Well, I get it, really I do,from a layman point of view.
I don't dispute how long it takes water to be forced through rock, based on it's denisity, or pourosity from hydrolic pressure.
What I would like to know, is the areas you are talking about, are you 100% certain that the rock is solid to the earth's core, without cracks?
I live on a rock, everything around here is rock. (I live near waterstone rd. got that name for a reason) I live on a pretty good incline also, and when it rains too much, the water actually can spray out of the cracks in my driveway from hydrolic pressure. When the aquifer reaches it's limit, and then it stops raining, I've seen it take 10-24 hours to stop. But of course we are talking about a mile of rock, not thousands.
My friend, owns a farm not to far from here, and has an artesian well literally under his kitchen. (was built that way on purpose)It dries up, when there is no rain for 20 days. But it will start up pretty quickly when it starts raining again.
I just can't see it taking hundreds of thousands of years for water to travel a thousand miles underground. Unless of course there were no cracks for it to go through.
Wouldn't hydrolic pressure even force cracks and "small tunnels" to form in the weaker sections of the rock?
I have lived where I am at for 13 years now, and I've actually witnessed the streams shift, and carve the rock around here. THe rock is mostly "ledge rock" quartz, with iron in it, in places. Some of it is extremely hard (breaks drill bits, and jack hammers don't do shit) but some of it is softer, where you could break it apart with a hammer. It is, filled with cracks.
Matter of fact, ever since I was little kid, I would stare at the rock carved out when they make the highways. I have seen several different types of rock. You can see cross sections of the earth, and see exactly how the water travels through certain spots, but not others. It is always full of cracks, that the water can travel through rather quickly, and effciently. I have noticed that about every carved roadway, with in a 100 mile radius of where I live, in NY.
Are the Zuni mountains, or the rock under them, really that different?