Whereas most of the volcanic rocks in north-central Nevada are Eocene to Miocene in age, there is evidence for recent volcanic activity in the area southwest of Battle Mountain.  Along the northwestern side of the Fish Creek Mountains caldera complex are a number of youthful-appearing cinder cones, called the Buffalo Valley cones.  In addition, a number of isolated lava flows elsewhere in the area are mapped as Quaternary in age, although it is very likely that some of these flows are Tertiary in age.  In August of 2008, Chris Henry (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology) and I spent two days looking at various mafic flows and cones around the Fish Creek Mountains.  The cones are geomorphically young, and are similar petrographically.  They are characterized by olivine phenocrysts, with plagioclase macrocrysts and rare amphibole crystals. The young cones are approximately 1 Ma in age (G. Arehart and M. Coolbaugh, UNR).  An older lava sequence at the north end of the study area is dated at 3 Ma, and appears to include flows at the north end of the Fish Creek Mountains.  Other “QTb“ flows are clearly Tertiary in age, since they underlie basalt vitrophyres of the Eocene ignimbrites of the caldera complex.  Along with graduate students Sue Varve (MSc), Chris Stevens (MSc), and Ann Timmermans (PhD), we are investigating the geochemistry of Tertiary through Quaternary volcanic rocks in the area south of Battle Mountain, and conducting a transect across central Nevada between Battle Mountain and Reno.

The theses by Varve, Stevens and Timmermans are available on Proquest.  See the Geosphere paper by Ann listed on my “Publications” page and the 2019 review of Battle Mountain volcanic history in Earth-Science Reviews.

Timmermans, Ann, 2015.  A geochemical study of Cenozoic magmatism along and east-west transect from central Great Basin, Nevada to the Ancestral Cascades arc, California:  A compositional journey over time and space.

Stevens, Chris, 2013.  Petrology, geochemistry and isotopic analysis of Paleogene Volcanism in the Fish Creek Mountains, Great Basin, North-Central Nevada.

Varve, Susan, 2013.  The stratigraphy, geochemistry and origin of the Fish Creek Mountains tuff, Battle Mountain area, north-central Nevada, USA. (Winner of Carleton Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement)

Timmermans, A.C., Cousens, B.L., and Henry, C.D., 2020.  Geochemical Study of Cenozoic Mafic Volcanism in the West-Central Great Basin, Western Nevada and the Ancestral Cascades Arc, California.  Geosphere 16, doi: 10.1130 /GES01535.1.

Cousens, B.L., Henry, C.D., Stevens, C., Varve, S., John, D.A., and Wetmore, S., 2019.  Igneous rocks in the Fish Creek Mountains and environs, Battle Mountain area, north-central Nevada:  A microcosm of Cenozoic igneous activity in the northern Great Basin, Basin and Range Province, USA.  Earth-Science Reviews 192, 403-444, doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.03.013

Cousens, B.L., Wetmore, S., and Henry, C.D., 2013.  The Pliocene-Quaternary Buffalo Valley Volcanic Field, Nevada:  Post-extension, intraplate magmatism in the north-central Great Basin, USA. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 268, 17-35.