NM Tech scientists find large Rio Grande spring
Posted at: 10/20/2009 8:49 AM
By: The Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico Tech scientists believe they've found the largest spring discovered so far in the upper Rio Grande, a few miles south of the Colorado border near Ute Mountain.
Researchers call it the Lava Tube Spring. They say the spring's crater is 12 feet deep and bubbles 6,000 gallons of water a minute into the Rio Grande.
It is the largest of 170 springs and seeps the scientists have documented so far in the 80-mile river reach from the Colorado border to the Embudo measuring gauge.
The Rio Grande is fed by mountain snowmelt and springs in Colorado and gains water from New Mexico tributaries.
Scientists have known for a while there was surplus water added to the river that wasn't coming from Colorado or the tributaries.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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