San Juan Basin

The strata the panel describes hold the gas that made this basin visible from orbit. Natural gas has come out of the San Juan since the 1940s, much of it methane drawn from coal seams, and it is the most active coalbed methane region in the country. In 2014 NASA scientists and colleagues reported that satellite readings from 2003 to 2009 showed a methane hot spot of about 2,500 square miles over the Four Corners, the largest in the country; later aerial surveys traced the biggest plumes to tanks, compressors, processing plants and a coal mine's vents.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker San Juan Basin Thousands of feet of sedimentary strata have been downwarped into the San Juan basin of northwestern New Mexico, a total area of some 20,000 square miles. The San Pedro and Nacimiento Ranges of the Southern Rockies rise in fault contact above the basin to elevations of more than 10,000 feet.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jemez Historic Site — 28 mi
  The stone walls of a 1620s mission church standing among the ruins of Gisewa, a Jemez village named for the hot springs beside it.

More markers nearby

• Cuba — 4.7 mi
• Cuba — 5.6 mi
• Continental Divide — 5.7 mi
• Jémez State Monument — 28 mi