Pine Canyon caldera complex facts for kids

The Pine Canyon Caldera Complex is a Caldera Complex located in Big Bend National Park. The Complex is located in the southern part of the Chisos Mountains in the South rim formation. The Caldera was formed around several Rhylotic eruptions around 32 Ma that formed the now 6–7 km caldera. It is a Considered a Downsag caldera (A type of collapsed caldera), meaning it lacks surficial faulting. The Pine Canyon Caldera also is believed to have been created from Crustal stretching during the Ouachita orogeny, also in the northern part of the Caldera, High magnetic Wave length was observed and believed to be from a broad intrusion, which tends to mean a partial crustal boundary of the Ouachita orogeny. This feature represents the largest intrusion, (24–38 km,1–4 km thick, 700-3,000 km3 in volume) in an area where laccoliths are ubiquitous in nature. This intrusion may represent a long lived magma reservoir (1 m.y.) that are replenished by smaller batches of magma that very from viscosity.