Peter A. Scholle, Dana S. Ulmer-Scholle, Steven M. Cather, and Shari A. Kelley produced a report in 2020 on the geology of southern New Mexico, which they opine has a wonderful combination of spectacular scenery and a sparse population. The state's diverse and interesting geology is reflected in its numerous National and State parks and monuments (including Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands) as well as other publicly accessible lands, which range in size from the multi-million acre Gila wilderness to small roadside turnoffs and picnic areas. This book, crafted by geoscientists but written for the interested public, provides an understanding of the exposed rock units that record more than 1.7 billion years of geologic and biologic changes in this region. With nearly 400 full-color photographs, geologic maps, and illustrations, this book illuminates not just the rocks and fossils of southern New Mexico, but also archaeological/historical sites as well as the water, mineral, and energy resources of the region.
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Free sample chapter — White Sands (12 MB PDF)
The book is the second of two volumes on the geology of New Mexico's public lands – the first, published in 2010, dealt with the northern half of the state and, correspondingly, this volume deals exclusively with the southern regions. Nearly 35% of New Mexico's land is Federally owned (a relatively low percentage when compared with the 47% Federal owner- ship of the 11 coterminous western states including New Mexico). In that context, however, it should also be noted that the percentage of Federal lands in southern New Mexico is far higher than in northern New Mexico. An additional 11% of New Mexico's area is State owned and administered.
Although not all State or Federal lands are available for public access, we nonetheless had to make difficult choices on which of the enormous reserved land areas to include in this book. All national parks and national monuments (under either National Park Service or Bureau of Land Management administration) are included in this book. All state parks, and many state monuments and historical sites also are covered. Geologically important national forest areas, wilderness and wilderness study areas, and scenic byways are included as well and in this volume, unlike the prior one, we also feature a few additional areas of special geological interest that have public access. Those include areas owned or operated by the Nature Conservancy, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Very Large Array) and Freeport-McMoRan. On the other hand, [the authors chickened out and caved-in] by excluding many geologically interesting areas that have little or no public access, especially the extensive military reservations.
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