Gravity survey of the Pajarito Plateau, Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties, New Mexico
A Bouguer anomaly map of the Pajarito Plateau, based on more than 200 gravity stations, shows a NNE-trending low of 18 milligals, centered 4.5 km southeast of Los Alamos. Interpretation based on a geologic column, which includes Precambrian crystalline rocks, Carboniferous sediments, early Tertiary El Rito and Abiquiu Formations, late Tertiary Santa Fe Group, and late Tertiary and Quaternary volcanics and sediments, shows that the gravitational low could be the result of a NNE-trending graben, not expressed in the surface geology. The graben is about 10 km long and 5 km wide. It appears that the deepest part of the Espanola Basin of the Rio Grande rift zone is along the west side, where as much as 2300 m of Santa Fe Group sediments could be present.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6620461
- Report Number(s):
- LA-7419-MS
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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