GM-79 — Geologic map of the Valles Caldera

By Fraser Goff, Jamie N. Gardner, Steven L. Reneau, Shari A. Kelley, Kirt A. Kempter, and John R. Lawrence, 2011, scale 1:50,000, 30-page text, 1 sheet, 3 cross sections.

The Valles caldera, located in the heart of the Jemez Mountains in north-central New Mexico, is the world’s premier example of a resurgent caldera, a giant circular volcano with an uplifted central floor and a near-perfect ring of roughly 15 postcaldera lava dome and flow eruptions.

This new Valles caldera map and cross sections represent the cumulative research efforts of countless geologists over the past 40 years, and several state and federal agencies. GM–79 compiles detailed geologic mapping completed in the past eight years from parts of the nine 7.5–min USGS topographic quadrangles that encompass the caldera. More than 150 map units are described in detail. Also incorporated are new geochronologic data and recent refinements to nomenclature.

Available folded or rolled on field-durable media.

There is also a bandana and puzzle version of this geologic map available.