Stephen F. Austin State University SFA ScholarWorks Faculty Publications Department of Geology 4-2008 Hypogenic Speleogenesis within Seven Rivers Evaporites: Coffee aC ve, Eddy County, New Mexico Kevin W. Stafford College of Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Geology, Stephen F. Austin State University,
[email protected] Lewis Land Alexander Klimchouk Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/geology Part of the Geology Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation Stafford, Kevin W.; Land, Lewis; and Klimchouk, Alexander, "Hypogenic Speleogenesis within Seven Rivers Evaporites: Coffee Cave, Eddy County, New Mexico" (2008). Faculty Publications. Paper 10. http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/geology/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Geology at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. K. W. Stafford, L. Land, and A. Klimchouk – Hypogenic speleogenesis within Seven Rivers Evaporites: Coffee Cave, Eddy County, New Mexico. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, v. 70, no. 1, p. 47–61. HYPOGENIC SPELEOGENESIS WITHIN SEVEN RIVERS EVAPORITES: COFFEE CAVE, EDDY COUNTY, NEW MEXICO KEVIN W. STAFFORD1,2,LEWIS LAND2,3, AND ALEXANDER KLIMCHOUK3,4 Abstract: Coffee Cave, located in the lower Pecos region of southeastern New Mexico, illustrates processes of hypogenic speleogenesis in the middle Permian Seven Rivers Formation. Coffee Cave is a rectilinear gypsum maze cave with at least four stratigraphically-distinct horizons of development. Morphological features throughout the cave provide unequivocal evidence of hypogenic ascending speleogenesis in a confined aquifer system driven by mixed (forced and free) convection.