Mogollon-Datil volcanic field facts for kids

The Mogollon-Datil volcanic field is a large (40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi)) silicic volcanic field in western New Mexico (Mogollon Mountains-Datil, New Mexico). It is a part of an extensive Eocene to Oligocene volcanic event which includes the San Juan volcanic field in southwestern Colorado, the Trans-Pecos volcanic field in west Texas and north central Mexico, the Boot Heel volcanic field in the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico and adjacent areas of Arizona and Mexico; and the vast volcanic field of the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico. The Mogollon-Datil volcanic field was formed in "four discrete pulses representing synchronized activity of two separate cauldron complexes".

Calderas of Mogollon-Datil volcanic field

Formations

The stratigraphic framework for the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field has undergone many revisions. The Datil Formation was originally defined by Winchester in 1920 to include all the extrusive units from the field. The Datil Formation was later promoted to group rank with the addition of some related sedimentary formations, such as the Baca Formation and the Spears Formation. The base of the group, as originally defined, rests unconformably on the Mesaverde Formation, and the series is succeeded by the Popotosa Formation of the Santa Fe Group.

The stratigraphic framework proposed by Cather, Chamberlin, and Ratte in 1994 divides the units associated with the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field into three groups and removes the Baca Formation:

Cather, Chamberlin, and Ratte find that the Alum Mountain Formation in the southern part of the field may span the lacuna between the Mogollon and Datil Groups, though they suggest a tentative assignment to the Mogollon Group. Still further south, voluminous volcanic activity in northern Chihuahua took place in this time period and no lacuna exists.

Clasts of the Vicks Peak and La Jencia Tuffs have been found in the gravel beds of the Benavidez Member of the Cerro Conejo Formation in the Rio Puerco valley west of Albuquerque. These suggest that the outflow sheets of the Datil-Mogollon volcanic field reached as far north as the northern edge of the younger Mount Taylor volcanic field, where they interfingered with the Chuska Sandstone and with cherty gravels eroded off the Zuni Mountains. This outflow sheet was subsequently completely eroded away north of the Rio Salado.

Notable Calderas

Northern complex

Socorro-Magdalena caldera cluster

Location: West of Socorro, South of Magdalena, and Southeast of Datil.

Southern complex

Located from Las Cruces to Mogollon:

Note: the ages given in Chapin et al. (2004) and Ward (2009) do not match sometimes.