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Database for the geologic map of the central San Juan caldera cluster, southwestern Colorado

This geodatabase contains all the geologic map information for the Geologic Map of the San Juan caldera cluster, southwestern Colorado and is part of U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Map Series I-2799. The San Juan Mountains are the largest erosional remnant of a composite volcanic field that covered much of the southern Rocky Mountains in middle Tertiary time. The San Juan field consists mainly of intermediate-composition lavas and breccias, erupted about 35-30 Ma from scattered central volcanoes (Conejos Formation) and overlain by voluminous ash-flow sheets erupted from caldera sources. In the central San Juan Mountains, eruption of at least 8,800 km3 of dacitic-rhyolitic magma as nine major ash flow sheets (individually 150-5,000 km3) was accompanied by recurrent caldera subsidence between 28.3 Ma and about 26.5 Ma. Voluminous andesitic-dacitic lavas and breccias were erupted from central volcanoes prior to the ash-flow eruptions, and similar lava eruptions continued within and adjacent to the calderas during the period of more silicic explosive volcanism. Exposed calderas vary in size from 10 to 75 km in maximum dimension, the largest calderas being associated with the most voluminous eruptions.

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Author(s) Joel E Robinson orcid, Nicole Thomas, Dillon R. Dutton, David W Ramsey orcid, Peter W Lipman orcid, Tracey J Felger orcid
Publication Date 2022
Beginning Date of Data 1986
Ending Date of Data 1999
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P96QT04Y
Citation Robinson, J.E., Thomas, N., Dutton, D.R., Ramsey, D.W., Lipman, P.W., and Felger, T.J., 2022, Database for the geologic map of the central San Juan caldera cluster, southwestern Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P96QT04Y.
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Metadata Date 2022-11-15
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2022-11-17T04:42:51.085Z