Continental Scientific Drilling Program : Valles Caldera, New Mexico
Los Alamos National Laboratory (Researcher), United States Department of Energy (Sponsor), United States Department of Energy Geothermal Division (Researcher), United States Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information (Distributor)
The U.S. Continental Scientific Drilling Program attempts to develop a better understanding of the geologic and hydrologic mechanisms within the continental crust, under the auspices of an interagency group comprising the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Ten years of research and drilling in the Valles caldera of northern New Mexico has provided a new understanding of volcanism and geothermal systems within a large caldera. Situated at the intersection of the Rio Grande rift and the Jemez volcanic lineament, the Valles caldera and Toledo calderas were formed during two massive eruptions 1.1 and 1.5 M a that vented approximately 300 to 400 km³ of high-silica rhyolitic tephra. The research at the Valles/Toledo caldera has provided more than 3000 m of corehole samples, which are stored in a repository in Grand Junction, Colorado, and are accessible to the public. This research has also helped support theories of mineral deposition within hydrothermal systems-hot water circulating through breccias, leaching elements from the rocks, and later depositing veins of economically valuable materials
eBook, English, 1993
United States. Dept. of Energy ; Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C., Oak Ridge, Tenn., 1993