Abandonment of the Name 

Hartford Hill RhyoliteTuff and 

Adoption of New Formation Names 

for Middle Tertiary Ash-Flow 

Tuffs in the Carson CitySilver City Area, Nevada

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1457-D

Abandonment of the Name 

Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff and 

Adoption of New Formation Names 

for Middle Tertiary Ash-Flow 

Tuffs in the Carson CitySilver City Area, Nevada

By EDWARD C. BINGLER

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1457-D

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1978
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

CECIL D. ANDRUS, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

H. William Menard, Director

Dingier, Edward C.

Abandonment of the name Hartford Hill rhyolite tuff and adoption of new

formation names for middle Tertiary ash-flow tuffs in the Carson City -

Silver City area, Nevada

(Contributions to stratigraphy) Geological Survey Bulletin 1457-D 

Supt. of Docs. No.: I 19.3: 1457-D 

Bibliography: p. D19

I. Geology, Stratigraphic-Tertiary. 2. Volcanic ash, tuff, etc.-NevadaCarson City region. 3. Geology-Nevada-Carson City region. I. Title.

II. Series. HI. Series: United States. Geological Survey. Bulletin 1457-D. 

QE75.B9 no. 1457-D [QE691] 557.3'08s [551.7'8] 78-606063

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D. C. 20402

Stock Number 024-001-03124-8
CONTENTS

	Page 

Abstract___________________________________ Dl

Introduction ______________________________________ 1

Acknowledgments ________________________________ 5

Ash-flow stratigraphy in the Carson City-Silver City area ___________ 7

Mickey Pass Tuff ________________________________ 7

Lenihan Canyon Tuff _____________________________ 8

Nine Hill Tuff _______________________________ 11

Eureka Canyon Tuff ______________________________ 14

Dacitetuff __________________________________ 16

Rhyolite tuff and augite rhyodacite tuff ___________________ 16

Santiago Canyon Tuff _____________________________ 17

References cited _____________________________^_____ 19

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page 

FIGURE 1. Sketch map showing generalized distribution of 34- to 17-m.y.-old

ash-flow tuffs assigned to the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff __ D2

2. Sketch map showing generalized distribution of ash-flow tuffs previously assigned to the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff within parts of 

the New Empire, Carson City, and Virginia City 7 Vi -minute quadrangles _________________________________ 4

3. Chart showing summary of stratigraphic nomenclature of tuffs in

the Carson City-Silver City area __________________ 5

4. Stratigraphic correlation chart of ash-flow tuffs in the Carson City

and New Empire 7 Vz -minute quadrangles _____________ 6

5. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of the Lenihan

Canyon Tuff in its type locality ___________________ 9

6. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of the Nine Hill

Tuff in its type locality ________________________ 12

7. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of Eureka Canyon Tuff and Santiago Canyon Tuff in their type localities _ _ _ 15

m

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

ABANDONMENT OF THE NAME HARTFORD

HILL RHYOLITE TUFF AND ADOPTION OF

NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR MIDDLE

TERTIARY ASH-FLOW TUFFS IN THE 

CARSON CITY-SILVER CITY AREA, NEVADA

By EDWARD C. BINGLERI

ABSTRACT

The formation name Hartford Hill Rhyolite, first applied to exposures of welded 

tuff underlying Hartford Hill near Silver City, Nev., and subsequently revised to the 

Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff, has traditionally been applied to all silicic tuffs in western Nevada that form the base of the Tertiary section and underlie andesite flows 

and breccias of the Alta and Kate Peak Formations. Recent mapping in the Carson 

City-Silver City area reveals that rocks included within the Hartford Hill Rhyolite 

Tuff make up a diverse sequence, locally more than 800 m thick, of welded ash-flow 

tuffs ranging in age from 22 to 28 m.y., erupted from widely separated sources. Several of these tuffs have recently been recognized and named in the Yerington area 

and mapped in the Gabbs Valley and Gillis Ranges. Four new formations are recognized and named in the Carson City-Silver City area. As it is now clear that rocks 

previously assigned to the Hartford Hill include genetically and compositionally unrelated ash-flow tuff cooling units of formation rank, no useful purpose is served by 

continuing the use of this formation name, and it is herein abandoned.

Ash-flow units mapped in the Carson City-Silver City area and described in this 

report are, from oldest to youngest: Mickey Pass Tuff; Lenihan Canyon Tuff (new 

name); Nine Hill Tuff (new name); Eureka Canyon Tuff (new name); a thin erosional remnant of biotite dacite crystal tuff tentatively correlated with a similar tuff 

in the northern Gillis Range; thin and discontinuous erosional remnants of rhyolite 

and rhyodacite tuff correlated with similar rocks in the Gillis and Gabbs Valley 

Ranges; and the Santiage Canyon Tuff (new name).

INTRODUCTION

For the past 20 years, it has been common stratigraphic practice to 

assign all Tertiary silicic ash-flow tuffs (fig. 1) that underlie andesite 

flows and breccias of the Alta and Kate Peak Formations of central-

'Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno, Nev. 89557.

Dl
D2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

120 119

40C

39

EXPLANATION

Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff 

as mapped by Moore 

(1969), Bonham (1969), and 

others

Type locality of Hartford Hill 

Rhyolite Tuff

Canyon -

Reno

.**

,\<*

A<*'

CARSON £ ..' 

O CITY ;- Virginia City 

* QUAD- 5 o .' ' 

£ RANGMt-_vSilver'City ,

3 - \ i®*#&Q,> ,.'" "N \ Ma-ajiws > *&

Pah Rah «SP--

 ,,t Range ^i^xPainted Rock NEVADA

,,©,

Terrill 

/Mountains 

./". Q,

:'NEV\r

 X : EMPIRE 

% :QUADE RANGLE

10 MILES

10 KILOMETERS

FIGURE 1. Generalized distribution of 34 to 27-m.y.-old ash-flow tuffs (modified 

from Stewart and Carlson, 1976) assigned to the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff. 

Tuffs in the Gillis and Gabbs Valley Ranges are laterally equivalent to tuffs in the 

Wassuk and Singatse Ranges assigned to the Hartford Hill by Moore (1969).

western Nevada to the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff. Gianella (1936, 

p. 47) originally coined the name Hartford Hill Rhyolite for exposures of rhyolite in the Silver City mining district. He did not designate a type section but reported that the rhyolite underlies Hartford 

Hill, a small knoll about 1.6 km northwest of Silver City. Thompson
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D3

(1956, p. 50), in mapping the geology of the Virginia City 15-minute 

quadrangle, designated the hill as the type locality. Recognizing that 

nearly all of the Hartford Hill Rhyolite was of pyroclastic origin, he 

modified the formation name to Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff to better represent the lithologic types present. Bonham (1969) and Moore 

(1969) included in the Hartford Hill thick isolated sections of tuff as 

far north as Pyramid Lake and as far east as the Terrill Mountains

(fig. 1).

Recent mapping of pyroclastic rocks in west-central Nevada previously assigned to the Hartford Hill employs the principles and 

techniques of ash-flow stratigraphy based on the classic studies of 

Smith (1960a, b) and Ross and Smith (1961). Bingler (1973) described four compositionally and texturally distinct ash-flow tuffs in 

the Wassuk Range that make up the section of rock assigned by 

Moore (1969) to the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff. Wallace (1975) recognized siz ash-flow tuff cooling units ranging in age from 28 to 22 

m.y. at Rainbow Canyon southwest of Pyramid Lake in tuffs previously mapped as Hartford Hill Rhyolite by Bonham (1969). A 

thick section of ash-flow tuffs in the Singatse Range, earlier assigned 

to the Hartford Hill by Moore (1969), was subdivided by Proffett 

and Proffett (1976) into four compositionally and texturally distinct 

tuffs ranging in age from 28 to 24 m.y.: the Mickey Pass Tuff, the 

Singatse Tuff, the Bluestone Mine Tuff, and the tuff and breccia of 

Gallagher Pass. Ekren and others (E. B. Ekren, written commun., 

1976), in mapping five 15-minute quadrangles in the Gillis and 

Gabbs Valley Ranges, identified a large number of ash-flow cooling 

units in addition to the Mickey Pass and the Singatse Tuffs.

Direct field evidence for cauldron sources related to any one of the 

cooling units described is rare. The areal distribution of the principal ash-flow sheets and the distribution of locally thick stratigraphic 

sections suggest that (1) the Mickey Pass and Singatse Tuffs were 

erupted from a source region in the Singatse Range-Wassuk Range 

area and (2) several of the ash-flow tuff sheets mapped by Ekren and 

others (E. B. Ekren, written commun., 1976) occupy a broad regional 

depression or source region centered on the southern Gillis-northern 

Gabbs Valley Range area.

Recently completed mapping by Bingler (1978) and Trexler 

(1978) near the type locality of the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff reveals that rocks previously assigned to this formation consist of a 

thick section of Mickey Pass Tuff, thin distal edges of ash-flow tuffs 

mapped in the Gillis and Gabbs Valley Ranges, and four ash-flows of 

formation rank named in this report (figs. 2, 3, and 4). Three of the 

four newly named formations are related to cauldron sources in the 

Carson City-Silver City area; they range in age from 26 to 22 m.y.
D4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

0> ^
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D5

Gianella (1936) Thompson (1956) This report

Hartford

Hill 

Rhyolite

Santiago Canyon 

Tuff 1

H atus

Unnamed tuffs

Eureka Canyon Tuff 1

Hartford Hill 

Rhyolite Tuff

Nine Hill Tuff

Lenihan-Canyon Tuff

Mickey Pass Tuff

New names used in this report

FIGURE 3. Summary of stratigraphic nomenclature of tuffs in the Carson CitySilver City area.

and are interlayered with ash-flow sheets originating in the Singatse 

Range-Wassuk Range and Gillis Range-Gabbs Valley regions.

Since the Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff as now employed includes a 

diverse sequence of genetically and compositionally unrelated cooling units of ash-flow tuff of middle Tertiary age from widely separated source regions, and since recent mapping has demonstrated 

that many of its individual cooling units are also of formational rank, 

no useful purpose is served by continuing its use, and the formation 

name Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff is herein abandoned.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ash-flow tuffs in the Carson City-Silver City area were mapped as 

part of a more comprehensive program of geologic mapping for 

earthquake hazard reduction supported in part by U.S. Geological 

Survey Grant 14-08-0001-G-248. H. F. Bonham, Jr., and L. J. Garside, of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, and J. H. Stewart, 

M. L. Silberman, and D. H. Whitebread, of the U.S. Geological Survey, made helpful suggestions on the manuscript. I wish to thank 

H. F. Bonham, Jr., for stimulating discussions on the Cenozoic ashflow stratigraphy of western Nevada.
Nine Hill Lenihan Canyon

Hackett Canyon

East

FIGURE 4. Stratigraphic correlation chart of ash-flow tuffs in the Carson City and New Empire 7 1/2 -minute quadrangles.

See figure 2 for locations.

8

H53
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D7

ASH-FLOW STRATIGRAPHY IN THE 

CARSON CITY-SILVER CITY AREA

During the course of geologic mapping in the New Empire and 

Carson City 7 V2-minute quadrangles (figs. 1, 2), the sequence of silicic ash-flow cooling units heretofore assigned to the Hartford Hill 

Rhyolite Tuff (fig. 2) was divided into eight map units distinguished 

on the basis of composition, phenocryst ratios and abundance, characteristic accessory mineral species, and the stratigraphic parameters of age and bounding disconformities (Bingler, 1978; Trexler, 

1978). These eight tuff units, erupted from 28 to 22.5 m.y. ago, are, 

from oldest to youngest: Mickey Pass Tuff (Proffett and Proffett, 

1976), Lenihan Canyon Tuff, Nine Hill Tuff, Eureka Canyon Tuff, 

an unnamed biotite dacite tuff also recognized in the Gillis Range 

(R. F. Hardyman, oral commun., 1976), an unnamed rhyolite tuff 

and an augite rhyodacite tuff also mapped in the Gillis and Gabbs 

Valley Ranges (E. B. Ekren, written commun., 1976), and the Santiago Canyon Tuff.

MICKEY PASS TUFF

The Mickey Pass Tuff, one of the oldest and most extensive of the 

widespread ash-flow tuff sheets in western Nevada, was named by 

Proffett and Proffett (1976, p. 8) for exposures just north of Mickey 

Pass in the Singatse Range near Yerington, Nev. At the type locality, it includes two members, the Guild Mine and the overlying 

Weed Heights, and minor amounts of weakly welded tuff and tuffaceous sediment. The Guild Mine Member is a compound cooling 

unit of as much as 900 m of dense, hard, devitrified, brown to reddish-brown crystal-vitric rhyodacite to rhyolite tuff, strongly to 

moderately welded throughout. Vapor-phase crystallization is 

prominent only near the top. The base of the member is commonly 

marked by black crystal-rich vitrophyre as much as 30 m thick. The 

Weed Heights Member is a simple cooling unit formed of as much as 

200 m of moderately welded crystal-rich quartz latite to rhyolite 

tuff.

In the Carson City-Silver City area, the Mickey Pass Tuff consists 

entirely of rock very similar to tuff assigned by Proffett and Proffett 

(1976, p. 10) to their Guild Mine Member. The formation is a simple 

cooling unit generally with a few meters of densely welded black
D8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

crystal-rich vitrophyre at the base that grades rapidly upward into 

compact tan to red-brown vitric crystal tuff composed of about 10 

percent sanidine, 10 percent plagioclase, 5 percent quartz, and a few 

percent biotite set in a strongly welded matrix of fine ash and sparse 

pumice. The rock grades upward into weakly to moderately welded 

lavender tuff that is more crystal rich (30-40 percent) and contains 

distinctive somewhat rounded bleached white blotches 2 to 3 cm in 

diameter produced by weak but pervasive vapor-phase alteration in 

the upper third of the formation. White pumice lapilli increase upward, making up about 10 percent of the rock near the top. Near the 

top of the formation, quartz phenocrysts that constitute about 15 

percent of the total rock are distinctly vermicular and have prominent graphic outlines.

Just southwest of Mound House (fig. 2), approximately 150 m of 

welded ash-flow tuff typical of the lower part of the Mickey Pass 

Tuff is disconformably overlain by younger tuff; presumably the 

crystal-rich lavender blotchy upper part of the formation is eroded. 

The thick section of Mickey Pass Tuff (120 m) exposed at the head 

of Lenihan Canyon (figs. 2, 5) differs somewhat from the formation 

as exposed elsewhere in the mapped area in that weak vapor-phase 

crystallization has affected the tuff nearly to its base and that the 

upper part of the formation is marked by a very prominent vaporphase zone that is strongly oxidized, is orange red from disseminated 

hematite, and forms bold somewhat cavernous-weathering outcrops. 

Above the top of the vapor-phase zone, the tuff is white to pale 

greenish white, weakly welded to nonwelded, and strongly zeolitized.

The Mickey Pass Tuff occurs widely in the New Empire quadrangle and in the northeastern part of the adjacent Carson City quadrangle, where it is exposed as isolated patches resting on preTertiary basement rocks. It is best exposed in sec. 6, T. 15 N., R. 21 

E.; sec. 1, T. 15 N., R. 20 E.; sec. 36, T. 16 N., R. 20 E.; and sees. 14 

and 23 in T. 16 N., R. 20 E. The exposed thickness is highly variable 

owing to its mode of deposition; the ash flows first filled valleys and 

later buried the surrounding hills of a mature topography cut on 

faulted and deeply eroded pre-Tertiary rocks. Maximum exposed 

thickness of the member is approximately 300 m. Concordant Oligocene potassium-argon ages of 28.0 ± 0.8 m.y. on biotite and 28.6 ± 0.9 

m.y. on plagioclase are reported for vitrophyre at the base of the 

Mickey Pass in the Carson River canyon (M. L. Silberman, written 

commun., 1976).
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D9

R. 20 E. 119°42'

EXPLANATION

Tertiary tuffs, undivided

Lehnihan Canyon Tuff

2000 FEET

0 500 METERS 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 200 FEET

Mickey Pass Tuff 

Unconformity

Pre-Tertiary rocks

Contact 

Fault

Type section

FIGURE 5. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of the Lenihan 

Canyon Tuff in its type locality. Base from U.S. Geological Survey Virginia 

City and New Empire 7 Vi-minute quadrangles.

LENIHAN CANYON TUFF

The Mickey Pass Tuff is disconformably overlain by as much as 

300 m of pale-lavender-brown fine-grained hornblende-biotite 

quartz latite vitric-crystal tuff, here named the Lenihan Canyon 

Tuff for its type locality exposures (figs. 2, 5) along the east side of
D10 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

Lenihan Canyon and in the ridge south of McClelland Peak (sees. 14 

and 15, T. 16 N., R. 20 E.). The type section is located in the NEW 

NEW sec. 14, T. 16 N., R. 20 E., approximately one-half mile northeast of Lenihan Canyon (fig. 5). Two reference localities are designated. The principal reference locality is along the west side of 

Hackett Canyon in sees. 16 and 17, T. 15 N., R. 21 E., the second at 

Red House in sec. 32, T. 16 N., R. 19 E. (fig. 2). The Lenihan Canyon 

Tuff everywhere rests on the Mickey Pass Tuff except at Red House, 

in the Carson Range, where it rests unconformably on Cretaceous 

granodiorite. Where exposed in Hackett Canyon and near McClelland Peak, the tuff overlies the weakly welded to nonwelded top of 

the Mickey Pass; there appears to have been little erosion between 

the eruption of the last ash flows of the Mickey Pass and the first ash 

flows of the Lenihan Canyon. In the Hackett Canyon exposures, a 

few small pebbles of pre-Tertiary rocks in the float mark the basal 

disconformity.

The Lenihan Canyon Tuff is a simple cooling unit of moderately 

to strongly welded hornblende biotite quartz latite. At Hackett Canyon and Red House, the basal few meters consist of white to graywhite weakly welded vitric-crystal tuff that grades rapidly upward 

into gray to gray-black densely welded phenocryst-rich vitrophyre, 

generally less than 5 m thick. The bulk of the formation is devitrified 

pale-lavender to purplish-tan fine-grained crystal-vitric tuff. Phenocrysts make up about 25 percent of the rock: about 5 percent are 

quartz, 3 percent sanidine, 12 percent plagioclase (Ca-oligoclase), 3 

percent biotite, 2 percent hornblende, and a trace of opaque oxides. 

Pumice and lithic fragments are sparse to very rare. Features characteristic of this tuff are (1) fresh black biotite flakes 1-3 mm in 

diameter that are well alined in the foliation plane, imparting a 

prominent speckled appearance to fracture surfaces parallel to the 

foliation; (2) abundant small (average 0.5 mm) plagioclase phenocrysts, inconspicuous in hand specimen; (3) sparse distinctively 

large quartz (slightly vermicular and rounded) and subhedral sanidine phenocrysts about 0.5 cm in diameter; and (4) hornblende 

phenocrysts. Despite these distinguishing features, it may be difficult to distinguish Lenihan Canyon Tuff from isolated outcrops of 

the devitrified lower part of the Mickey Pass Tuff. In thin section, 

however, the Mickey Pass (except for the basal vitrophyre) is not 

seen to contain the fine-grained plagioclase phenocrysts ubiquitous 

in the Lenihan Canyon, nor does it contain hornblende phenocrysts. 

And in much of the Mickey Pass Tuff, quartz tends to occur as subhedral bipyramids that contain vermicular inclusions of glass.

Biotite and sanidine separated from samples of the Lenihan Canyon Tuff south of McClelland Peak and radiometrically dated by
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D11

potassium-argon techniques yielded slightly discordant Oligocene 

dates of 26.7 ± 0.8 m.y. on biotite and 25.1 ± 0.8 m.y. on sanidine (M. 

L. Silberman, written commun., 1976).

The source area of the Lenihan Canyon Tuff is not known with 

certainty, but exposures of this tuff at Red House may be very near a 

cauldron source. Here a dike-shaped mass of black vitrophyre with 

vertical foliation trends approximately east-west and appears to intrude nearly flat-lying devitrified prominently zoned Lenihan Canyon Tuff. Along the south contact of the dike-shaped mass, 

devitrified Lenihan Canyon Tuff is brecciated and oxidized to reddish brown; these textures disappear a few meters away from the 

contact. Owing to extensive colluvial cover, this apparent intrusive 

relation could not be traced in the field except where the contact is 

exposed along an aqueduct.

NINE HILL TUFF

The Nine Hill Tuff is here named for a distinctive and lithologically diverse compound cooling unit of pumiceous, in part densely 

welded and stretched, vitric tuff and tuff-breccia exposed in and 

around Nine Hill in sees. 20,21, and 29, T. 16 N., R. 20 E. (figs. 2,6). 

The type section (fig. 6) is in NEV4 sec. 29, T. 16 N., R. 20 E. Other 

reference localities (fig. 2) are designated near the mouth of Santiago Canyon (NEV4 sec. 6, T. 15 N., R. 21 E.) (the principal reference locality), in Eureka Canyon (SWV4 sec. 33, T. 16 N., R. 21 E.), 

in the hills 1 mile north-northeast of the Carson Airport (SWV4 sec. 

34, T. 16 N., R. 20 E.), and in an unnamed south-draining canyon in 

sees. 26 and 35, T. 16 N., R. 20 E.

At the type locality, the Nine Hill Tuff unconformajbly overlies 

pre-Tertiary basement rocks and scattered thin erosional remnants 

of Mickey Pass Tuff and is disconformably overlain by Eureka Canyon Tuff and late Tertiary basaltic andesite flows. In the type section, the Nine Hill unconformably overlies Mesozoic granodiorite. 

Here it is nearly 250 m thick; its lower 130 m is densely welded and 

lineated, whereas its top is deeply eroded. Throughout much of the 

New Empire and Carson City quadrangles (fig. 2), the base of the 

Nine Hill Tuff includes several meters of cobble to boulder gravel 

made up of rounded clasts of older tuffs and basement rocks. At the 

reference locality in the mouth of Eureka Canyon, the base of the 

Nine Hill contains large boulders (average diameter 1-2 m; maximum diameter 5m) of Singatse(?) Tuff, Lenihan Canyon Tuff, and 

Triassic meta-andesite in a nonwelded matrix of vitric tuff-breccia.

The Nine Hill Tuff includes four principal rock types distinguished by pumice content, degree of welding and secondary flowage, and phenocryst content. At the type locality, in the hills
D12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

R. 20 E. 119 45'

T. 16 N.

39 14'

2000 FEET

0 500 METERS 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 200 FEET

EXPLANATION

Tertiary volcanic rocks, undivided

Contact

Fault

Type section

Pre-Tertiary rocks

FIGURE 6. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of the Nine Hill Tuff in 

its type locality. Base from U.S. Geological Survey Carson City and New Empire 

7 Vz-minute quadrangles.

northeast of the Carson Airport, and in the Santiago Canyon drainage, the Nine Hill is made up of a densely welded and prominently 

eutaxitic pumice-rich lower part a few to more than 400 m thick and 

a pumice-poor weakly welded to nonwelded upper part a few tens to
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D13

several hundred meters thick. The contact between these two principal rock types in the Nine Hill Tuff is everwhere gradational. The 

lower part of the Nine Hill consists of devitrified densely welded to 

stretched (length-to-thickness ratio of pumice lapilli greater than 

20:1) pale-orange-red to pale-green to reddish-purple pumiceous 

vitric tuff. This rock typically is about 3-4 percent phenocrysts (sanidine:plagioclase:quartz approximately 4:2:1 plus a trace of biotite), 

10-15 percent strongly flattened to stretched pumice lapilli generally 2-3 cm in longest dimension, and 2-5 percent small felsitic 

lithic fragments, all set in a matrix of devitrified fine-grained shards 

and ash. The upper part of the Nine Hill Tuff is pale-brown to purplish-brown vitric tuff containing less than 5 percent undeformed to 

slightly flattened pumice lapilli, a trace of very small felsitic lithic 

fragments, and about 5 percent small equant phenocrysts of sanidine, plagioclase, and quartz set in a fine-grained devitrified matrix 

of undeformed glass shards and submicroscopic ash. Where exposed 

2.4 km west of Mound House, densely welded and lineated tuff typical of the lower part of the Nine Hill grades into fluidal crystal-rich 

vitric tuff. These fluidal rocks contain less than 2 percent pumice 

and somewhat more than 10 percent phenocrysts of sanidine (9 percent) and quartz (2 percent). The rock appears flow banded in hand 

specimen and contains numerous wispy lens-shaped vugs where 

pockets of vapor-phase crystallization products have disaggregated 

and weathered from the rock. Similar fluidal vitric tuff is not exposed elsewhere in the mapped area, but I have seen identical tuff in 

Warm Springs Valley south of the Virginia Range and at Painted 

Rock (fig. 1). In both these localities, the fluidal tuff lies on densely 

welded and lineated tuff in the lower part of the Nine Hill Tuff with 

no indication of a cooling break. In Eureka Canyon, the Nine Hill 

Tuff consists entirely of pale-pinkish-brown nonwelded pumiceous 

vitric tuff that disconformably overlies the Lenihan Canyon Tuff in 

Hackett Canyon or the Mickey Pass Tuff in Eureka Canyon and is 

separated from the overlying Eureka Canyon Tuff by a disconformity. The tuff in these two localities contains about 8 percent pumice lapilli ranging in maximum diameter from less than 1 to more 

than 4 cm; 2-5 percent small phenocrysts of plagioclase, sanidine, 

and quartz (2:2:1) plus a trace of biotite; a few percent of angular 

felsitic lithic fragments about 1 cm or less in diameter; and fine-to 

medium-grained shard-rich ash.

Locally within the Nine Hill Tuff, very densely welded and 

stretched tuff forms near-vertical dikes and pluglike masses that intrude brecciated and in part hydrothermally altered vitric tuff typical of the upper part of the unit. The dikelike masses are surrounded 

by an envelope of brecciated tuff a few meters to 10 m thick. Discon-
D14 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

tinuous patches of bleached and hydrothermally altered breccia 

within the envelope were formed by upward-streaming volatiles that 

accompanied the brecciation. These features strongly suggest that 

the plugs and dikes of tuff fill pyroclastic vents developed in the 

Nine Hill as it accumulated. It is possible that the densely welded 

and very hot lower part of the unit locally flowed and was diapirically forced upward through a thick intracaldera accumulation of 

vitric tuff. These unusual intrusive phases and the locally very thick 

accumulation of densely welded tuff suggest that much of the Nine 

Hill in the study area is in or near its cauldron source.

The Nine Hill Tuff is an areally extensive ash-flow sheet. Known 

equivalents occur in Warm Springs Valley as noted, in the Gillis 

Range (R. F. Hardyman, oral commun., 1976), and in the Singatse 

and Wassuk Ranges. The Nine Hill intertongues with the tuff of 

Gabbs Valley (E. B. Ekren, written commun., 1976) and is younger 

than the Lenihan Canyon Tuff. These stratigraphic relations indicate that the Nine Hill Tuff was erupted during the Oligocene about 

25 m.y. ago.

EUREKA CANYON TUFF

The Nine Hill Tuff is overlain disconformably by a compound 

cooling unit as much as 150 m thick of white to pale-gray, lavender, 

and tan rhyolite vitric tuff here named the Eureka Canyon Tuff for 

exposures at its type locality in sees 32 and 33, T. 16 N., R. 21 E. 

(figs. 2, 7). The type section (fig. 7) is at the common boundary between sees. 32 and 33, T. 16 N., R. 21 E. Reference sections (fig. 2) 

are designated 2.25 km northeast of the Carson Airport in 

NEV4 NWV4 sec. 34, T. 16 N., R. 20 E., and at Duck Hill in sec. 30, T. 

16 N., R. 20 E.

In Eureka Canyon, the formation is about 130 m thick and displays a distinct cooling zonation. Pale-green zeolitized poorly 

welded to nonwelded tuff a few meters thick grades upward into 

moderately welded gray vitrophyre with a maximum thickness of 

about 5 meters. Above the vitrophyre, the tuff is devitrified and displays weak vapor-phase alteration. Above the vapor-phase zone, the 

rock is a gray-white glassy shard tuff 5-10 m thick to the top of the 

cooling unit. Elsewhere in the study area, most of the Eureka Canyon is white to pale-yellowish-white bleached devitrified weakly 

welded tuff. North of the airport and at Duck Hill, the Eureka Canyon includes several thin gray zones (1-3 m) of glassy vitrophyre, 

and it is probable that the boundary where these glassy zones overlie 

weak vapor-phase rock represents a partial cooling break.

The Eureka Canyon Tuff is very uniform in primary texture and 

composition. Most of the tuff contains about 3-8 percent phenocrysts set in a matrix of partially welded to nonwelded glass shards
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D15

R. 21 E. 119°37'30"

2000 FEET

0 500 METERS 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 200 FEET

EXPLANATION

Quaternary alluvium and 

Tertiary volcanic rocks

Santiago Canyon Tuff

Contact

Fault

Type section

Eureka Canyon Tuff 

Unconformity

Tertiary and pre-Tertiary rocks

FIGURE 7. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of Eureka Canyon Tuff 

and Santiago Canyon Tuff in their type localities. Base from U.S. Geological Survey 

New Empire 7 Vi -minute quadrangle.

(0.2 mm) and about 5-10 percent lenticular weakly compacted white 

pumice fragments. Phenocrysts comprise 50-60 percent quartz, 40- 

50 percent sanidine, a few percent to 10 percent plagioclase, and a 

few small ragged flakes of biotite per thin section.

The Eureka Canyon Tuff correlates with the upper part of the 

Bluestone Mine Tuff of Proffett and Proffett (1976) and with one of 

the thin cooling units in the tuff of Gabbs Valley (E. B. Ekren, writ-
D16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

ten commun., 1976), where potassium-argon determinations on two 

sanidine separates yielded Oligocene ages of 25.0 ± 1.0 and 26.1 ± 0.8 

m.y. In the Carson City-Silver City area, the Eureka Canyon is 

locally separated from the underlying Nine Hill Tuff by beds of 

bouldery gravel a few meters thick that contain rounded cobble- to 

boulder-size clasts of Mickey Pass Tuff, Nine Hill Tuff, Lenihan 

Canyon Tuff, and basement rocks. The occurrence of this gravel indicates that considerable erosion and alluviation took place after the 

Nine Hill eruptive episode and before emplacement of the first ash 

flows of the Eureka Canyon Tuff.

DACITE TUFF

Southwest of McClelland Peak (fig. 2) in sec. 15, T. 16 N., R. 20 E., 

the Lenihan Canyon Tuff is disconformably overlain by a thin erosional remnant (10 m) of biotite-plagioclase crystal vitric dacite tuff 

reported by Hardyman to correlate with one of the tuffs of Gabbs 

Valley exposed in the northern Gillis Range (R. F. Hardyman, oral 

commun., 1976); the correlation is made principally by the distinctive petrography of the unit and the position of the tuff in the stratigraphic section. The tuff rests in part on the Lenihan Canyon Tuff 

and in part on intraformational boulder-to-cobble gravel that fills a 

channel cut nearly through the Lenihan Canyon Tuff to just above 

the top of the Mickey Pass Tuff. Clasts in the gravel include boulders of Lenihan Canyon Tuff, Nine Hill Tuff, and Eureka Canyon 

Tuff.

The dacite tuff is a devitrified remnant of a moderately welded 

simple cooling unit. Pumice fragments are very small and sparse; 

lithic fragments are rare. In thin section the phenocryst fraction includes 30 percent fresh broken phenocrysts of zoned plagioclase (andesine) ranging in size from less than 0.1 mm to 3 mm, 5 percent redbrown biotite, 4 percent magnetite, and a trace of quartz. The rock 

generally is a distinct reddish brown due to disseminated finegrained hematite in the matrix.

RHYOLITE TUFF AND AUGITE RHYODACITE TUFF

Rhyolite tuff and augite rhyodacite tuff are exposed in the Hackett Canyon-Carson River canyon area, where they overlie the 

Eureka Canyon Tuff and are overlain by the Santiago Canyon Tuff. 

Both units are thin distal edges of much thicker and more complex 

eruptive sequences exposed in the Singatse Range (Proffett and 

Proffett, 1976, p. 21), Wassuk Range (Bingler, 1973, p. 12), and east 

of Walker Lake in the Gillis Range (R. F. Hardyman, oral commun., 

1976).
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D17

Along the west side of Eureka Canyon in sec. 32, T. 16 N., R. 21 E., 

the Eureka Canyon Tuff is disconformably overlain by gray-white to 

yellowish-gray sparsely porphyritic pumiceous fine-grained glassy 

rhyolite vitric-crystal tuff as much as 30-40 m thick. The tuff is 

weakly welded to nonwelded and is about 10-15 percent undeformed shards and fine ash. Phenocrysts comprise 9 percent plagioclase, 7 percent quartz, 2 percent sanidine, 2 percent biotite, and 

traces of hornblende and anorthoclase. Most phenocrysts are fragments of larger cognate crystals, but ovoid and vermicular grains of 

quartz and anorthoclase as much as 1 cm in diameter are scattered 

throughout the tuff. The distinctive quartz grains greatly aid in 

identifying the rhyolite tuff in isolated outcrops.

The rhyolite tuff is disconformably overlain by a very distinctive 

pale-greenish-gray augite-biotite-plagioclase pumice- and lithicrich crystal-lithic tuff of rhyodacitic composition. In Eureka Canyon 

this tuff fills a channel cut several tens of meters into the top of the 

underlying rhyolite tuff. At Hackett Canyon the tuff is disconformable on the Eureka Canyon Tuff, but there is little relief on the erosion surface, and no pebble beds mark the disconformity. The 

pyroxene-bearing tuff is distinctive in its mineralogy and clearly related to the thick succession of augite rhyodacite tuff, breccia, and 

lava flows in the Walker Lake area.

The augite rhyodacite tuff is very thin north of the Carson River 

but reaches a maximum thickness of about 170 m in and east of 

Hackett Canyon (fig. 2) (sec. 16, T. 15 N., R. 21 E.). The tuff is uniform in texture and mineralogy and displays no distinct cooling zonation. The rock consists of about 5-10 percent cognate lithic 

fragments composed of pale-brownish-lavender augite rhyodacite 

lava, approximately 20 percent undeformed white pumice (average 

diameter 1-1.5 cm), and 30-50 percent medium-sized phenocrysts, 

all set in a matrix of fine-grained ash. The phenocrysts include about 

30 percent plagioclase, 15 percent fresh black biotite, and 5 percent 

or less apple-green diopsidic augite. In many exposures the pyroxene 

is altered and weathered from the rock, leaving characteristic small 

cavities marking the former presence of the stubby pyroxene crystals. Radiometric dates obtained (E. B. Ekren and others, written 

commun., 1976) on biotite from augite rhyodacite tuff in the Gillis 

Range are 23.2 ± 0.8 m.y., and on plagioclase 21.6 ± 0.6 m.y.

SANTIAGO CANYON TUFF

The youngest ash-flow tuff in the Carson City-Silver City area is a 

simple cooling unit of sphene-bearing hornblende-biotite quartz latite crystal-vitric tuff here named the Santiago Canyon Tuff for its 

type-section exposures at the mouth of Santiago Canyon in NWV4
D18 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

sec. 5, T. 15 N., R. 21 E. Reference localities are designated at Hackett Canyon (fig. 2) in sec. 9, T. 15 N., R. 21 E., and at the hill 1.5 km 

northwest of Nine Hill (fig. 2) in W Mz NE % sec. 20, T. 16 N., R. 20 E. 

The Santiago Canyon Tuff rests disconformably on older Tertiary 

ash flows and unconformably on Mesozoic basement rocks; it is more 

than 300 m thick south of the Carson River near Santiago Canyon 

and is unconformably overlain by flows and breccias of the Alta Formation (Bingler, 1977). The great thickness of this tuff, together 

with the simple and uniform cooling zonation, suggests that its 

source lies within or just east of the Santiago Canyon-Hackett Canyon area (fig. 2).

The Santiago Canyon Tuff typically includes a basal few meters of 

gray-white weakly welded tuff that grades upward into gray glassy 

densely welded vitrophyre a few meters to about 10 m thick. Above 

the vitrophyre, the cooling unit is strongly welded and devitrified 

tuff exhibiting only weak and local vapor-phase effects. Outcrops 

are blocky, somewhat rounded, and gray to pale lavender or brownish gray. The tuff contains about 10 percent pumice lapilli, in general considerably flattened as a result of uniformly strong welding. 

The foliation defined by these flattened pumice fragments is weak 

and difficult to discern because the fragments are nearly the same 

color as the rock and only 1-2 cm long. In thin section, the rock contains slightly less than 10 percent quartz, 5-10 percent sanidine, 

about 20 percent plagioclase (Ca-oligoclase), and 5 percent each of 

hornblende and biotite. Euhedral prisms of sphene, commonly 5-10 

grains per thin section, are present in fresh rock. This accessory mineral, not found in any of the other ash-flow tuffs described, is critical 

in distinguishing the Santiago Canyon from the older, but texturally 

and mineralogically similar, Singatse Tuff of Proffett and Proffett 

(1976).

In the Spring Valley area (fig. 2), the Santiago Canyon Tuff is 

moderately to intensely propylitized and silicified. Much of the rock 

is bleached by acid leaching related to oxidation of disseminated pyrite that occurs in the tuff as part of regional alteration related to the 

Comstock Lode. Where the tuff is propylitically altered, the overall 

color of the rock is lavender or purple, and feldspar and pumice fragments are chalky white aggregates that stand out against the darker 

matrix; the pumice lapilli, in particular, become clearly visible as 1- 

2-cm rounded or nearly circular white blotches on foliation planes. 

The general appearance of these pumice lapilli is a diagnostic feature useful for recognizing the Santiago Canyon Tuff in propylitized 

areas. Where the tuff is bleached and (or) silicified, it weathers pale 

yellowish tan to orange brown and is very light tan to white on fresh 

surfaces. Feldspar alters to chalky white remnants that are difficult 

to distinguish from the matrix; only the quartz phenocrysts (slightly
NEW FORMATION NAMES FOR ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA D19

vermicular and equant) help distinguish the Santiago Canyon Tuff 

from other older tuffs.

The Santiago Canyon Tuff is of latest Oligocene or earliest Miocene age. Sanidine and biotite from vitrophyre near the base of the 

tuff yielded potassium-argon dates of 20.5 and 21.8 m.y., respectively (determination by Geochron Laboratories determination; Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology sample AD 49). Whitebread 

(1976, table 1) reports a potassium-argon date of 22.7 m.y. on biotite 

from a tuff sample (Hartford Hill Rhyolite Tuff) apparently 

collected from rock here included in the Santiago Canyon Tuff.

Sphene-bearing ash-flow tuff similar to the Santiago Canyon Tuff 

is recognized by E. B. Ekren (written commun., 1976) as underlying 

Copper Mountain in the Gabbs Valley area and by J. M. Proffett, Jr. 

(oral commun., 1976) as cropping out in the Terrill Mountains north 

of Schurz, Nev. Reconnaissance mapping by Bingler (unpub. mapping, 1976) at Hartford Hill, the type locality of the Hartford Hill 

Rhyolite Tuff, revealed that all of the rock assigned to the Hartford 

Hill Rhyolite by Gianella (1936) is now part of the Santiago Canyon 

Tuff.

REFERENCES CITED

Bingler, E. C., 1973, Oligocene welded tuff sequence in northern Wassuk Range, central-western Nevada: Geol. Soc. America Abs. with Programs v. 5, no. 1, p. 12.

 1978, Geologic map of the New Empire IVi' quadrangle: Nevada Bur. Mines

and Geology Map 59. 

Bonham, H. F., 1969, Geology and mineral deposits of Washoe and Storey Counties:

Nevada Bur. Mines Bull. 70,140 p. 

Gianella, V. P., 1936, Geology of the Silver City district and the southern portion of

the Comstock Lode, Nevada: Nevada Univ. Bull., v. 30, no. 9,105 p. 

Moore, J. G., 1969, Geology and mineral resources of Lyon, Douglas, and Ormsby

Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bur. Mines Bull. 75, 45 p. 

Proffett, J. M., Jr., and Proffett, Beth, 1976, Stratigraphy of the Tertiary ash-flow

tuffs in the Yerington District, Nevada: Nevada Bur. Mines and Geology Rept.

27, 28 p. 

Ross, C. S., and Smith, R. L., 1961, Ash-flow tuffs their origin, geologic relations,

and identification: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 366, 81 p. 

Smith, R. L., 1960a, Zones and zonal variations in welded ash-flows: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 354-F, p. 149-159.

 1960b, Ash-flows: Geol. Soc. America Bull, v. 71, p. 798-842.

Stewart, J. H., and Carlson, J. E., 1976, Cenozoic rocks of Nevada: Nevada Bur.

Mines and Geology Map 52. 

Thompson, G. A., 1956, Geology of the Virginia City quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geol.

Survey Bull. 1042-C, p. 45-77. 

Trexler, D. T., 1978, Geology of the Carson City 7 Vz' quadrangle: Nevada Bur. Mines

and Geology Environmental Folio, Carson City area [in press]. 

Wallace, A. B., 1975, Geology and mineral deposits of the Pyramid district, southern

Washoe County, Nevada: Nevada Univ., Reno, Ph. D. thesis, 162 p. 

Whitebread, D. H., 1976, Alteration and geochemistry of Tertiary volcanic rocks in

parts of the Virginia City quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper

936, 43 p.

-iV U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1978 689-035/38