The Albuquerque Volcanoes

Location: 35.2 degrees N latitude, 106.8 degrees W longitude Type: Basaltic fissure eruptions & scoria/spatter cones Age: 140,000 to 160,000 years Significance: Linear fissure, young age, unusual vent structures, and proximity to a large city.

Few large cities in the United States have young volcanoes near them like the Albuquerque Volcanoes. They are also an excellent example of volcanoes that occur in a line that geologists call a "fissure eruption." The Albuquerque Volcanoes are also geologically young (as young as 140,000 years). Fissure eruptions like the Albuquerque Volcanoes are common in many parts of the world. Fissure eruptions form because molten rock (or "magma") from many miles within the Earth tends to rise along vertical cracks. When the cracks reach the surface, they cause long surface cracks. Lava and ash then erupts from the crack. Magma quickly cools and solidifies along most of the crack and only a few spots continue to erupt. As these spots continue, small cones of ash, spatter, and lava are built. The Albuquerque Volcanoes we see today are the result of this type of eruption.

• Kelley, V. C., 1982, Albuquerque: Its Mountains, Valley, Water, and Volcanoes. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past Series, No. 9, 3rd edition.
  

• 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 the Rio Grande Rift and adjacent regions of the southwestern United States. Jour. Geophys. Res., 92, 9193-9213..