Stalagmites are the speleothem type primarily used for paleoclimate research. Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico’s second longest cave, is well-known for its history, cave velvet, and Snowy River. Fort Stanton Cave also hosts exceptional paleoclimate records from its stalagmites and from other speleothem types. The cave is ideally located in the southwestern United States (SW USA) such that cold climatic shifts in the north Atlantic regions during glacial cycles synchronously cause southward sways in the polar storm track that produce climatic oscillations preserved in stalagmites that mimic the north Atlantic climate trends preserved in the Greenland ice sheets. The cave’s position and environment has resulted in speleothem growth occurring only during the last four northern hemisphere (NH) glacial cycles. NH Glacial cycle 1, defined as the Last Glacial Period is well represented in the SW USA by the Estancia basin lacustrine paleoclimate record stretching from ~65 to ~10 ka, where greater effective precipitation during this time not only created Pleistocene Lake Estancia, but also decorated Fort Stanton Cave with calcite speleothems ~55 to ~10 ka. Two Fort Stanton Cave paleoclimate records, one from stalagmite FS-2 and the other from stalagmite FS-AH1 exhibit δ 18 O time-series that match the Greenland ice core records remarkably well. The correlation between FS-AH1 and the Greenland ice core δ 18 O time-series of R = 0.64 (chronologies are independent and untuned) suggests that Fort Stanton Cave stalagmites that grew during previous glacial cycles could serve as synthetic Greenland ice core δ 18 O time-series. Growth and non-growth of speleothems in Fort Stanton Cave provide a regional effective moisture index in that speleothem growth takes place only during the glacial cycles, indicating that glacial cycles are pluvial intervals in the SW USA, something alluded to in the literature, but not well resolved for the previous three NH glacial cycles. Growth of stalagmites, and therefore glacial driven pluvial moisture, ends abruptly at glacial terminations. Our results also show that greater thickness of overburden seemingly interferes with the stable isotope signals.
{"title":"Key speleothem paleoclimate results from Fort Stanton Cave","authors":"V. Polyak, Y. Asmerom, M. Lachniet","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2828","url":null,"abstract":"Stalagmites are the speleothem type primarily used for paleoclimate research. Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico’s second longest cave, is well-known for its history, cave velvet, and Snowy River. Fort Stanton Cave also hosts exceptional paleoclimate records from its stalagmites and from other speleothem types. The cave is ideally located in the southwestern United States (SW USA) such that cold climatic shifts in the north Atlantic regions during glacial cycles synchronously cause southward sways in the polar storm track that produce climatic oscillations preserved in stalagmites that mimic the north Atlantic climate trends preserved in the Greenland ice sheets. The cave’s position and environment has resulted in speleothem growth occurring only during the last four northern hemisphere (NH) glacial cycles. NH Glacial cycle 1, defined as the Last Glacial Period is well represented in the SW USA by the Estancia basin lacustrine paleoclimate record stretching from ~65 to ~10 ka, where greater effective precipitation during this time not only created Pleistocene Lake Estancia, but also decorated Fort Stanton Cave with calcite speleothems ~55 to ~10 ka. Two Fort Stanton Cave paleoclimate records, one from stalagmite FS-2 and the other from stalagmite FS-AH1 exhibit δ 18 O time-series that match the Greenland ice core records remarkably well. The correlation between FS-AH1 and the Greenland ice core δ 18 O time-series of R = 0.64 (chronologies are independent and untuned) suggests that Fort Stanton Cave stalagmites that grew during previous glacial cycles could serve as synthetic Greenland ice core δ 18 O time-series. Growth and non-growth of speleothems in Fort Stanton Cave provide a regional effective moisture index in that speleothem growth takes place only during the glacial cycles, indicating that glacial cycles are pluvial intervals in the SW USA, something alluded to in the literature, but not well resolved for the previous three NH glacial cycles. Growth of stalagmites, and therefore glacial driven pluvial moisture, ends abruptly at glacial terminations. Our results also show that greater thickness of overburden seemingly interferes with the stable isotope signals.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"57 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77465833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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. correlating measurement are not River part to the surface above the exploration The hydrology springs and three surface streams with intermittent flows.
{"title":"A Decade of Data Logging in Fort Stanton Cave and Snowy River","authors":"P. Lindsley","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2792","url":null,"abstract":"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. correlating measurement are not River part to the surface above the exploration The hydrology springs and three surface streams with intermittent flows.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72698843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Breccia pipes are a common host of many precious and base metal and rare earth elements (REE) mineral deposits because they provide conduits for fluid flow and open spaces for mineral precipitation, hence are a focus area for exploration.The Gallinas Mountains district in Lincoln County, New Mexico has produced copper, lead, silver, fluorite, iron, REE (as bastnaesite), and gold from 1902 to 1980, but no production has been reported from the breccia pipes. However, some magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipes in the Gallinas Mountains host high concentrations of fluorite-REE and gold. Previous studies have described the occurrence of REE in breccia pipes, but the controls for their transportation and deposition are still unclear. The purpose of this research is to characterize the magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipes in order to understand the geochemical and physical conditions of deposition of REE and gold in the breccia pipes found in the Gallinas Mountains. There are more than 20 exposed breccia pipes that intrude the Yeso Formation, Glorieta Sandstone, trachyte, and syenite, forming a northeast-trending belt, approximately 3–5 kilometers long in a fault block northwest of the Pride fault. The breccia pipes are gray to brown and consist of angular to subrounded fragments of granite, granitic gneiss, sandstone, shale, limestone, trachyte, and syenite that are as much as 1 m in diameter. The majority of the breccia pipes are matrix-supported with a groundmass of feldspar and quartz, along with small crystals of other minerals and rock fragments. Significant number of these breccia pipes are altered and weathered, consisting of secondary hematite and local calcite, quartz, and fluorite. Some rock fragments are silicified around their edges and other fragments are and cut by fluorite veins. Fragments of magnetite-hematite ore are found in several breccia pipes. the breccia exhibit light REE-enriched chondrite-normalized patterns. Samples with high fluorine also have high REE and some have high gold concentrations. Some breccia contain as much as 28,485 ppm total REE and 121 ppb Au. Preliminary studies suggest that the breccia pipes are magmatic and intruded into the host rocks and, subsequently, hydrothermal fluids precipitated fluorite-REE and gold along the edges of some breccia pipes. Additional studies are underway to further test this hypothesis.
{"title":"Characterization and Origin of the REE-bearing Magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipes in the Gallinas Mountains, Lincoln County, New Mexico","authors":"Stellah Cherotich, V. McLemore","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2864","url":null,"abstract":"Breccia pipes are a common host of many precious and base metal and rare earth elements (REE) mineral deposits because they provide conduits for fluid flow and open spaces for mineral precipitation, hence are a focus area for exploration.The Gallinas Mountains district in Lincoln County, New Mexico has produced copper, lead, silver, fluorite, iron, REE (as bastnaesite), and gold from 1902 to 1980, but no production has been reported from the breccia pipes. However, some magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipes in the Gallinas Mountains host high concentrations of fluorite-REE and gold. Previous studies have described the occurrence of REE in breccia pipes, but the controls for their transportation and deposition are still unclear. The purpose of this research is to characterize the magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipes in order to understand the geochemical and physical conditions of deposition of REE and gold in the breccia pipes found in the Gallinas Mountains. There are more than 20 exposed breccia pipes that intrude the Yeso Formation, Glorieta Sandstone, trachyte, and syenite, forming a northeast-trending belt, approximately 3–5 kilometers long in a fault block northwest of the Pride fault. The breccia pipes are gray to brown and consist of angular to subrounded fragments of granite, granitic gneiss, sandstone, shale, limestone, trachyte, and syenite that are as much as 1 m in diameter. The majority of the breccia pipes are matrix-supported with a groundmass of feldspar and quartz, along with small crystals of other minerals and rock fragments. Significant number of these breccia pipes are altered and weathered, consisting of secondary hematite and local calcite, quartz, and fluorite. Some rock fragments are silicified around their edges and other fragments are and cut by fluorite veins. Fragments of magnetite-hematite ore are found in several breccia pipes. the breccia exhibit light REE-enriched chondrite-normalized patterns. Samples with high fluorine also have high REE and some have high gold concentrations. Some breccia contain as much as 28,485 ppm total REE and 121 ppb Au. Preliminary studies suggest that the breccia pipes are magmatic and intruded into the host rocks and, subsequently, hydrothermal fluids precipitated fluorite-REE and gold along the edges of some breccia pipes. Additional studies are underway to further test this hypothesis.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75024326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Carey, S. Lucas, K. Krainer, Deborah Petrak Green, Paul F. May
Zoophycos is a large, distinctive trace fossil that is found in marine deposits throughout the Phanerozoic, but has rarely been reported from New Mexico. It has been usually interpreted as the deposit-feeding trace of a marine worm. Zoophycos also gives its name to an archetypal ichnofacies characterized by Seilacher in 1967 as being deposited in deep or at least dysaerobic bottom water. Later it was realized that deep water sediments were not consistently associated with Zoophycos in Paleozoic rocks. The large deposit of Zoophycos traces described here from the Sandia Formation at Guadalupe Box was originally mentioned by DuChene in 1974 and initially described by Kues in 2005. Based on lithology and associated fossils, it was deposited in shallow water, but below wave base, the same environment as was reported for the most recent New Mexico report of Zoophycos , from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Sierra County. At Guadalupe Box, dozens of Zoophycos traces occur in a bed of fine-grained sandstone 28 meters above the base of the 60--meter thick Sandia Formation. Approximately 20 centimeters in thickness, the trace-bearing layer is sporadically exposed to the north for at least 300 meters. At the best exposure, approximately 5 square meters of trace-bearing surface is visible. Beds are close to horizontal and 3-5 cm thick, each with numerous, closely packed Zoophycos traces, 15 to 20 centimeters across. The sandstone is fine-grained and contains a high amount of matrix (32-52%) together with monocrystalline quartz grains, minor polycrystalline quartz grains, and rare detrital feldspar grains. A thin bed of fusulinid packstone limestone two meters above the Zoophycos bed contains Fusulinella, indicative of an Atokan age. The Zoophycus bed is near the top of a large exposure of the lower Sandia Formation. This sequence represents a well-developed fining-upward succession that can be divided into three units, based on lithology. The lower unit, nine meters thick and composed mostly of coarse sandstone, is interpreted to be fluvial. The middle unit, 18 meters of interlayered shale and siltstone, was initially deposited on a coastal plain that became inundated as sea level rose. The upper unit, eight meters of intercalated gray calcareous shale, limestone, and sandstone, was deposited below sea level. The lowermost bed of the upper unit, a grained-supported crinoidal limestone, documents the continuation of transgression, and was deposited in a shallow, open marine setting under moderate to high turbulence. Deepening continued as deposition dropped below wave base, producing limestones with a muddy texture and a diverse fossil assemblage, pointing to deposition in a low energy, but shallow marine environment as long as siliciclastic input was absent. During periods of terrigenous input, calcareous shale was deposited. The Zoophycos bed, and the other thin, fine-grained sandstone strata, may represent distal storm layers. Further study is needed to estima
{"title":"The Trace Fossil Zoophycos From the Shallow Water Facies of the Middle Pennsylvanian Sandia Formation, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico","authors":"P. Carey, S. Lucas, K. Krainer, Deborah Petrak Green, Paul F. May","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2796","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2796","url":null,"abstract":"Zoophycos is a large, distinctive trace fossil that is found in marine deposits throughout the Phanerozoic, but has rarely been reported from New Mexico. It has been usually interpreted as the deposit-feeding trace of a marine worm. Zoophycos also gives its name to an archetypal ichnofacies characterized by Seilacher in 1967 as being deposited in deep or at least dysaerobic bottom water. Later it was realized that deep water sediments were not consistently associated with Zoophycos in Paleozoic rocks. The large deposit of Zoophycos traces described here from the Sandia Formation at Guadalupe Box was originally mentioned by DuChene in 1974 and initially described by Kues in 2005. Based on lithology and associated fossils, it was deposited in shallow water, but below wave base, the same environment as was reported for the most recent New Mexico report of Zoophycos , from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Sierra County. At Guadalupe Box, dozens of Zoophycos traces occur in a bed of fine-grained sandstone 28 meters above the base of the 60--meter thick Sandia Formation. Approximately 20 centimeters in thickness, the trace-bearing layer is sporadically exposed to the north for at least 300 meters. At the best exposure, approximately 5 square meters of trace-bearing surface is visible. Beds are close to horizontal and 3-5 cm thick, each with numerous, closely packed Zoophycos traces, 15 to 20 centimeters across. The sandstone is fine-grained and contains a high amount of matrix (32-52%) together with monocrystalline quartz grains, minor polycrystalline quartz grains, and rare detrital feldspar grains. A thin bed of fusulinid packstone limestone two meters above the Zoophycos bed contains Fusulinella, indicative of an Atokan age. The Zoophycus bed is near the top of a large exposure of the lower Sandia Formation. This sequence represents a well-developed fining-upward succession that can be divided into three units, based on lithology. The lower unit, nine meters thick and composed mostly of coarse sandstone, is interpreted to be fluvial. The middle unit, 18 meters of interlayered shale and siltstone, was initially deposited on a coastal plain that became inundated as sea level rose. The upper unit, eight meters of intercalated gray calcareous shale, limestone, and sandstone, was deposited below sea level. The lowermost bed of the upper unit, a grained-supported crinoidal limestone, documents the continuation of transgression, and was deposited in a shallow, open marine setting under moderate to high turbulence. Deepening continued as deposition dropped below wave base, producing limestones with a muddy texture and a diverse fossil assemblage, pointing to deposition in a low energy, but shallow marine environment as long as siliciclastic input was absent. During periods of terrigenous input, calcareous shale was deposited. The Zoophycos bed, and the other thin, fine-grained sandstone strata, may represent distal storm layers. Further study is needed to estima","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"123 2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77879404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Eocene Baca Formation, west-central New Mexico, was not deposited in a lake","authors":"S. Lucas, L. Tanner","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2784","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2784","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"154 6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83186321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Previous and on-going archaeological investigations in and around Lobo Canyon in the Mount Taylor volcano region have identified an important source of obsidian nodules used by Puebloan and Pre-Puebloan inhabitants. The obsidian nodules are found in thin gravel and lag deposits 0-1.5 m thick on the top of the southwesterly part of the northern edge of Horace Mesa over a linear distance of roughly 2.5 km. The obsidian-bearing deposits (OBD) extend as much as 300 m south and east from the mesa edge and are partially traversed by Forest Service 193. The east portion of the OBD grades into and mixes with thicker, non-obsidian bearing volcaniclastic deposits that are shed from the Mount Taylor stratovolcano located 10 to 15 km to the east. The OBD overlie clinopyroxene-phyric basalt dated at 2.64 ±0.01 Ma on the west. In addition to obsidian, the OBD contain relatively aphyric devitrified rhyolite, rare chert and rare Precambrian crystalline fragments. Most of the OBD rocks are subangular to angular, and are poorly sorted. Nodule sizes generally vary from 1 to 10 cm; a few are larger. Outer surfaces of the nodules are moderately oxidized and some are slightly etched. and obsidian lithic fragments in the upper of Ridge (GR) Previous work shows that GR obsidians (≥3.28 Ma) are chemically distinct and older (≤3.03 We obtained a composite chemical analysis of cleaned and crushed obsidian nodules from the OBD and compared results with analyses of cleaned and crushed obsidian lithic fragments from two different locations in the The three analyses are virtually identical in major and trace elements, and in contents of F and Cl (about 4700 and 720 ppm, respectively). Relatively high F and Cl concentrations are characteristic of rhyolite and obsidian from GR volcanics. We also compared the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of nodules in OBD to obsidian lithics in one of the upper GR ignimbrite locations. Three homogenized nodules from the OBD produced an age of 3.462 ±0.008 Ma whereas the GR obsidian lithics dated several years ago returned an age of 3.28 ±0.04 Ma. A sample of obsidian from the NE flank of GR rhyolite center yielded an age of 3.498 ±0.003 Ma (all ages recalculated using the FC-2 sanidine monitor age where necessary). However, the latter obsidian is different in texture than the others. The three dates suggest that the obsidians within OBD and GR deposits originated from GR rhyolitic volcanism over a span of ≤200 kyr. Present-day Lobo Canyon is 2225 m deep near GR rhyolite center, and is laterally separated from the OBD deposits on Horace Mesa (2440 m) by about 4 to 5 km. Because the OBD deposits overlie a young basalt flanking Lobo Canyon at Horace Mesa, we speculate that ≥215 m of volcanic and sedimentary rock was carved out of Lobo Canyon in the last 2.64 Myr.
{"title":"Origin of Archaeologically Significant Gravel and Lag Deposits on Southwestern Horace Mesa, Mount Taylor Region, New Mexico","authors":"F. Goff, M. Shackley","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2789","url":null,"abstract":"Previous and on-going archaeological investigations in and around Lobo Canyon in the Mount Taylor volcano region have identified an important source of obsidian nodules used by Puebloan and Pre-Puebloan inhabitants. The obsidian nodules are found in thin gravel and lag deposits 0-1.5 m thick on the top of the southwesterly part of the northern edge of Horace Mesa over a linear distance of roughly 2.5 km. The obsidian-bearing deposits (OBD) extend as much as 300 m south and east from the mesa edge and are partially traversed by Forest Service 193. The east portion of the OBD grades into and mixes with thicker, non-obsidian bearing volcaniclastic deposits that are shed from the Mount Taylor stratovolcano located 10 to 15 km to the east. The OBD overlie clinopyroxene-phyric basalt dated at 2.64 ±0.01 Ma on the west. In addition to obsidian, the OBD contain relatively aphyric devitrified rhyolite, rare chert and rare Precambrian crystalline fragments. Most of the OBD rocks are subangular to angular, and are poorly sorted. Nodule sizes generally vary from 1 to 10 cm; a few are larger. Outer surfaces of the nodules are moderately oxidized and some are slightly etched. and obsidian lithic fragments in the upper of Ridge (GR) Previous work shows that GR obsidians (≥3.28 Ma) are chemically distinct and older (≤3.03 We obtained a composite chemical analysis of cleaned and crushed obsidian nodules from the OBD and compared results with analyses of cleaned and crushed obsidian lithic fragments from two different locations in the The three analyses are virtually identical in major and trace elements, and in contents of F and Cl (about 4700 and 720 ppm, respectively). Relatively high F and Cl concentrations are characteristic of rhyolite and obsidian from GR volcanics. We also compared the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of nodules in OBD to obsidian lithics in one of the upper GR ignimbrite locations. Three homogenized nodules from the OBD produced an age of 3.462 ±0.008 Ma whereas the GR obsidian lithics dated several years ago returned an age of 3.28 ±0.04 Ma. A sample of obsidian from the NE flank of GR rhyolite center yielded an age of 3.498 ±0.003 Ma (all ages recalculated using the FC-2 sanidine monitor age where necessary). However, the latter obsidian is different in texture than the others. The three dates suggest that the obsidians within OBD and GR deposits originated from GR rhyolitic volcanism over a span of ≤200 kyr. Present-day Lobo Canyon is 2225 m deep near GR rhyolite center, and is laterally separated from the OBD deposits on Horace Mesa (2440 m) by about 4 to 5 km. Because the OBD deposits overlie a young basalt flanking Lobo Canyon at Horace Mesa, we speculate that ≥215 m of volcanic and sedimentary rock was carved out of Lobo Canyon in the last 2.64 Myr.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84885070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Audio-Magnetotelluric and Transient-Electromagnetic Investigation of the Salt Basin, South-Central New Mexico","authors":"S. Kelley","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2801","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"43 5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85307757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals have recently become of great economic interest because of the advent of new technologies and recent geopolitical unrest affecting supply of resources. The San Juan and Raton basins in northern New Mexico are two structural coal basins that contain elevated concentrations of REE and critical minerals. Concentrations of REE and other critical minerals found in coal deposits are significantly lower than those found in economical deposits. A potential by-product of these minerals is enabled through large amounts of coal that is produced from the electrical plant’s coal production. These two New Mexican coal basins will be assessed geochemically and petrographically to quantify mineral enrichment. Coalbeds, coal seams, overlying, and underlying rock units will be sampled and characterized to determine any economic viability. The first step is to describe the drill core stored at NMBGMR. Historic data also will be compiled into a new and comprehensive coal geochemical database, which will grow with new analyses, and serve as the dataset for this project; this coal resource database will be made available to the public.
{"title":"REE in Coalbeds in the San Juan River - Raton Coal Basins","authors":"Megan N. Badonie, V. McLemore","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2838","url":null,"abstract":"Rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals have recently become of great economic interest because of the advent of new technologies and recent geopolitical unrest affecting supply of resources. The San Juan and Raton basins in northern New Mexico are two structural coal basins that contain elevated concentrations of REE and critical minerals. Concentrations of REE and other critical minerals found in coal deposits are significantly lower than those found in economical deposits. A potential by-product of these minerals is enabled through large amounts of coal that is produced from the electrical plant’s coal production. These two New Mexican coal basins will be assessed geochemically and petrographically to quantify mineral enrichment. Coalbeds, coal seams, overlying, and underlying rock units will be sampled and characterized to determine any economic viability. The first step is to describe the drill core stored at NMBGMR. Historic data also will be compiled into a new and comprehensive coal geochemical database, which will grow with new analyses, and serve as the dataset for this project; this coal resource database will be made available to the public.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"425 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76630860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Viruses are the most abundant biologic entities on Earth, and they play a critical role in the environment and biosphere. Primarily studied in marine environments, viruses, quantified as viral like particles (VLP), have been found to be 10-100 times more prevalent than cells. They contribute to nutrient cycling, regulate microbial populations, and aid in the formation of marine sediments. While most viral research efforts have been focused in oceans, no such investigation has been performed in publicly toured caves. Here, we characterize viral communities in four cavern pools in Carlsbad Caverns National Park to test the hypotheses that i) viral abundance is ten-fold higher than prokaryotic cell abundance in cavern pools, (ii) cavern pools contain novel viral sequences, and (iii) viral communities in pools from developed portions of the cave are distinct from those of pools in undeveloped parts of the same cave. The relationship between viral and microbial abundance was determined through direct epiflorescent microscopy counts. Viral DNA metagenomes were constructed to examine viral diversity among pools and to identify novel viruses. Auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were also identified for pool characterization. VLP and microorganism quantifications determined cave viral-bacteria ratio to be 22:1, aligning with marine findings. Viral abundance was determined to be independent of pool traffic. Pools with higher traffic were found to be more similar to each other than to less visited pools, based on statistical analysis of coverage profiles. Gene-sharing network analysis revealed high viral diversity compared to a reference viral database as well as other aquatic environments. AMG presence showed variation in metabolic potential among the four pools. Overall, Carlsbad Cavern harbors novel viruses with diversity among pools. Future work will investigate viral-host interactions and RNA viruses.
{"title":"Spelunking into the Virosphere: Characterizing Viral Communties from Carlsbad Caverns National Park","authors":"Joseph Ulbrich, Daniel S. Jones, T. Kieft","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2832","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2832","url":null,"abstract":"Viruses are the most abundant biologic entities on Earth, and they play a critical role in the environment and biosphere. Primarily studied in marine environments, viruses, quantified as viral like particles (VLP), have been found to be 10-100 times more prevalent than cells. They contribute to nutrient cycling, regulate microbial populations, and aid in the formation of marine sediments. While most viral research efforts have been focused in oceans, no such investigation has been performed in publicly toured caves. Here, we characterize viral communities in four cavern pools in Carlsbad Caverns National Park to test the hypotheses that i) viral abundance is ten-fold higher than prokaryotic cell abundance in cavern pools, (ii) cavern pools contain novel viral sequences, and (iii) viral communities in pools from developed portions of the cave are distinct from those of pools in undeveloped parts of the same cave. The relationship between viral and microbial abundance was determined through direct epiflorescent microscopy counts. Viral DNA metagenomes were constructed to examine viral diversity among pools and to identify novel viruses. Auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were also identified for pool characterization. VLP and microorganism quantifications determined cave viral-bacteria ratio to be 22:1, aligning with marine findings. Viral abundance was determined to be independent of pool traffic. Pools with higher traffic were found to be more similar to each other than to less visited pools, based on statistical analysis of coverage profiles. Gene-sharing network analysis revealed high viral diversity compared to a reference viral database as well as other aquatic environments. AMG presence showed variation in metabolic potential among the four pools. Overall, Carlsbad Cavern harbors novel viruses with diversity among pools. Future work will investigate viral-host interactions and RNA viruses.","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76121165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying groundwater to surface water exchanges in the Belen reach of the MRGCD","authors":"E. Williams, D. Cadol, Lin Ma, A. Rinehart","doi":"10.56577/sm-2022.2868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56577/sm-2022.2868","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50244,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cave and Karst Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87424083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：