Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Impacts Of Urban Renewal On Community Identity And Sense Of Place In Las Cruces, New Mexico, Savannah Lorraine Quintana-Eddins

Geography ETDs

Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico which has experienced exponential growth in the last three decades. The city has been cultivated by a rich history of Native populations, Spanish colonialism, and American democratic government. The culmination of these influences on Las Cruces had much influence on the Mesquite Historic District, the original townsite of Las Cruces. This area is home to many generational families and is adjacent to the downtown Main Street corridor. Downtown was built from the destruction of the Mesquite Historic District caused by waves of urban renewal projects. Through organizing, legislative action and …

Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Project-Based Learning (Pbl) Education: A New Mexico Case Study For Equity And Inclusion, Kimberly A. Scheerer

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence.

For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. …

The Nature Of Environmental Planning In The Carnué Land Grant, Desiree Loggins

Geography ETDs

In 1819, the Spanish Crown established Cañón de Carnué land grant as a buffer between the colonial settlement of Albuquerque and raids from Plains Apache and other nomadic tribal nations. Upon entering the U.S. period of Manifest Destiny, Carnué land grant heirs lost much of the land they stewarded as a collective to the Cibola National Forest. While the state generates laws and policies that complicate the prioritization of subsistence land uses by land grant communities, Carnué’s presence is felt as grantees reform relationships to their environment and assert their personal stake in stewardship and care. I argue that Carnué’s …

Assessing Drought Vegetation Dynamics At The Landscape Scale In Semiarid Grass- And Shrubland Using Mesma, Rowan Converse

Geography ETDs

New Mexico experienced substantial impacts of regional-scale drought from 2011-2014. Global climate change may make such events a new normal for the southwest: drought events are expected to increase in both frequency and severity over the coming century. While semiarid grasslands recover quickly from short-term drought, the cumulative impacts of climate change may reduce the resiliency of these systems over time. Remote sensing methods can allow efficient and cost-effective comparison of ecosystem recovery from drought events over time using long-running imaging systems like Landsat. We investigate the efficacy of using multi-endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) to quantify the impacts of …

Assessment Of Vegetation Response To Wildfire At Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico: Case Study Of The Las Conchas Fire, Gladys Valentin-Gonzalez

Geography ETDs

In the past couple of decades, there has been an increase in the occurrence of wildfire events in the United States. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that over 73,000 wildfires on average occur annually in the U.S., burning about 7.3 million acres of land. Bandelier National Monument, in northern New Mexico, has been affected by several wildfires in the past 40 years, one of the most recent being the Las Conchas Fire in 2011, which burned over 60,700 hectaresin Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve. This research explores a remote-sensing based assessment of vegetation response to and recovery …

Modeling The Influence Of The Heterogeneous Substrate On The Transport Of The Jet Fuel Solute Plume, Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Hannah Sarah Gatz-Miller

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

A subsurface model was developed to characterize the influence of heterogeneity on solute phase plume migration of the Jet Fuel spill of Kirtland Air Force Base. Core –logs from KAFB boreholes were compiled, and lithology was interpolated across the study area using transition probability geostatistics (T-PROGS). High conductivity materials in the travel path resulted in a faster than average breakthrough time while, if low conductivity materials were placed in the travel path, particles were either forced to divert around the low K material, which added time and changed the direction of travel, or were forced by the hydraulic gradient to …

Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Queen And Grayburg Formations, Southeastern Chaves County, New Mexico, James L. Mcswain

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The area of study lies in southeastern Chaves County, New Mexico, and is a part of the northwest shelf or backreef province of the Permian Basin. The area encompasses all or parts of Tps. 10 through 15 S., Rs. 24 through 31 E.

The Queen and Grayburg formations comprise the lower part of the Artesia group, an upper Guadalupian sequence of Permian shelf rocks above the San Andres formation and below the Ochoan series. The Queen-Grayburg sequence has an average thickness of about 600 feet and is correlative with the Goat Seep reef at the margin of the Delaware Basin, …

Petrology Of The Precambrian Rocks Of Part Of The Monte Largo Area, Nm, Paul Wayne Lambert

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Approximately 7 to 8 square miles of Precambrian rocks are exposed in the vicinity of the Monte Largo Hills in north-central New Mexico. The Precambrian rocks are bounded mainly by Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks in both fault and noncomformable contact.

The area is made up largely of quartz-feldspar gneiss, hornblende gneiss, and quartzite. Quartz-feldspar gneiss is the most abundant rock type. Mica schist and sillimanite hornfels occur in minor amounts. Other Precambrian rocks include medium-grained granite, splite and pegmatite dikes, and quartz veins. A minor amount of migmatite is present as a result of the intimate association of quartz-feldspar gneiss and …

Geology And Ground-Water Resources Of Northern Lea County, New Mexico, Sidney R. Ash

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The economy of northern Lea County is dependent upon groundwater; the only other source of water is the runoff from precipitation that is caught and retained in the man-made or natural reservoirs, where is it used for water stock. Irrigation utilizes most of the groundwater pumped; much smaller amounts are used for stock watering and industrial, public, rural and domestic supplies. In 1958, about 107,000 acre-feet of groundwater was pumped for irrigation and 19,000 acre-feet was pumped for all other uses. On the basis of present production of potable water, the economically usable supply will be depleted in certain areas …

The Jurassic Todilto Formation Of New Mexico, Henry O. Ash

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Todilto formation of New Mexico is a widespread and distinctive Jurassic unit confined to the northern one-half of the State and adjacent parts of Arizona and Colorado. It consists of a lower Limestone member and an upper Gypsum member. The Gypsum member also contains some limestone. The two members are not coextensive in area. Both are present in the central part of the area in which the formation is found, but the Limestone member extends far beyond the limits of the Gypsum member.

Geology Of The Southern Part Of The Ortiz Mountains Santa Fe County, New Mexico, John W. Peterson

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Ortiz Mountains lie in a belt of early Tertiary intrusive centers adjacent to the Rio Grande depression of north-central New Mexico. Tertiary organic activity and subsequent erosion have etched this mountain group into considerable relief.

Intrusive activity occurred during early Tertiary Espinaso time and resulted in emplacement of sills and dikes of a central stock. Correlation of volcanism with intrusive phases is difficult. Most volcansim probably occurred during the later part of Ortiz igneous activity. An elongate vent is exposed in the eastern part of the mountains and structurally occupies the highest position in the group.

The principle igneous …

Geology Of The Northern Part Of The Ortiz Mountains, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Otis M. Mcrae

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The northern part of the Ortiz Mountains of north-central New Mexico consists of a tilted fault block of Cretaceous Mancos shale and Mesaverde formation intruded by latite-andesite porphyry sills and laccoliths and a nepheline-bearing augite manzonite stock. Igneous activity started with the development of a volcanic vent in what is now the central part of the mountains. Volcanic debris from the vent want removed from the area by erosion and provided sedimentary material for the late [ ] Espinaso volcanics of the adjoining areas. Intrusion of the latite-andesite porphyry sills and laccolite followed extrusive igneous activity, as demonstrated by the …

Records Of Wells Drilled For Oil And Gas In New Mexico, George H. Dixon

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

This report contains information compiled from data in the files of the U.S. Geological Survey, the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, and oil and gas companies on nearly 3,000 of the more than 13,000 wells drills in New Mexico prior to September 1, 1953. The tabulation is believed to include all unsuccessful wildcat test wells, most of the unsuccessful field extension wells, and most of the discovery wells for the various producing areas, even though they may be shut or abandoned at the present time. In addition, the list contains some deep tests and some wells representative …

The Structural Geology Of The Cerrillos Hills Area, New Mexico, Alan E. Disbrow

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The earliest major structural deformation recorded in rocks exposed in the Cerrillos area occurred during the Laramie uplift of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This resulted in an erosional wedging of Upper Cretaceous strata at a rate of 130 feet per mile. Subsequent deposition of the Eocene Galisteo sand, clay, and gravel overstepped this surface in a sourceward direction.

At the beginning of work on this project the major problem was to determine the geological structure of the Cerrillos Hills. It was felt that a large-scale geologic map of an area extensive enough to reveal the structurally complex center of …

Geology Of The Mcrae Canyon Area Sierra County, New Mexico, Hugh P. Bushnell

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Sedimentary Rocks exposed at the surface in the low area between the north-trending Caballo and Fra Cristobal Mountains of south-central New Mexico include the late Cretaceous Mesaverde formation, the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary McRae formation, and the Miocene-Pliocene Santa Fe formation. A thin veneer of Jordana pediment gravel covers the older rocks on the eastern edge of the area.

Geology Of The Southern Ladron Mountains, Socorro County, New Mexico, E.A. Noble

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Ladron Mountains are in a fault-block range consisting in large part of Pre-Cambrian rocks. They are flanked on the west by Paleozoic sediments and elsewhere by Tertiary and Quaternary deposits. The Pre-Cambrian rocks of the southern Ladron Mountains consist of a thick sequence of quartzite and schist which has been granitized by a sub-adjacent intrusion to such a degree that only remnants of unaltered quartzite and schist remain, the remainder of the rocks being largely paragneiss and para-granite. The nature of the intrusion is not known, but it is suggested that it may have been at least partly formed …

Geology Of The Hagan Coal Basin, Earl P. Harrison

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

This study was undertaken with the foremost objective of determining the stratigraphy and structure of the area, and correlating it with known surrounding areas.

The method of study was through geologic mapping in the field. The formational contacts, faults and other features were studied in the field with the aid of aerial photographs. The sections were measured in the field by hand-leveling with a Brunton compass up across the exposures. The lithology of the formations was studied as the sections were measured. The base map was taken from a planimetric map prepared by the Soil Conservation Service from aerial photos. …

The Minerals Of New Mexico, Lee Mcguinness

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Inorganic bodies known as minerals make up, either in whole rock-masses or in isolated form, the material of the upper crust of the earth. Through the evidence furnished by this study of meteorites, we also infer that other bodies in the universe are made up of minerals, or at least those portions of them which are represented by meteorites.

Since minerals are, then, important in making up the observable part of the earth, a study of them is importance in any study of the earth. Because the variety of minerals occurring in New Mexico is large, it will be of …