As a drainage basin, the San Juan Basin is defined by the drainage of the San Juan River and its tributaries, which include the Animas River and the Florida River. The San Juan River flows into the Colorado River.
The drainage of the San Juan River is roughly coincident with the San Juan structural basin, a large downwarp of sedimentary rocks of mostly Mesozoic age. As a geologic region, the San Juan Basin is noted for its large deposits of coal, uranium, and natural gas. Since the 1980s, the Fruitland Formation in the basin has been one of the major US sources of coalbed methane.
The region is notable both by its marked aridity and by a rugged topography of plains and valleys interspersed by buttes, canyons and mesas. Its most striking features include Chaco Canyon (northwestern New Mexico, between Farmington and Santa Fe) and Chacra Mesa. The San Juan Basin also has uplands that exceed elevations of 9,800 feet. As the region gently increases in elevation in a southeasterly direction, the Basin's streams flow to the northwest, eventually draining into the Colorado River.
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See also
Uranium mining in New Mexico
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