Our recent visits to El Malpais and Capulin (scroll down for photos), along with Valles Caldera, the Jemez range, and so on, put us in mind of the concept Volcanic New Mexico.
The NM climate (which right now is cold and dangerously dry) helps preserve volcanic phenomena. Every major volcanic landform (composite volcano, shield volcano, volcanic caldera, major ash-flows, pahoehoe and aa lava, maar crater, fissure eruptions, cinder cones) occurs here! Check out this nifty PDF file that provides an overview (for the 'non-specialist'...yep, that would be us) of New Mexico's eye-popping volcanic fields. The photo above the drawing depicts the Valles Caldera from space.
There is a 1 percent chance that NM will experience a volcanic eruption in the next 100 years. Wait....whooaaa....what's that rumbling sound---------
Dr. Larry Crumpler's informative site.
Drawing from http://tikioneworld.net
