Geologic Tour of New Mexico

Hyde Memorial State Park lies in the southwestern Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the Santa Fe Range. The north-south trending Sangre de Cristo Mountains are about 225 miles long, extending from near Salida, Colorado, at the north end to just southeast of Santa Fe at the south end (Bauer, 2008). The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are considered to be part of the Southern Rocky Mountain physiographic province. The mountains rise abruptly from the relatively topographically subdued High Plains on the east side. The Rio Grande rift, a northerly-trending zone of continental extension that runs from northern Colorado to west Texas, marks the western boundary of the range. The Santa Fe Range, which is cored by Proterozoic basement rocks, is bound on the north by the Peñasco embayment, on the south by Glorieta Pass, on the west by the Española Basin, and on the east by the Picuris-Pecos Fault just west of the Pecos River. At least four episodes of mountain building are recorded in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Coronado State Monument is about 15 miles north of Albuquerque in Bernallio and is named after Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish explorer who was in New Mexico in the mid-16th century. Coronado supposedly wintered at Kuana Pueblo, the large pueblo preserved at the state monument, between late 1540 and early 1541; however, recent excavations indicate that the Spaniards camped nearby at Santiago Pueblo, located about 2 miles to the southwest of Coronado State Monument. Nonetheless, the preserved pueblo is impressive and the kivas at Kuana Pueblo are decorated with remarkable murals that can be viewed at the Visitor's Center.

Storrie Lake State Park is located four miles north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and can be reached via New Mexico Highway 518. The 1400-foot long earthen dam that retains the water in Storrie Lake was built under the direction of Robert C. Storrie starting in 1916. Water from the Gallinas River, a southeasterly-flowing river with its headwaters in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the main water supply for the community of Las Vegas, is diverted for storage in Storrie Lake. The park offers camping, boating, fishing, beaches, and other water-related activities.

Storrie Lake State Park lies on the boundary between two important physiographic provinces, the Southern High Plains and the Southern Rocky Mountains. The lake is on the High Plains just east of the Rincon Range portion of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a sub-province of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is located in the westernmost part of the Great Plains province, in Torrance County near Mountainair. The monument consists of three small and widely separated units — Abó, Gran Quivira, and Quarai.

When the Spanish arrived in this area in the late 1500s they found multiple inhabited pueblos, and they referred to this area as the Salinas District. However, because of drought, famine, disease, and Apache raiding, by the late 1600s the entire Salinas District was depopulated of both Native Americans and Spaniards. What remains today are reminders of this earliest contact between Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonists: the ruins of three mission churches and a partially excavated pueblo that Juan de Oñate called Las Humanas or, as it is now known, Gran Quivira Pueblo.

West of the flocks of birds and birdwatchers along the wetlands of the Rio Grande, a story of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, ancient dune fields, and long-gone towering mountains lie quietly awaiting visitors to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The Chupadera Wilderness Trail and the Canyon Trail traverse this geologic record in the contemplative solitude of a wilderness setting, affording “rockwatchers” a quick trip through millions of years of Earth history.

The Tyrone mining district, the second largest porphyry copper deposit in New Mexico, is located 10 miles southwest of Silver City in the Burro Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. Native Americans initially mined turquoise from the area around 600 AD. Underground mining was established in the early 1860s and the current mode of mining, open-pit stripping, began in 1968. The mine became part of Freeport-McMoRan in 2007. Parts of the pit are currently being reclaimed.

Villanueva State Park lies in the western portion of San Miguel County and straddles the Pecos River where it enters a narrow canyon one mile south of the village of Villanueva. At the park, reddish-yellow and tan cliffs of sandstone tower up to 300 feet above the park and the river. The rocks in these cliffs tell a geologic story of ancient landscapes and seas. Younger gravels on benches along the river and the topography of canyon itself carry this narrative to the present day.

Oasis State Park lies 18 miles southwest of Clovis and 7 miles north of Portales via US–60 and NM–467. It was established in 1961 to preserve the natural beauty of a true oasis in the sandy desert of the Llano Estacado or “staked plains” of the Great Plains physiographic province. The surrounding area is flat, treeless, featureless, and relatively dry. The summers are hot, the winters are cold, the wind seems to blow constantly. In contrast, the park offers shade trees and a small lake, as well as conveniences such as water, showers, electric hookups, and dump stations expected of picnic areas and modern campgrounds. Many of the facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. In addition to picnicking and camping, fishing, hiking, and bird watching are popular activities. The pond is stocked with catfish and trout. Trails weave up and down and around the sand dunes; watch carefully for lizards, snakes, and other wildlife that make the sand their home! A ballfield lies near the center of the park and there is a new visitor’s center. The Blackwater Draw Museum is located east of Oasis State Park on US-70, and the Blackwater Draw Archaeological Site is north of the state park.

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is in the Mogollon Mountains approximately 44 miles north of Silver City, New Mexico. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument was established in 1907 and is one of the nation’s oldest monuments. The monument lies within the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field; volcanic eruptions from this field covered 40,000 km2 of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona with lava and ash flow tuffs 40 to 24 million years ago.

This is a virtual field trip to the classic Permian reef complex and other geologic features of the Guadalupe Mountains, including those in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Guadalupe National Park in Texas. It contains an introduction to the geology of the Permian reef complex plus several roadlogs with diagrams and photographs, as well as an extensive bibliography in order to provide a balanced presentation for a geology student audience.