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The Mount Taylor Volcanic Field: a Digest of the Literature John W New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/18 The Mount Taylor volcanic field: A digest of the literature John W. Shomaker, 1967, pp. 195-201 in: Defiance, Zuni, Mt. Taylor Region (Arizona and New Mexico), Trauger, F. D.; [ed.], New Mexico Geological Society 18th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 228 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1967 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. Free Downloads NMGS has decided to make peer-reviewed papers from our Fall Field Conference guidebooks available for free download. Non-members will have access to guidebook papers two years after publication. Members have access to all papers. This is in keeping with our mission of promoting interest, research, and cooperation regarding geology in New Mexico. However, guidebook sales represent a significant proportion of our operating budget. Therefore, only research papers are available for download. Road logs, mini-papers, maps, stratigraphic charts, and other selected content are available only in the printed guidebooks. Copyright Information Publications of the New Mexico Geological Society, printed and electronic, are protected by the copyright laws of the United States. No material from the NMGS website, or printed and electronic publications, may be reprinted or redistributed without NMGS permission. Contact us for permission to reprint portions of any of our publications. One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. 195 THE MOUNT TAYLOR VOLCANIC FIELD: A DIGEST OF THE LITERATURE By JOHN SHOMAKER U.S. Geological Survey Editors note: Mount Taylor and the kindred vol- Hunt, in his U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin (Hunt, 1936) canic features associated with it will be often in view and Professional Paper (Hunt, 1938) added detailed during the Field Conference, a fact reflected in the structural and petrographic information to the literature. title of the Guidebook. Unfortunately, none of the These three treatises, and V. C. Kelleys San Juan Basin papers submitted for the Guidebook dealt with the structural papers (Kelley, 1950; Kelley and Clinton, Mount Taylor volcanic field. This digest of the 1960), provided most of the material for the summary that Mount Taylor literature was prepared and included follows. Other papers which deal specifically with parts of so that the books contents will more nearly justify the Mount Taylor field are those of Johnson (1907), its title, and so that the conferees will have available Moench and Schlee (1967) and Gabelman (1956). the important facts concerning this large and interest- The Mount Taylor volcanic field lies between two of ing feature of New Mexico geology. A number of di- the Nations principal uranium-producing districts: the rect quotations from the literature arc included for the Ambrosia Lake-Poison Canyon area on the west and the descriptive beauty of their prose, and several illustra- North Laguna area on the east. The map compiled by tions are reproduced. Moench (Moench and Schlee, 1967) has been modified and reproduced in part to use in this digest both as an The earliest mention of Mount Taylor (as such) in a index and to show the relationship of the uranium districts report dealing with geology or geography is in J. H. Simp- to the volcanic field. sons (1850) journal of a military reconnaissance from The Mount Taylor field extends northeastward from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to the Navajo country. Simpsons party the Rio San Jose, to and across the Rio Puerco. Flows as- named Mount Taylor and described briefly the rocks en- sociated with the Mount Taylor centers are seen along countered along the route. Jules Marcou (Marcou, 1856, the route of U.S. Highway 66 between Laguna and Grants, 1858) drew the first geologic map of the Mount Taylor and the swarm of volcanic necks east of Mount Taylor country and recognized the volcanic origin of the moun- presents an impressive panorama from any direction. tain. E. E. Howell (1875) interpreted the age relation- The Mount Taylor field occupies the northeastern ships of the Mount Taylor lavas, the sheet basalts, and the corner of the Datil Section of Fennemans (1962) Colo- deformation of underlying Cretaceous strata. Other ob- rado Plateau physiographic province. Flows from centers servers, notably J. S. Newberry (Newberry, 1861, 1876) in the field probably covered the Puerco Fault Belt and and G. K. Gilbert (in Emmons, S. F., and others, 1893), the Ignacio Monocline and the fault belt associated with described Mount Taylor as a scenic feature. it. These features, which lie parallel with the long axis of The geologic literature of the Mount Taylor field really the main volcanic mass and some 25 miles east of it, are began with Captain Duttons classic report of 1885. His generally thought to mark the western boundary of the commentary is geologically sound, and is couched in the Rio Grande Trough and of the Basin and Range physio- noble English of the naturalists of his day. Charles B. graphic province. On Kelleys (1950) structural map of -1 L-, Mount Taylor, looking north from Cubero on old highway—about mile 54.10 on Access Log. Valley in foreground is cut in soft beds of the Mancos Shale. The cliffs and steep slopes of the hills in the middleground are developed in the alternating hard and soft beds of the upper and lower Gallup Sandstone which here dip northwest and pass under the Mount Taylor volcanic sequence. Mount Taylor lies approximately on the axis of the McCartys syncline. Photograph by F. D. Trauger 196 NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY-EIGHTEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE ADAPTED FROM UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PROFESSIONAL PAPER 519 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PLATE 5 EXPLANATION T f 7,1;BY.--1 L• Quaternary alluvium Tertiary sediments of Precambrian crystalline rocks Uranium deposit in Dakota Santa Fe Group Sandstone • Ks Uranium deposit in Morrison Quaternary basaltic flows Generalized contact Formation Cretaceous sedimentary rocks QTb Fault • Approximately located Uranium deposit in Entrada Quaternary or Tertiary Sandstone or limestone of basaltic flows Jurassic sedimentary rocks Todil to Formation Volcanic center "i;i2A Quaternary or Tertiary tuff Triassic, Permian, and Penn- sylvanian sedimentary rocks Compiled by R. H. Moench from Dane and Bachman (1957b) and Hilpert and Moench (1960, fig. 2) Generalized geologic map of the southern part of the San Juan Basin and adjacent areas, New Mexico showing uranium deposits and their relationships to the Mount Taylor volcanic field. (After Beaumont, Dane, and Scars, 1956) NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY—F IGIITEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE 197 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY FROM HUNT, C. B., PROFESSIONAL PAPER 189 PLATE 11 EXPLANATION VOLCANIC ROCKS \N Dikes (Genera//y andesite) Olivine basalt 10/ Porphyritic andesite (Soho/hies indicate rocks that have been identified by thin semen; dashed hnes,rocks megascopically identified) \ N Rhyolitic tuff, porphyri- tic trachyte and latite (So/id //nes indicate rocks Mat have been identified by thin section; dashed hnes, racks megascqoieally /dentine, 1 Volcanic breccia Mesaverde formation (So/id lines show areas of known outcrops; dashed tines ino%thte probable additional extent) White area in arn,ohithea ter. con- tains few outcrops, bat ,oroba bly is composed mostLy of porphy- ritic tite Boundaries between /rock types are approximate onlyy. Spring ;lilt 0I 2 Miles From Hunt (1938, p. 59); Figure 10.—Geologic sketch map of the amphitheater and surrounding rim of the Mount Taylor volcano. the San Juan Basin, the Mount Taylor syncline (upon the culminating point presents matter of great interest and which Mount Taylor lies) is found on the south flank of instruction when viewed as a whole, for it discloses clearly the San Juan Basin, near the lower end of the Chaco Slope. the origin of the great lava caps which form such a con- South of the volcanic field, the Mount Taylor syncline spicuous feature in many parts of the West, and offers a (otherwise known as the McCarty syncline) is symmetri- wide range of information concerning the modes of ac- cal and shallow. At the southern limit of the field, the syn- cumulation of lavas in the basic group." (Dutton, 1885, p. cline abruptly assumes a northward plunge and its struc- 166). tural relief increases from some 600 feet to about 1,500 feet Erosion has breached and enlarged the original crater, (over a total width of about 20 miles). The syncline which probably was located about a mile east of Mount passes under the volcanic field and dies out near the north- Taylor Peak (the highest point on the present-day eroded ern end. Sandstones and shales of the Cretaceous Dakota rim ) and probably was less than one square mile in area. Sandstone, Mancos Shale, and Mesaverde Group are ex- The present five-square-mile amphitheater created by ero- posed in both limbs of the fold and presumably underlie sion of the crater opens to the east, and the creek that the Mount Taylor volcanic rocks. drains it is now about 2,500 feet below the rim.
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