| Cathedral Cliff | |
| Elevation Ft: | 5810 |
| Elevation Ref: | [1] |
| Prominence Ft: | 360 |
| Isolation Mi: | 1.16 |
| Parent Peak: | Table Mesa (5,850 ft)[2] |
| Range: | Chuska Mountains Colorado Plateau |
| Location: | San Juan County, New Mexico, US |
| Map: | New Mexico#USA |
| Map Size: | 230 |
| Coordinates: | 36.6081°N -108.7072°W |
| Coordinates Ref: | [3] |
| Topo: | USGS Table Mesa |
| Type: | Volcanic plug |
| Rock: | Volcanic breccia |
| Age: | Oligocene |
Cathedral Cliff is a 5810feet elevation volcanic plug located on Navajo Nation land in San Juan County of northwest New Mexico, United States.[3] It is a prominent landmark set alongside U.S. Route 491, approximately 13 miles south of the community of Shiprock, New Mexico. Cathedral Cliff is one of the phreatomagmatic diatremes of the Four Corners area, and with significant relief as it rises 400abbr=offNaNabbr=off above the high-desert plain.[4] It is situated about southeast of Shiprock, the most famous of these diatremes. Cathedral Cliff is set in the northeastern part of the Navajo Volcanic Field, a volcanic field that includes intrusions and flows of minette and other unusual igneous rocks which formed around 30 million years ago during the Oligocene.[5] Its nearest higher neighbor is Table Mesa, one mile to the southwest, and Barber Peak is set 1.5 mile to the southeast.
Cathedral Cliff is the eroded remnants of a maar-diatreme volcano, formed when rising magma came into contact with country rock saturated with groundwater. The resulting explosive volcanism created a deep volcanic pipe (the diatreme) and a shallow surface crater (the maar). Subsequent erosion has removed NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) of overlying sediments to expose the deeper diatreme, including the rarely-exposed diatreme-maar transition zone.[6] This has been studied by geologists to gain insights into how maar-diatreme volcanism works. The pipe at this level is a mixture of intact and broken beds of pyroclastic rock deposited at a higher level, which subsequently subsided deeper into the pipe. These were partially destroyed by debris jets later in the eruption.[7]
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Cathedral Cliff is located in a semi-arid climate zone with cold winters and hot summers.[8] Precipitation runoff from this feature drains into Dead Mans Wash, which is part of the San Juan River drainage basin.