Winter 1992 New Mexico Bureau L I,T E of Mines and Mineral Resources (NMBM&MR) EarthBriefs A quarterly publication for educators and the pul31ic- contemporary geological topics, issues and events Scientists Study Clay for Cleanup Researchers at the University of New Mexico and Los AiamosNational Laboratory have discovered a safe and effective wayto removetrace amountsof radioactive plutonium from surface water--by treating it with clay. Bythe process of sorption, the clay attracts and collects radioactive materials in contaminatedwater, and by fiocculation, the clay’materials bind together and settle to the bottom wherethey can be easily separated from the water. Both sorption and fiocculation are pre- existing scientific concepts, but using the techniques together to remove plutonium from water is a newprocess. In the lab, the treatment has been shownto be 98% effective, but according to UNM’sEric Nuttall, its effectivenessin real-life situations has yet to be tested. Still, the treatment is an exampleof the ways existing technologycan be used to combat environmental problems. UNMDaily Lobo, 1992, issue for August31, 1992: Universityof NewMexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Water Guardians Program You can adopt a waterway in New Mexico.The Surfa(:e Water Quality Bureauhas less than 15 staff membersin ~pP40 M charge of field workfor all of New The good, the bad, and the ultramafic Mexico’s6,000 miles of rivers and 150,000 acres of lakes. Consequently,volunteers are neededto check on specific water areas on a regular basis, and to supply This Issue: information about these areas to the Surface Water Quality Bureau. There are no fees, and there are no required waterways, and volcanoes Nepheline Syenite: Toilet Bowlsand Beer Bottles activities. Volunteersare free to do as NewMexico’s Resources Trivia Quiz muchor as little as they wish. For Natural Resources and Your Christmas information on howto adopt a waterway, Water doesn’t grow on trees--Ground Tree please contact BonneyHughes, Surface Water Concepts for Understanding New Water Quality Bureau, P.O. Box26110, Mexico’s Water Supply Reconstruct the dinosaur contestl Santa Fe, NM87502, or call (505) 827- 2796. The EconomicBenefits of the Mineral Current topics in Earth Science-highLttes Industry in New Mexico Lite Geology, Winter 1992 -"II NewMexico’s ¯ ResourcesTrivia i Quiz How many of the following answers questions about New Mexico’s resources can you answer I. WheelerPeak correctly? 2. RedBluff Reservoir 1: Whatlandform has the highest 3. Carlsbad Caverns contains the largest elevation in New Mexico (13,161 ft)? natural cave room in the world, rockhound 2: What landform has the lowest measuring 300 ft by 300 ft by 1500 ft elevation in NewMexico (2,817"ft)? long. 3: What size is the largest room in 4. Jim White, a cowboy, in 1901 Quiet Desert was Once Site of Carlsbad Caverns? 5. the Ice Cave south of Grants, Enormous Volcanoes 4: Who discovered Carlsbad Caverns? New Mexico Nancy McMillan, an associate 6. 121,666 square miles, the 5th largest professor of geology at NewMexico State 5: Where in New Mexico can natural ice state in the U.S. University, is attempting to reconstruct be found at any time of the year? the landscape of southern New Mexico 6: Howmany square miles are there in 7. all of the above between 50 million and three million the state of New Mexico? years ago. Apparently, the region was 8. 70.4 million barrels of oil and 1.02 extremely active volcanically, active 7: Which of the following raw materials trillion cubic feet of natural gas enough to "make Mount St. Helens look are present in a skateboard? 9. $299 million like a mere burp," according to a. Iron McMillan. b. Aluminum 10. New Mexico ranks 13th in coal Research done by McMillan under a c. Wollastonite production. Wyomingis the number grant from the National Science d. Calcium one producer of coal in the United Foundation suggests that the rugged e. Carbonate States. New Mexico has produced New Mexican landscape we see today f. Clay over 20 million tons for each of th’e was created millions of years ago in an g. Sulfur past four years. explosive, fiery cataclysm caused by the h. Silica melting of the earth’s crust and mantle. i. Talc 11. 50% McMiilan says, "Changes in the style’of j. Mica 12. 40,000 Ibs. volcanic activity are important clues in k. Coal understanding the earth’s crust in 8: Howmany barrels of oil and cubic feet southern New Mexico." References Las CrucesSun-News, 19~2, issue for September’ of natural gas were produced in New Mexico during 1991? Miningat Play, poster, Australian Mining ~, 1992:Las Cruces,New Mexico. IndustryCouncil (question 7). 9: Howmuch money did the state of NewMexico Bureau of Minesand Mineral Resourcesstaff, 1992, personal --Compiledby TobyClick New Mexico receive in 1991 from oil and gas production taxes and communications(questions 8-12). Traveladventures and trivia map, 1985: Map royalties? Incorporated,Norman, Oklahoma (questionsI-6). 10: What is New Mexico’s ranking in coal production in the United States and how many tons of coal are produced Teachers’ Note: This quiz wouldbe useful as in New Mexico? an extra credit exercise, or for use in learning centers or groupactivities. 11: Approximately what percentage of the land in the western United States is owned by the Federal Government? 12; What is the average annual per capita consumption of new minerals in America? Lite Geology, Winter 1992 Ground-Water Concepts for Understanding \ New Mexico’s i Water Supply C. StephenHaase breaks in the framework,or crevices throughit. Ground-waterGeologist, NMBM&MR wherea small portion of the aquifer Within aquifers composedof In contrast to surface water in lakes, frameworkhas been dissolved away. unconsolidatedsand and gravel, the pore streams and rivers, ground water Porosity is a measure,expressed as a space consists of space betweenthe remains hidden from view, and is the percentage, of the amountof free space individual sand and gravel grains. The subject of uncertainty and myth. A available for ground-waterstorage within size and shape of the constituent grains scientific understanding of ground water an aquifer. Goodaquifers typically have influence the nature of porosity and is crucial to NewMexico, however, 10 to 20 percent porosity; an exceptional hydraulic conductivity within becauseover 90 percent of the state’s aquifer mayhave a porosity of up to 40 unconsolidated aquifers. Consolidated population has its domestic water needs percent. aquifers form whengrains of supplied by this resource. Groundwater Groundwater within a specific portion unconsolidated aquifers become also is a majorsource of water used in of an aquifer contains a given amountof cementeatogether, which can occur in agriculture, manufacturing, and mining energy, referred to as hydraulic head. response to heat, pressure, and throughout NewMexico and muchof the The hydraulic head of gro.und water at a precipitated minerals developedduring southwestern United States. given point within an aquifer depends on deformation or burial of unconsolidated Most ground water originates as the elevation and the pressure exerted on sands, gravels, or other’types of rainfall that percolates downward the ground water by surrounding water sediments. In consolidated aquifers, throughthe soil. Surface water also can within the aquifer. Hydraulic head is fractures, cracks, and small channels drain downwardthrough lake or stream expressedin units of length, such as feet, formedby dissolution of aquifer material beds to recharge ground water. In abovea reference point. Sea level is the determine an aquifer’s porosity and general, ground water and surface water hydraulic conductivity. are intricately related, and the two NewMexico contains a variety of systems are mutually dependent. In aquifers. Alongthe Rio Grande, a series addition to being recharged by surface of deep basins contain deposits of silt, water, ground water can discharge into sand, gravel, and someclay. Aquifers in surface-water bodies at springs, seeps, these basins consist of unconsolidated and ’wetland or marsh areas. beds of sand and gravel that were To the nongeologist, groundwater is washedinto the basins from adjoining commonlythought to occur in mountains, such as the Sandia Mountains under~oundpools, lakes or rivers near Albuquerque,and by the ancestral flowing in the subsurface, mimickingthe most frequently used reference point for precursors to the present-day Rio readily observable behavior of surface hydraulic-head measurements. Within an Grande. Twoof these basins, the water. Actually, ground water occupies aquifer, hydraulic head is variable, and AlbuquerqueBasin centered in Bernalillo small voids, called pores, or crevices, groun(~i water movesfrom areas of high Countyand the Mesilla Basin in Dofia such as cracks and fractures, foundin hydraulic head, e.g. recharge zones, to AnaCounty provide all of the domestic subsurface materials. With the rare areas of low hydraulic head, e.g. water for NewMexico’s largest exception Of caves, ground water never discharge zones. Unlike manyground- metropolitan areas. Elsewherein the occursin pools or rivers. water properties, hydraulic head can be state, sandstoneaquifers, such as in the’ Aquifers are water-saturated readily observedand measured;it is the San Juan Basin, and limestone aquifers, as geological formationsthat serve as water level within a well at a specific in the RoswelI-ArtesiaBasin are examples sources of ground water. The household point in an aquifer. of consolidated bedrock aquifers. Both sponge provides a convenient niodei of Factors that control the rate of water the San Juan Basin sandstones and the’ an aquifer. The sponge contains a movementthrough an aquifer include the limestones of the RoswelI-ArtesiaBasin frameworkof solid fabric that surrounds hydraulic conductivity, and the are important sources of ground water. a network of open spaces or pores. These magnitudeof hydraulic head differences pores store water whenthe sponge is wet; betweendifferent portions of an aquifer. Suggestedreferences most water in the spongeoccurs within Hydraulic conductivity is a measureof Fetter, C.