View of the Raton-Clayton volcanic field south of Capulin Volcano in northern New Mexico. The volcanic field consist of at least 125 volcanic cinder cones of Quaternary age. These volcanoes rest on older volcanic rocks that formed in earlier eruptive periods: the Raton Phase (9.0 to 3.6 million years ago), the Clayton Phase (3.6 to 2.6 million years ago; Stroud, 1997), and the Capulin Phase (2.0 million to about 50 thousand years ago) (Aubele and Crumpler, 2001). Capulin Volcano National Monument is part of a volcanic plateau on the high Great Plains east of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The national monument is located about 33 miles west of Raton on Interstate 25 and 3 miles north of the town of Capulin, New Mexico on Highway 64. |