A GEOINFORMATICS APPROACH TO TEACHING OUR STUDENTS: USING THE QUATERNARY MAFIC POTRILLO VOLCANIC FIELD, SOUTHERN RIO GRANDE RIFT, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND COSMOGENIC HELIUM AND ARGON/ARGON GEOCHRONOLOGY IN CONTEXT WITH MULTIPLE GEOSPATIAL AND GEOCHEMICAL DATASETS

Our curriculum modules target undergraduate introductory geology to igneous petrology students by building upon research of the alkaline mafic Potrillo volcanic field in the southern Rio Grande rift that provides robust datasets for geochemistry and geochronology used to produce a magma dynamics model [1]. This Pleistocene field resides within the southern axis of the Rio Grande Rift, New Mexico, U.S.A., near the eastern extent of the Basin and Range Province. Its alkalic mafic volcanism has resulted in several hundred cones, flows and maars distributed over approximately 4,600 km². ³He cosmogenic dating combined with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar determinations reveal that volcanic activity was not continuous throughout its ~1 Ma - 20 ka history. Rather, there has been punctuated activity with frequent shifts of foci and some reoccupation of edifices after 50 ka upwards to 100 ka of quiescence. The Potrillo field case study provides opportunities to explore basalt-related mechanisms, rates, and episodicities and to explore the use of geographic information systems (GIS with attributes tables) and remote sensing products that include Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) integration along with Digital Elevation Map (DEM) analyses. Guided active learning applications geared toward individual and student collaborative settings using real datasets are the result. Further, our curriculum addresses renewed space applications interests (e.g. Lunar and Mars) since a better understanding of planetary volcanism can be gained through terrestrial analogue studies that integrate remote sensing, temporal, geochemical, and geologic spatial information. REF: [1] Williams, W.J.W. (1999), Evol of Quat Intraplate Mafic Lavas Det using ³He Surf Expo and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating, and Elem and He, Sr, Nd, and Pb Iso Sig, Dis, Univ of Texas at El Paso, 195 pp.