Durango volcanic field is a

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes ...

in north-central Mexico (

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

), east of the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Co ...

. The field covers a surface area of . The volcanic field is located in the Tepehuano terrane. Volcanism in the area was accompanied by tectonic extension. There are around hundred cones in the field. Some volcanic rocks have been affected by faulting; buried faults are also found. The San Luis-Tepehuanes fault system is associated with the field. The whole field is covered by lavas, which are about thick and reach a total volume of . Magma ascent has been controlled by northwest-trending faults. Volcanism in the wider territory was related to the subduction of the Farallon plate until 29 mya. Later tectonic changes caused a start of more alkaline volcanism. The volcanoes have erupted

basanite Basanite () is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. It is composed mostly of feldspathoids, pyroxenes, olivine, and plagioclase and forms from magma low in silica and enriched in alkali metal oxides that ...

. The main components of the rocks at La Breña-El Jagüey are

clinopyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...

, ilmenite, olivine, plagioclase and

titanomagnetite Titanomagnetite is a mineral containing oxides of titanium and iron, with the formula Fe2+(Fe3+,Ti)2O4. It is also known as titaniferous magnetite, mogensenite, Ti-magnetite, or titanian magnetite. It is part of the spinel group of minerals. The Cu ...

, with rocks sporting variable textures. The participation of water in the formation process of these magmas is debatable; the rocks may have been influenced by sediments from the uppermost part of the subducting Farallon slab. These rocks are of mafic intraplate geochemistry. The rocks contain mantle xenoliths. The most prominent volcanic centres of the field are the La Breña-El Jagüey maars. They form intersected craters and the larger Brena crater has cinder cones within. The diameter of the Brena maar is and Jagüey , rising above a high lava plain. Each maar is surrounded by a

tuff ring Phreatomagmatic eruptions are volcanic eruptions resulting from interaction between magma and water. They differ from exclusively magmatic eruptions and phreatic eruptions. Unlike phreatic eruptions, the products of phreatomagmatic eruptions cont ...

high. Jaguey presently holds a permanent lake and the formation of both maars was probably influenced by groundwater. Jaguey maar likely formed first, with the Brena maar forming eruption generating surge fields. The formation of the maars has partly buried some neighbouring cinder cones. Other cones in the field may date back to Pliocene- Pleistocene times given their state of degradation; one K-Ar date is 0.8 mya. These two maars may be the most recent eruption products of the field, likely of Holocene age given the unvegetated appearance of the lava flows. The field is an inhospitable terrain.

References

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