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San Felipe is a monogenetic volcanic field that
covers about 100 square km in the Rio Grande Rift. The volcanic field caps
the Santa Ana Mesa and many north-south trending faults cut the volcanic rocks. Initial
activity was explosive. Basalt flows from fissure eruptions created much of
the volcanic field. There are also shield-shaped vents, dozens of cinder
cones, plugs, dikes, and cone sheets. The volcanoes erupted about 2.6 to
2.5 million years ago. Canjilon Hill (shown in above photo) is a maar/tuff
ring complex south of the main field. It is made of tephra, flows, sills,
dikes, and cone sheets. The San Felipe volcanic field is about 15 km
northeast of Albuquerque in the Santo Domingo Basin and only a few
kilometers south of the south edge of the Jemez Mountains.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Johnson.
Sources of Information:
Kelly, V.C., and Kudo, A.M., 1978, Volcanoes and related basalts of Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico: MN Bureau Mines Min. Circular 156, 30 p. Wood, C.A., and Kienle, J., 1993, Volcanoes of North America: Cambridge University Press, New York, 354 p.
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