Recharging the Tularosa Basin

Groundwater Circulation Within the Mountain Block: Combining Flow and Transport Models With Magnetotelluric Observations to Untangle Its Nested Nature

“…Our simulations follow the nested nature of hydrologic systems expected in topographic-driven flow through mountainous systems (as presented in Tóth ( 2009)), with water age and brackish groundwater patterns within the alluvium comparable to the ones found in the Tularosa Basin (Eastoe & Rodney, 2014;Mamer et al, 2014;Newton & Land, 2016). This range of patterns in the alluvium is a consequence of the mixing between local and regional flowpaths in the mountain block that are sensible to the topographic and geologic characteristics of the mountain system.…”

“…We check the following physical requirements in all our simulations. (a) Recharge rates between 10 −2 and 10 0 m/yr, as presented in other studies (Gleeson et al., 2011; Schaller & Fan, 2009; Wilson & Guan, 2004), (b) temperature profiles that follow realistic scenarios coming from previous simulations (Smith & Chapman, 1983), and (c) age distributions similar to the ones found in analogous systems (Figure 4) (Eastoe & Rodney, 2014; Frisbee, Phillips, et al., 2013; Frisbee, Wilson, et al., 2013; Mamer et al., 2014).…”

“…The resulting behavior of the high local and regional relief systems agrees with age dating and geochemical analysis measurements performed in the Tularosa Basin (Figure S2 in Supporting Information ). For instance, Carbon‐14 age estimates show water ages between 1,340 and 27,500 years in the alluvium, increasing with increased distance from the mountain block (Eastoe & Rodney, 2014; Mamer et al., 2014). Similarly, TDS measurements in the area show freshwater present in the alluvial piedmont and brackish and saline water in sections of the basin‐floor alluvium further away from the mountain system, attributed to the dissolution of gypsum (Newton & Land, 2016; NMBGMR et al., 2016; Orr & Myers, 1986).…”

“…To achieve this objective, we propose a handful of idealized mountain-to-valley conceptual models similar to the geologic setting of the Tularosa Basin in south-central New Mexico (see Figures S2 and S3 in Supporting Information S1). Water chemistry measurements performed in this area points to recharge from the Sacramento Mountains (Mamer et al, 2014), where water in the basin becomes older and more saline further away from the mountain block (Figure S2 in Supporting Information S1). We explore various numerical experiments that account for different types of hydrological systems, exploring the role of topography, geology, and weathering rates.…”

“…We also investigated the environmental age distribution at discharge sections of the watershed and compared the predicted distribution to previous observations made in the Tularosa Basin by Eastoe and Rodney (2014) and Mamer et al. (2014) (Figure S2 in Supporting Information ). Lastly, we used a modified version of Archie's Law proposed by Glover et al.…”