Geologic Excursions in Southwestern North America
This volume, prepared as part of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Phoenix, includes field guides covering aspects of the spectacular geology of southwestern North America. Field guides tackle the geology of the southern Colorado Plateau, from paleoenvironments of Petrified Forest National Park, to Jurassic sand dunes of southern Utah, to the San Francisco Volcanic Field, to awesome Grand Canyon. Appropriately for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing, one trip visits sites in northern Arizona that helped prepare astronauts for their missions. Several guides address aspects of the Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonic development of the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Exploring the Basin and Range, guides feature Laramide tectonism and ore deposit development, features associated with large-magnitude Cenozoic extensional tectonism, large Miocene volcanic centers in northwestern Arizona, and tectonism and development of the lower Colorado River. Three field guides explore various aspects of northwestern Mexico, including tectonics and ore deposits of Sonora, fauna and paleoenvironments of Colorado River delta deposits, and volcanism in central Baja California. Finally, a guide analyzes anthropogenic earth fissures that have developed in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Unraveling volcanic and related processes using remotely sensed data sets: Perspectives from a Miocene-aged volcanic terrain in northwest Arizona
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Published:September 04, 2019
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CiteCitation
Nicholas P. Lang*, Susanne M. McDowell, Cole A. Nypaver, Brandt M. Gibson, Briana Li-Vidal, Calvin F. Miller, Lily L. Claiborne, Autumn Helfrich, Joseph McCosby, Eli Schwat, Ian P. Thompson, Blake Wallrich, Michelle Foley, Sarah McGuinness, Carlos Gomez, 2019. "Unraveling volcanic and related processes using remotely sensed data sets: Perspectives from a Miocene-aged volcanic terrain in northwest Arizona", Geologic Excursions in Southwestern North America, Philip A. Pearthree
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ABSTRACT
This field trip will visit the southern Black Mountains volcanic center (SBMVC) and its associated products in northwestern Arizona. Post-volcanic extension and erosion of this semi-arid area afford the opportunity to examine a Miocene-aged (ca. 19–17 Ma) volcanic terrain in detail, using an approach that integrates fieldwork, petrography and geochemistry, and remotely sensed data. This approach was recently used in a three-year National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate (NSF REU) program, from which some results will be highlighted. This integrated approach can provide insight into the amounts and types of information that can be gleaned from various types of remotely sensed data of a volcanic terrain. Over three days, we will work our way through the volcanic section associated with the SBMVC as exposed near Oatman and Kingman, Arizona, to observe: (1) felsic to mafic shallow intrusions; (2) deposits from felsic to intermediate explosive and effusive eruptions; (3) deposits from sedimentary processes; and (4) the results of subsequent extensional faulting. The petrologic, physical volcanic, and morphologic characteristics of observed outcrops will be discussed at each field stop, and will be used as points of discussion while in the field, for observations of presumably volcanic terrains on other planetary bodies. An appended road log serves as a geologic guide to this volcanic center and associated rocks.