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The Rio Grande rift is a part of the Basin and Range extensional province in the western United States. Throughout central New Mexico, the sedimentary, and locally volcanic, fill of the rift is well exposed. We have been studying various aspects of the tectonics of the Santo Domingo Basin, Española Basin, and Abiquiu Embayment elements within the rift in northern New Mexico. These studies have had various objectives and have involved combinations of geologic mapping, petrographic study of sedimentary strata, geochronology, and synthesis of relationships of sedimentary facies patterns and distribution of volcanic rocks to mapped faults. We are developing a better picture of the nature of intrarift structures, the timing of rift-margin faulting, and the structural setting of the Jemez Mountains volcanic field. We are also endeavoring to reconstruct the volcaniclastic-sediment aprons of the middle Tertiary San Juan Mountains and Latir volcanic fields in order to understand the history of the fields relative to the early subsidence history of the rift. Of particular interest is to understand the nature of the transition from compression during the early Tertiary Laramide orogeny to Neogene extension. Currently, some of the mapping effort is supported under the auspices of the USGS / New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Middle Rio Grande Basin Project. As a part of that effort, geologic mapping is being undertaken with specific emphasis on providing a better geologic framework for hydrological modeling in the greater Albuquerque area.
Stratigraphic Diagram and Paleogeographic Maps of the Rio Grande Rift in Northern New Mexico
Publications:
Paleogeographic, volcanologic, and tectonic significance of the upper Abiquiu Formation at Arroyo del Cobre, New Mexico
G.A. Smith
New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, Geology of the Santa Fe Region, p. 261-270, 1995.
Inter-relationship of late Cenozoic tectonism, sedimentation, and volcanism, northern Santo Domingo basin, Rio Grande rift, New Mexico
G.A. Smith and A.J. Kuhle
Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 28, no. 7, p. A-515, 1996.
Pattern of faulting, volcanism and sedimentation at the junction of the Jemez Mountains and Rio Grande rift, New Mexico
G.A. Smith and A.J. Kuhle
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 30, no. 6, p. 36, 1998.
Hydrostratigraphic implications of new geological mapping in the Santo Domingo Basin
G.A. Smith and A.J. Kuhle
New Mexico Geology, v. 20, p. 21-27, 1998.
Geologic map of the Santo Domingo Pueblo quadrangle, Sandoval County, New Mexico
G.A. Smith and A.J. Kuhle
New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Digital Open-File Map OFDM 15, scale 1:24,000, 1998.
Geologic map of the Santo Domingo Pueblo Southwest quadrangle, Sandoval County, New Mexico
G.A. Smith and A.J. Kuhle
New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Digital Open-File Map OFDM 26, scale 1:24,000, 1998.
Geologic map of the Tesuque quadrangle, Santa Fe County, New Mexico
Claudia Borchert
U.S. Geological Survey, EDMAP map, scale 1:24,000, 1998.
Hydrogeologic and tectonic implications of geological mapping in the Santo Domingo Basin and southeastern Jemez Mountains, New Mexico
G.A. Smith, A.J. Kuhle, and W.C. McIntosh
U.S. Geological Survey Middle Rio Grande Basin Study -- Proceedings of the Second Annual Workshop, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 10-11, 1998; J.L. Slate, editor
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-337, p. 19-20, 1998.
Tectonics and volcanism during deposition of the Oligocene-early Miocene Abiquiu Formation in northern New Mexico
Jessica Moore University of New Mexico, M.S. thesis, 2000.
Geologic map of the Santa Fe quadrangle, Santa Fe County, NM
A. Read, S. Ralser, G.A. Smith, P. Bauer
New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Digital Open File Map OFDM-32, scale 1:24,000, 2000.
G.A. Smith, W.C. McIntosh, and A.J. Kuhle
Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 561-574, 2001
G.A. Smith, J.D. Moore, and W.C. McIntosh
Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 72, p. 836-848, 2002
Middle to Late Cenozoic development of the Rio Grande rift and adjacent regions in northern New Mexico
G.A. Smith
Geology of New Mexico, G. Mack, K. Giles, and V. Lueth, editors
Special Publication, New Mexico Geological Society, in press
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Updated January 2001
