Science
In 1931, the Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb called windmills “the life-savers of the Plains,” one of three technologies – along with the six-shooter and barbed wire – that allowed white settlement of the arid West. Today, access to underground water is as vital here as it was for the first ranchers. From Amarillo to Alpine, aquifers are a prime source for drinking water, agriculture and industry. Yet groundwater is, by its very nature, mysterious. How do scientists understand this hidden but essential resource? A new study in our region sheds light on the subject. Bounded by the Guadalupe Mountains on the east, the Salt Basin stretches from New Mexico's Sacramento Mounta... Hosted by for KRTS