Sierra Blanca Peak (New Mexico) 3D version 1

The Sierra Blanca ( Spanish: ''White Mountains'') is an

ultra-prominent An ultra-prominent peak, or Ultra for short, is a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of or more; it is also called a P1500. The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or ...

range of

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...

mountains in Lincoln and Otero counties in the south-central part of the U.S. state of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. The range is about from north to south and wide. Sierra Blanca Peak (White Peak) is the highest mountain in the range at . It is southern New Mexico's highest peak, as well as the most prominent (5,533 feet) and the 40th highest in the entire state. It is also the most southerly peak and land area to exceed 11,000 feet in the continental United States (Only 19 feet shy of being the most southerly area above 12,000 feet). The peak is located on the

Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...

, approximately west-northwest of

Ruidoso Ruidoso is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, adjacent to the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 8,029 at the 2010 census. The city of Ruidoso Downs and the unincorporated area of Alto are suburbs of Ruidoso, and ...

and north-northeast of

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was ...

Geography

The majority of the Sierra Blanca range is within the Lincoln National Forest, and part of this is protected as the White Mountain Wilderness Area. Much of the southern half of the range, including the summit of Sierra Blanca Peak, is within the

. The peak is sacred to the Mescalero Apache, and requires a permit from the tribe for access. To the south, across the valley of the Rio Tularosa, lie the Sacramento Mountains. To the north is Carrizozo Mountain, and to the northeast lie the

Capitan Mountains The Capitan Mountains are a mountain range in Lincoln County, in south-central New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The range is about 20 miles (32 km) long from east to west being about 6 miles (10 km) wide and were formed fr ...

. On the west side, the range rises high above the Tularosa Basin. The range serves as the headwaters for the Rio Ruidoso, Rio Tularosa, and Rio Bonito, as well as numerous arroyos draining into the Tularosa Basin, including Nogal Arroyo at the north end of the range. Sierra Blanca Peak dominates the range and can be seen for many miles, particularly within the Tularosa Basin. It is visible from as far away as

Sandia Crest Sandia Crest, also known locally as Sandia Peak or simply as the Crest, is a mountain ridge that, at , is the highpoint of the Sandia–Manzano Mountains, and is located in the Sandia Mountains of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United State ...

near

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...

. It is one of the southernmost points at which

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

ecosystems occur in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Rising more than above the adjacent Tularosa Basin, it has the highest topographic prominence in the state. The eastern foothills of the Sierra Blanca range include the town of

. The area has a number of popular hiking and camping destinations. Sierra Blanca Peak is the towering backdrop and snow-maker for

Ski Apache Ski Apache is a ski resort located in southern New Mexico on the slopes of Sierra Blanca mountains. It is owned and operated, since 1963, by the Mescalero Apache Tribe. Ski Apache was the only ski resort in New Mexico with its own gondola lift, u ...

, the southernmost major

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...

in North America.

is located mostly on land within the Lincoln National Forest and is operated as a concession under contract to the U.S. Forest Service by the Mescalero Apache Tribe's Inn of the Mountain Gods.

Volcanology

Sierra Blanca is a massive complex of volcanic rocks, including

pyroclastic Pyroclastic rocks (derived from the el, πῦρ, links=no, meaning fire; and , meaning broken) are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroc ...

materials, lava flows, and intrusions. An ancient and heavily eroded volcanic pile, it is the largest mid-

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

volcanic complex east of the Rio Grande, with an estimated volume of erupted products of . Eruptions began about 38 million years ago, and extended over a twelve-million-year period. Most of the eruptions produced voluminous lava flows and

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

s, with numerous intrusive dikes emplaced throughout the complex. The final activity produced the intrusions which form the present-day Sierra Blanca Peak. Following the volcanic period, the range's topography was modified by

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate bet ...

, block faulting, and erosion. Between 2007 and 2014, the Sierra Blanca complex was geologically mapped, and the following

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers ( strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

was adopted: * Godfrey Hills Group ** Husk Windmill Formation (28.7-28.2 Ma):

trachytic Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and alk ...

lava flows Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

and tuff *** Crawford Canyon Trachyte (28.6 Ma) *** Rose Peak Trachyte (28.59 Ma) *** Palisades Tuff'' (28.67 Ma): trachytic tuff ** Lopez Spring Formation (34-28.7 Ma): lava flows of diverse composition * Nogal Peak Trachyte(31.41 Ma) * Church Mountain Phonolite (32.7 Ma) * Walker Group ** Three Rivers Formation, divided into members: *** Buck Pasture Tuff *** Double Diamond Member (36-34 Ma), laterally discontinuous

volcaniclastics Volcaniclastics are geologic materials composed of broken fragments ( clasts) of volcanic rock. These encompass all clastic volcanic materials, regardless of what process fragmented the rock, how it was subsequently transported, what environment it ...

, basaltic trachyandesite, phonotephrite, and trachyte *** Argentina Spring Tuff (36 Ma) *** Taylor Windmill Member: Maroon volcaniclastic

sediments Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

interbedded with flows of trachybasalt to trachyte *** Rattlesnake Member:

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more p ...

-bearing basaltic trachyandesite flows ** Hog Pen Formation: interbedded debris flows and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

to basaltic trachyandesite flows These rest on the Sanders Canyon Formation, an

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

unit. They are intruded by the Three Rivers, Rialto, and Bonito Lake stocks. The Three Rivers Stock, which underlies Sierra Blanca Peak itself, is the largest of these and consists of multiple intrusions, and is composed mostly of

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger prop ...

alkali feldspar granite Alkali feldspar granite, some varieties of which are called 'red granite', is a felsic igneous rock and a type of granite rich in the mineral potassium feldspar (K-spar). It is a dense rock with a phaneritic texture. The abundance of K-spar gives ...

. It was emplaced 29 to 28 million years ago and is interpreted as the shallow magma chamber below a deeply eroded

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. The volcanic complex is part of the High Plains alkaline province, which lies along the boundary between the tectonically stable

High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

and the tectonically active western United States. It formed in the Sierra Blanca Basin, a northeast extension of the Tularosa Basin, during the time when the Rio Grande rift first began to open.

References

* New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Volcanoes of New Mexico
and

External links

*
"Village of Ruidoso Tourism Office"

"Ski Apache resort"

"Inn of the Mountain Gods "Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino"
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of New Mexico Mountains of New Mexico Volcanoes of New Mexico Extinct volcanoes Eocene volcanoes Oligocene volcanoes Landforms of Lincoln County, New Mexico Landforms of Otero County, New Mexico Stratovolcanoes of the United States Complex volcanoes Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America Mountains of Otero County, New Mexico Mountains of Lincoln County, New Mexico

Geography

Volcanology

See also

References

External links