This is Special Publication 14 (204 p.) of the New Mexico Geological Society. The editors hope you will find New Mexico Geological Society Special Publication 14, which summarizes recent research in the Mount Taylor region, to be a useful resource. This publication was inspired by the 2019 publication of the Geologic Map of the Mount Taylor Volcano by Fraser Goff and others and by recently completed investigations associated with “Energize New Mexico,” a five-year, NSF-funded program that supported research in non-carbon emitting energy resources, including uranium resources.
The year 2020 has certainly been an interesting one. When the global Coronavirus Pandemic spread to the United States back in the spring, we were well along in the preparation of the 2020 NMGS Fall Field Conference road logs and guidebook papers. In June, we worked with the Executive Committee to make the decision to cancel the NMGS FFC for the first time in our organization’s 71-year history. The decision was a hard one because of the uncertainty about how long the pandemic might last, but by June it was clear that the pandemic might linger into 2021. A virtual field trip was not really feasible. In the end, concern for the safety and health of our members guided us to postpone the field conference to September 2021.
Since the guidebook papers had already been written, reviewed, and edited, and because many new thought-provoking data sets and ideas are presented in the papers, we decided to proceed with the publication of the technical papers as a digital special volume. Next year, the technical papers will be bundled with the road logs to be published as a paper guidebook, as usual.
Within this publication you will find papers about:
• the Mount Taylor volcano
• investigations regarding the ongoing impact of uranium mines
• historic reviews of uranium mining and milling activities in the Grants mining district
• discussions of regional stratigraphy and sedimentary provenance
• a review of Jemez lineament hypotheses
• the formation and geology of the Zuni Mountains
• and more!
Please join us in the exploration of the Mount Taylor region in 2021 year when our annual fall field conference returns.
This publication contains the following papers:
VOLCANOLOGY/GEOCHRONOLOGY/GEOCHEMISTRY
1. Facts and hypotheses regarding the Miocene–Holocene Jemez Lineament, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado ........... Fraser Goff and Shari A. Kelley
2. Volcanic evolution of Mount Taylor Stratovolcano, New Mexico: Facts and misconceptions ...... Fraser Goff, et al.
3. Episyenites in the Zuni Mountains, Cibola County, New Mexico — New interpretations ........... Virginia T. McLemore
4. Tall ‘hornito-style’ lava stalagmites and lava column in lava column cave, El Malpais National Monument ........... Victor J. Polyak and Paula P. Provencio
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY
5. Humate in the Upper Cretaceous Fruitland Formation in northwestern New Mexico .......... Robert W. Newcomer, John P. Nybo, and Jakob R. Newcomer
6. New Mexico uranium minerals ........................... Virgil W. Lueth
7. Uranium deposits in the Poison Canyon Trend, Ambrosia Lake, Grants Uranium District, McKinley and Cibola counties, New Mexico . V. T. McLemore
8. Sandstone-hosted uranium deposits at the Cebolleta Land Grant, Cibola County, NM .... Ted Wilton, William X. Chávez, Jr., and Samantha Caldwell
ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY
9. The Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine, Grants Uranium District: Changes in perspectives from production to superfund site ........ V. McLemore, et al.
10. The environmental legacy of uranium mining and milling in New Mexico ........... Bruce Thomson
11. Vegetation density and vapor pressure deficit: Potential controls on dust flux at the Jackpile U Mine, Laguna Pueblo, NM ........ R. Brown and D. Cadol
12. Environmental geochemistry of St. Anthony Mine uranium ores ........... Alexandra R. Pearce
STRATIGRAPHY
13. A comparison of sandstone modal composition trends from Early Permian (Wolfcampian) strata of the Abo Formation in the Zuni and Manzano mountains with age-equivalent strata throughout New Mexico ..... A. Bonar, et al.,
14. Triassic stratigraphy of the southeastern Colorado Plateau, west-central New Mexico ............. Spencer G. Lucas
15. Jurassic stratigraphy of the southeastern Colorado Plateau, west-central New Mexico: 2020 synthesis ........ Spencer G. Lucas
16. Jurassic stratigraphic nomenclature for northwestern New Mexico ................ Steven M. Cather
17. Clues from the Santa Fe Group for Oligocene-Miocene paleogeography of the southeastern Colorado Plateau near Grants, NM .............. D.Koning, et al.
STRUCTURE
18. Horizontal shortening of the Laramide Zuni Arch, west-central New Mexico: A preliminary study .......... Jacob O. Thacker
HYDROLOGY
19. Continuous soil-moisture measurements to assess fracture flow in Inscription Rock at El Morro National Monument, New Mexico: Implications for the deterioration of inscriptions ........................ B. Talon Newton and Shari A. Kelley.
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