Revisiting hydrogeology of a West Texas desert spring cluster: a data-rich geochemical and physical study of the trans-Pecos Balmorhea-Area Springs

Examination of historical data and of data collected during this study led us to conclude that: (1) the most likely distal origin of a significant fraction of baseflow is in the northern section of the Salt Flats (Salt Basin); then the flow interacts with the Castile Fm. [...] The springs are located at the transition between the mountain front of the Davis Mountains to the southwest and the onset of the physiographic Toyah Basin to the north. [...] It controls the current regional hydrogeological flow to the east, and led to the dissolution of evaporites by meteoric waters and the deposition of the Pecos Valley Alluvium (PVA) in the subsiding areas. [...] The karstic nature of the recharge allows for the system to capture a significant fraction on the precipitation on the various watersheds of the Davis Mountains; a fraction of it is stored in Cretaceous formations and possibly alluvium on the plain below or Davis Mountains permeable units and released over time. [...] Some of the alluvium was excavated in the 1930’s and the largest of the SSS springs currently discharges at the bottom of a large, man-made pool open to the public in Balmorhea State Park (BSP).