnical and editorialsuggestions. John Hawley critically reviewed the final manuscript. The aid and assistance of these agencies and individuals, and many other unnamed individuals, is most gratefullyacknowledged. The conclusionspresented are the author's own, and do not necessarily coincide with those of all cooperators or reviewers. Frank B. Titus EbascoCorp. New York, New York April 1, 1973 ABSTRACT EstanciaValley, a 2,000-square-mile closed basin in central New Mexico, has since late Pliocene (?) been sequentiallythe site of a) accumulation of several hundred feet of alluvium in a structurally subsiding river'valley, b) two successive late Pleistocenelakes and one shallow Holocenela.ke, and c) several score steep-walled depressions 20 to 40 ft deep,each of which now contains a perennially moist playa. The alluvialunit is here named theEstancia Valleyqormation. Above it is 100 ft of mostly lacustrine sedimenthere named the Dog Lakepormation. The Pliocene (?) and earlyPleistocene Estancia River may haveflowed to the Portales Valley on the Llano Estacado. Early Lake Estancia is correlated with the Terry Pluvial, and Late Lake Estancia with Tahokaand San Jon of the Llano Estacado. The early lake overflowedthe basin'at sill in .. a theelevated river valley. The late lakehad no outflow, and was probably chemically stratified. The playa depressions on the former lake floor were formedmainly by deflation, with the sediment being blown ontogreat dunes east ofeach depression. Playa-depression sites were initially controlled byground-water solution of gypsum in the Yeso Formationbeneath 400 Et of valley fill. Subsidenceextending upward throughthe hydrologic confining beds of the Dog Lake qormation also created permeability paths through which water in the underlying EstanciaValley formation discharged upward to theplayas ' to evaporate. iviu Prior to heavy pumping for irrigation, natural discharge was by a)evaporation from the playas, b)evapo-transpiration from fromsprings.and springs marshes .andmarshes west of the edgeof the lacustrine strata, and c) deepsubsurface leakage to the throughpre-Tertiary +rata. Pumping leakage to the north throughpre-Tertiary +rata. Pumping has dried the springs andmarshes. 1 INTRODUCTION Estancia Valley in central New Mexico haslong been recognized as the site of a Pleistocenelake (Keyes,1903). Early recognition of its lacustrine hi.story was basedon the topographic closure of the basin and theobvious beach remnants that ring the lower parts of the basin sides. While the general nature of the bed”>ock._. geology, structure, and hydrology has been presented in the literature, there are no published detailed studies of the geology of unconsolidatedsediment in the valley. Purposeand Scope The geology of the valley fill andgeomorphology df .. the basin are presentedin terms of two importantshaping forces,,water- and wind. This requires a) a systematrc classification of the materials that have-been deposited in the central part of the basin, b) description of the surface and subsurface features that have been developed by the two fluids, and c) theestablishment’of a chronology of events from basin origin to the present. In contrast to most studies of Pleistocene lakes, i whichdeal mainly with the effects of surface water This 1 study includes consideration of the geologic effects of ground water. The effects offlowing,ground water didnot cease with the disappearance of the lake, and significant modifications of the floor of the basin have takenplace sincethe lake evaporated. The study is limited to phenomena of physicalgeofogy and qualitativephysical andchemical hydrology. No attempt was made during field work to cqllect paleontologic data, but the work of others, particularly Bachhuber, has been invaluable in dating late Pleistocene andHolocene events. Location andGeography Estancia Valley is a topographically closed basin lying in the central part of New Mexico, and,containing approximately 2,000 square miles within its perimeter 0 .(fig. 1). It is approximately bisected bylongitude 106 W., andby' latitude 34O45' N. The valley is about55 miles' long and35 mileswide. Thetown ofMoriarty, in the north-central part of the valley, is about 40 miles east of Albuquerque. The town of Estancia,the county seat for TorranceCounty, is near the west side of the nearly flat valley floor. Economically,Estancia Valley is almost totally dependenton farming and ranching. Irrigated farms were first established in 1941, and sincethen have expanded in area until 1965 when the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that 22,000 acres were underirrigation, and thatannual pumpage ofground water. was about 25,000 acre-ft (Buschand Hudson, 1967,'~.72). The remainder of thevalley is grazing landor, at higherelevations, pinon forest. During the first half of
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