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La Garita Caldera

Coordinates: 37°45′23″N 106°56′03″W / 37.75639°N 106.93417°W / 37.75639; -106.93417
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Garita Caldera
Volcanic ash formations of La Garita Caldera, looking northeast (Wheeler Geologic Monument).
Highest point
Coordinates37°45′23″N 106°56′03″W / 37.75639°N 106.93417°W / 37.75639; -106.93417
Geography
La Garita Caldera is located in Colorado
La Garita Caldera
La Garita Caldera
Position of La Garita Caldera in Colorado
LocationMineral County, Colorado, US, near Creede
Parent rangeSan Juan Mountains
Geology
Mountain typeCaldera
Last eruption26.3 mya (Fish Canyon Tuff 27.8 mya)

La Garita Caldera is a large supervolcanic caldera in the San Juan Mountains. It is near the town of Creede in southwestern Colorado, United States.[1]

The volcanic eruption is one of the largest known in Earth's history and one of the most powerful known supervolcanic events. This eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 8, the highest on the scale.[2][3]

All mountains and calderas on the West coast of the Americas have the same root cause: they are all a product of the western move of the Americas, which has been going on for millions of years. That is basically why the Americas have mountains in the West, and lowlands in the East.

References

[change | change source]
  1. Steven, Thomas A.; Lipman, Peter W. (1976). "Calderas of the San Juan Volcanic Field, Southwestern Colorado". U.S. Geological Survey Professional Papers. 958. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office: 1–35. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  2. "What's the Biggest Volcanic Eruption Ever?". livescience.com. November 10, 2010. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  3. Best, MG (2013). "The 36–18 Ma Indian Peak–Caliente ignimbrite field and calderas, southeastern Great Basin, USA: Multicyclic super-eruptions". Geosphere. 9 (4): 864–950. Bibcode:2013Geosp...9..864B. doi:10.1130/GES00902.1.