Field Exercises in the Pinacate Volcanic Field, Mexico: An Analog for Planetary Volcanism

The Pinacate Volcanic Field is about 330 km SSW of Phoenix, and has been a popular destination for volcanology and planetary geology field trips for numerous universities for decades. The Pinacates, located on the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve in the state of Sonora, Mexico, is a 2,000 km2 field of basaltic rocks including a shield volcano, lava tubes, maars, tuff rings, cinder cones, and both pahoehoe and aa lava flows that have been active within the last 2-3 million years. Building on a field trip originally developed by James T. Gutmann and Michael F. Sheridan (1978, Sp. Paper, St. of AZ Bur. Geol. Miner. Tech., v 2, 47-60), we have developed a set of image-based field exercises that includes analyses of aerial photographs, spacecraft and radar images, to teach students about volcanic features on Earth and how they appear in different types of planetary images. Exercises comprise a two-day, weekend field trip from Tempe that focuses on stops at Elegante maar crater, pahoehoe and aa flows near Tecolote Cone campground, Mayo (cinder) Cone, and Cerro Colorado tuff ring. Additional exercises are conducted prior to departure and during the drive to the Pinacate Volcanic Field, and others have been performed in previous decades involving MacDougal Crater, Volcan Santa Clara shield, and the adjacent Grand Desierto dune field. Our presentation will discuss exercises we developed to teach concepts in image interpretation and planetary volcanology, and provide an overview of the field trip.