THE NEW MEXICO BUREAU OF GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES GEOLOGIC MAPPING AND AQUIFER MAPPING PROGRAMS: INTEGRATED GEOLOGIC MAPPING AND AQUIFER STUDIES

Modern digital geologic maps and derivative water resource products are essential for New Mexico’s environmental and economic prosperity. Geologic maps are uniquely suited to solving problems involving Earth resources, hazards, and environments and, perhaps most importantly for the people of New Mexico, such maps help identify and protect aquifers. The Aquifer Mapping Program builds on geologic datasets to better understand groundwater occurrence, recharge, and flow paths.

The primary mission of the bureau’s Geologic Mapping Program is to generate geologic maps that characterize the geology in sufficient detail to allow use of the information in matters of economic and environmental concern to governments, communities, and planners, as well as to satisfy the goals of basic science. Of the 121,598 mi² of New Mexico, 37% has been mapped at a scale of 1:24,000. Twenty percent of the state has been mapped by the bureau during its 80+ year history. More than half of that mapping has been done in the last 20 years under the STATEMAP Program, a dramatic increase in mapping activity and efficiency. Historically, the most critical area for new geologic mapping has been the populated zone along the Rio Grande watershed from the Colorado border to the Texas border. More recently, the NM STATEMAP Program has expanded our mapping to other areas of interest (Grants area, Pecos watershed, and Tularosa basin). Rapid population growth, shallow alluvial aquifers, large topographic relief, and the alternating scarcity and abundance of precipitation, give rise to a host of hydrologic and engineering problems.

The Aquifer Mapping Program synthesizes map products from the bureau’s Geologic Mapping Program with geophysical, hydrologic, chemical, field, and laboratory analyses to characterize the quantity, quality, and sustainability of groundwater resources. These data improve our understanding of the geologic framework of aquifers, including their hydrologic characteristics, and how they change over time. Equally important are the levels, origins and pathways of natural contaminants that affect groundwater quality. The publicly accessible hydrogeologic models developed from geologic and aquifer studies provide invaluable information on the distribution, movement, quality, and quantity of our groundwater resources.