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Map of Mount Taylor Volcanic Field in Central New Mexico (modified from Crumpler, 1980).

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Mount Taylor (Navajo: Tsoodził) is a dormant stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest. The Mount Taylor volcano is located on the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau and is the dominating feature of the Mount Taylor Volcanic Field. It was named in 1849 for then president Zachary Taylor. Prior to that, it was called Cebolleta (tender onion) by the Spanish; the name persists as one name for the northern portion of the San Mateo Mountains, a large mesa. Mount Taylor is largely forested with some meadows, rising above the desert below. Its slopes were an important source of lumber for neighboring pueblos.

Mount Taylor Volcanic Field

Mount Taylor volcano is a prominent volcano that is part of a larger volcanic field that trends to the northeast. Mount Taylor Volcanic Field includes Mesa Chivato to the northeast and Grants Ridge to the southwest. The Mount Taylor volcanic field is composed primarily of basalt (with 80% by volume) and straddles the extensional transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Rio Grande rift. The largest volcanic plug in the volcanic field is Cabezon Peak, which rises nearly 2,000 feet above the surrounding plain.

Native American Traditions

To the Navajo people, Mount Taylor is Tsoodził, the blue bead mountain, sometimes translated Turquoise Mountain, one of the four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Mount Taylor marks the southern boundary, and is associated with the direction south and the color blue; it is gendered female. In Navajo mythology, First Man created the sacred mountains from soil from the Fourth World, together with sacred matter, as replicas of mountains from that world. He fastened Mount Taylor to the earth with a stone knife. The supernatural beings Black God, Turquoise Boy, and Turquoise Girl are said to reside on the mountain. According to Robert Julyan's The Place Names of New Mexico, the Navajos identify Cabezon Peak "as the head of a giant killed by the Twin War Gods" with the lava flow to the south of Grants believed to be the congealed blood of the giant. Mount Taylor is also sacred to the Acoma, Hopi, Laguna and Zuni people.

Topography

Estimates vary about how high the mountain was at its highest. An extreme estimate places it near 4,270 meters (14,000 ft), but it is more likely the volcano was never higher than 3,800 meters (12,000 ft). The mountain is surrounded by a great volume of volcanic debris, but the debris field and the natural amphitheater in the central part of the mountain are attributed to erosion rather than a late stage explosion similar to Mount St. Helens or the San Francisco Peaks. The ancient caldera is heavily eroded to the east, exposing a large amphitheater that is approximately 5 square miles. It has been estimated that approximately 250 to 400 meters of downcutting due to erosion has occurred since the formation of Mount Taylor cone, exposing Cretaceous sedimentary rocks at the core of the cone.

Geology

The Mount Taylor Volcanic Field is a series of Upper Cenozoic volcanic beds that overlies Cretaceous sedimentary rocks in central New Mexico. This volcanic field is part of the Jemez Lineament, which is associated with relatively young volcanism (< 5 Mya) due to an ancient suture in the Proterozoic basement rock. The general stratigraphy of the volcanic field starts with a more intermediate (rhyolitic) lava composition and transitions to a more mafic (basaltic) composition as more eruptions occurred. The transition of this magma from alkalic to basaltic eruptions is thought to have resulted form multiple, short-lived magma chambers within Mount Taylor, instead of one long-lived chamber that experienced fractional crystallization.

Volcanology

Mount Taylor was active during the Pliocene to Pleistocene, and is surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes. Potassium-Argon (K-Ar) dating showed that a large majority of the volcanic activity from Mount Taylor occurred between 4.3 and 1.5 million years ago, with the peak of the volcanism occurring between 3.0 mya and 2.5 mya. Mount Taylor volcano was the leading source of volcanism in this area for this time period, aside from some local basalt eruptions. The trend of Mount Taylor eruptions can be divided into four sequences, beginning with early eruptions of undersaturated alkalic flows, two distinct flows of silicic alkalic basalt, and younger basaltic eruptions. The alkaline nature of this lava is unique in North America, as alkaline magma is typically found in continental rifts or island arcs, such as Hawaii.

Mining

Mount Taylor is very rich in a uranium-vanadium bearing mineral, and was mined extensively for it from 1979 to 1990. The Mount Taylor and the hundreds of other uranium mines on Pueblo lands have provided over thirteen million tons of uranium ore to the United States since 1945.

Concern has arisen regarding the impact of future mining activities on the site. In June 2008 the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee voted in favor of a one-year emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres (171,000 ha)surrounding the mountain's summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties. "The Navajo Nation, the Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos, and the Hopi tribe of Arizona asked the state to approve the listing for a mountain they consider sacred to protect it from an anticipated uranium mining boom, according to the nomination report." In April 2009, Mount Taylor was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Places.

Notable Events

On 3 September 1929, the Transcontinental Air Transport Ford 5-AT-B Tri-Motor City of San Francisco struck Mount Taylor during a thunderstorm while on a scheduled passenger flight from Albuquerque Airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, killing all eight people on board.