Zuni-Bandera volcanic field facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field
Bandera Crater in the center is part of the Zuni-Bandera lava field.
Highest point
Elevation	8,366 ft (2,550 m)
Geography
Location	Cibola County, New Mexico, US
Geology
Age of rock	3.8 million years
Mountain type	Volcanic field
Last eruption	1170 BCE ± 300 years

Zuni-Bandera volcanic field (also known as Bandera lava field, Grants Malpais and Malpais volcanic field) is a volcanic field located in the state of New Mexico, United States.

The volcanic field has been considered for geothermal exploitation.

It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways.

Origins

The Zuni-Bandera volcanic field lies along the Jemez Lineament, a zone of weakness in the lower crust and upper mantle that allows magma formed in the mantle to reach the surface. The magmas erupted in the field includes both tholeiitic basalt (an iron-rich basalt with a low alkali content) and alkaline basalt. The tholeiitic basalt shows chemical and isotopic signatures of magma formed from the spinel-rich mantle rock of the lithosphere, the outer rigid shell of the Earth that includes the crust and uppermost mantle. The alkaline basalt, by contrast, formed from the garnet-rich mantle rock of the asthenosphere, the ductile region of the mantle just below the lithosphere. Little crustal material was assimilated into the magmas, although the tholeiitic magma experienced some fractional crystallization at shallow depths in the crust.

Notable Vents