Sediment Coring in Lake Bonito

Background

Bonito Lake is an alpine reservoir located high in the Sierra Blanca mountains northwest of Ruidoso, New Mexico. It is a popular fishing and camping destination, and although it is surrounded by the Lincoln National Forest, it is not a part of the national forest. It is currently owned by the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico as their primary water source. The lake sediment has alternating carbon from the fire, sand from high erosion, and silts and fine sediments repeated from 5 fires over 100+ years. The 2012 Little Bear Fire caused flooding and other damage to Bonito Lake and the surrounding area. The lake has been closed to fishing since that time, and the campgrounds around the lake are also closed. This fire caused severe erosion in the watershed above the lake, and the lake was contaminated with sediment and ash from the fire. In 2013, SDI helped the city of Alamogordo assess how much sediment poured into Bonito Lake from core samples near the dam.

Results

On a 20 foot pontoon boat, the crew collected several core samples by using SDI manufactured VibeCore D vibracoring sediment sampling equipment. It includes a 30-ft core tube collected a nearly full-length sediment sample. 

Equipment Used

Worldwide Distributors

Specialty Devices Inc.
2905 Capital St.
Wylie Texas 75098

972-429-7240 office

European Distributors

Aquifer Advies bv
Ben ten Toom
Dr. Langeveldplein 6
3361 HE Sliedrecht
0184 – 413147
06 – 24745947

About SDI

For over 30 years, SDI has designed and manufactured bathymetric and sub-bottom survey systems, sediment coring devices, and other specialized survey systems. SDI also provides geospatial, geophysical, hydrographic, sub-bottom, and sediment sampling services.