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Okay, an old retired geologist here from the oil patch. I've been there in the way distant past during field camp. And I remember where we looked at a perspective of the Rio Grande Rift and as I recall, basaltic lava flows. And then there was this tall peak to the west which was the Valles Caldera with the Bandolier Tuff. But placing it in the context of plate tectonics is difficult. I get the Rio Grande rift brings up basalt from the mantle. But in part within the collection of faults on the west side of the rift there is this rhyolitic volcano with lavas not much different from the Cascades or Japan, Martinique and Vesuvius, Santorini. I once heard an explanation of flat slab subduction. But in reality, I don't know why that silicic volcano is there given the tectonics of 50 thousand to a couple of million years ago which is a blink of the eye in geologic terms. It's not a Yellowstone type hot spot either.

This is AWESOME!

Great videos. Thanks!

Great series of videos!! Thank You!!

Fascinating. Thank you.

Thank you for this entire series. I have spent many days exploring this area and camped on the rim of the caldera, explored the tents and Bandelera National monument. I was familiar with some of the geology but this gives me a comprehensive understanding. Finally, thanks for debunking some of the myths about the Caldera. Keep up your great work.

I've become homesick from watching this. Maybe I will try to make the LAHS Class of '69 55th reunion. Also want to visit Chaco Canyon for the archaeology. I certainly heard those myths, even from my teachers in Los Alamos. Black Mesa is a marvel, but its origins were probably less dramatic than the mythological explanation.

I found a flat, silver-gray stone in Rendija Canyon, just off the east side of Baranca Mesa, that seemed to be harder than steel (what, about 6, or so, on Mho's scale) could it be ryolite?

When I would dig in my yard in Los Alamos as a small child I would come across the reddish layer of tuff not far beneath the topsoil. My first first thoughts were that the layer was made up of the remains of dead devils that had been buried in Hell's ceiling,

Never too old to learn something new. This wasn't covered in 7th grade Earth Science at Pueblo Junior High in Los Alamos. I wish it were.

Before the road was paved up into the Jemez beyond Los Alamos' west gate those first few hair-pin curves on the ascent were harrowing. I threw myself to the floor of our 1950 Ford the first time my father took us on a Sunday drive to the Valle Grande.

I used to live in Los Alamos in 1990 and explored many paces there. And I have flown into and out of the airport in in a Mooney. It’s challenging at times. Thanks you for these videos, it’s hard to explain to my wife but your videos showed her what I’m talking about 👍

There is a town under it. Volcanic glass. everywhere

As someone born and raised in Los Alamos, I really love the detailed explanations here. I did have a question: is there an estimate of how high the volcanoes were prior to the caldera collapse? I had a science teacher there tell me that some thought the peak might have been higher than present-day Everest, but he couldn't really cite anyone's research into that.

Is This Going On In China as of Sept 29, 2023 ?? Video came up that it did....??

What is the caldera diameter? Does not sound like a supervolcano.

I had a special “life moment” exploring Jimenez and Valles, quite by random, on a motorcycle, with a hot girl riding on the back. The landscape, as it unfolded, was surreal. It was one of those magical moments in my life. Thank you for answering many of the questions, that popped into my head, that day. My ride out to Eagles Nest wasn’t bad either. Land of Enchantment? Ab-so-freakin-lutly.

This was an amazing series of videos. I've spent the last 20 years visiting Los Alamos and we always drive into the Jemez during each visit. I thought I knew a lot about the Valles Caldera, but I've learned more in the last 1.5 hours than in my 20 years of visiting.

Woohoo, I'm your 1000th subscriber! Thank you for the video series, I just spent three days in the Jemez Mountains and wish had seen this beforehand.

This is great info. Too short though. I thought you would rich Mozambique.

Excellent thank you. But is it active ?

What amazing technology. My father mapped many of these places from 1947 to 1968. Why does Ngorogoro crater not have a dome inside its walls. Is it extinct.

I’m camped on the rim above Los Alamos watching these videos. Thank you. Maybe in a few million years there will be huge lakes in the rift valley like there is in the Great Rift Valley.

Awesome series! I discovered the Valles caldera back in 2020 during a random trip to NM. It was so fascinating to find a large volcanic feature I didn’t know existed. Kinda sparked my interest in geology which was further pushed along by a trip to Hawaii the next year. I’ve been researching a trip back to spend more time exploring so this was very useful especially adds a lot of context of the areas around it.

I remember this area well; it was featured on one of our stops during my Geology Field Camp tour.

Not rhyolite. It is pumice. 6:00.

This is incredible, I took geology with Geologic professor Mrs Ragland, and we covered alot of Valles Caldera but this is an absolute hands on perspective i find incredible and informative, thankyou Dr Kempter! 🤠👍

Bwaaahahaha Nothing but MENDACITY on this channel. Your suffering from severe MEMTICIDE dude. Your not even close!

Outstanding video & explanation ! Thanks you sir!

I LIKE YOUR VIDEO BUT WHERE DO YOU COME ON ABOUT 2 MILLION YEARS STORY

An excellent presentation of this caldera.

Is the zero Grande rift still active?

Neat videos about the Valles Caldera area…

Fascinating, awesome…

So fascinating..kudos..

This is so good..wonderful stuff and you explain so well….take care..

I absolutely love this series. Is that map available for purchase or download somewhere?

Thank you so much for this extraordinary series. Very well done. Great geology teaching for us non-geologists. I'm glad this was homework for the Smithsonian Associates Program.

How geologically active is that caldera and them volcanoes? Any geysers or epithermal stuff going on? Hot springs? I really wanna see the process of gold and mineral deposition in "real" time so to speak.

Another excellent chapter in understanding the Valles Caldera. Thank you!

New subscriber here. I love geology and iono why

I poke around in orogrande NM doing very amateur prospecting for gold. I love it out there in the desert but I'm looking forward to going up around cloudcroft as soon as I get my jeep done....again lol. It's there anything interesting geologically in cloudcroft?

Great discussion of the temperature of the pyroclastic flow's affect on the deposit's solid/soil-like composition.

Excellent explanation of content of the ejected material and wind's affect on that material too. Great video. Thanks!

This is an amazingly high quality video. As someone who lives in northern NM and loves geology, this is exactly my cup of tea.

Omg what if this caldera and yellowstone erupted at the same time!

How tall did the Jemez get before it blew it's top?

This is the Eastern Rift Valley, there is a Western Rift Valley that goes from Congo through Uganda all the way to Syria... Also has currently active volcanoes in Congo

Excellent

Amazing series