Scanning electron microscopy data from stream bank sediments, Gallinas Creek watershed, San Miguel County, NM, October 2022

The Gallinas Creek watershed was affected by the Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon wildfire that occurred in 2022 in northern New Mexico. The watershed is located in San Miguel County, NM and the Gallinas Creek provides drinking water to the City of Las Vegas, NM. Stream bank sediment deposits containing sand, silt, and wildfire ash were identified in the Gallinas and Beaver Creeks. These sediments provided an opportunity to study the geochemical interactions between recent stream bank deposits and water quality. As part of this work, a set of stream bank sediments were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to evaluate the mineralogy and interfacial chemistry of minerals on the sediments. The SEM files show electron backscatter images of locations on the samples that show the size of grains and morphology of sediments. The EDS spectra data are images of the qualitative measurements of elements in a point or square on the backscatter image. This data release contains SEM back scatter images and EDS spectra for stream bank sediment collected in October 2022 in the Gallinas Creek at Montezuma, NM, Gallinas Creek at Oak Flats, NM, and Beaver Creek at El Porvenir, NM.