Engineering geology at two Canadian River dam sites
— R. L. Graham

The Canadian River and its tributaries flow southward and eastward from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in north-central New Mexico towards the Texas Panhandle. At Conchas Dam and Reservoir in San Miguel County, the Canadian River makes a sharp bend eastward. Here the river contains an inner and an outer canyon, wider at locations where softer shale units form its banks. Below Ute Dam, in Quay County, the river channel is highly sinuous, and its meanders are braided over a very wide floodplain. This paper discusses the engineering geology of Conchas and Ute Dams located on the canyon segment of the Canadian River in east-central New Mexico (Fig. 1). The purpose of the discussion is to acquaint field-trip participants with the effects of Tertiary geology and Canadian River geomorphology on dams constructed for water storage and supply in the Santa Rosa—Tucumcari area.