JA Volcano | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 5,944 ft (1,812 m) |
Prominence | 114 ft (35 m) |
Coordinates | 35°07′39″N106°46′22″W / 35.1275°N 106.7728°W |
Geography | |
Location | Petroglyph National Monument, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, US |
Geology | |
Age of rock | > 10,000 years |
Mountain type | Stratovolcano |
Last eruption | 150,000+ years ago |
JA Volcano is an inactive volcano located near Albuquerque, New Mexico. JA Volcano is the southernmost of 5 volcanoes in a 5-mile chain within the western boundary of Petroglyph National Monument. [1]
The volcano has been the site of repeated pranks: [2]
"Volcano “Erupts” But Fools No One—a 1950 newspaper headline declared. Nobody was fooled, apparently, because the same prank—piling tires on the side of a volcano and setting them on fire to simulate an eruption—had been tried in 1947 with much greater success (even causing a panic in the city). For years students from nearby St Joseph would paint a "J" on Vulcan Volcano, when the light is right it can still be seen." St. Joseph College was later named the University of Albuquerque. In 1950 the College of St. Joseph began its move into a newly built campus on the palisades along the Rio Grande below the volcano. The name was changed to the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande. In 1966, the institution changed its name again to the University of Albuquerque. Twenty years later, it closed its doors and became the campus of Pius X high school.
The volcano is composed of a type of volcanic rock called olivine tholeiitic basalt. Radiometric dating indicates an age for this rock of about 156,000 years. [3] The volcano consists of two flows with a spatter cone at the center. Late in the eruption, subterranean pressure bulged the surface beneath the cone, causing radial cracking that resulted in emplacement of dikes around the cone. A final explosion blew out the eastern rim of the cone. [4]
Lava Beds National Monument is located in northeastern California, in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. The monument lies on the northeastern flank of Medicine Lake Volcano, which is the largest volcano by area in the Cascade Range.
Kilbourne Hole is a maar volcanic crater, located 30 miles (48 km) west of the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, in the Potrillo volcanic field of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Another maar, Hunt's Hole, lies just two miles (3.2 km) south. Kilbourne Hole is notable for the large number of mantle xenoliths that were carried to the surface by the eruption.
Petroglyph National Monument stretches 17 miles (27 km) along Albuquerque, New Mexico's West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city's western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acres (2,928 ha) monument is cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque. The western boundary of the monument features a chain of dormant fissure volcanoes. Beginning in the northwest corner, Butte volcano is followed to its south by Bond, Vulcan, Black and JA volcanoes.
Mount Taylor is a dormant stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest.
The West Potrillo Mountains are a mountain range in south central Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. They are located approximately 40 miles (64 km) northwest of El Paso, Texas, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Deming, New Mexico Most of the mountains are located on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument. Access to the vicinity is through Doña Ana County Road B-4 South from NM 549, which may be accessed from Interstate 10 Exit 116.
The Jornada del Muerto Volcano is a small shield volcano and lava field in central New Mexico, about 10 by 15 miles in size and reaching an elevation of 5,136 feet (1,565 m). Jornada del Muerto means "Dead Man's Route" in Spanish, referring to the desolate colonial era trail from New Spain through this Malpaís region.
The Raton-Clayton volcanic field is a volcanic field located in the state of New Mexico, United States. Capulin Volcano National Monument is located in the volcanic field. It is the northeasternmost volcanic field of the Jemez Lineament and the easternmost Cenozoic volcanic field of North America.
San Felipe volcanic field is a monogenetic volcanic field located just north of the confluence of the Jemez River and the Rio Grande in New Mexico, US.
The Albuquerque volcanic field is a monogenetic volcanic field in the Albuquerque Basin in New Mexico, United States. It is located about 7 miles (11 km) west of the city of Albuquerque, and is contained within the borders of Petroglyph National Monument. The field was active from 190,000 to 155,000 years ago and includes lava flows, cinder cones, and spatter cones. The oldest lava flows cover about 23 square miles (60 km2). The cones are aligned and possibly formed above two roughly north-south trending fissures. Vulcan is the highest feature. Its base is made of cinder, but the crater contains a lava dome that was cut by an explosive eruption.
The Acoma-Zuni Section is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is bounded on the east by the Albuquerque Basin, a Rio Grande Rift basin in the northern part of the Basin and Range Province. The Datil-Mogollon Section lies to the south. It is also a newly defined physiographic unit that includes the northern part of the area previously designated the Datil Section. The southeastern edge of the Colorado Plateau from Springerville, Arizona, northeastward to the tip of the Sierra Nacimiento comprises this area.
Caja del Rio is a dissected plateau, of volcanic origin, which covers approximately 84,000 acres of land in northern Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. The region is also known as the Caja, Caja del Rio Plateau, and Cerros del Rio. The center of the area is approximately 15 miles (23 km) west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most of the Caja is owned by the United States Forest Service and managed by the Santa Fe National Forest. Access is through New Mexico Highway 599, Santa Fe County Road 62, and Forest Service Road 24.
Black Volcano is an inactive volcano located near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is part of the Albuquerque volcanic field. Black Volcano is located directly north of JA volcano. Black Volcano is the second of five volcanoes within the western boundary of Petroglyph National Monument. North of Black Volcano are Vulcan, Bond and Butte volcanoes. JA, Black, and Vulcan Volcanoes are located along a single fissure through which the lava erupted. The volcanoes are a rare example of a series of vents associated with a fissure eruption.
The Mogollon-Datil volcanic field is a large silicic volcanic field in western New Mexico. It is a part of an extensive Eocene to Oligocene volcanic event which includes the San Juan volcanic field in southwestern Colorado, the Trans-Pecos volcanic field in west Texas and north central Mexico, the Boot Heel volcanic field in the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico and adjacent areas of Arizona and Mexico; and the vast volcanic field of the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico. The Mogollon-Datil volcanic field was formed in "four discrete pulses representing synchronized activity of two separate cauldron complexes".
Aden Crater is a small shield volcano located in Doña Ana County, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is located in the northwest part of the Aden-Afton basalt field, which is part of the central area of the Potrillo volcanic field.
The Caballo Mountains, are a mountain range located in Sierra and Doña Ana Counties, New Mexico, United States. The range is located east of the Rio Grande and Caballo Lake, and west of the Jornada del Muerto; the south of the range extends into northwest Doña Ana County. The nearest towns are Truth or Consequences and Hatch.
Vulcan, named after the Roman god of fire, is an inactive volcano on the West Mesa near Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the largest of six volcanoes in the Albuquerque volcanic field within Petroglyph National Monument. Vulcan is a spatter cone volcano, formed primarily by lava fountains that were active in the central vent and in smaller vents on flanks of the cone. These flank vents formed the arches and caves seen today. It is believed to have last erupted around 150,000 years ago.
The Albuquerque Basin is a structural basin and ecoregion within the Rio Grande rift in central New Mexico. It contains the city of Albuquerque.
The Keres Group is a group of geologic formations exposed in and around the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Radiometric dating gives it an age of 13 to 6 million years, corresponding to the Miocene epoch.
Bandera Volcano Ice Cave, also known as Zuni Ice Cave, is a lava tube cave in New Mexico with an internal temperature significantly less than above-ground summertime ambient temperature; it contains perennial ice. The inside temperatures can fluctuate between −1 and 10 °C. Some areas of the ice cave never reach above freezing. For years, local Indigenous people used the cave to store food.