Southwestern New Mexico

About this guidebook

The New Mexico Geological Society welcomes you to its Fourth Field Conference. We have enjoyed your participation in the first and second conference, which were along the margins of the San Juan Basin. Last year we lured you down the Rio Grande Valley, to view the mountain backbone of New Mexico. This year we wish you to examine the southern part of the Rio Grande Valley, and then to plunge into the rugged mountains and wide plains of the Basin and Range section of southwestern New Mexico. This portion of the state is a challenge to the petroleum geologist, the stratigrapher, the vulcanologist, and the mining geologist. The trip will take you through rich valleys, over timbered mountains, and across broad plains, with a maximum variety of geology and scenery. The first day road log is from El Paso to Las Cruces. The trip will illustrate the changes in thickness and facies of the Paleozoic formations and features of Cenozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks include fossiliferous Miocene lake beds, huge xenoliths in tuffaceous rhyolite, volcanic cones and necks, and mineralized intrusions. The second day road log is from Las Cruces to Silver City via Selden Canyon, Radium Springs, Hatch, Hillsboro, Kingston, and San Lorenzo. The third day road log is through the Santa Rita and White signal districts. This trip will examine the regional geology of the Silver City region and a few of the numerous mining camps. The fourth day road log is from Silver City, New Mexico to Dos Cabezas, Arizona. This route traverses part of the Mexican Highlands section of the Basin and Range Province.