24 Undergraduate Research Posters

This poster session highlights geoscience research conducted and presented by undergraduate students. Abstracts must be written by students (but may include non-student co-authors). Research topics may include any area of the earth sciences.

Thursday, 23 April 2026
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
LMH, 5th Floor Chapel

Magma to Microscope: Basalt Flow Classification and Mapping of Coyote Hills Shield Volcano in the Springerville Volcanic Field, Arizona

Paper number: 24-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:15 AM – 8:15 AM

Authors

Abstract

Being one of the most articulately mapped basaltic volcanic regions in the world, the Springerville volcanic field (SVF) in Eastern Arizona contains unsolved geologic problems in a potentially active system, with eruptions as young as 50ka. Situated along the southern margin of the Colorado Plateau, the SVF could offer insights into the eruptive history and evolution of related magmatic systems in the region.  The dominantly monogenetic field contains over 400 cinder cones and two polygenetic shield volcanoes—Blue Ridge Mountain on the western margin and Coyote Hills on the eastern edge. The magmatic origin of the two polygenetic shield volcanoes within the SVF, the exact age of the volcanoes, and the sequencing of the flows of Coyote Hills have been indeterminate since mapping and study of the SVF began.

While nearly the entirety of the SVF has been mapped in detail, Coyote Hills, a 60 km2 shield volcano, represents one of the final pieces in mapping out the eruptive events within the 3000 km2 field. 43 flows of Coyote Hills were mapped and sampled during a one-month field period, with the assistance of satellite imagery and LiDAR, ranging from small-volume flows confined to individual flanks to a more extensive unit that dominates the east side of the volcano. Field observations of lithologies based upon phenocryst types and abundance were used to distinguish between basalt flows. Flow mineralogy assessed in the field varied from nearly aphyric basalts to olivine-rich and pyroxene-dominated basalt lithologies. Detailed petrographic studies and geochemical analysis conducted on collected flow samples have classified the flows into quantitative lithologic classes and have assisted in making further determinations about the relationships between flows. Compiling the analysis of collected samples will further increase available information on the shield volcanoes of the Springerville volcanic field and possibly reveal more intricacies of their origin and location within the SVF.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026CD-410802

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