The Albuquerque Volcanoes

The Albuquerque Volcanoes exhibit many unique volcanic features if you know where to look. For example, the larger cones appear to have swelled during their final stages. This resulted in radial cracks on the sides of the cones. In places the interior cinder has been exposed beneath the "carapice" of spatter and lava that coats the cone. Gradual weathering of the loose cinders in these places has caused cavernous holes. These look like lava tubes but actually were formed by a different process.

Two humps on the south side of Vulcan are actually baby volcanoes. You can stand on their tops and actually see the craters surrounded by outward-dipping spatter and lava.

The Albuquerque Volcanoes are the source of lavas that make up the Volcano Cliffs. Judging from the high cliffs at the edge of the lava field, one might suppose that the Volcanoes are old. But the Volcano Cliffs, as they are known locally, formed only because the Rio Grande flowed near the edges of the lava flows at one time and undercut them.

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Small lava toes exposed in the Volcano Cliffs. These resemble pillow lavas but are probably not a result of underwater eruption. Small lava structures like this are fairly common around the margins of the lava flows from the Albuquerque volcanoes. Examples of this and other lava interior structures may be seen by walking any of the trails in the Petroglyphs National Monument.