Description

Hand Sample Petrographic Analysis of Sand Samples from Power’s Gulch and Pinto Creek for the Carlota Testing Project (SWCA Project No. 31-93435) (TR1994-10) (PDF)

Many of the archaeological ceramics found in the Power’s Gulch area in the course of investigations for the Carlota Testing Project were found to be tempered with sand size material. In order to assess the composition and local versus non-local origin of the temper, seven sand and rock samples were collected from Power’s Gulch and Pinto Creek by Mary-Ellen Walsh Anduze of SWCA, Inc., in January of 1994. These seven sand and rock samples were submitted to Elizabeth Miksa of Desert Archaeology, Inc. in March of 1993 for qualitative description and analysis. This report describes the methods used to describe the sands and the results of the analysis. The goals of this analysis are to establish the local bedrock geology and how it contributes to the local sand, to establish preliminary petrofacies for the project area, to describe the local sand collected by Mary-Ellen Waish-Anduze, and to compare it to the expected sand composition.