Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-04-10
OIL AND GAS PROSPECTS
 CENTRAL NEW MEXICO

The geologic structure of parts of New Mexico has been under investiga- tion during the last four years by N. H. Darton, a geologist of the United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, who has discovered in the beds of rock many domes and arches that may be reservoirs of oil or gas if these substances are present in the regions examined. These flex- ed beds are part of geologic forma- tions that produce oil in Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, but in New Mexico little evidence of the presence of oil and gas in them has yet been found. A small amount of oil at Dayton and few seeps and some traces of oil reported in water wells at several other places are the only favorable indications so far re- rorted. Only a few deep wells have been bored in New Mexico, however, and these are in places where the structure is not favorable for the oc- currence of oil or gas, or the wells were not drilled deep enough to make them satisfactory tests. Much of the geologic guidance used in locating the wells drilled has come from incompe- tent "experts," the presence of one "dome," for example, having been de- duced from haphazard readings of dip taken on layers of cross-bedded sand stone. One probably hopeless project is a deep hole in the middle of Tula- rosa Desert, where there are no rock outcrops to indicate the structure. In some of the hectic literature written to promote the sale of oil stock the chief geologist of the United States Geological Survey is falsely quoted as authority for the statement that New Mexico would develop one of the big gest oil fields on this continent.
 Localities of Domes and Arches.
 The general structure of east-cen- tral New Mexico is that of an east ward-dipping monocline, but there are local reversals of dip due to domes and arches, or anticlines, some of which are rather prominent. Only few of the areas where these structural Tea lures appear to merit the attention of the geologist and driller can be men, toned here. In Guadalupe County, for example, the apex of one of the most clearly marked domes is in the west-central part of T. II N., R. 19 E. The uplifted beds, which are 2,5O0 feet thick, are of permian and Pennsyl- vanian age, and the Pennsylvanian beds lie on granite at vertical depth of 2,OOO feet or more. On Pintada Creek, in the center of T. 8 N., k. IS E.Athere is a smaller dome involving the same strata, and d slightly less pronounced dome is indicated in the same canyon a few miles above Pin. tada post office. There are several broad, low arches in the strata in the northeast corner of this county and in adjoining parts of San Miguel, the next county to the north. In Quay County broaG, low antiel!ne ID the "red beds" passes .hort distsnce east of Tucumcari and extends for some distance north and south of the ROCK Island Railroad. In De Baca County
 
 the strata dip nearly due east in gen eral, but few local reversals of dlr suggest that minor domes or arches may be found when detailed survey is made. Lincoln County is traversec by broad anticline that lies east o1 the Sierra Blanca structural basin anc masses near Lincoln. In the westerr part of Lincoln County there are sev' eral domes that appear to be favorable for the storage of oil, although there is no visible evidence that they contain oil. They are in T.. 6 S., R. 9 E.' II the northeastern part of T. 9 S., k sE., and in the center of T. 5 S., k F E. In the eastern part of Socorr' County, miles northeast of the Car thage coal mines, there is a notable elongated dome which brings up thu Mesaverde coal measures; at Prairie Springs there is dome in the lime stones of Permian age; and in the cen