Ep. 1- Capulin Volcano: How Tall Is Your Imagination?

New Mexico’s Capulin Volcano National Monument features a drive-up vista into four states across a volcanic landscape, as well as trail access to the crater and lava flows.  Its landscape and rocks tell a story of the power of Earth forces that expands the imagination. Meet interpretative ranger Geoff Goins and volcanologist Matt Zimmerer, to learn how less than a decade of eruptions may have built a mountain, and where New Mexico’s next eruption might take place.

Podcast chapters (M= minutes, S= seconds) are summarized here: 

 

0M 0S OPENING: Capulin’s volcano, its views, and its lava flow trail are the attractions. Join me for a walk with a ranger (Geoff Goins) and a chat with an expert on New Mexico’s volcanoes (Matt Zimmerer).

0M 50S IMAGINATION: Ranger Goins invites us to imagine Capulin’s formation. Jerry from Palmer Lake, Colorado and I talk in the crater about the eruption. Our imagination falls short of Geoff’s description of a cinder cone type of eruption.

5M 5S APPROACH: Ranger Goins and I discuss the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field as seen along the drive to Capulin, for those arriving from Texas.

7M 59S TRIP TO SUMMIT: Volcanologist Dr. Zimmerer answers my questions about a roadcut view of the cinder cone. I ask him to account for the presence of, not just tiny cinders, but lava boulders in the crater.

17M 56S LAVA FLOW TRAIL: I walk a trail from the visitor center with Ranger Goins. He explains how Capulin became vegetated, and helps listeners imagine the sights and sounds of the lava flows during eruptions.

26M 18S VIEW FROM CAPULIN: Dr. Zimmerer explains the geology seen in the vistas from the rim trail. On the western horizon, the southern Rockies reach higher than 13,000 feet, capped with 300-million-year-old limestone, plus other rocks 1/3 as old as Earth. The northeast view includes flows from Capulin’s eruption 54,000 years ago and still younger volcanoes, one nearly quarried away for cinders that make icy roads passable. In the far distance, one Raton-Clayton lava flow reached Oklahoma, where it makes that state’s highest point.

38M 47S TO BUILD A MOUNTAIN: I put the swiftness of Capulin’s construction into context, by sketching out the 300 million-year-long evolution of similar-sized Stone Mountain, Georgia. Ranger Goins tells the story of Paricutin, a Mexican cinder cone that began in a cornfield and grew to twice Capulin’s height in less than a decade.

44M 40S FUTURE ERUPTIONS: Dr. Zimmerer shares his research on where and when New Mexico could experience its next volcanic eruption. I ask him why New Mexico is volcanically active compared to my home territory in the East. We hear about the Rio Grande Rift, the Jemez Lineament, and the magma pool 17 miles beneath Matt’s office at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.

53M 7S NEXT EPISODE: I close by promising Episode 2 and thanking participants.

SOURCES: HTTPS://WWW.NPS.GOV/CAVO ; HTTPS://NMGS.NMT.EDU/PUBLICATIONS/GUIDEBOOKS/70/ ; HTTPS://WWW.SAPIENS.ORG/ARCHAEOLOGY/FOLSOM-POINT-ARCHAEOLOGY-ICON/