New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting & Ft. Stanton Cave Conference — Abstracts

Snowy River Passage in Fort Stanton Cave was discovered in 2001, and would extend the known passages another 8 miles towards the Sierra Blanca peak, 20 miles to the southwest. The 1 cfs intermittent flow of Snowy River created a unique white calcite deposit along its sinuous route. To better understand the source of this intermittent flow, multiple data loggers were deployed by 4-member exploration teams to sites that are over 11 miles from daylight. This presentation summarizes the data logging effort and gives an example of the data being obtained, such as that in the example figure. This “Mud Lizard” site shows that starting in January 2019, the water flow created a 15-foot deep sump in a passage only 4-feet high for about 3 weeks. Two weeks later the passage again sumped for another 5 months before slowly draining back to an air-filled passage. Temperature data suggests the 2^nd flow was due to snow melt on Sierra Blanca.

A summary of the equipment and site requirements is presented with map information showing the complexity of this study. Continuing studies are now focused on correlating discharge measurement sites that are not accessible during Snowy River flows, as well as establishing selected surface sites that will become part of future analyses that will relate the flows to unpredictable weather on the surface above the exploration teams. The area hydrology includes springs and three surface streams with intermittent flows. Exploration continues. Additional data is available at [http://fscsp.org/data_logger_sites.html].

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References:

1. Lindsley, P., 2011, Snowy River Water Flow, Unpublished paper by Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, June 7, 2011, 15 pp.
2. Lindsley, P., 2022, A Decade of Data Logging in Fort Stanton Cave and Snowy River, Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, Special Report, March 30, 2021, 139 pp.