New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Water is essential to life, without water life cannot exist. The use of ground water for basic essential uses (domestic and municipal) exert little pressure on a basin, its use for industrial and agricultural withdrawal, result in an extensive drawdown and dwelling water table in basin. Groundwater is an ideal source of fresh water for municipal, agricultural and industrial uses, primarily because of little to no treatment it requires. Estimating the volume of groundwater available in a basin is a daunting task, and no accurate measurements can be made. Water budgets and simulation models are primarily used to estimate the volume of water in a basin. With the recent advancement in geospatial science and water chemical analysis; chemical composition and age of ground water can be determined, which in turn can be used to estimate its recharge.Mimbres basin is located in southern New Mexico State of the USA, and extend southward into Mexico. Regions of active recharge and recharge rate was estimated in Mimbres basin, using the chloride environmental isotope; chloride mass-balance approach and GIS. Also, effect of elevation on recharge was determine in the basin. This research utilizes the chloride mass balance approach to estimate the recharge rate through collection of groundwater chemical data from wells, and precipitation. The data were analysed, cluster analysis, piper diagram and statistical significance were performed on the parameters of the groundwater; the infiltration rate was determined using chloride mass balance technique. The data was then analysed spatially using ArcGIS10.Mimbres basin regions of active recharge were identified, its recharge rate was 0.2153mm/yr (0.00848in/yr), and the elevation where active recharge occur was determined to be 1,500m. The results obtained in this study were consistent with result obtained by other researchers working in basins with similar semiarid mountainous conditions, thereby validating the applicability of CMB in the three basins.