A sedimentological approach to hydrologic characterization: A detailed three-dimensional study of an outcrop of the Sierra Ladrones Formation, Albuquerque basin

Three-dimensional geologic outcrop studies which quantitatively describe the geologic architecture of deposits of a specific depositional environment are a necessary requirement for characterization of the permeability structure of an aquifer. The objective of this study is to address this need for quantitative, three-dimensional outcrop studies. For this study, a 10,000 m{sup 2} by 25 m high outcrop of Pliocene-Pleistocene Sierra Ladrones Formation located near Belen, New Mexico was mapped in detail, and the geologic architecture was quantified using geostatistical variogram analysis. In general, the information contained in this study should be useful for hydrologists working on the characterization of aquifers from similar depositional environments such as this one. However, for the permeability correlation study to be truly useful, the within-element correlation structure needs to be superimposed on the elements themselves instead of using mean log (k) values, as was done for this study. Such information is derived from outcrop permeability sampling such as the work of Davis (1990) and Goggin et al. (1988)