Florida Mountains, Luna County, New Mexico, USAi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Florida Mountains | Mountain Range |
| Luna County | Shaft (Reclaimed) |
| New Mexico | State |
| USA | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
32° 5' 18'' North , 107° 37' 7'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
A N-S-trending mountain range located SE of Deming and S of Interstate highway 10, on federal wilderness land (Florida Mountains Wilderness Study Area).
Note: The geographic coordinates presented are taken from the Gym Peak topo map (GNIS database preferred). The USGS GNIS database presents 4 sets of coordinates for this county.
General: The Florida Mountains, one of the most prominent topographic features of Luna County, are a rugged north-trending range located southeast of Deming. The range is 10 miles long and as much as 5 miles wide. The highest peaks are Arco del Diablo, South Peak, and Gym Peak, each extending above 7,000 feet. The altitude of the surrounding bolson plain is approximately 4,200 feet; therefore, a maximum relief of 2,800 feet is present. Several roads lead to the base of the mountains, but access into the interior of the range is gained only on foot. Lead, zinc, copper, silver, and gold have been mined from the district in the past, mostly in the period 1880-1920. Manganese deposits were exploited on the southeast slopes during the 1950's, when the manganese purchasing program of the U. S. Government was in effect. Mining activity is now at a standstill.
Geology: Figure 14 is a geologic sketch map of the range, including the Little Florida Mountains on the north. The geology of the area is exceedingly complex, and only the general features will be described. For a fuller discussion of the geology the reader is referred to Darton (1917), Balk (1958), Bogart (1953), Kelley and Bogart (1952), and Kottlowski (1958). Precambrian Rocks The bulk of the Florida Mountains is composed of Precambrian rocks. The Precambrian consists of four types: (1) light-pink, mediumto coarse-textured granite; (2) gray, fine-grained porphyritic granite; (3) gneissic granite; and (4) dark-gray to greenish-black diorite and gabbro. The pink granite is the most common variety, and the rock weathers to brown rugged forms and blocks. The diorite and gabbro appear as wide sheets and masses intruded by the pink and gray granite. The Stenson mine is located within such a diorite mass. The gray granite is probably a facies of the more common pink granite, and the gneissic variety simply represents areas of intense metamorphism.
The thicknesses of the Fusselman and Montoya dolomites have not been measured in the Florida Mountains because complete sections are not exposed, owing to complicated structure and pre-Cretaceous erosion.
According to F. E. Kottlowski (personal communication to G. Griswold)), the thicknesses should approximate those in the Franklin Mountains, where Pray (1958) reports 429 feet of Montoya and 610 feet of Fusselman.
The geologic sketch map (fig. 14) shows only two divisions of the Paleozoic rocks. The upper group contains the Devonian to Permian sediments, and the lower group the Ordovician to Silurian. The Gila(?) conglomerate is not distinguished separately on the map; instead, it is grouped with the Tertiary agglomerate sequence (described below). Darton (1917) did not distinguish such a conglomerate formation, but the writer feels that the upper portion of his agglomerate 'sequence is best termed Gila(?) conglomerate because it is simply water- and wind-deposited alluvium devoid of any evidence of volcanic origin.
Pennsylvanian rocks are absent in the Florida Mountains. Kottlowski (1958) has advanced the theory that the entire region around the Floridas was a highland (island) during late-Pennsylvanian and early-Permian times.
Igneous Rocks: Except for the Precambrian, large masses of intrusive rocks are absent in the Florida Mountains. Several northeast-trending rhyolite dikes and one basic dike of the same orientation cross the central portion of the range. These dikes are of Tertiary age.
The north end of the Florida Mountains is covered by a thick sequence of Tertiary agglomerate containing lenses of tuff, conglomerate, and siltstone, along with a few thin flows. The agglomerate is composed mostly of angular fragments of andesite and latite embedded in a gray or purplish tuff matrix. The sequence is rudely stratified, showing a northerly strike and easterly dip throughout most of the range. In the Little Florida Mountains, agglomerates of a similar character overlie a series of rhyolite flows. Although continuous outcrops between the two ranges are absent, it appears likely that the rhyolite is an intraformational unit of the agglomerate sequence, with the Florida agglomeratetionship would account for the presence of rhyolite dikes cutting the Florida agglomerate and the apparent absence of such dikes in the Little Florida Mountains.
Structure: The structure of the Florida Mountains is complicated; indeed many of the problems have yet to be solved. Only a few of the significant features will be discussed here, with reliance on the early investigations by Darton (1917).
In general, both ranges (the main range and the Little Florida Mountains) are homoclinal structures with easterly dips. In the Florida Mountains, Precambrian rocks are exposed on the west side. Lower Paleozoic beds overlie the granite in the vicinity of Capitol Dome and in the Gym Peak area. A triangular block of Lower Paleozoic rocks has been downfaulted in The Park, northwest of South Peak. The beds dip to the east in all three of these areas, although the attitudes vary locally.
Upper Paleozoic rocks are limited to a small exposure southeast of Gym Peak, where beds of Devonian, Mississippian, and Permian age are preserved on the dip slope of the much larger block of Lower Paleozoic rocks that form Gym Peak. Erosion and faulting have removed the Upper Paleozoic rocks in other parts of the range.
Considerable faulting, uplift, and erosion took place in the Florida Mountains during Pennsylvanian, and again during late-Permian or early-Cretaceous, time. Pennsylvanian rocks are entirely absent; the area is believed to have been an island during this period (Kottlowski, 1958). Evidence of pre-Lower Cretaceous faulting is well illustrated in the vi-cinity of Capitol Dome, where a northeast-striking fault of considerable magnitude passes underneath undeformed Lower Cretaceous sediments.
A large northwest-striking reverse fault extends from south of Gym Peak, across the range, and into The Park. This fault uplifted Precam-brian granite on the south against Paleozoic and Lower Cretaceous rocks on the north. The displacement along the fault is estimated at 2,000 feet (Darton, 1917). Another large fault crosses the extreme north end of the range in an eastward direction, displacing the Tertiary agglomerate downward against Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic rocks. Many other faults further complicate the structure; their dominant trend is east.
An odd structural feature of the Florida Mountains is the occurrence of several blocks of Lower Cretaceous and (or) Paleozoic sediments entirely surrounded by Precambrian granite. These blocks are located on the southern slopes of the range, southeast of Gym Peak. Darton (1917, p. 10) explained these blocks as due to thrust faulting from the east.
Geology: Figure 14 is a geologic sketch map of the range, including the Little Florida Mountains on the north. The geology of the area is exceedingly complex, and only the general features will be described. For a fuller discussion of the geology the reader is referred to Darton (1917), Balk (1958), Bogart (1953), Kelley and Bogart (1952), and Kottlowski (1958). Precambrian Rocks The bulk of the Florida Mountains is composed of Precambrian rocks. The Precambrian consists of four types: (1) light-pink, mediumto coarse-textured granite; (2) gray, fine-grained porphyritic granite; (3) gneissic granite; and (4) dark-gray to greenish-black diorite and gabbro. The pink granite is the most common variety, and the rock weathers to brown rugged forms and blocks. The diorite and gabbro appear as wide sheets and masses intruded by the pink and gray granite. The Stenson mine is located within such a diorite mass. The gray granite is probably a facies of the more common pink granite, and the gneissic variety simply represents areas of intense metamorphism.
The thicknesses of the Fusselman and Montoya dolomites have not been measured in the Florida Mountains because complete sections are not exposed, owing to complicated structure and pre-Cretaceous erosion.
According to F. E. Kottlowski (personal communication to G. Griswold)), the thicknesses should approximate those in the Franklin Mountains, where Pray (1958) reports 429 feet of Montoya and 610 feet of Fusselman.
The geologic sketch map (fig. 14) shows only two divisions of the Paleozoic rocks. The upper group contains the Devonian to Permian sediments, and the lower group the Ordovician to Silurian. The Gila(?) conglomerate is not distinguished separately on the map; instead, it is grouped with the Tertiary agglomerate sequence (described below). Darton (1917) did not distinguish such a conglomerate formation, but the writer feels that the upper portion of his agglomerate 'sequence is best termed Gila(?) conglomerate because it is simply water- and wind-deposited alluvium devoid of any evidence of volcanic origin.
Pennsylvanian rocks are absent in the Florida Mountains. Kottlowski (1958) has advanced the theory that the entire region around the Floridas was a highland (island) during late-Pennsylvanian and early-Permian times.
Igneous Rocks: Except for the Precambrian, large masses of intrusive rocks are absent in the Florida Mountains. Several northeast-trending rhyolite dikes and one basic dike of the same orientation cross the central portion of the range. These dikes are of Tertiary age.
The north end of the Florida Mountains is covered by a thick sequence of Tertiary agglomerate containing lenses of tuff, conglomerate, and siltstone, along with a few thin flows. The agglomerate is composed mostly of angular fragments of andesite and latite embedded in a gray or purplish tuff matrix. The sequence is rudely stratified, showing a northerly strike and easterly dip throughout most of the range. In the Little Florida Mountains, agglomerates of a similar character overlie a series of rhyolite flows. Although continuous outcrops between the two ranges are absent, it appears likely that the rhyolite is an intraformational unit of the agglomerate sequence, with the Florida agglomeratetionship would account for the presence of rhyolite dikes cutting the Florida agglomerate and the apparent absence of such dikes in the Little Florida Mountains.
Structure: The structure of the Florida Mountains is complicated; indeed many of the problems have yet to be solved. Only a few of the significant features will be discussed here, with reliance on the early investigations by Darton (1917).
In general, both ranges (the main range and the Little Florida Mountains) are homoclinal structures with easterly dips. In the Florida Mountains, Precambrian rocks are exposed on the west side. Lower Paleozoic beds overlie the granite in the vicinity of Capitol Dome and in the Gym Peak area. A triangular block of Lower Paleozoic rocks has been downfaulted in The Park, northwest of South Peak. The beds dip to the east in all three of these areas, although the attitudes vary locally.
Upper Paleozoic rocks are limited to a small exposure southeast of Gym Peak, where beds of Devonian, Mississippian, and Permian age are preserved on the dip slope of the much larger block of Lower Paleozoic rocks that form Gym Peak. Erosion and faulting have removed the Upper Paleozoic rocks in other parts of the range.
Considerable faulting, uplift, and erosion took place in the Florida Mountains during Pennsylvanian, and again during late-Permian or early-Cretaceous, time. Pennsylvanian rocks are entirely absent; the area is believed to have been an island during this period (Kottlowski, 1958). Evidence of pre-Lower Cretaceous faulting is well illustrated in the vi-cinity of Capitol Dome, where a northeast-striking fault of considerable magnitude passes underneath undeformed Lower Cretaceous sediments.
A large northwest-striking reverse fault extends from south of Gym Peak, across the range, and into The Park. This fault uplifted Precam-brian granite on the south against Paleozoic and Lower Cretaceous rocks on the north. The displacement along the fault is estimated at 2,000 feet (Darton, 1917). Another large fault crosses the extreme north end of the range in an eastward direction, displacing the Tertiary agglomerate downward against Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic rocks. Many other faults further complicate the structure; their dominant trend is east.
An odd structural feature of the Florida Mountains is the occurrence of several blocks of Lower Cretaceous and (or) Paleozoic sediments entirely surrounded by Precambrian granite. These blocks are located on the southern slopes of the range, southeast of Gym Peak. Darton (1917, p. 10) explained these blocks as due to thrust faulting from the east.
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