Introduction: Where are the "hot" earth science projects in the Jemez Mountains region
— Fraser E. Goff

When I first came to Los Alamos in 1978, I was told that 1 ought to look carefully at the. volcanic rocks and stratigraphy of the Jemez Mountains region because this was truly a classic geologic spot, especially Valles caldera, But I was also sold that there really was not much science left to do here because, after all, the Jemez had already been mapped by R.L. Smith, R.A. Bailey, and C.S. Ross.

The sheer beauty of the Jemez had an instant effect on me. Within a couple months of being hired by the Laboratory, l started to poke. around in Callon de San Diego, down in the southwest Jemez, because I had heard there were hot springs hidden in the canyon. and I had a love affair with hot springs, Besides, I had been hired to work Oil geothermal enemy (never mind that it was Hot Dry Rock), and it seemed like a young caldera with hot springs ought to provide something interesting to investigate.

The plumbing of the hot springs in the canyon was the first thing pondered. A geothermal well was drilled at Jemez Springs and I volunteered to take fluid and carting samples. Then a detailed geologic map was needed of the canyon to define structural controls on fluid flow. While mapping, s was amazed at the. large size of the hot spring system at Soda Dam, How long had it taken to form the travertines and was the formation of thew ancient deposits constant or cyclic?