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The Southwestern Boundary of the Southern High Plains: The Mescalero Ridge and the Red Bed Ridge.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	The Southwestern Boundary of the Southern High Plains: The Mescalero Ridge and the Red Bed Ridge.
Authors:	GRISAK, GERALD¹ ggrisak@intera.com, BAKER, NOREEN¹, HUGHES, EDWARD¹
Source:	Environmental & Engineering Geoscience Journal. May2026, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p109-122. 14p.
Subject Terms:	Geological formations, Triassic Period, Watersheds, Hazardous waste sites, Uplands, Physiographic provinces
Geographic Terms:	Texas, New Mexico
Abstract:	The Southern High Plains are bounded on the west through the southern half of eastern New Mexico by the roughly linear Mescalero Ridge, an erosional, westward-facing near vertical escarpment, up to 150 ft (45.7 m) in height, capped by the 10 to 40 ft (3 to 12.2 m) thick caprock caliche. As it approaches the Texas state line, it loses linearity and topographic definition, developing numerous re-entrants and significant erosional cuts and gullying. Over this section, it is underlain or immediately adjacent to a corresponding ridge on the buried Triassic erosional surface termed the red bed ridge, a drainage divide throughout the Cenozoic. The red bed ridge and the Mescalero Ridge continue eastward into Andrews County with the Mescalero Ridge as the topographic drainage divide between the Colorado and Pecos Rivers, turning south and blending into the Cretaceous rocks of the Edwards Plateau. The buried red bed ridge is on the Triassic erosional surface of the upper part of the Dockum Group mudstones, the Cooper Canyon Formation. The red bed ridge is at least partially of structural origin in the vicinity of the Waste Control Specialists facility just east of the New Mexico/Texas state line. A similar anticlinal structure occurs in underlying Permian units over a thickness of several thousand feet. Several commercial facilities have been developed in the state line area with the near-surface proximity of the low permeability Triassic mudstones providing isolation from potable groundwater and reliable waste containment characteristics for hazardous and radioactive wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Database:	Energy & Power Source

Description
Abstract:	The Southern High Plains are bounded on the west through the southern half of eastern New Mexico by the roughly linear Mescalero Ridge, an erosional, westward-facing near vertical escarpment, up to 150 ft (45.7 m) in height, capped by the 10 to 40 ft (3 to 12.2 m) thick caprock caliche. As it approaches the Texas state line, it loses linearity and topographic definition, developing numerous re-entrants and significant erosional cuts and gullying. Over this section, it is underlain or immediately adjacent to a corresponding ridge on the buried Triassic erosional surface termed the red bed ridge, a drainage divide throughout the Cenozoic. The red bed ridge and the Mescalero Ridge continue eastward into Andrews County with the Mescalero Ridge as the topographic drainage divide between the Colorado and Pecos Rivers, turning south and blending into the Cretaceous rocks of the Edwards Plateau. The buried red bed ridge is on the Triassic erosional surface of the upper part of the Dockum Group mudstones, the Cooper Canyon Formation. The red bed ridge is at least partially of structural origin in the vicinity of the Waste Control Specialists facility just east of the New Mexico/Texas state line. A similar anticlinal structure occurs in underlying Permian units over a thickness of several thousand feet. Several commercial facilities have been developed in the state line area with the near-surface proximity of the low permeability Triassic mudstones providing isolation from potable groundwater and reliable waste containment characteristics for hazardous and radioactive wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	10787275