Bureau Studies Ground Water Pumping, Land Subsidence
By George Zamora

New calculations show that erosion by the Rio Grande during the last ice age may have reduced the potential for land subsidence in the Albuquerque area as a consequence of heavy groundwater pumping. The results will be presented by William Haneberg, an engineering geologist and assistant director of the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, at the 1997 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Friday, Dec. 12. View Entire Article »

Safer Gold Mining Promoted by Prof. Norman
By George Zamora

Using mercury to extract gold in small-scale mining operations was once a widespread practice, but now because of growing environmental and health concerns in industrialized nations, the use of the hazardous procedure is largely confined to developing third-world countries where the toxic dangers involved are often disregarded when there's money to be made. View Entire Article »

Packrat Middens Give Clues to Ancient Climate
By George Zamora

Two New Mexico Tech geoscientists and their research colleagues are analyzing ancient packrat middens?globs of crystallized packrat urine containing twigs, leaves, seeds, and other debris which the scavenging rodents drag into their nests?to draw up more accurate production and deposition histories of naturally occurring radioisotopes over the past 40,000 years. View Entire Article »

Groundwater Contaminant Barrier Developed
By George Zamora

An extremely efficient, as well as relatively inexpensive, subsurface barrier material developed by a New Mexico Tech research hydrologist is being tested at an Oregon university research facility as a pollutant filter which potentially could trap most common groundwater contaminants. View Entire Article »