If you look around New Mexico, it is evident that volcanoes used to have a widespread presence
in the state.
What most people don’t realize is that today, New Mexico is still host to two active volcanoes.
This video will cover these volcanoes, and determine their future threats.
For this video, we are defining an active volcano as any volcano or volcanic field which
has erupted in the last 10,000 years.
The first active volcano we will cover is the so called Zuni Bandera volcanic field
in central western New Mexico.
It covers a vast area.
As you zoom in from satellite, a number of darkly colored regions are present.
These are not burn scars from wildfires, but rather dark basaltic rock from recent lava
flows.
The most recent of these lava flows formed about 3000 years ago.
In 1170 BC, A volcanic vent erupted and produced a non explosive eruption (which is known as
an effusive).
This eruption created a very large lava flow field, which travelled all the way north to
present day McCartys village.
This lava flow was termed the McCarty's lava flow.
This eruption was the most recent event from the Zuni Bandera volcanic field.
For the last 3.7 million years, there have been infrequent eruptions from various volcanic
vents within this region.
The second active volcano in New Mexico is known as the Carrizozo volcano.
This volcano is located in central New Mexico.
The most recent eruption of this volcano produced a lava flow so large that it can be seen from
space.
Do you see this elongated black area?
That is the 5200 year old lava flow.
Fully measured, this lava flow is 68 kilometers long!
It is estimated that the eruption which created this most recent lava flow occured continuously
for 20 to 30 years.
In this timeframe, the lava covered an area of 330 cubic kilometers, with an estimated
total volume of 4.2 cubic kilometers.
This amount of lava is comparable to the total volume erupted from Kiluaea between 1983 and
2018 on the big island of Hawaii.
Before I mention the hazards posed by these two volcanoes, I need to first mention why
two OTHER monitored volcanoes in New Mexico are not in this video.
Despite having an active geothermal system, the valles caldera supervolcano is classified
as dormant.
It last erupted 40,000 years ago and thus does not meet the 10,000 year old cutoff to
be classified as an active volcano.
Additionally, a smaller volcano, known as red hill erupted 3 times between 11,000 and
12,000 years ago.
This volcano barely missed the cutoff.
The two active volcanoes in New Mexico collectively pose a very low future hazard.
Although an eruption will occur again at some point in the future, there has not been any
recent geologic activity to suggest another eruption in the short term.
Additionally, these two volcanoes produce non explosive lava dominated eruptions.
This style of eruption poses a much lower hazard than an explosive style of eruption
made famous by Mount Saint Helens.
As a result, the US Geological survey has assigned both of these volcanoes and either
low or very low threat rating.
The Zuni bandera volcano was given a very low threat rating...while the Carrizozo volcano
was given a low threat rating.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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