Hydrogeology of Fort Stanton Cave, Lincoln County, NM

Heading upstream to the south, cavers were excited to find that the mostly walking passage continued for over a mile, and they also surveyed a side passage they named Mud Turtle. It ended under a large breakdown room which was discovered in 1971.

An ambitious project to dig a 44 foot connecting shaft was approved, and after two years, with help from 200 volunteers, the Access Portal was constructed, giving caver-scientists a safer access to Snowy River. Cavers were surprised to find Snowy River silently flowing with clear, cool water.

After several hurried attempts to measure the water flow with home-made data loggers, we installed a small professional Schlumberger water logger with the associated barometer unit at Turtle Junction.

The baro unit allowed a more precise calibration of the adjacent pressure-sensitive water logger which was positioned in about 14 inches of water.

Future (2018) plans include measuring precise elevations and cross sections in several locations where loggers are currently installed. This data, plus an actual Turtle Junction flow measurement during a future Snowy River flow, will provide new data for an overall hydrology model.

After a 9-month flow at Turtle Junction, the first data logger record was recovered. It appeared that the flow at Turtle Junction started about 72 hours after a heavy rainfall at nearby Ruidoso Airport, at which time exploration of Snowy River South had not quite reached that point under the surface.

Soon after, the hydrology mapping of Snowy River continued to a point just beyond Eggshell Trail. Exploration stopped again, awaiting a decision to continue over this short section where the calcite surface was so thin it broke, revealing a layer of mud below. During the initial trade study for future loggers, it was decided that baro units would be placed at both Turtle Junction and Midnight Junction.

Choosing In-situ Troll 100 loggers for the deep deployment in the cave, units were placed far north at Crystal Creek, a deep pool at station SRN53, Turtle Junction and the near-by Plunge Pool, at SRS53 just north of Independence Hall, and 3 locations near Mud Lizard. The explorers were excited to find a water source which they called Finger Lake.

Soon, the hydrology survey had continued 9 miles south of Turtle Junction to a possible Midnight Junction camp site, at a point where numerous side passages intercepted the on-going Snowy River. Additional water loggers were deployed at Finger Lake, the continuing Snowy River and Midnight Creek. Baro units were deployed at Midnight Junction and Turtle Junction.

In August 2014 a science team heading towards Midnight Junction encountered slowly flowing water at survey station SRS390 and made a quick exit. That flow front never reached Turtle Junction. But another flow front arrived at Turtle Junction a month later and continued for two years. This flow was the 4th recorded flow event of Snowy River.

Rainfall following the Little Bear Fire in Ruidoso caused major flooding of the Rio Bonito, and was also likely the cause of extended Snowy River flows.

Main Corridor loggers were installed, in hopes of future correlation with Snowy River flows. There are numerous historical reports of flooding in the Main Corridor over the past 150 years. The photo at the right is at the entrance to Sewer Pipe, which is very muddy when not flooded, and was once the only connection with Snowflake Passage. This location is called Sewer Pipe Landing, and is along the route to the new Access Portal and Turtle Junction.

So far we have not proved a connection with this water system and Snowy River, although a dye trace was achieved from the Rio Bonito to the Main Corridor in 1983. A month after the 2014 flow ended, a 5th flow was observed at Turtle Junction that lasted 4 months, shortly followed by a 6th flow that ended in August 2017.

A 7th flow was observed at Turtle Junction that lasted another 3 months, ending in April 2018. When the loggers in the Turtle Junction area were serviced in 2017 and 2018, some "new" calcite formations were observed on the floor of Snowy River and initially were called "Snowy River worms or straws".

These formations were first observed and later named "detrituscite" by Knutt Peterson (dee-tri-tus-site). They apparently are formed around small bits of "detritus", shed from cavers during travel on Snowy River.

Some of the materials that make up this detritus which serve as the core of these new formations are rubber, thread, lint, and human hair. Rubber comes from the soles of shoes, threads of material and lint come off of packs and clothing, and human hair is shed from the caver. These materials are deposited on the dry floor of Snowy River during travel. When there is water flow on Snowy River, which is generally saturated with calcite, these materials serve as a surface for the deposition of calcite. During extended flow events, there is sufficient time for the buildup of calcite on these objects to become noticeable, and thus observed.

Crystal Spring and Hot Tub loggers were retrieved in July 2018 during a trip to evaluate the hardness of the calcite floor of Snowy River, after 4 years of almost constant water flow.