New Mexico Geological Society
Fall Field Conference Guidebook - 55
Geology of the Taos Region

Brian Brister, Paul W. Bauer, Adam S. Read and Virgil W. Lueth, eds., 2004, 440 pages.

We return to Taos after a 20-year hiatus. On the 1984 field conference (Guidebook 35), participants circumnavigated the Picuris Mountains on Day 1, explored high into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on Day 2, and crossed the rift into the Tusas Mountains on Day 3. This year, the focus of the conference is quite different. We spend all of the first two days investigating the southern San Luis rift basin. On Day 1 (6 stops, 107 miles), we trace the dramatic Rio Grande gorge, stopping periodically to delve into the geologic history of the sedimentary and volcanic materials that fill the rift and the geomorphic history of the Rio Grande and its tributaries. On Day 2 (5 stops, 49 miles), we plot a course along the southeast boundary of the basin, tracking the structurally complex transition from the master rift fault zone to the rift accommodation zone. On Day 3 (3 stops, 23 miles), we cross from the San Luis to Espanola Basins, stalking elusive pre-rift structural basins and their spectacular sedimentary sequences. The roadlogs and papers in this guidebook and the field conference presentations highlight a vast body of new geologic data emerging from the Taos area.

Papers from this guidebook are available for download from the NMGS website.