OFR 97-492: Las Cruces Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study
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[See History of NURE HSSR Program for a summary of the entire program.]
LASL: Las Cruces Quadrangle
Sediment and water samples were collected within the Las Cruces 2° quadrangle as part of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Las Cruces Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) study. Within the quadrangle, sampling of the area west of 107.5°W longitude was conducted between January and June of 1976; sampling in the area east of 107.25°W longitude was conducted between May and July of 1977; and the overlapping area was sampled during both field seasons. LASL analyzed all of the samples for uranium but did not release the geochemical data in a separate NURE HSSR report.
ORGDP: Las Cruces Quadrangle
LASL sent 1,817 sediment and 501 water samples from the Las Cruces quadrangle to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) for multielement analyses. These data plus the accompanying LASL uranium data were released by ORGDP as the Las Cruces Quadrangle NURE HSSR study GJBX-416(81) report.
Summary Tables
The following is a list of the NURE sample types reported for the Las Cruces quadrangle study.
Sediment Sample Type | Number of Samples | Water Sample Type | Number of Samples |
---|---|---|---|
Wet Streams | 42 | Streams | 35 |
Dry Streams | 1,390 | Wells | 409 |
Wet Springs | 25 | Springs | 28 |
Wet Natural Ponds | 10 | Natural Ponds | 3 |
Dry Natural Ponds | 258 | Artificial Ponds | 26 |
Wet Artificial Ponds | 29 | ||
Dry Artificial Ponds | 63 | ||
Total Sediments | 1,817 | Total Waters | 501 |
These Las Cruces quadrangle samples were analyzed by one or more of the following methods:
Sediment Samples
Water Samples
Sediment Records
Water Records
The NURE HSSR data are now available online in two databases: The sediment database (also includes data for soils and some rocks) at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/sediment/ and the water database at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/water/. From these two websites, NURE HSSR data can be selected, examined, summarized, and downloaded by political boundaries (State and County), by quadrangle (1:250,000-scale, 1:100,000-scale, and 1:63,360-scale for Alaska or 1:24,000-scale for the Lower 48 States), and by hydrologic unit (drainage region, subregion, river basin, or sub-basin). Selected data can be downloaded as a dBase file, a shapefile, an HTML table, or ASCII text (tab- or comma-delimited).
Las Cruces Quadrangle Sediment Data - 1,817 records
Las Cruces Quadrangle Water Data - 501 records
For most LASL NURE HSSR quadrangle studies, all of the water samples were initially analyzed for uranium by fluorometry. Water samples with greater than some upper limit (commonly 10 ppb uranium) were then reanalyzed by delayed-neutron counting. When ORGDP reported the LASL analytical data for uranium in water samples, the information which distinguished LASL fluorometric from LASL delayed neutron uranium methods was not preserved. All of the uranium values in the USGS-Reformated NURE water file for Las Cruces are therefore identified as fluorometric uranium even though there is a strong possibility that many of the higher values were determined by delayed-neutron counting.
Las Cruces Quadrangle NURE Summary
No summary evaluation report was prepared for the Las Cruces quadrangle.
LASL: Las Cruces Quadrangle
Often LASL sent most but not all of the original samples to ORGDP for multielement analyses. (See the adjacent Tularosa quadrangle for an example.) Since LASL did not release a NURE HSSR report after the initial collection and uranium analysis of Las Cruces quadrangle samples we were unable to determine if the number of samples sent to ORGDP represented the entire collection or a subset. Therefore we could not eliminate the possibility of additional Las Cruces samples which may have been analyzed for uranium at LASL but not for multiple elements at ORGDP.
Tularosa Quadrangle NURE Summary
A summary evaluation report was prepared for the Tularosa quadrangle by Berge Exploration, Inc. of Denver, Colorado [GJQ-014(82)]. As part of the evaluation process, an additional 87 water samples from streams, springs, and wells and 333 rock samples were collected. (Note: Eleven of these samples were collected just outside of the Tularosa quadrangle: 1 well water and 3 rock samples were collected in the Las Cruces quadrangle; 2 spring water and 4 rock samples were collected in the Socorro quadrangle; and 1 rock sample was collected in the Clifton quadrangle.) Most samples were analyzed for eU and eTh by gamma ray spectroscopy and for uranium by fluorometric analysis. Some of the rock samples were also analyzed for additional elements. All of these analytical data were released only as appendices on microfiche accompanying the summary report.
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Home Page: USGS National Geochemical Database - NURE HSSR data
Page written by Steven M. Smith (smsmith@usgs.gov)
Version 1.10: July 29, 1999
Version 1.20: August 07, 2000
Version 1.30: September 11, 2001
Version 1.41: February 23, 2006
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