Lava Tubes of the Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field
New Mexico, USA
All photos are Copyright 2010 by Harry M
INTRODUCTION
The Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field (ZBVF) is a vast landscape of basalt beds, volcanoes, lava tubes, and caves.
Located 75 miles west of Albuquerque, the ZBVF encompasses roughly 850 square miles between the elevations of 6,200 and 8,400 feet.
The ZBVF lies on the Jemez Lineament, a 300-mile long flaw in the North American plate.
This leaky flaw is thought to represent a suture zone from the Proterozoic accretion of North America.
Numerous large volcanic fields are associated with the Jemez Lineament, including the ZBVF and the nearby 11,389-foot high shield volcano Mount Taylor.
The ZBVF has been active since the Tertiary period (about 4.4 million years).
The most recent (Quaternary) stage of volcanic activity came in three stages:
(1) Fence Lake-North Plains stage (650,000 years ago),
(2) Chain of Craters (100,000 to 200,000 years ago), and
(3) El Malpais stage (3,200 to 80,000 years ago).
There are more than 100 shield volcanoes, cinder cones, basalt craters, fissures, and spatter cones in the ZBVF.
Inlaid in the lava beds are linear, braided, and dendritic lava tube systems that are up to 18 miles in length.
Almost all of the lava tubes in the ZBVF are found within the flows of the El Malpais stage.
Despite the arid landscape where the sun regularly broils the earth, there are dozens of lava tube caves that used to contain massive perennial ice accumulations.
Global warming, however, has almost melted all of the ice accumulations that have been present for thousands of years.
The high desert of the Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field.
Bandera Crater, a breached cinder cone and the source of an 18-mile-long lava tube.
A collapse sink with a bridge. Note the caver standing in the sunlight on the left.
Rappelling into a collapse sink.
Four Windows Cave.
The "Long, Dark Large Passageway" in the Outlaw System.
Braided passageway
A classic lava tube.
A hardened lava pond.
A rare driblet lava column
Alexandra Clarfield with some ice totem poles.
Flows lines in a very large lava tube.
|
|