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San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry of early Colorado. Major towns, all old mining camps, include Creede, Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. Large scale mining has ended in the region, although independent prospectors still work claims throughout the range. The last large-scale mines were the Sunnyside Mine near Silverton, which operated until late in the 20th century, and the Idarado Mine on Red Mountain Pass, which closed in the 1970s. Famous old San Juan mines include the Camp Bird and Smuggler Union mines, both located between Telluride and Ouray. The Summitville mine was the scene of a major environmental disaster in the 1990s when the liner of a cyanide-laced tailing pond began leaking heavily. Summitville is in the Summitville caldera, one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uncompahgre Peak
Uncompahgre Peak () is the sixth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent fourteener is the highest summit of the San Juan Mountains and the highest point in the drainage basin of the Colorado River and the Gulf of California. It is located in the Uncompahgre Wilderness in the northern San Juans, in northern Hinsdale County approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of the town of Lake City. Uncompahgre Peak has a broad summit plateau, rising about above the broad surrounding alpine basins. The south, east and west sides are not particularly steep, but the north face has a cliff. Like all peaks in the San Juan Mountains, Uncompahgre is of volcanic origin, but is not a volcano. The rock is of poor quality for climbing, precluding an ascent of the north face. The most popular route for climbing Uncompahgre Peak is Uncompahgre National Forest Service Trail Number 239, which starts from the end of the Nellie Creek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telluride, Colorado
Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County, Colorado, San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River (Colorado), San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. The first gold mining claim was made in the mountains above Telluride in 1875, and early settlement of what is now Telluride followed. The town was founded in 1878. Telluride sits in a Canyon, box canyon. Steep forested mountains and cliffs surround it, with Bridal Veil Falls (Telluride), Bridal Veil Falls situated at the canyon's head. Numerous weathered ruins of old mining operations dot the hillsides. A free Gondola lift, gondola connects the town with its companion town, Mountain Village, Colorado, Mountain Village, at the base of the ski area. Telluride and the surrounding area have featured prominently in popular culture, and it is the subject of several popular songs. It is especially k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Garita Caldera
La Garita Caldera is a large caldera and extinct supervolcano in the San Juan volcanic field in the San Juan Mountains around the town of Creede in southwestern Colorado, United States. It is west of La Garita, Colorado. The eruption that created the La Garita Caldera is among the largest known volcanic eruptions in Earth's history, as well as being one of the most powerful known supervolcanic events. Date The La Garita Caldera is one of a number of calderas that formed during a massive ignimbrite flare-up in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada from 40 to 18 million years ago, and was the site of massive eruptions about , during the Oligocene Epoch. Area devastated The area devastated by the La Garita eruption is thought to have covered a significant portion of what is now Colorado. The deposit, known as the Fish Canyon Tuff, covered at least . Its average thickness is . The eruption might have formed a large-area ash-fall, but none has yet been identified. Size of eruption Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Juan Volcanic Field
The San Juan volcanic field is part of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. It consists mainly of volcanic rocks that form the largest remnant of a major Composite Volcanoes, composite volcanic field that covered most of the southern Rocky Mountains in the Middle Tertiary period, Tertiary geologic time.Steven, Thomas A.; Lipman, Peter W. (1976)"Calderas of the San Juan Volcanic Field, Southwestern Colorado" ''U.S. Geological Survey Professional Papers''. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 958: 1–35. Retrieved 2012-05-16. There are approximately fifteen calderas known in the San Juan Volcanic Fields; however, it is possible that there are two or even three more in the region. The region began with many composite volcanoes that became active between 35 and 40 million years ago, with peak activity in the time period around 35-30 million years ago. Around this time the activity began to include explosive ash-flow eruptions. Many of these volcanoes experienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volcano
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure 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 are diverging or converging, and because most of Earth's plate boundaries are underwater, most volcanoes are found underwater. For example, a mid-ocean ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes resulting from divergent tectonic activity are usually non-explosive whereas those resulting from convergent tectonic activity cause violent eruptions."Mid-ocean ridge tectonics, volcanism and geomorphology." Geology 26, no. 455 (2001): 458. https://macdonald.faculty.geol.ucsb.edu/papers/Macdonald%20Mid-Ocean%20Ridge%20Tectonics.pdf Volcanoes can also form where there is str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the structural integrity of such a chamber, greatly diminishing its capacity to support its own roof and any substrate or rock resting above. The ground surface then collapses into the emptied or partially emptied magma chamber, leaving a large depression at the surface (from one to dozens of kilometers in diameter). Although sometimes described as a Volcanic crater, crater, the feature is actually a type of sinkhole, as it is formed through subsidence and collapse rather than an explosion or impact. Compared to the thousands of volcanic eruptions that occur over the course of a century, the formation of a caldera is a rare event, occurring only a few times within a given window of 100 years. Only eight caldera-forming collapses are known to have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tailing Pond
In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlies an ore or mineral body and is displaced during mining without being processed. Waste valorization is the evaluation of waste and residues from an economic process in order to determine their value in reuse or recycling, as what was gangue at the time of separation may increase with time or more sophisticated recovery processes. The extraction of minerals from ore can be done two ways: placer mining, which uses water and gravity to concentrate the valuable minerals, or hard rock mining, which pulverizes the rock containing the ore and then relies on chemical reactions to concentrate the sought-after material. In the latter, the extraction of minerals from ore requires comminution, i.e., grinding the ore into fine particles t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyanide
In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This anion is extremely poisonous. Soluble cyanide salts such as sodium cyanide (NaCN), potassium cyanide (KCN) and tetraethylammonium cyanide () are highly toxic. Covalent cyanides contain the group, and are usually called nitriles if the group is linked by a single covalent bond to carbon atom. For example, in acetonitrile , the cyanide group is bonded to methyl . In tetracyanomethane , four cyano groups are bonded to carbon. Although nitriles generally do not release cyanide ions, the cyanohydrins do and are thus toxic. The cyano group may be covalently bonded to atoms different than carbon, e.g., in cyanogen azide , phosphorus tricyanide and trimethylsilyl cyanide . Hydrogen cyanide, or , is a highly volatile toxic liquid tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Disaster
An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.Jared M. Diamond, '' Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'', 2005 This point distinguishes environmental disasters from other disturbances such as natural disasters and intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings. Environmental disasters show how the impact of humans' alteration of the land has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences. These disasters have included deaths of wildlife, humans and plants, or severe disruption of human life or health, possibly requiring migration. Some environmental disasters are the trigger source of more expansive environmental conflicts, where effected groups try to socially confront the actors responsible for the disaster. Environmental disasters Environmental disasters have historically affected agriculture, wildlife biodiversity, the economy, and human health. The most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summitville Mine
The Summitville mine was a gold mining site in the United States, located in Rio Grande County, Colorado south of Del Norte. It is remembered for the environmental damage caused in the 1980s by the leakage of mining by-products into local waterways and then the Alamosa River. History Charles Baker's group of prospectors found traces of placer gold in the San Juan Mountains in 1860 at Eureka, Colorado. The group was forced out in 1861 by the Ute Tribe, who had been awarded the area in a US treaty. Gold was discovered in Wightman Fork, on South Mountain, which is the same location of present-day Summitville. More prospectors returned in 1871, when lode gold was found in the Little Giant vein at Arrasta Gulch, near Silverton, Colorado. The miners were allowed to stay after the Brunot Treaty of 13 Sept. 1873. In exchange for giving up 4 million acres, the Southern Ute Indian Reservation received $25,000 per year. Gold veins were found at 11,500 feet on South Mountain in 1873 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smuggler Union Mine
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, social scientists define smuggling as the purposeful movement across a border in contravention to the relevant legal frameworks. There are various motivations to smuggle. These include the participation in illegal trade, such as in the drug trade, illegal weapons trade, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, heists, chop shops, illegal immigration or illegal emigration, tax evasion, import restrictions, export restrictions, providing contraband to prison inmates, or the theft of the items being smuggled. Smuggling is a common theme in literature, from Bizet's opera ''Carmen'' to the James Bond spy books (and later films) '' Diamonds Are Forever'' and '' Goldfinger''. Etymology The verb ''smuggle'', from Low German ''smuggeln'' or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camp Bird Mine
The Camp Bird Mine is a famous and highly productive old gold mine located between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado. The mine is within the Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride mining district in the San Juan Mountains. It was discovered by Thomas F. Walsh in 1896, and is (or was) owned by the Federal Resources Corp. The mine produced about 1.5 million troy ounces of gold, and 4 million troy ounces of silver, from 1896 to 1990. At 2009 prices, Camp Bird's production would be worth over US$1.5 billion. Walsh sold the property for US$5.2 million in 1902. Walsh's daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, later purchased the Hope Diamond. Walsh died in 1909. His daughter Evalyn Walsh McLean devotes several chapters to the mine in her autobiography "Father Struck It Rich". Camp Bird is named after the "Camp Birds", probably Gray Jays, that ate many a miner's lunch. Western Colorado native David Lavender related his experiences working at the Camp Bird Mine in the 1930s in his classic memoir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
