DESCRIPTION:
Nevada Volcanoes and Volcanics

[Map,40K,InlineGIF]
Major Volcanic Areas of Nevada
Topinka, USGS/CVO, 1999, using U. S. National Park Service Basemap, volcanoes from Wood and Kienle, (eds.), 1990

(California-Nevada)

The Adobe Hills volcanic area is comprised of a sheetlike mass of overlapping olivine basalt flows that cover an irregularly shaped, generally east-west-trending area of approximately 800 square kilometers. This area, which extends eastward for approximately 60 kilometers from the eastern shore of Mono Lake, is roughly bisected by the California-Nevada border. The irregular sheet of basalt flows locally attains thicknesses of nearly 200 meters in its central part, where multiple flows overlap, but thins to individual flows, with thicknesses of less than 10 meters, along its northern and southern margins.Its highly irregular shape and subregional extent suggest an origin by numerous eruptions from a number of widely spaced centers. ...

The Adobe Hills area is approximately 20 kilometers east of Lee Vining, California. ... The area is flanked on the south by California State Highway 120 and U.S. 6 and on the north by California State Highway 167 and Nevada State Highway 359.

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(California-Nevada)

The Aurora-Bodie volcanic field occurs east-northeast of Mono Lake, between the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin. Calc-alkaline andesite, dacite and trachyandesite lavas, breccias and ashflow tuffs, dated 15 to 8 million years ago, underlie a tighter concentration of younger alkaline-calcic cinder cones and flows. The older volcanics cover approximately 80 square kilometers with a volume of approximately 35 cubic kilometers.

Andesite domes and flows, 4.5 to 2 million years in age, occur at Cedar Hill and other areas in the field, and Pleistocene to late Holocene basaltic rocks forming well-preserved cinder cones and flows cover approximately 100 square kilometers. The probable late Pleistocene age Mud Springs volcano consists of a steep-fronted bulbous flow surrounding a depressed vent area, and a 7-kilometer-long ridged flow, together creating a remarkably distinctive landform. Although trees cover the flows, partially accounting for their dark color, the volcano is clearly one of the freshest in the Aurora-Bodie field.

Aurora Crater, approximately 12 kilometers west of Mud Springs volcano, is a 1.7-kilometer-wide breached crater of approximately 250,000 years, totally surrounded by lava flows, with an estimated total volume of 2 cubic kilometers. ...

Many of the volcanoes are cut by faults, and Pleistocene basalt has been warped as well. The topography of the entire area has been softened by ash probably erupted by the younger Mono Craters to the southwest. Gold and silver found in quartz veins in the Miocene (but not younger) volcanic rocks were mined until about 1950, and only the ghost towns of Bodie, California, and Aurora, Nevada, remain.

California Highway 167, which passes north of Mono Lake and leads to Nevada, is south of the Aurora-Bodie volcanic field.

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Mongenetic Quaternary volcanic field, 15 kilometers in length, 4-5 kilometers in width, 1,420 - 1,750 meters in elevation, 3.05 to 0.92 million years old, of olivine basalt composition. ... The Buffalo Valley volcanic field is located along the eastern margin of Buffalo Valley just north of the Fish Creek Mountains caldera (around 2.4 million years old). The field is comprised of 14 vents and associated flows which form a northeast-trending zone, approximately 5 kilometers wide and 15 kilometers long, along the northwest flank and piedmont of the Fish Creek Mountains. Both cones and flows are relatively small. Most of the vents are surmounted by breached cinder cones of highly variable size and shape. Several of these cones occur as contiguous pairs or triplets with north to northeast alignments that generally parallel the overall trend of the field. Cone heights range from approximately 50 to 100 meters and cone diameters from 150 to 500 meters. Flow areas are each less than 0.5 square kilometers, and the combined area of all the cones and flows is approximately 10 square kilometers. ... K-Ar dates from four flows within the field indicate that most of the cones and flows are early Pleistocene, although one flow yielded a late Pliocene age. ... The Buffalo Valley volcanic field is situated along the southeast margin of Buffalo Valley in north-central Nevada. The field is locate approximately 235 kilometers east-northeast of Reno, Nevada, and about 5 kilometers southwest of Battle Mountain, Nevada.

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A solitary cinder cone at the northern end of Clayton Valley on the northeast piedmont of the Silver Peak Range. Clayton Valley cinder cone is 85 meters in height, 715 meters in diameter, 1,405 to 1,490 meters in elevation, alkali-olivine basalt composition, and erupted 390,000 years ago. ... The Clayton Valley cinder cone is a solitary cone and flow at the northern end of Clayton Valley on the northeast piedmont of the Silver Peak Range. The closest major late Tertiary or Quaternary volcanic center, the 6.1 - 4.8 million-year-old Silver Peak caldera, is situated on the crest of the Silver Peak Range approximately 25 kilometers to the southwest. However, the Clayton Valley cone does not appear to be genetically related to this caldera. ... Clayton Valley is in western Nevada, approximately 45 kilometers southwest of Tonopah, Nevada. The Clayton Valley cone lies just east of Nevada State Highway 265 at a point approximately 27 kilometers south of the junction of this highway with U.S. 95.

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The Buffalo Valley volcanic field is located along the eastern margin of Buffalo Valley just north of the Fish Creek Mountains caldera (around 2.4 million years old).

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• monogenetic volcanic field
• 1,585 to 2,255 meters in elevation
• 40 kilometers in length
• 10 kilometers in width
• 4.2 million to around 15,000 years old
• subalkaline basalt to basanite composition

The Lunar Crater volcanic field, an apparent middle to late Pliocene and Pleistocene continuation of the Reveille Range volcanic field immediately to the southwest, is superposed across the 25-million-year-old Lunar Lake caldera, a crudely circular topographic basin on the crest of the Pancake Range. The field contains approximately 95 late Pliocene and Pleistocene vents and at least 35 associated lava flows contained within a northeast-trending zone, up to 10 kilometers wide and approximately 40 kilometers long, that extends obliquely across the flanks and crest of the range. Vents include cinder cones, elongate fissures, and at least two maars. Lunar Crater, a nearly circular maar, approximately 130 meters deep and 1,050 meters wide, is the most distinctive feature of the field. A second maar, approximately 550 meters wide and 65 meters deep, occurs at the south end of a northeast-trending chain of coalesced cinder cones. Several other northeast-trending alignments of closely spaced and coalesced cinder cones characterize the field. Lava flows range up to 1.9 kilometers wide and 6.1 kilometers long with thicknesses from less than 3 meters to as much as 25 meters. Progressive degradation of the cones and flows is very similar to that displayed by other basaltic volcanic fields in the southwest Basin and Range (including the Cima, Crater Flat, and Coso fields). Many of the flows in the northeast and central parts of the field are veneered with varying thicknesses of air-fall tephra. In other areas, all but the youngest flows are mantled with extensive deposits of aeolian silt and fine sand.

The Lunar Crater volcanic field is in the central Great Basin, approximately 105 kilometers east-northeast of Tonopah, Nevada, and 140 kilometers southwest of Ely, Nevada. U.S. Highway 6 runs through the center of the Lunar Crater field.

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Monogenetic volcanic field, 1,535 to 2,265 meters in elevation, 45 kilometers in length, 15-18 kilometers in width, with predominantly alkali-olivine basalt and hawaiite composition. Reveille Range had two principal periods of activity: 6.2 to 5.3 million years ago, and 4.2 to 3.8 million years ago. ... The Reveille Range volcanic field contains approximately 50 vents and associated lava flows within a north-south-trending zone, approximately 18 kilometers wide and 45 kilometers long, that is superposed across most of the length and width of the range. Vents and flows are widely scattered within this zone and cover a combined area of only about 140 square kilometers (about 17% of the total area of the zone. Flows range up to nearly 3 kilometers in width and 7 kilometers in length. ... The Reveille Range volcanic field is located in the central Great Basin, approximately 105 kilometers east-northeast of Tonopah, Nevada, and 140 kilometers southwest of Ely, Nevada.

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Mongenetic Quaternary volcanic field of basalt composition. ... Three of four flows of Quaternary age basaltic lava straddle the Nevada-Oregon border in an area relatively remote from other young volcanism. The flows (20-35 kilometers long) issued from small shield volcanoes. Only one isotopic age of 1.2 million years is available for the flows. ... The lava flows are in the Charles Sheldon National Antelope Range, which is crossed by Highways 140, 34A, and 8A.

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The Clayton Valley cinder cone is a solitary cone and flow at the northern end of Clayton Valley on the northeast piedmont of the Silver Peak Range. The closes major late Tertiary or Quaternary volcanic center, the 6.1 - 4.8 million-year-old Silver Peak caldera, is situated on the crest of the Silver Peak Range approximately 25 kilometers to the southwest. However, the Clayton Valley cone does not appear to be genetically related to this caldera. ...

Rhyolite dome volcanic field, 1,415 meters elevation, 2.53 to 1.14 million years old. ... A small volcanic field of domes and flows occurs at the south end of Truckee Meadows from approximately 20 kilometers south-southwest of Reno, Nevada, to approximately 12 kilometers south-southeast of Reno, aligned along a northeasterly trend. The western dome is 3 kilometers south-southwest of Steamboat Hot Springs, a questionable dome underlies the hot springs, and 4 other domes are northeast of the springs. The south-west dome and one of the northeast domes are the largest, being one kilometer in diameter and nearly 150 meters in maximum relief. ... Two domes have radiometric ages of 1.21 and 1.14 million years, but 2 obsidian whole-rock ages for one of the domes are approximately 3.0 million years; the anomaly is unresolved. The age of the thermal springs is possibly as much as 3.0 million years. Certainly by 1.1 million years ago activity had started, and it continues to the present time. The active sinter deposits include gold, silver, mercury, antimony, arsenic, thallium, and boron; small quantities are commercial in grade. ... Steamboat Springs is 16 kilometers south of Reno, Nevada, and the thermal areas are easily accessible by car of bus from U.S. Highway 395 (easter side) or Nevada Highway 431 (north edge).

Much of the Steamboat Springs area is underlain by Cretaceous granodiorite. Pleistocene basaltic andesite flows cap the hills to the south of the main hot springs area. The hot-spring system formed in the early Pleistocene, prior to the eruption of the basaltic andesite flows.

Steamboat Springs is an example of a present-day, active epithermal gold-silver hydrothermal system. The thermal area is on a line connecting several rhyolite domes located to the southeast and northeast, and it has been proposed that another rhyolite intrusion may underlie the hot-spring area. The source of energy for the thermal system is most probably the completely crystallized magma chamber from which the rhyolite domes were emplaced.

The basaltic andesites have been dated at approximately 2.5 million years old and the rhyolite domes have been dated at 1.15 to 1.52 million years old. Thus, the hot-spring system has been active, possibly intermittently, for over 2.5 million years.

Hydrothermal and Geothermal Activity Menu

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Polygenetic volcanic centers, 1,065 to 1,675 meters in elevation, hawaiite to alkali basalt in composition. Timber Mountain's eruptive history consisted of three episodes: 12 to 8.5 million years ago (waning stage of Timber Mountain caldera cycle), 9.0 to 6.5 million years ago; and 3.7 million to less than 10,000 years ago. ... Late Cenozoic volcanic centers of the Timber Mountain volcanic field include spatially isolated small volume basaltic scoria cones and associated lava flows. Volcanic activity in this field switched from predominantly silicic to predominantly basaltic approximately 10 million years ago. The volume of basalt eruptions declined drastically approximately 8 million years ago, but small eruptions continued through 6.5 million years. Following a gap in activity, basaltic eruptions resumed at 3.7 million years, with a progressive decline in the volume through the Holocene. ... Basaltic centers associated with the oldest episode of activity were localized within and along ring-fracture zones of calderas of the Timber Mountain volcanic field. In association with the decline in eruption volume of basalt, volcanic activity was restricted to the northeast part of the Timber Mountain area. Since 3.7 million years ago, all basaltic centers have been in the southwest part of the volcanic field.

There are three major occurrences of post-4 million-years-ago basaltic activity in the Timber Mountain field:

1. Crater Flat: A series of deeply dissected 3.7-million-year-old basalt scoria cones and lava flows are present in eastern Crater Flat. Four more basaltic center (1.2 million years old) are aligned along a north-northeast trending arc in central Crater Flat. The youngest center in this area is the basalt of Lathrop Wells (100,000 to 10,000 years old), at the south end of Crater Flat.

2. Buckboard Mesa: The basalt of Buckboard Mesa (2.8 million years old) erupted in the northeast segment of the moat zone of Timber Mountain caldera.

3. Sleeping Butte: Two other Quaternary basalt centers occur at Sleeping Butte (300,000 to 10,000 years old), 30 kilometers north of Beatty, Nevada, on the south flank of the Black Mountain caldera complex.

The Buckboard and Sleeping Butte volcanic centers are within the controlled boundaries of the Nevada Test Site or the Nellis Bombing and Gunnary Range. These sites are not accessible to the public. The southern center of the Sleeping Butte group is visible from Highway 95, approximately 16 kilometers north of Beatty. The Crater Flat volcanic field is approximately 150 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

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