New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

In recent years many researchers have worked on sorting out the geologic setting of the Santa Fe Embayment, particularly in an effort to evaluate water availability in the Eldorado area. John Shomaker & Associates, Inc. is developing a ground-water flow model of the Eldorado area to evaluate and predict availability of ground water. The model area is bound to the north and west by the Santa Fe River, to the south and west by the Galisteo River, and to the east by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Most domestic and community supply wens in the Eldorado area yield water from saturated Quaternary-age alluvium, Quaternary-Tertiary-age Ancha Formation, and with less success, from the Tertiary-age Espinaso and Galisteo Formations. This sequence of Quaternary and Tertiary rocks were deposited on erosional unconformities and in paleovalleys along the fringe of the Santa Embayment, which creates a complicated setting for developing a stratigraphy-based ground-water flow model.

The model framework is based on our current understanding of (1) the distribution and thickness of the geologic units from the water table to a depth of 2,000 ft below the water table, (2) estimates and distribution of recharge along the mountain front, and (3) estimates of hydraulic properties for the geologic units incorporated into the model.