Valles Caldera (or Jemez Caldera) is a wide

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 plates a ...

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 ...

in the

Jemez Mountains The Jemez Mountains are a group of mountains in Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico, United States. Numerous Puebloan Indian tribes have lived in the Jemez Mountains region since before the Spanish arrived in New Mexico. ...

of northern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

Hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...

s, streams,

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s, natural gas seeps and

volcanic dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

s dot the caldera floor landscape. The highest point in the caldera is Redondo Peak, an resurgent lava dome located entirely within the caldera. Also within the caldera are several grass valleys, or ''valles'', the largest of which is Valle Grande ( ), the only one accessible by a paved road. In 1975, Valles Caldera was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service with much of the caldera being within the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a unit of the

National Park System The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

History

Use of Valles Caldera dates back to the prehistoric times: spear points dating to 11,000 years ago have been discovered.Anscheutz, Kurt F. and Merlan, Thomas (2007)
"More than a scenic mountain landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history"

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

Rocky Mountain Research Center,

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, CO Several Native American tribes frequented the caldera, often seasonally, for hunting and for obsidian, used for spear and arrow points. Obsidian from the caldera was traded by tribes across much of the Southwest. Eventually, Spanish and later Mexican settlers as well as the Navajo and other tribes came to the caldera seasonally for grazing with periodic clashes and raids. Later, as the United States acquired New Mexico as part of the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

in 1848, the caldera became the backdrop for the Indian wars with the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. Around the same time, the caldera and its forest began to be used commercially for ranching and logging.

Baca Ranch

The caldera became part of the Baca Ranch in 1876. The Bacas were a wealthy family given the land as compensation for the termination of a grant given to their family near

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, in northeastern New Mexico. The family was given several other parcels by the US Government as well, including one in Arizona. This area, , was called ''Baca Location number one''. Since then, the land has been through a string of exchanges between private owners and business enterprises. Most notably, it was owned by Frank Bond in the 1930s. Mr. Bond, a businessman based in nearby Española, ran up to 30,000 sheep in the calderas, significantly overgrazing the land and causing damage from which the watersheds of the property are still recovering. The land was purchased by the Dunigan family from Abilene, Texas in 1963. Pat Dunigan did not obtain the timber rights, however, and the New Mexico Lumber Company logged the property very heavily, leaving the land scarred with roads and removing significant amounts of old-growth douglas fir and

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

. Mr. Dunigan bought out the timber rights in the 1970s and slowed the logging. He negotiated unsuccessfully with the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

and the

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

for possible sale of the property in the 1980s. Elk Calf, Valles Caldera

Valles Caldera National Preserve

The Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 signed by

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

on July 25, 2000, created the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP)."Public Law 106–248 - 106th Congress"
. Valles Caldera National Preserve. Retrieved on 2013-04-04. The legislation provided for the federal purchase of this historical ranch nestled inside a volcanic caldera, with funds coming from the

Land and Water Conservation Fund The United States' Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a federal program that was established by Act of Congress in 1965 to provide funds and matching grants to federal, state and local governments for the acquisition of land and water, and ...

derived from royalties the US government receives from offshore

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

drilling.Environmental News Network Staff (2000-07-17)
CNN.com "New Mexico's Baca Ranch soon to be public land"
CNN.com. Retrieved on 2013-04-03. The Dunigan family sold the entire surface estate of and seven-eighths of the geothermal

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

estate to the federal government for $101 million. As some sites of the Baca Ranch are sacred and of cultural significance to the Native Americans, of the purchase were obtained by the

Santa Clara Pueblo Santa Clara Pueblo (in Tewa: Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh ɑ̀ʔp’òː ʔówîŋgè ″Singing Water Village″, also known as ″Village of Wild Roses″ is a census-designated place (CDP) in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States and a federa ...

, which borders the property to the northeast. This include the headwaters of Santa Clara Creek that is sacred to the pueblo. On the southwest corner of the land were to be ceded to

Bandelier National Monument Bandelier National Monument is a United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most ...

. The Baca Ranch, also known as Baca Location No. 1, had possessed a mixed range of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

species and significant biodiversity. At the time of the purchase, the ranch was home to of pristine trout streams, of Temperate coniferous forest, conifer forest, 17 endangered plant and animal species and of grassland grazed by 8,000 elk, New Mexico's largest herd. The preserve is encircled by federal lands, including the Santa Fe National Forest, the Jemez National Recreation Area and

.Environmental News Network Staff (2000-07-17). "New Mexico's Baca Ranch soon to be public land". CNN. The Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 also created the Valles Caldera Trust, an experimental management organization consisting of nine board members including seven appointed by the President of the United States."About VCNP"
Valles Caldera National Preserve Official Website. Retrieved on 2013-04-03. The Trust combined private-sector practices with federal land management protocol. Under the terms of the Valles Caldera Preservation Act, the preserve was to become financially self-sustaining by 2015. The experiment was controversial. In 2010 the Trust admitted that it would be unable to achieve financial self-sustainability, having raised only about $850,000 of the $3 million needed to manage the property each year. Environmentalists had lobbied for the more inclusive protections of national park status instead of the Trust model, but then-Senator Pete Domenici (R) insisted on the experimental approach as a condition for his support for public purchase. Beginning in 2010, US Senator Jeff Bingaman (D) introduced legislation that would transfer the property to the

as a national preserve. The 2011 bill was supported by the VCNP trustees and a majority of New Mexico's Congressional delegation. On December 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, which transferred administrative jurisdiction of the preserve from the Valles Caldera Trust to the National Park Service. After a brief transition period, the National Park Service assumed day-to-day management on October 1, 2015. On October 10, the preserve held an official dedication with dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, former-U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, National Park Service Intermountain Region Director Sue Masica, and the first National Park Service Superintendent of Valles Caldera National Preserve, Jorge Silva-Bañuelos.

2011 wildfire

In July 2011, the Las Conchas Fire, started by a power line on nearby private land, burned of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The wildfire burned a total of in the

, including most of neighboring

Geology and science

The circular topographic rim of the caldera measures in diameter. The caldera and surrounding volcanic structures are one of the most thoroughly studied

complexes in the United States. Research studies have concerned the fundamental processes of magmatism, hydrothermal systems, and ore deposition. Nearly 40 deep cores have been examined, resulting in extensive subsurface data. Valles Caldera is the younger of two calderas known at this location, having collapsed over and buried the older Toledo Caldera, which in turn may have collapsed over yet older calderas. The associated Cerros del Rio volcanic field, which forms the eastern Pajarito Plateau and the Caja del Rio, is older than the Toledo Caldera. The Toledo and Valles Calderas formed during eruptions 1.61 million and 1.25 million years ago, respectively. The caldera-forming Toledo eruption emplaced the Otowi member of the Bandelier Tuff 1.61 million years ago, which can be seen along canyon walls west of Valles Caldera, including San Diego Canyon. The younger Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff was formed during the Valles Caldera eruption 1.23 million years ago. The now eroded and exposed orange-tan, light-colored Bandelier Tuff from these events creates the stunning mesas of the Pajarito Plateau. Valles Caldera is the type locality for a resurgent dome caldera, the formation of which was first developed by C.S. Ross, R.L. Smith, and R.A. Bailey during field work at Valles in the 1960s. After the initial caldera-forming eruption at Valles, the Redondo Peak resurgent dome was uplifted beginning around 1.2 million years ago. Eruption of moat Rhyolite, rhyolitic lava domes occurred from approximately 1.16 million years ago at Cerro del Medio to 0.07 million years ago at Banco Bonito, along a structural ring fracture zone. The El Cajete Pumice and Battleship Rock Ignimbrite were emplaced in a single eruptive event 74,200 ± 1,100 years ago, followed by the eruption of the Banco Bonito obsidian flow during the youngest eruption of Valles Caldera, at 68,900 ± 1,000 years ago. The caldera and surrounding area continue to be shaped by ongoing volcanic activity. Seismic investigations show that a low-velocity zone lies beneath the caldera, suggesting the presence of partial melt within a remaining magma chamber at between 5 and 15 km depth. An active geothermal system with hot springs and fumaroles exists today. These calderas and associated volcanic structures lie within the Jemez Mountains, Jemez Volcanic Field. This volcanic field lies at the intersection of the Rio Grande Rift, which runs north–south through New Mexico, and the Jemez Lineament, which extends from southeastern Arizona northeast to western Oklahoma. The volcanic activity here is related to the tectonic movements of this intersection. NASA used the caldera in October to November 1964 and again in September 1966 to geologically train the Apollo Astronauts in recognizing volcanic features, such as ash flow tuffs, pumice air falls, and rhyolite domes. Notable geologist instructors included Roy Bailey.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification, Valles Caldera has a subarctic climate (Dfc), with cold winters and mild summers. The caldera is subject to strong temperature inversions, causing very cold nights year round and high diurnal temperature variation.

Geothermal energy source potential

The volcanic properties of Valles Caldera make it a likely source for renewable and nonpolluting Geothermal power, geothermal energy. However, some people oppose the development of geothermal energy, considering it destructive to its scenic beauty, recreational and grazing use. Its impact on the hot springs and supplying aquifers is unknown as experiences from other past geothermal projects proved that production of reservoir fluids had dramatic impacts to the surface thermal features.Goff, Fraser (2002-12)
"Geothermal Potential of Valles Caldera, New Mexico"
Geo-Heat Center, Oregon Institute of Technology. Retrieved on 2013-04-03. Valles caldera was home to the first experiments into development of an Enhanced geothermal system (EGS) or Hot-dry-rock (HDR) geothermal system, beginning in 1974 by the Los Alamos National Laboratory at the Fenton Hill Observatory, Fenton Hill reservoir, approximately 3 km west of Valles caldera. Originally, the Fenton Hill site was chosen as an EGS laboratory in hopes that the proximity to Valles caldera would increase the temperature of the bedrock, thus requiring shallower drill depths. However, the abundance of Hydrothermal circulation, hydrothermal fluids discharged from the nearby caldera resulted in hydrothermal alteration of the rocks at depth, weakening the sealed nature of the reservoir. The Fenton Hill HDR experiment was finally abandoned in 1998. The experiments demonstrated that a potential EGS reservoir must be characterized by low Permeability (earth sciences), permeability, crystalline basement rock with no active Fault (geology), faults or joints. From 1959 to 1983, approximately 40 exploratory geothermal wells were drilled into the Redondo Creek Graben as part of the Baca geothermal field, a joint operation by the United States United States Department of Energy, Department of Energy and the Union Oil Company of California. Despite measuring a maximum temperature of 342 °C and having a likely production capacity of 20 MWe, the geothermal field was too small to be economic. Three scientific cores were drilled in Valles Caldera during the mid-1980s as part of the United States Continental Scientific Drilling Program in order to analyze the chemistry of geothermal fluids and the presence of a vapor-dominated cap in the Sulphur Springs region. The maximum bottom hole temperature measured during drilling was 295 °C. Overall, the geothermal reservoir at Valles Caldera is liquid-dominated rather than vapor-dominated and has a neutral-chloride fluid chemistry with a maximum temperature below 300 °C.

Recreation

A number of recreational and/or historical uses take place in Valles Caldera. Many of these uses involve trails. Over two dozen official hiking and biking trails of varying length are available. Maps and trail descriptions may be found in "Hiking Trails in Valles Caldera National Preserve," by Coco Rae. Valles Caldera has many miles of ranch roads, livestock and game trails. These include a network of trails currently designated for horse riding. Historically, Valles Caldera was a location for endurance riding, equestrian endurance races. After establishment of VCNP, the first race in the caldera was held in 2009. The largest grass valley, Valle Grande, is a venue for ski orienteering. Activities are open to the public, though some require reservations. Customer service and concierge services are provided by the Public Lands Interpretive Association. The valley floor is above altitude.

Wildlife and livestock

Throughout the caldera, the grass valleys appear groomed: there are few saplings and mature trees lack lower branches. This is due to heavy w:Browsing (predation), browsing by w:Elk, elk and w:Cattle, cattle and because of frequent grass fires of human and natural origin which kill the lower branches on the Engelmann spruce, Douglas-fir and Ponderosa pine that populate the uplands around the grasslands dominating the bottoms of the calderas. Extreme cold in winter prevents tree growth in the bottoms of the calderas. The grasslands were native perennial bunch grass maintained by frequent fire before sheep and cattle grazing. Although the grass appears abundant, it is a limited resource. Its growing season is short. Through the VCNP's limited grazing program, it feeds hundreds of cattle in the summer and thousands more of elk in the warm seasons and in drought winters, and during most of the year. Its nutritional value is low.

In popular culture

Valles Caldera has provided several filming locations, most for films in the Western (genre), Western genre. Some of these locations include exterior sets, such as the weathered "ranch house" that can be seen from the highway in Valle Grande, and a small "town". * 1971 ''Shoot Out'' * 1977 ''Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion'' (TV) * 1982 ''Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, The Gambler'' (TV) * 1994 ''Troublemakers (1994 film), Troublemakers'' * 1995 ''Buffalo Girls'' (TV) * 1997 ''Last Stand at Saber River'' (TV) * 2003 ''The Missing (2003 film), The Missing'' * 2007 ''Seraphim Falls'' * 2010 ''Kites (film)'' (Hindi/Indian Film) * 2013 ''The Lone Ranger (2013 film), The Lone Ranger'' * 2012-2017 ''Longmire (TV series)''Cowboys, Mobsters, and Concierge Doctors; Markee Mag; October 27, 2012.
/ref>

Notes

External links

official website

* [http://www.geotimes.org/july07/article.html?id=Travels0707.html Geologic travel guide] from American Geological Institute
Caldera Action
advocacy organization * {{authority control VEI-7 volcanoes Rift volcanoes Jemez Mountains Volcanoes of New Mexico Calderas of New Mexico Complex volcanoes Pleistocene calderas National Natural Landmarks in New Mexico Santa Fe National Forest Landforms of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Landforms of Sandoval County, New Mexico