Geologic Map of the Ute Mountain 7.5' Quadrangle, Taos County, New Mexico, and Conejos and Costilla Counties, Colorado By Ren A. Thompson, Kenzie J. Turner, Ralph R. Shroba, Michael A. Cosca, Chester A. Ruleman, John P. Lee, and Theodore R. Brandt 2014 Scientific Investigations Map 3284 ABSTRACT The Ute Mountain 7.5' quadrangle is located in the south-central part of the San Luis Basin of northern New Mexico, in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, and contains deposits that record volcanic, tectonic, and associated alluvial and colluvial processes over the past four million years. Ute Mountain has the distinction of being one of the largest intermediate composition eruptive centers of the Taos Plateau, a largely volcanic tableland occupying the southern portion of the San Luis Basin. Ute Mountain rises to an elevation in excess of 3,000 m, nearly 700 m above the basaltic plateau at its base, and is characterized by three distinct phases of Pliocene eruptive activity recorded in the stratigraphy exposed on the flanks of the mountain and in the Rio Grande gorge. Unconformably overlain by largely flat-lying lava flows of Servilleta Basalt, the area surrounding Ute Mountain records a westward thickening of basin-fill volcanic deposits interstratified in the subsurface with Pliocene basin-fill sedimentary deposits derived from older Tertiary and Precambrian sources to the east. Superimposed on this volcanic stratigraphy are alluvial and colluvial deposits derived from the flanks of Ute Mountain, and more distally-derived alluvium from the uplifted Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east that record a complex temporal and stratigraphic succession of Quaternary basin deposition and erosion. Pliocene and younger basin deposition was accommodated along predominantly north-trending fault-bounded grabens. These poorly exposed fault scarps cut lava flows of Ute Mountain volcano. The Servilleta Basalt and younger surficial deposits record largely down-to-east basinward displacement. Faults are identified with varying confidence levels in the map area. Recognizing and mapping faults developed near the surface in young, brittle volcanic rocks is difficult because: (1) they tend to form fractured zones tens of meters wide rather than discrete fault planes, (2) the relative youth of the deposits has resulted in only modest displacements on most faults, and (3) some of the faults may have significant strike-slip components that do not result in large vertical offsets that are readily apparent in offset of sub-horizontal contacts. Those faults characterized as “certain” either have distinct offset of map units or had slip planes that were directly observed in the field. Lineaments defined from magnetic anomalies form an additional constraint on potential fault locations and are indicated as such on the map sheet. DISCLAIMERS Any use of trade, product or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also contains copyrighted material as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items for other than personal use must be secured from the copyright owner. This database, identified as SIM 3284, has been approved for release and publication by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although this database has been subjected to rigorous review and is substantially complete,the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, it is released on condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty, expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute such warranty. The USGS or the U.S Government shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. DATA FILES List of files: 00ReadMe.txt SIM3284.pdf SIM3284.met Datafiles directory ute_mtn_base.tif/tfw ute_mtn_hillshade.tif/tfw UteMtn_geology.gdb.zip directory ute_geol ute_aeromag ute_geolines ute_labels ute_polygons ute_sample SIM3284_shapefiles.zip directory: ute_aeromag.shp (dbf/prj/sbn/sbx/shp.xml/shx) ute_geolines.shp (dbf/prj/sbn/sbx/shp.xml/shx) ute_labels.shp (dbf/prj/sbn/sbx/shp.xml/shx) ute_polygons.shp (dbf/prj/sbn/sbx/shp.xml/shx) ute_sample.shp (dbf/prj/sbn/sbx/shp.xml/shx) HOW TO OBTAIN THE DIGITAL FILES The digital files constituting the geologic map database of this report can be obtained via the Internet from the U.S. Geological Survey publications website. Go to the web page at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3284/ or http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sim3284 and follow the directions to download the files. The main product is a Portable Document Format (.pdf) map, which requires Adobe Acrobat for viewing, and from which paper copies may be printed. 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