INVESTIGATION OF OTERO BASIN FOR POTASH SALTS. 5 



age. Analyses of 14 of these waters are given in Table III. Their 

 content of potassium is uniformly low and is apparently much lower 

 than that of stream waters in general, though this conclusion loses 

 somewhat in surety because of the fact that the samples for analysis 

 were not large enough for the accurate determination of such minute 

 quantities. 



In addition to the analyses quoted in the table determinations of 

 potassium only were made on a number of other waters from various 

 parts of the basin, and more or less complete analyses were made of 

 16 samples of salt crusts from salt seeps and the like. None of these 

 materials showed more than minute traces of potassium. 



Of the analyses in Table III, Nos. 13, 14, and 15 are especially 

 instructive, since these brines are almost certainly ordinary drain- 

 age waters greatly concentrated by evaporation, with the almost 

 entire precipitation of the gypsum originally present and the similar 

 loss (probably) of a good part of the sodium chloride. Had any 

 significant quantity of potassium been present in the original water, 

 it would unquestionably have been retained and concentrated in 

 the brine. Its nearly complete absence therefrom is- very significant. 



The general conclusion as to the presence of potash is entirely and 

 strongly negative. To the questions, does it exist on the present 

 surface, is it importantly present in the rocks of the mountains, and 

 does it enter hi the present drainage, it is possible to give an unhesi- 

 tating no. The query as to the probability of buried beds must 

 receive the same reply, but with somewhat less assurance. It is 

 probable that several saline beds underlie the deposits of the present 

 surface, and there is a bare chance that potash may be associated 

 with some of them. Practically, however, this chance is negligible. 

 Geologic considerations indicate that the buried salts probably are 

 disseminated in clays or sands rather than existing as segregated 

 layers, and even should some be in the latter form the association of 

 segregated potash with them is extremely improbable. Very little 

 potash is now entering the basin, and there is no reason to believe 

 that the past supply was any greater. Indeed, it was probably less, 

 for the potash-bearing rocks were previously covered with potash- 

 poor sedimentaries and have attained exposure only by the gradual 

 erosion of these latter. Their area of exposure is now larger than 

 ever before. 



In any event, whatever weight may be given or denied to this 

 vanishing chance of a buried bed, it is safe to say that the chance 

 of finding potash anywhere in the Otero is very much less than in 

 many of the other undrained basins. Though surface deposits seem 

 to be nowhere probable, and though direct indications of potash in 

 buried beds are not so far known, there are literally hundreds of 



