An Extinct Volcano

 We are in New Mexico for the week as we head to AZ. The reason is geocaching, of course.

This is our geocaching map of NM. The white counties mean we have not found a geocache. We plan to turn all of them to a color after this week. We did add the far northeast (corner) county today. We have 10 left.

And as is typical when we geocache, we stumble across something quite interesting or unusual. Today it was Capulin Volcano. I noticed the brown monument signs along the highway and asked Hubby to do some research while I was driving. If it was along our route, maybe we could stop??? Maybe it had a geocache???

It was just 3 miles off the highway. In fact, there were 5 geocaches at the location! 

But we had a little problem. It was 4:15 as we drove into the Visitor's Center! We did stop in before it closed and got some information and the two geocaches located at the base. 

The other 3 caches were at the rim of the volcano; a two mile drive to the rim and then the options of two moderate trails for walking along the rim and one into the volcano vent. Bummer! The park closed at 4:30.

The cone rises 1,300 feet above the plains/8,182 feet above sea level. The volcano straddles two habitats: the grassland of the plains and the forest of the mountains. Both very visible from the Visitor's Center.

this trail was near the Visitor's Center

a view of the valley below the volcano

Capulin Volcano erupted 60,000 years ago, producing two kinds of volcanic product: cinders and lava flows. Lava flows were very visible along the highway from other volcano eruptions. Capulin produced 4 lava flows covering 15.7 square miles. (Which could be viewed from the rim.)

just one of many volcano cones along our route

I am not certain where this volcano was as this sign was several miles east of Capulin. From a distance it is hard to tell which cone mountain was the highest. (Remember, you can click on any photo for a larger view.)

This was NOT Sierra Grande because it is also a cinder cone volcano, the most common type of volcanoes in the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field in northeast New Mexico. The volcanic field covers an area of more than 1000 square miles. The numerous (between 50 and 100) volcanoes erupted in 3 phases. The western volcanoes in the Raton area erupted 9 to 3.5 million years ago. The Clayton volcanoes along the eastern border of NM erupted 3 to 2.5 million years ago. And the volcanoes in the Capulin area spewed lava 1.7 to .04 million years ago. The Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field has examples of lava fields and cinder cones, volcanic domes and shield volcanoes. Thankfully, the field is currently dormant as the last activity was 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. 

a beautiful sky and sunset on this first day of November