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The location is known as Potash on U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps, and is east of Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park. [4] According to USGS reports, the Paradox Basin contains up to 2.0 billion tons (1.8 billion metric tonnes) of potash, with the primary mine being the one at Kane Creek. [5]
Early studies by Udden, and the presence of potash in the Santa Rita well between 1,100 and 1,700 feet, led to the United States Geological Survey exploring the area in search of potash, which was highly important during World War I as the US could no longer import it from Germany. By the mid-1960s, seven potash mines were operating on the New ...
The Permian Basin deposit includes the major mines outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, to the world's purest potash deposit in Lea County, New Mexico (near the Carlsbad deposits), which is believed to be roughly 80% pure.
Location map of the Paradox Basin [1] The Paradox Basin is an asymmetric foreland basin located mostly in southeast Utah and southwest Colorado, but extending into northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico. The basin is a large elongate northwest to southeast oriented depression formed during the late Paleozoic Era.
Map of Mesozoic exposures in New Mexico, USA. The Mesozoic began with the Permian-Triassic extinction event. [31] The Sevier and Nevadan orogenies pushed up mountains to the west of New Mexico that produced a rain shadow, giving New Mexico an exquisitely hot and dry climate through much of the early Mesozoic. [32] [33]
Carlsbad is a hub for potash mining, petroleum production, and tourism. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of the city, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies 54 miles (87 km) southwest across the Texas border.
The mine was started as the Chino Copper Company in 1909 by mining engineer John M. Sully and Spencer Penrose, [1] [2] [3] and is currently owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc. subsidiaries. The area where the mine is located is at an average elevation of 5,699 feet (1,737 m).
By earliest Permian time, during the Wolfcampian Epoch, the ovoid shaped subsiding Delaware Basin extended over 10,000 square miles (26,000 km 2) in what is now western Texas and southeast New Mexico. [1]: 193§1 This period of deposition left a thickness of 1,600 to 2,200 feet (490 to 670 m) of limestone interbedded with dark-colored shale.