Thirtynine Mile volcanic area facts for kids
The Thirtynine Mile volcanic area is a special place in Colorado. It's an area where volcanoes were once very active. Today, these volcanoes are extinct, meaning they won't erupt again. This area is found in Park and Teller counties. It's located northwest of Cripple Creek and southeast of South Park.
About 35 million years ago, during a time called the Paleogene Period, there was a lot of volcanic activity here. The volcanoes spewed out ash and created large mudflows. These events helped to create the amazing fossils found today at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
The Thirtynine Mile Volcanic Area
The Thirtynine Mile volcanic area is part of a much larger group of volcanoes. This group stretches across many states. It includes areas in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. It even goes into Mexico.
How These Volcanoes Formed
This long chain of volcanoes, called a volcanic belt, formed because of how Earth's plates move. Imagine two giant puzzle pieces of Earth's crust. One piece, called the Farallon plate, slowly slid underneath another piece, the North American Plate. This process is called subduction.
When one plate slides under another, it can cause the rock to melt deep underground. This melted rock, called magma, then rises to the surface. When it breaks through, it creates volcanoes. This is how the Thirtynine Mile volcanic area and its neighboring volcanoes came to be.
What's in the Area?
The area gets its name from Thirtynine Mile Mountain. This mountain is made up of rocks that came from the ancient volcanoes. The area also includes another important spot called the Guffey volcanic eruption center. This was one of the main places where the volcanoes erupted long ago.
