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Questa Baseline and Pre-Mining Ground-Water Quality Investigation. 1. Depth to Bedrock Determinations Using Shallow Seismic Data Acquired in the Straight Creek Drainage Near Red River, New Mexico

Open-File Report 2004-1236
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20041236

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Abstract

In late May and early June of 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) acquired four P-wave seismic profiles across the Straight Creek drainage near Red River, New Mexico. The data were acquired to support a larger effort to investigate baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality in the Red River basin (Nordstrom and others, 2002). For ground-water flow modeling, knowledge of the thickness of the valley fill material above the bedrock is required. When curved-ray refraction tomography was used with the seismic first arrival times, the resulting images of interval velocity versus depth clearly show a sharp velocity contrast where the bedrock interface is expected. The images show that the interpreted buried bedrock surface is neither smooth nor sharp, but it is clearly defined across the valley along the seismic line profiles. The bedrock models defined by the seismic refraction images are consistent with the well data.

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Questa baseline and pre-mining ground-water quality investigation. 1. Depth to bedrock determinations using shallow seismic data acquired in the Straight Creek drainage near Red River, New Mexico
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2004-1236
DOI 10.3133/ofr20041236
Edition Version 1.0
Year Published 2004
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Contributing office(s) Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
Description 18 p.
Country United States
State New Mexico
Other Geospatial Red River
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