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Mineral Resources of the Jornada Del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico

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Mineral Resources of the Jornada Del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico Mineral Resources of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1734-A Chapter A Mineral Resources of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico By DONALD H. RICHTER and RICHARD W. SALTUS U.S. Geological Survey GEORGE S. RYAN U.S. Bureau of Mines U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1734 MINERAL RESOURCES OF WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS WEST-CENTRAL NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL MODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1987 For sale by Books and Open-File Reports Section U.S. Geological Survey Federal Center Box 25425 Denver, CO 80225 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Richter, Donald H. Mineral resources of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico. (U.S. Geological Survey bulletin ; 1734)(Mineral resources of wilderness study areas west-central New Mexico) Bibliography: p. Supt. of Docs, no.: I 19.3:1734-A 1. Mines and mineral resources New Mexico Jornada del Muerto Wilderness. 2. Jornada del Muerto Wilderness (N.M.). I. Saltus, R. W. (Richard W.) II. Ryan, George S. III. Title. IV. Series. V. Series: Mineral resources of wilderness study areas west-central New Mexico. QE75.B9 no. 1734 557.3 s 87-600169 [TN24.N6] [553'.09789'62] STUDIES RELATED TO WILDERNESS Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Study Areas The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Public Law 94-579, October 21, 1976) requires the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines to conduct mineral surveys on certain areas to determine the mineral values, if any, that may be present. Results must be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. This report presents the results of a mineral survey of the Jornada del Muerto (NM-020-055) Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico. CONTENTS Summary 1 Introduction 3 Investigations by the U.S. Bureau of Mines 4 Investigations by the U.S. Geological Survey 4 Appraisal of identified resources 4 Assessment of potential for undiscovered resources 4 Geology 4 Geophysics 5 Gravity data 5 Aeromagnetic data 5 Aerial radiometric survey 5 Mineral resource potential 9 Metallic deposits 9 Geothermal energy 9 Oil and gas 9 Coal 9 Sand 9 Gem-quality olivine (peridot) 9 References cited 10 Appendix 11 FIGURES 1. Map showing location of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area 1 2. Map showing mineral resource potential and geology of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area 2 3. Isostatic residual gravity map of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area and vicinity 6 4. Map showing depth to Paleozoic basement rocks below Santa Fe Group rocks, Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area and vicinity 7 5. Aeromagnetic map of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area and vicinity 8 Contents V MINERAL RESOURCES OF WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS WEST-CENTRAL NEW MEXICO Mineral Resources of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico By Donald H. Richter and Richard W. Saltus U.S. Geological Survey George S. Ryan U.S. Bureau of Mines SUMMARY 107°30' 107°00' 106°30' ' p\ Socorro The Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area 34° (NM-020-055) includes 31,147 acres in Socorro and Sierra 00' Counties in west-central New Mexico. It lies in remote country on the east side of the Rio Crande valley, ap­ proximately 35 mi -miles) south of the city of Socorro (fig- D. \- APPROXIMATE ' BOUNDARY OF The wilderness study area includes most of the THE JORNADA east half of a geologically young (760,000-year-old) basal­ DEL MUERTO tic lava field. The vent area for the lavas is marked by WILDERNESS a cinder cone and lava domes about 1 mi west of the STUDY AREA wilderness study area boundary. The lava field overlies WHITE a relatively flat surface of thin, unconsolidated basin and eolian sediments, which in turn overlie as much as SANDS 10,000 ft (feet) of older sedimentary rocks that filled the MISSILE tectonically active Rio Crande rift valley during late Ter­ tiary (see geologic time chart in Appendix) time (2-20 RANGE million years ago). Paleozoic limestones, which in south­ Truth or east New Mexico are highly productive oil and gas reser­ Consequences voir rocks, probably underlie the wilderness study area at depth. 33° There has been no mineral production in the wil­ 00' derness study area, and no leasable or locatable mineral 20 MILES deposits are known. The wilderness study area has low mineral resource potential for metals, including sedi­ EXPLANATION mentary uranium, geothermal energy, oil and gas, and magmatic segregates of gem-quality olivine (peridot); the Improved dirt road mineral resource potential for coal is unknown (fig. 2). The northwest and southwest parts of the study area have moderate potential for undiscovered sand re­ Figure 1. Map showing location of the Jornada del sources. Muerto Wilderness Study Area, New Mexico. Jornada Del Muerto Wilderness Study Area A1 106°50' 106°45' APPROXIMATE BOUNDARY OF THE JORNADA DEL MUERTO WILDERNESS STUDY AREA (NM-020-055) 33°30' COUNTY COUNTY 2 MILES Figure 2 (above and facing page). Map showing mineral resource potential and geology of the Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area, New Mexico. A2 Mineral Resources of Wilderness Study Areas West-Central New Mexico EXPLANATION OF MINERAL Qbyd Young lava dome Small, partly collapsed RESOURCE POTENTIAL lava dome Geologic terrane having high mineral resource Qbod Old lava dome Broad lava dome containing potential for sand, with certainty level B an extensive collapsed lava tube and many pit craters. Dome is partly collapsed peripheral L/B Geologic terrane having low mineral re­ to vent area source potential for metals, including sedi­ mentary uranium, oil and gas, and geo- Qbf Lava flows Massive, extremely vesicular flows thermal energy, with certainty level B having a variety of collapse features L/C Geologic terrane having low mineral resource potential for gem-quality olivine, with cer­ tainty level C Contact Both known and approximately located LJ/A Geologic terrane having unknown mineral re­ -i ' r-r- Collapse scarp Hachures on collapsed side source potential for coal, with certainty level A Trace of collapsed lava tube Certainty levels A Available information is not adequate for de­ termination of the level of mineral resource potential B Available information suggests level of min­ eral resource potential INTRODUCTION C Available information gives a good indica­ tion of level of mineral resource potential The Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area (NM-020-055) includes 31,147 acres in Socorro and Sierra Counties in south-central New Mexico (fig. 1). It is about 35 mi south of the city of Socorro and is on CORRELATION OF MAP UNITS the east side of the Rio Grande but within the Rio Grande rift valley. Access is by several improved dirt roads that Qbc Holocene service remote ranches in the area, and these roads can « be difficult to traverse during periods of inclement Qbyd Qea h QUATERNARY weather. The best routes are south from U.S. Highway Qbf Pleistocene Qbod 380 just west of San Antonio, N. Mex., a distance of about 25 mi, and north from Truth or Consequences, N. Mex., a distance of about 48 mi. The wilderness study area includes most of the east half of a large Pleistocene lava field, roughly 15 mi in diameter; the lava flowed DESCRIPTION OF MAP UNITS out on a relatively flat alluvial plain from a central vent area. The lava field has the form of a very broad shield Qea Eolian and alluvial deposits, undivided (Holo­ with the central vent area about 250 ft higher than the cene and Pleistocene) Chiefly stablized distal edges of the flows. The surface of the field is ex­ and active sheet sand and sand dunes inter­ tremely rough and consists largely of broken and disrupted mixed with fine-grained alluvium in numerous lava, collapse pits, rifts, and pressure domes; no streams small discontinuous drainages. Maximum drain the lava field. thickness less than 10 ft Lava of Jornada del Muerto (Pleistocene) Me­ This report presents an evaluation of the mineral dium-gray to black, porphyritic alkalic basalt endowment (identified resources and mineral resource po­ containing phenocrysts of plagioclase (10-15 tential) of the study area and is the product of several percent) and olivine (2-5 percent) in an inter- separate studies by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the granular to intersertal groundmass of feldspar, U.S. Geological Survey. Identified resources are classified mafic minerals, and glass. Locally contains according to the system of the U.S. Bureau of Mines and xenoliths of quartz and tridymite. Maximum U.S. Geological Survey (1980), which is shown in the thickness about 250 ft Appendix of this report. Identified resources are studied Qbc Cinder cone Scoriaceous lapilli, cinder, and by the Bureau of Mines. Mineral resource potential is the blocks. Overlies vent for lava of Jornada del likelihood of occurrence of undiscovered metals and non- Muerto metals, industrial rocks and minerals, and of undiscovered Jornada Del Muerto Wilderness Study Area A3 energy sources (coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and geothermal APPRAISAL OF IDENTIFIED RESOURCES sources). It is classified according to the system of Goudarzi (1984) and is shown in the Appendix. Undis­ By George S. Ryan covered resources are studied by the U.S. Geological U.S. Bureau of Mines Survey. The Jornada del Muerto Wilderness Study Area does not contain any identified mineral resources. No Investigations by the U.S.
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