The Jornada del Muerto Volcano is a small

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

and

lava field A lava field, sometimes called a lava bed, is a large, mostly flat area of lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or hundreds of kilometers across the underlying terrain. Morp ...

in central

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, about in size and reaching an elevation of . Jornada del Muerto means "Dead Man's Route" in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, referring to the desolate colonial era trail from

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

through this '' Malpaís'' region.

Geography

The volcano and lava field is located at the northern end of the Jornada del Muerto Desert basin in the

Basin and Range Province The Basin and Range Province is a vast United States physiographic region, physiographic region covering much of the inland Western United States and Northern Mexico, northwestern Mexico. It is defined by unique basin and range topography, charac ...

. The Jornada del Muerto basin runs between the Oscura Mountains and

San Andres Mountains The San Andres Mountains are a mountain range in the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico, in the counties of Socorro, Sierra, and Doña Ana. The range extends about north to south, but are only about wide at their widest. The highest peak ...

on the east, with the Caballo Mountains and the Fra Cristóbal Range on the west.

Geology

Volcano and cones

The main volcano vent is located slightly to the east of the center of the lava flows, rising about in a broad but conspicuous cone about a mile (1.6 km) in diameter. Within the outer cone are a series of nested

spatter cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcano, volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone (geometry), cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depen ...

s interspersed with lava pools. On the south side the innermost spatter cone rises to nearly above the surrounding lava pools, and surrounds an intact symmetrical crater across and about deep.

Volcanic field

The volcano erupted about 760,000 years ago in a series of basaltic flows. It produced a slow and viscous ʻaʻā lava

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's Earth's crust, crust that is prone to localized volcano, volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters ...

which has a very rough and uneven surface, making travel across it extremely difficult and hazardous; also time consuming. The total volume of erupted material is about and the lava fields cover an area of over . The largest individual flow-field extends from a center in extreme southeastern Socorro County and extends into Sierra County. Currently the flow forms the east bank of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

from Fra Cristóbal north to

Fort Craig Fort Craig was a U.S. Army fort located along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the Rio Grande in Socorro County, New Mexico. The Fort Craig site was approximately 1,050 feet east-west by 600 feet nor ...

, but at the time of eruption it temporarily dammed the Rio Grande. File:Looking north towards the Jornada del Muerto Volcano.jpg, View north to the malpaís

and a spatter cone File:Looking south towards the Jornada del Muerto Volcano.jpg, View south towards the nested

splatter cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

References

External links

* {{Mountains of New Mexico Volcanoes of New Mexico Mountains of New Mexico Malpaíses (landform) Pleistocene shield volcanoes Shield volcanoes of the United States Lava fields Landforms of Socorro County, New Mexico Quaternary United States Tularosa Basin Mountains of Socorro County, New Mexico