Hopi Buttes volcanic field explained

Hopi Buttes volcanic field is a monogenetic volcanic field located on the Colorado Plateau mostly on the Navajo Reservation around the town of Dilkon in northeastern Arizona north of Holbrook.

The volcanic field covers an area of approximately and contains about 300 maars and diatremes.[1]

The erosional exposure of the deposits varies with those in the eastern portion exhibiting the shallowly eroded maar deposits and those in the western portion the more deeply eroded feeder diatremes. The maars result from explosive interaction of the hot diatreme material with the groundwater system and result in a mixture of volcanic tuff material and sediments of the MiocenePliocene lacustrine sediments of the Bidahochi Formation. In the western portion of the field the buttes consist of the feeder diatremes of monchiquite and nepheline syenite magmas.[2]

Most of the volcanic activity occurred between 8.5 and 6 million years ago, with the most recent dated at 4.2 million years ago.[3]

Notable vents

Name Elevation Location Last eruption
metersfeetCoordinates
Coliseum Maar[4] 1,811 5,940 35.4°N -116°W
Morale Claim Maar[5] [6] 1,859 6,100 35.5°N -111°W

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/hopibuttes/ Geo-Ecological Study of Historic and Prehistoric Land Use in the Hopi Buttes area, Navajo Nation, Arizona, USGS
  2. https://azgeology.azgs.arizona.edu/archived_issues/azgs.az.gov/arizona_geology/spring10/article_earthscience%20.html Zelawksi, Mallory The Hopi Buttes volcanic field, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, The Arizona Geological Survey, 2010
  3. http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/coliseum_maar.html Volcano World, Coliseum Maar, Hopi Buttes, Arizona
  4. Web site: Coliseum Maar, Hopi Buttes, Arizona. Volcano World, North Dakota and Oregon Space Grant Consortia. 2007-05-07. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080926113910/http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/coliseum_maar.html. 2008-09-26.
  5. Book: Wood, Charles A. . Jűrgen Kienle . Volcanoes of North America . . 1993 . 283–284 . 0-521-43811-X.
  6. Web site: Morale Claim Maar, Hopi Buttes, Arizona . Volcano World, North Dakota and Oregon Space Grant Consortia . 2007-05-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080926164931/http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/morale_claim.html . 2008-09-26 .