New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

 

Albuquerque Volcanic Field


Location: 35.2° N, 106.8° W, County
Type: Basaltic fissure eruptions & scoria/spatter cones
Age: 190,000 to 200,000 years
Significance:

Composition:

 Few large cities in the United States have young volcanoes near them as does Albuquerque.  The Albuquerque Volcanoes are geologically young (about 200,000 years old) such that many details of small eruptions are well preserved.

They are also an excellent example of the results of a "fissure eruption" in which a "curtain of fire" erupts from a long, linear crack.  Fissure eruptions like the Albuquerque Volcanoes are common in many parts of the world, particularly oceanic island volcanoes, but are not as well-expressed throughout much of the Southwest.

Fissure eruptions form because molten rock, or "magma", tends to rise along vertical cracks.  When the cracks reach the surface, they cause long surface fissures.  Lava and ash then erupt from the fissure.  As magma quickly cools and solidifies along most of the crack, only a few points continue to erupt.  Small cones of ash, spatter, and lava are built as these points of eruption continue.  The Albuquerque Volcanoes we see today are the result of a fissure eruption associated with the Rio Grand rift.

 

Additional Information:
General Geology/Relation to Rift:
Kelley, V. C., 1982, Albuquerque: Its Mountains, Valley, Water, and Volcanoes. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Miner- al Resources, Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past Series, No. 9, 3rd edition.
Petrology/Lithology:

Baldridge, W. S., 1979, Petrology and petrogenesis of Plio-Pleistocene basaltic rocks from the central Rio Grande rift New Mexico and their relationship to the Rift, in Riecker, R. E., editor, Rio Grande Rift: Tectonism and Magmatism, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., p. 323-353.
Kelley, V. C., and A. M. Kudo, 1978, Volcanoes and related basalts of Albuquerque basin, New Mexico. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Circular 156, 30p.

Kudo, A.M., 1982, Rift volcanics of the Albuquerque basin: overview with some new data., New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, 33rd Field Conference, Albuquerque Country II, 285-289..
Perry, F. V., W. S. Baldridge, D. J. DePaolo, 1987, Role of asthenosphere and lithosphere in the genesis of late Cenozoic basaltic rocks from thge Rio Grande Rift and adjacent regions of the southwestern United States. Jour. Geophys. Res., 92, 9193-9213..

Volcanology

Crumpler, L. S., 1999, Ascent and Eruption at the Albuquerque Volcanoes: A physical volcanology perspective: New Mexico Geological Society 50th Field Conference Guidebook, Albuquerque Country III, p. 221-233.
Smith, G.A., Florence, P.A., Castrounis, A. D., Luongo, M., Moore, J. D., Throne, J., and Zelley, K., 1999, Basaltic near- vent facies of Vulcan Cone, Albuquerque Volcanoes, New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society 50th Field Confer- ence Guidebook, Albuquerque Geology, p. 211-219.