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Taos Plateau volcanic field

Volcanic field in New Mexico and Colorado

The Taos Plateau volcanic field is an area of extensive volcanisminTaos County, New Mexico, United States. It is the largest volcanic field in the Rio Grande Rift, spreading over 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 sq mi). The total erupted volume is estimated at 420 cubic kilometers (100 cu mi).^[1] The age of most of the vents and associated lava flows in the field is estimated to be between 1.8 and 4 million years, with a few 22-million-year-old vents. The composition of the lavas varies from tholeiitic basalttorhyolite. Landforms include sheet flows, cinder cones, and shield volcanoes. The sheet flows of the Servilleta Basalt are well-exposed in the Rio Grande Gorge carved by the Rio Grande.^[2] The highest point of the field is San Antonio Mountain at 10,908 feet (3,325 m).

Notable vents[edit]

The field contains at least 35 vents, arranged in a rough concentric pattern 50 kilometers (31 mi) across. The central part of the field is the most mafic, consisting of tholeiitic basalt shield volcanoes, with andesite vents further out and rhyodacite vents in the outer part of the field. Two small rhyolite domes in the center of the field are exceptions to this pattern.^[3]

Origin[edit]

The field lies near the intersection of the Jemez Lineament with the Rio Grande rift. Here hot mantle rock has bulged upwards into the rift, allowing a high degree of decompressional melting to produce the tholeiitic magmas. The outer zone of andesites and rhyodacites is interpreted as a lower degree of melting, while the two rhyolite domes are interpreted as resulting from fractional crystallization of magma in the shallow crust.^[3]

Economic resources[edit]

Perlite is mined from the rhyolite flows and domes at No Agua. The production here has contributed to making New Mexico the leading producer of perlite in the United States.^[1]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Wood, Charles A.; Kienle, Jürgen, eds. (1990). Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 290–292. ISBN 0-521-43811-X.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taos Plateau Volcanic Field.

• Documentary: Sleeping Monsters, Sacred Fires: Volcanos Of New Mexico
• "Taos Plateau". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2021-06-28.

36°50′N 105°50′W / 36.83°N 105.83°W / 36.83; -105.83

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