The Hueco bolson of Trans-Pecos Texas formed in response to Cenozoic extensional tectonism and lies within the southern Rio Grande rift near the poorly defined boundary between the rift and the southern Basin and Range province. The bolson is composed of a northwest subbasin that contains north-striking normal faults and a southeast subbasin that contains northwest-striking normal faults. Cenozoic basin fill is thin (less than 150 to 200 m) on the east and northeast bolson margins and is thick (as much as 2,850 m) in the central bolson and on the west and southwest bolson margins where major normal faults bound a graben that is 15 to 25 km wide. Major faults bounding the graben on the west and southwest have been more active and exhibit greater offset than do boundary faults on the east. This disparity in displacement between the graben margins has resulted in an asymmetric graben. Isopach maps of lower and upper basin fill sequences, differentiated from seismic data, indicate that much of the southeast Hueco bolson subsided more than the northwest Hueco bolson during deposition of the lower basin fill. Thicker upper basin fill within the northwest basin indicates that the basin subsided more in the northwest than in the southeast during deposition of the upper basin fill. The two major faults that bound the Hueco graben on the west and southwest, the East Franklin Mountains fault and Amargosa fault, respectively, have had the most recent (late Pleistocene-Holocene) surface ruptures. Scarp-slope angles of these faults are commonly steeper than 20°, and middle Pleistocene surficial deposits that contain indurated calcic soils having stage IV to V morphology are offset between 24 and 32 m. Maximum throw on these faults during single surface-rupture events has been between 1.6 and 3 m. Major faults bounding the southeast Hueco graben on the northeast (Campo Grande, Caballo, and an unnamed fault) had their most recent surface ruptures during the late Pleistocene. Scarp-slope angles of these faults are rarely as much as 15° and more commonly between 4 and 7°. Middle Pleistocene surficial deposits that contain indurated calcic soils having a stage IV to V morphology are offset between 1.6 and 24 m. Maximum throw on these faults during single surface-rupture events has been between 0.6 and 2 m.

This paper examines the effects of traditional operating scales in North American archaeology and Quaternary geology on archaeological interpretation. An apparent emphasis on landscape-scale geoarchaeological studies has underemphasized the potentially significant role of small-scale geological processes on archaeological interpretation. In general, archaeological and geological collaboration has occurred at a scale where archaeological and geological research objectives are most obviously coincident, at landscape scales. The most compelling reason for the trend toward landscape-scale studies seems to be a lack of interdisciplinary communication. Despite the interdisciplinary foundations of geoarchaeology, cross-discipline education and knowledge are surprisingly uncommon. The interpretive potential for small-scale geoarchaeological analyses is demonstrated using archaeological and geological data from the Jornada Mogollon territory in New Mexico and Texas. The area has a lengthy history of archaeological and geological research and interdisciplinary collaborations have focused on questions about the relationship between sites and the landscape. In the past, archaeological interpretations rarely incorporated the effects of geological processes, particularly at the scale of the archaeological site. A number of studies are used to establish how site typologies and subsequent interpretations can be influenced by geological processes. Three characteristics, artifact density, site size, and recognition of reoccupied locales, play an important role in the classification of Jornada Mogollon sites.