We continued our venture onto, and into, the Taos Plateau Volcanics around the Rio Grande and Red River Gorges, exploring the surprisingly diverse range of volcanic rocks (Servilleta Basalts to andesite and dacites), earlier sub-surface paleotopography, and how exciting incipient landslide blocks can be.
Christine Chan (USGS) sizes up the scene
Part of the Red Gorge package of dacites, basalts, and andesites
Baked paleosol underlying andesite flow
Next we visited La Junta – the confluence between the Rio Grande and Red Rivers revealed an amazing section of ~4 million year old Servilleta basalts with features as fresh as Kilauean lava flows on Hawaii
Beautiful dragged vesicle pipe in Servilleta basalt
Discussing flow features in Servilleta basalt
La Junta – A great place for contemplating fluvial and landslide geomorphology (Sam Johnstone [USGS] and Paul Richardson [UO]
View up-gorge from the incorrectly named “buried volcano” location
Leap of faith over incipient fractures that will eventually lead to another slump block in the Rio Grande Gorge
Dacite lobes interspersed with Servilleta basalts
Mike Dungan (UO) and Ren Thompson (USGS) working through the geologic map. Photo by Prof. Marli Miller
Evening at the Sagebrush, in Taos