Uppermost Oligocene 

and Lowermost Miocene 

Ash-Flow Tuffs 

of Western Nevada 

U. S. G E 0 L 0 G I C A L S U R V E Y B U L L E T I N 1 5 5 7 

Uppermost Oligocene 

and Lowermost Miocene 

Ash-Flow Tuffs 

of Western Nevada 

By PAUL T. ROBINSON and JOHN H. STEWART 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1557 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1984 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

WILLIAM P. CLARK, Secretary 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Dallas L. Peck, Director 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

Robinson, Paul Thornton, 1934-

Uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene ash-flow tuffs of western 

Nevada 

(U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1557) 

Includes bibliography. 

Supt. of Docs. no.: I 19.3:1557 

1. Volcanic ash, tuff, etc.-Nevada. 2. Geology, stratigraphic-Oligocene. 3. 

Geology, stratigraphic-Miocene. I. Stewart, John Harris, 1928- . II. 

Title. III. United States. Geological Survey. Bulletin 1557. 

QE75.B9 no. 1557 557.3s 844>00076 

[QE461] [552'.23] 

For sale by the Distribution Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, 

604 South Pickett Street, Alexandria, VA 22304 
CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract .................................................................................................................. 1 

Introduction . . . . . ... . . .. . . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . ...... .. . ... . .. . . ... . . ... . . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . ... . . .. . ... . ... . ... . . . . . . .. . . . 1 

Stratigraphy . .. .. . ... . . .. . . . . . . .. . . ... . . ... . . .. . . .. . ... . . .. . . ..... .. . . ... . .. . . . .. . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . .. 5 

'I'uff of Columbus ............................................................................................ 14 

'I'uff of Miller Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

'I'uff of Pinchot Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

'I'uff of Volcanic Hills . . ... . . . .. . . ... . .. . . ... . .. . . . .. . . ... . . .. . . ... . .. . . ... . ... . . ... . . . . . ... . . .. . .. . . .. . . ... 20 

'I'uff of Candelaria Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 

Metallic City 'I'uff . . .. . . ... . . ... . ... . . .. . ..... .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . ... . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. . . ... . 25 

'I'uff of Eastside Mine .................................................................................... 29 

Belleville 'I'uff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 

Andesite breccia of Little Summit with associated tuff and 

sedimentary rocks . ...... .. . . ... . .. . . ... . . .. . .. .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . ... . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . ... . .. ... .. . .. . . 35 

Candelaria Junction 'I'uff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 

'I'uff of Candelaria .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. . .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . 40 

Composition ... . . ... . ... . . .. . ... . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . ... . .. . . ... . . .. . . ... . .. . . ... . . . . . ... . ... . . . .. . ... . ... . .. . . . . . .. . . . .. 42 

Age .......................................................................................................................... 43 

Regional relations .. . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . . . .. . . .. .. . .. . .. . . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . 44 

Thickness variations and facies changes .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. 44 

Volume ............................................................................................................ 47 

Source .............................................................................................................. 47 

Latest Oligocene and earliest Miocene paleogeography ................................ 51 

References cited ... . .. . . .. . . .. . .... . . ... . . .. . . .. . . ... . ... . ... . ... . . .. . . ... . .. . . ... . . . . . . ... . .. . . .. . . ... . .. . .. . . . ... . 52 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE 1. Generalized map showing distribution of Cenozoic igneous 

rocks ranging in age from 34 to 17 m.y. in Nevada, Utah, 

Page 

and parts of adjacent states .. . .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .... .. .. .. .. .. .. .... .. . 2 

2. Index map of western Nevada and eastern California showing 

distribution of Candelaria Hills sequence,................................ 3 

3-11. Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence: 

3. Northeast side of Miller Mountain, Columbus 

quadrangle .. . . . .. . . ... . .. . . .... . . . . . ... . . .. . ... . . .. . .... . ... . . .. . .. . . . .. . ... ... .. ... . 15 

4. Volcanic Hills, northern Davis Mountain quadrangle ...... 17 

5. 2 km southwest of Metallic City, Candelaria 

quadrangle . .. .. . ... .. ... . .. . . . ... . .... . .. . ... . . .. . ... .. .. . . ... . . . . . ... . . .. ... . .. . . . . 22 

6. Candelaria Hills, Columbus quadrangle ............................ 26 

7. 2.5 km south of Candelaria Junction, Belleville 

quadrangle .............. _ ............................................................ 27 

III 
IV CONTENTS 

8. Camp Douglas quadrangle . .. .. ..... .. . . ... . .. . . ... . . .. . . ... . . .. . . ... .. . . .... . 31 

9. Central Silver Peak Range, Rhyolite Ridge 

quadrangle .... .. ... . ... . . .. . . ... . ... . ..... .. . . . .. . ... . . ... . ... . ... . . ... . .. . ... . ... . .. 34 

10. 2.5 km west-northwest of Eastside Mine, Basalt 

quadrangle.. .. ..... ............. ......... ........ ................. .................... 36 

11. Northern White Mountains, Benton quadrangle . .. ..... .. .. .. 42 

TABLES 

Page 

TABLE 1. Correlation of stratigraphic units in the Candelaria 

Hills sequence used in this report with those defined by 

previous workers . ...... .. . ..... .. . . ... . ... . ...... .. .. .. . . .. . . . .. . . ... . ... . . ... . ... ... .. .. . 4 

2. Stratigraphy, thickness, and lithology of Candelaria Hills 

sequence, western Nevada . . ... .. .. . . ..... .. . . .... ... . ..... .. . . ..... .. . . . .. .. . . ..... 6 

3-12. Modal analyses of: 

3. Tuff of Columbus . . . ... . ..... ... . ... . .. . . ..... ... . ... . . .. . ..... ... .. . .. . ...... .... .. . 18 

4. Tuff of Miller Mountain . .... ... . ..... ... .. .. . . .. . . . .. . ..... ... . ..... .. . ... . ... . .. 20 

5. Tuff of Pinchot Creek ... ..... .. . . ..... .. .. ... . . .. . ..... .. .. ..... .. . . . .. ... .. .. . . . 21 

6. Tuff of Volcanic Hills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 

7. Tuff of Candelaria Mountain .. ... .. . ... .. .. . ... . . . .. . .... .... . ... . .. .. ... ... 28 

8. Metallic City Tuff .. ... . ..... ... ... .. ... . . ... . ... . ... . . .. . ..... .. . . . ... . .... .. . . .. . . .. 30 

9. Tuff of Eastside Mine . .. .. .. ... . ...... .. . ... . . .. . ..... ... . ..... .. . .. .. . .. . . .... .. 32 

10. Belleville Tuff .......................................................................... 38 

11. Tuffs associated with the andesite breccia of Little 

Summit ................................................................................ 41 

12. Candelaria Junction Tuff . . .... ... . . ... . ... . ... . ..... .. . .. .. . . .. .. . .. . . . .. ... . ... 46 

13. Average modal analyses of uppermost Oligocene and 

lowermost Miocene ash-flow tuffs of western Nevada ............ 48 

14. K-Ar ages of the Candelaria Hills sequence.................................. 49 
UPPERMOST OLIGOCENE AND 

LOWERMOST MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS 

OF WESTERN NEVADA 

By PAuL T. RoBINSON andjoHN H. STEWART 

ABSTRACT 

A series of uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene ash-flow tuffs informally named the Candelaria Hills sequence crops out in and around the Candelaria mining district of western Nevada. These tuffs form part of a broad belt of 

Oligocene and lower Miocene ash-flow tuffs extending across eastern California, 

central Nevada, and western Utah. The Candelaria Hills sequence presently 

occurs over an estimated 3,200 km2 and has a volume of approximately 368 km3. 

Eleven major ash-flow sheets are recognized in the sequence, three of which, the 

Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria Junction Tuffs, are voluminous and 

widespread. Minor basalt flows are interlayered with the tuffs in the Candelaria 

mining district, and a widespread andesitic lahar occurs in the upper part of the 

sequence. The tuffs were deposited during an approximately 2 m.y. interval 

between about 25.5 and 23.5 m.y. B.P. On the basis of phenocryst mineralogy, the 

sequence ranges from rhyolitic to andesitic in composition. Thickness variations 

and facies relations suggest that the tuffs were erupted from vents within the 

Candelaria Hills, and a major fault-bounded trough in this area is tentatively 

interpreted to be the result of cauldron subsidence. The wide distribution of the 

Candelaria Hills sequence suggests that the ash flows spread over relatively even 

topography and that their emplacement predated the initial phase of basin-andrange faulting in this area. 

INTRODUCTION 

A sequence of uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene 

ash-flow tuffs, referred to informally as the Candelaria Hills sequence, crops out over a large area of northern Esmeralda and 

southern Mineral Counties, Nev. The sequence consists of a distinctive succession of silicic tuffs, which are lithologically distinct 

from, and younger than, upper Oligocene tuffs of the Yerington 

district in northern Mineral County and in Lyon County, Nev. 

(Proffett and Proffett, 1976; Ekren and others, 1980). The rocks 

described here are part of a widespread province of Oligocene and 

lower Miocene ash-flow tuffs extending across eastern California, 

central Nevada, and western Utah (fig. 1). 

1 
2 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

112' 

---u---- --6-----r------ . 

~r ~ ~ f:. L 40' fa Rhyolitic flows 

D ~ Rhyolitic tuffs 

. ~ ~ ~· I •• 

,J b... .. -;~£S .I (} c 

~-e · l!:J cF' or Ci7CJ • I • ::G ® .fJ 

Intrusive 

-rocks 

38' 

~ 

..... 

~ "f> 

0 ~ 

36' ?--

~ 

0 200 KILOMETERS 

~ ,""10 CJ • ARIZONA 

o-9:-._..., I 1-/' 

""'"' ' '"' ;-J 

L__l__j '"' \ "' 

FIGURE I.-Generalized map showing distribution of Cenozoic igneous rocks 

ranging in age from 34 to 17 m. y. in Nevada, Utah, and parts of adjacent states 

(after Stewart and others, 1977). 

The Candelaria Hills sequence has been recognized as far 

north as the Excelsior Mountains and Garfield Hills in Mineral 

County and as far south as the central Silver Peak Range and west 

flank of the White Mountains (Krauskopf, 1971). On the east the 

tuffs extend to the edge of Big Smoky Valley and on the west to 

Huntoon Valley, north of the White Mountains (fig. 2). The existing 

outcrops, coupled with inferred subsurface sections beneath intermontane valleys, suggest an areal extent for this sequence in 

excess of 3,000 km2 • Because of this Wide areal extent, previous 

studies have dealt with local sections in specific areas or quadrangles (for example: Page, 1959; Ross, 1961; Robinson and others, 

1968; Crowder and others, 1972; Robinson and Crowder, 1973; 

Stewart and others, 1975; Robinson and others, 1976; Stewart, 

1979, 1981a, 1981b; Garside, 1979; Speed and Cogbill, 1979b; Stewart and others, 1981). 

In this paper we discuss the Candelaria Hills sequence in a 

regional context and compare stratigraphic sections from the entire outcrop area. We also present detailed lithologic and pet-

.rographic data which have been used for correlation of individual 

ash-flow sheets. From thickness variations and facies changes in 

the sequence we draw inferences regarding both the source of the 

ash flows and the nature of the surface over which they flowed. 
INTRODUCTION 3 

Because the Candelaria Hills sequence is a widespread and 

readily recognizable unit, it is of considerable tectonic and paleogeographic importance in determining the time of initial extension that formed the present-day basins and ranges. Speed and 

Cogbill (1979c) suggested that extensional faulting occurred in this 

LOCALITIES OF STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS 

Northeast Side of Miller Mountain 

Volcamc Hills 

3 2 km southwest of Metallic City 

Candelaria Hills 

2.5 km south of Candelaria Junct1on 

Camp Douglas quadrangle 

7 Central Silver Peak Range 

8 2.5 km west-northwest of Easts1de Mine 

9 Northern White Mountains 

4 

10 15 

I 

1 3 

5 6 7 8 

9 10 

118'30' 118'15' - 118'00 

10 KILOMETERS 

QUADRANGLES MENTION EO IN TEXT 

1. Camp Oouglas 

2. Bellev1lle 

3. Candelaria 

l j 

38'15' 4. Huntoon Valley 

5. Jacks Spring 

6. Basalt 

I I II 

7. Miller Mountain 

38'00' 8. Columbus 

9. Benton 

10 Davis Mounta1n 

11. Rhyolite R1dge 

FIGURE 2.-lndex map of southwestern Nevada and eastern California, showing 

distribution of Candelaria Hills sequence. Numbers 1-9 for localities of stratigraphic sections refer to figures 3-11. Base from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:250,000-scale maps of Walker Lake, Tonopah, Mariposa, and Goldfield r by 2° 

quadrangles. 
TABLE !.-Correlation of stratigraphic units in the Candelaria Hills sequence used in this report with those defined by previous workers 

This re]'X)rt 

Tuff of Can0elaria -----------

Candelaria Junction Tuff -----

Andesite breccia of Little 

Summit with associated tuff 

ann sedimentary rocks ------

Belleville Tuff --------------

Tuff of Eastside Mine --------

Metallic City Tuff-----------

Tuff of Candelaria r101mtain --

Tuff of Volcanic Hills -------

Tuff of Pinchot Creek --------

Tuff of Miller Mountain ------

Tuff of Columbus -------------

Speed and Cogbill (1979b) 

10 

Candelaria Junction Tuff 

8 

Belleville Tuff 

6 

Metallic City Tuff 

4 

3 

2 

Stewart ( 1979) 

Tt-5 

Tt-3, 3b 

Tt-3a 

Tuff of Eastside Mine 

Tt-2d 

Tt-2c 

Tt-2b 

Tt-2b 

Tt-2a 

Tt-1 

Page ( 1959) 

Tv 17, 18, 19 

Tv 13, 14, 15, 16 

Tv 12 

Tv7, 11 

Tv 5, 6, 9 

Tv 2, 3, 4 

Tv 1 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

Ci 

0 

0 

t:rj 

z 

t:rj 

> z 

tj 

~ 

0 

0 

t:rj 

z 

t:rj 

> UJ. 

~ 

~ 

~ 

~ ~ 

c:: 

~ 

~ 

Sl1 

z 

t:rj 

~ tl 

> 
STRATIGRAPHY 5 

part of southwestern Nevada in latest Oligocene time, contemporaneous in part with emplacement of the ash flows. Others 

(McKee, 1971; McKee and Noble, 1974; and Stewart, 1978) have 

indicated that regional extension in the Basin and Range province 

occurred only during the past 17 m. y. 

STRATIGRAPHY 

The uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene tuffs crop 

out over a large area in Esmeralda and Mineral Counties, extending from Huntoon Valley on the west to Big Smoky Valley on the 

east and from the central Silver Peak Range on the south to the 

Garfield Hills on the north (fig. 2). The thickest and most complete 

sections occur in the Candelaria mining district in Mineral County, 

where Page (1959) first studied the sequence. He subdivided this 

Tertiary section into 19 units, 17 of which are pyroclastic in origin. 

A recent reinvestigation of this area by Speed and Cogbill (1979b) 

led to the recognition of 10 major pyroclastic units, most of which 

are separated by angular or erosional unconformities. Each of 

these is characterized by a distinctive lithology and phenocryst 

mineralogy, making identification of individual units relatively 

easy. Units 5, 7, and 9 in the sequence are especially voluminous 

and widespread, and these were given formational status by Speed 

and Cogbill (1979b), named respectively, the Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria Junction Tuffs. 

In the present study we use the basic subdivision proposed by 

Speed and Cogbill (1979b) but recognize one additional unit not 

present in the Candelaria Hills. These 11 units can be widely 

recognized in the area on the basis of their phenocryst mineralogy, 

even where unconformities are absent. Rather than attempt to 

reconcile the different numbering systems used by previous workers we adopt the names Metallic City Tuff, Belleville Tuff, and 

Candelaria Junction Tuff as defined by Speed and Cogbill (1979b) 

and use informal names for the remaining units (table 1). Thble 2 

summarizes the stratigraphy and lithology of the Candelaria Hills 

sequence, whereas tables 3 to 12 give the modal variations of 

individual ash-flow sheets. The average modal composition of each 

unit is given in table 13, and table 14 summarizes the available K-Ar 

age data. 

Few place names occur in the sparsely populated area where 

the Candelaria Hills sequence crops out, and we had difficulty in 

finding names that could appropriately be applied to many of the 

units described here. The word "Candelaria" thus occurs as part of 

several of the unit names (Candelaria Hills, Candelaria Junction, 
TABLE 2.-Stratigraphy, thickness, and lithology of Candelaria Hills sequence, western Nevada 

[Pl:S:Q, ratio of plagioclase (Pl), sanidine (S), and quartz (Q). <,less than] 

Unit 

Tuff of Candelaria -------------

Candelaria Junction Tuff -------

Maximum 

thickness 

{m) 

75 

105 

Stratigraphy and lithology 

Gray medium- to coarse-grained weakly to densely welded biotiterich tuff. Basal 2 to 3 m is white to brownish-gray weakly 

welded tuff grading upward into dark-gray vitrophyre with 

well-developed eutaxitic texture. Vitrophyre passes upward 

into gray crystallized moderately to weakly welded tuff., 

Pumice fragments 20 percent, angular to elongate, 2 to 15 mm. 

Obsidian flakes and black shards visible in groundmass. Rock 

fragments as much as to 30 percent, < 1 em, subrounded to 

subangular, consist of tuff, scoria, and andesite. Crystals 15 

to 20 percent, 1 to 3 mm, Pl:S:Q = 8:1:1, biotite 4 to 5 

percent. Unit occurs only in vicinity of Candelaria 

(townsite), where it conformably overlies the Candelaria 

Junction Tuff (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b). Readily 

distinguished from underlying Candelaria Junction Tuff by 

abundance of biotite and lithic fragments and by predominance 

of plagioclase. 

Prominent gray to brownish- or reddish-gray cliff-forming ashflow sheet. Two cooling units present in Candelaria Hills, 

lower one 20 to 25 m and upper one 80 to 90 m thick. Only one 

cooling unit recognized in most other sections. Tuff is coarse 

grained, moderately to densely welded, and crystal rich and has 

well-developed eutaxitic texture. Ash-flow sheet usually has 

basal zone of weakly welded glassy tuff grading upward into 

O"J 

0 

t"' 

~ 

0 

0 

0 

t:_%.1 

z 

t:_%.1 

> z 

t) 

a= 

~ 

0 

0 

t:_%.1 

z 

t:_%.1 

> 00. 

~ 

~ t"' 

~ ~ 

q 

~ 

~ 

sn 

z 

t:_%.1 

~ t) 

> 
Annesite breccia of Little Summit with 

associaten tuff and senimentary rocks 

Upner andesite tuff -------- 15 

dark-gray vitrophyre as much as 20 m thick. Upper part 

consists of 20 to 30 m of pink to reddish-brown moderately 

welded crystallized tuff locally overlain by 20 to 25 m of gray 

glassy tuff. In some sections the tuff is completely 

crystallized and is columnar jointed. Pumice fragments 10 to 

20 percent, angular to elongate, mostly <1 em, pink to 

black. Rock fragments 1 to 2 percent, subrounded, 1 to 2 mm, 

chiefly sedimentary. Crystals 15 to 20 percent, 1 to 5 mm, 

Pl:S:Q = 3:2:4, traces of biotite and green hornblende. ~uartz 

crystals large and vermicular. Tuff locally overlies the 

Belleville Tuff with erosional unconfonnity; elsewhere the two 

are separated by the andesite breccia of Little ~ummit and 

associated tuffs and tuffaceous sediments. Readlly 

distinguished from other units by abundance of large quartz and 

feldspar crystals. 

Light-gray to brownish-gray glassy unwelded poorly consolidated 

ash-flow tuff of andesitic composition. Pumice fragments 5 to 

20 percent, angular to slightly flattened, most <5 mm, some as 

much as 3 em. Rock fragments 1 to 7 percent, subrounded, most 

<1 mm, chiefly andesite with some siltstone and welded tuff. 

Sparse dark-brown fragments of glass, <2 mm, with perlitic 

cracks. Crystals sparse, 1 to 4 percent, <1 mm, chiefly 

plagioclase with traces of quartz and biotite. Tuff is 

separated from the lower andesite tuff unit by 20 to 25 m of 

very coarse-grained andesite breccia, and locally by 5-6 m of 

bedded and crossbedded tuffaceous sandstone and granule 

conglomerate. 

UJ. 

~ 

~ 

~ ~ 

C"1 

:::tl 

> 

~ 

~ 

~ 

...;:, 
TABLE 2.-Stratigraphy, thickness, and lithology of Candelaria Hills sequence, western Nevada-Continued. 

Unit 

Andesite breccia of 

Little Summit ------------

Lrn..rer andesite tuff --------

Belleville Tuff ----------------

Maximum 

thickness 

(m) 

20 

25 

80 

Stratigraphy and lithology 

Light-brownish-gray very coarse grained poorly sorted 

poorly bedded andesite lahar. Clasts as much as 2 m across, 

angular, chiefly hypersthene andesite with minor welded tuff. 

Matrix is sandy. Unit ccrnmonly fills channels in underlying 

tuff. 

Light-gray coarse-grained pumice- rich glassy unwelded tuff. 

Pumice fragments 60 to 70 percent, 2 mm to 20 em, si~ and 

abundance decrease upward. Hock fragments 5 to 10 percent, <1 

em in lower part, <2 mm in upper part, mostly andesite with 

minor siltstone. Crystals 10 to 15 percent, 1 to 2 mm, 

plagioclase and minor hypersthene. Unit rests unconformably on 

the Belleville Tuff, often with_a thin layer of cobble to 

boulder conglomerate between them. Overlain conformably(?) by 

the andesite breccia of Little Summit. Easily distinguished 

from the upper andesite tuff unit by abundance of large pumice 

and from the underlying Belleville Tuff by gray color and 

unwelded character. 

Varicolored coarse-grained strongly welded widespread ash-flow 

sheet with good eutaxitic texture. Basal 1 to 2 m consists of 

gray weakly welded vitric tuff which grades upward into 

dark-gray vitrophyre. This is overlain by variable thicknesses 

00 

0 

~ 1-4 

~ 

0 

(1 

t_:z:j 

z 

t_:z:j 

> z 

tj 

1-4 == 

0 

(1 

t_:z:j 

z 

t_:z:j 

> rn 

::0 

~ ~ 

~ ~ 

~ 

~ 

~ 

~rn 

z 

t_:z:j 

~ tj 

> 
Tuff of Eastsi~e Mine ----------- 130 

of bright- red, orange, or white crystallized tuff. Two cooling 

units present locally, each with typical layered structure. 

Pumice fragments 20 to 35 percent, highly flattened, as much as 

10 em long. Rock fragments 5 to 10 percent near the base, 1 to 

2 percent in upper parts, subrounded, <10 mm, composed of 

hypersthene andesite. Crystals 7 to 20 percent, 1 to 3 mm, 

chiefly plagioclase with minor pyroxene and traces of quartz, 

sanidine, and biotite. Tuff fills channels cut into or through 

the underlying tuff of Eastside Hine, so thickness highly 

variable. Thin layer of cobble conglomerate often present at 

base. Distinguished from the overlying lower andesite tuff 

unit by bright colors and intense welding. Distinguished from 

all older units by plagioclase-pyroxene mineral asserablage. 

White coarse-grained pumice-rich weakly welded tuff. Often 

weathers into small pinnacles. Lower few meters may be 

moderately welded and upper part of unit consists of strongly 

indurated reddish-brown tuff. Pumice fragments highly variable 

but usually abundant, 2 to 20 percent, white, angular, as much 

as 4 em but averaging 1 em. Rock fragments conspicuous, 2 to 

10 percent, black, subrounded, 2 ~n to 10 em, andesite and 

shale. Crystals 5 to 25 percent, <2 mm, Pl:S:Q = 3:1:3, 

biotite and iron oxides <1 percent each. Unit rests 

unconformably on the Hetallic City 'I'uff and is locally 

separated from it by 0.5 to 1 m of bedded and cross-bedded 

tuffaceous siltstone. Differs from the Belleville Tuff in 

color, poorly welded character, and quartz-rich mineral 

assemblage. Distinguished from the Metallic City 'l'uff by 

unwelded character, lower crystal content, and low biotite 

content. 

~ ~ 

~ 

s 

~ 

?; 

::c: 

to< 

~ 
TABLE 2.-Stratigraphy, thickness, and lithology of Candelaria Hills sequence, western Nevada-Continued. 

TTnit 

Me~~llic City Tuff--------------

Tuff of C~ndelar~~ Mountain -----

r-1axil'lum 

thickness 

( m) 

70 

80 

Stratigraphy and lithology 

IVidespread medium-grained moderately to densely welded crystalrich ash-flow sheet with pronounced vertical zonation. Basal 5 

to 10 m is weakly to moderately wel<led usually 9lassy tuff 

grading upward into dark-gray vitrophyre, 3 to 7 m thick, often 

with platy jointing. Upper part of unit consists of moderately 

welded well-indurated crystallized tuff. luff is gray where 

glassy; salmon, brownish gray, or reddish gray where 

crystallized. Pumice fragments sparse, 5 to 10 percent, <2 em, 

strongly flattened. Rock fragments small and sparse, 1 to J 

percent, <5 rnrn, chiefly andesite with some shale. Crystals 20 

to 25 percent, <4 rnrn, Pl:S:Q = 6:1:2, biotite 2 to 5 percent, 

traces of hornblende and iron oxides. Unit is locally 

separated from the underlying tuff of Candelaria Hountain by 5 

to 6 m of crossbedded tuff and lapilli tuff. Distinguished 

from other units by densely welded relatively fine-grained 

nature and high crystal content. In Candelaria mining district 

unit includes an olivine basalt flow (unit 'l'v 10 of Page, 

1959). 

Hhite to yellowish- or brownish-gray coarse- to very coarse 

grained unwelded to very weakly welded friable ash-flow tuff 

with abundant white pumice fragments. Crops out only 1-n the 

Candelaria Hills and Candelaria mining district. Pwnice 15 to 

5 

0 

~ ~ 

Q 

0 

('1 

t?J 

z 

t?J 

> z 

tj 

a= 

~ 

0 

('1 

t?J 

z 

t?J 

> rn 

~ 

~ ~ 

~ ~ 

d 

"%j 

"%j 

~[/). 

z 

t?J 

~ tj 

> 
Tuff of Volcanic Hills---------- 40 

30 percent, 2 to 20 em, angular and equidimensional, coarse 

lumps concentrated in lenses and layers. Rock fragments 1 to 6 

percent, 1 mm to 2 em, angular, andesite and tuff. Obsidian 

chips 2 to 5 percent, 1 to 5 mm, angular, black. Crystals 5 to 

7 percent, 0.5 to 2 mm, subhedral, Pl:S:~ = 12:1:2, bioite 1 to 

20 percent, traces of iron oxides, allanite, and zircon. Unit 

separated from the underlying tuff of Volcanic Hills by thin 

layer of Paleozoic-pebble conglomerate and from the overlying 

Metallic City Tuff by 2 to 3 m of red tuffaceous siltstone. 

Distinguished from other units by abundance of pumice and rock 

fragments and low crystal content. 

vfuite to grayish-brown pumiceous strongly to weakly welded 

moderately indurated ash-flow sheet. Unit locally zoned with 

basal poorly welded zone, 2 to 3 m thick, a dark-gray 

vitrophyre with eutaxitic texture, 3 to 4 m thick, and a 

moderately to weakly welded crystallized upper part as much as 

25 m thick. Elsewhere entire unit consists of brownish-gray 

unwelded glassy tuff. Pumice fragments 10 to 15 percent, 1 mm 

t~ 2 em, partly flattened. Rock fragments small and sparse, 

0.5 to 2.5 percent, 0.5 to 5 mm, subrounded, volcanic. 

Crystals 10 to 20 percent, 0.5 to 3 mm, subhedral, quartz 

commonly vermicular, Pl:S:Q = 2:2:1, traces of biotite, iron 

oxides, allanite, and zircon. Unit separated from the 

underlying and overlying units by erosional unconformities. 

Locally overlain by thin layer of Paleozoic-pebble 

conglomerate, or by 6 to 7 m of reworked tuff. Separated from 

the underlying tuff of Pinchot Creek by 2 to 3 m of gray bedded 

tuff. Distinguished from other units by relatively high 

content of pumice and crystals and by low content of rock 

fragments. 

rn 

~ 

~ 

~ 

-0 

~ 

> ""0 

p:: 

~ 

........ 

........ 
TABLE 2.-Stratigraphy, thickness, and lithology of Candelaria Hills sequence, western Nevada-Continued. 

Unit 

TuFf oF Pinchot Creek -----------

Tuff of Miller Mountain ---------

Haximum 

thickness 

(m) 

35 

60 

Stratigraphy and lithology 

White to yellowish-gray fine-grained unwelded to weakly welded 

glassy tuff. Two cooling units in Candelaria mining district; 

one elsewhere. Pumice fragments 2 to 5 percent, <5 mm, 

concentrated in lower part of unit, slightly flattened. Rock 

fragments sparse, usually <1 percent, locally as much as 3.5 

percent in upper 5 m of unit, 1 to 5 mm, subrounded, 

volcanic. Crystals 8 to 15 percent, most abundant in upper 

part, 0.5 to 3 mm, subhedral to broken, Pl:S:~ = b:1:3 but 

mineral proportions quite variable, traces of biotite, iron 

oxides, and allanite. In Candelaria mining district unit is 

separated from the underlying tuff of t-1iller 1-lountain by thin 

layer of gravel and from the overlying tuff of Volcanic Hills 

by red-weathering zone. Distinguished from other units by 

fine-grained character and low percentages of crystals and rock 

fragments. 

Light gray to grayish-brown fine-grained crystal-rich weakly to 

ctensely welded tuff characterized by abundant biotite. In type 

area on ~1iller Mountain tuff is zoned with basal layer of 

moderately welded glassy tuff grading upward into dark-gray 

vitrophyre. Upper part consists of gray to yellowish-gray or 

reddish-brown moderately to weakly welded crystallized tuff. 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

Q 

0 

('1 

t_:l:j 

z 

t_:l:j 

> z 

t:1 

== ~ 

0 

('1 

t_:l:j 

z 

t_:l:j 

> UJ. 

::0 

~ 

~ 

~ ~ 

Cj 

~ 

~ 

~UJ. 

z 

t_:l:j 

~ t:1 

> 
Tuff of Columbus ---------------- so 

Elsewhere tuff is moderately to weakly welded glassy tuff. No 

pumice fragments. Rock fragments <1 percent, locally more 

abundant at base of unit where tuff rests on Paleozoic basement 

rocks, 1 to 2 mm, subrounded, chiefly siltstone. Crystals 5 to 

25 percent, most abundant in densely welded zones, Q.S to 1.5 

~n, subhedral, quartz crystals highly vermicular, Pl:S:~ = 12:1:2, biotite 2 to 5 percent, traces of hornblende, iron 

oxides, and zircon• At most localities unit rests 

unconformably on Paleozoic basement, elsewhere it is separated 

from basement rocks by the tuff of Columbus. unit locally 

separated from the overlying tuff of Pinchot Creek by thin 

gravel layer. Readily distinguished from other units by finegrained character and abundance of biotite. 

Gray and yellowish-gray to reddish-brown fine- to medium-grained 

densely welded tuff, characterized by abundant Paleozoic rock 

fragments. Outcrops are thin and discontinuous, most common in 

Columbus quadrangle. Gray basal vitrophyre grades upward into 

reddish-gray crystallized zone. Pumice fragments 1 to 5 

percent, most abundant in basal part of unit, 5 mm to 2 em, 

flattened. Rock fragments 3 to 10 percent in lower few meters, 

sparse in upper parts of unit, 2 mm to 2 em, angular, chiefly 

siltstone and chert of Paleozoic age. Crystals average <10 

percent, 0.5 to 2 mm, subhedral, Pl:S:Q = 4:3:2, traces of 

biotite, iron oxides, and zircon. Unit rests unconformably on 

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and is overlain by the tuff of 

Miller Mountain. Distinguished from overlying tuffs by color, 

abundance of rock fragments, and crystal assemblage. 

U1 

1-3 

~ 

~ 

Cl -

~ 

> 

~ 

~ 

~ 

~ 
14 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

Candelaria Mountain, Candelaria). Such a redundancy is awkward, but unavoidable. In addition, several tuffs are named for 

geographic features that occur several kilometers from outcrops of 

the named tuff. 

The names used in this report apply to mineralogically distinct 

tuffs, which in some cases are composed of a single cooling unit and 

in other cases of two or three cooling units of similar mineralogy. 

Sedimentary units and tuffs of local or unknown distribution are 

not named. 

TUFF OF COLUMBUS 

The tuff of Columbus is a relatively thin discontinuous ashflow sheet resting unconformably on pre-Tertiary basement rocks 

and overlain by the tuff of Miller Mountain. It crops out chiefly in 

the hills along the northwestern margin of Columbus Salt Marsh 

(unit Tt-l of Stewart, 1979), generally between Miller Mountain 

and the Candelaria Hills. Small outcrops of a tuff considered to be 

correlative occur in the Jacks Spring and Basalt quadrangles to the 

west (Stewart, 1981a, b) and in the Volcanic Hills to the south (see 

fig. 4). The unit is informally named for a relatively large exposure 

about 7.2 km west-southwest of Columbus;~ in the Columbus quadrangle. This tuff does not crop out in the Candelaria mining district 

and was not described by Page (1959) or Speed and Cogbill (1979b). 

Near Miller Mountain, the tuff of Columbus is a single cooling 

unit of gray to reddish-brown densely welded tuff with a basal 

vitrophyre and an upper devitrified and crystallized zone (fig. 3). In 

the Volcanic Hills (fig. 4), the tuff is weakly welded and the basal 

vitrophyre is absent. Thicknesses are highly variable but are generally less than 50 m. The tuff is easily distinguished from the 

overlying unit by the common presence .of lithic fragments and the 

general absence of biotite (table 13). Sparse flattened pumice fragments as much as 2 em long are scattered in the tuff, imparting a 

crude eutaxitic texture. 

Rock fragments constitute 3 to 10 modal percent, decreasing 

in abundance upward in the unit. These are chiefly pieces of black 

chert as much as 2 em across, but smaller fragments of siltstone 

and altered volcanic material are also present. The sedimentary 

fragments are most abundant in the lower part of the unit, suggesting that they were picked up from the underlying surface 

during flow. Some of the volcanic fragments contain olivine 

pseudomorphs and are presumably altered basalt. 

Phenocrysts make up 7 to 9 percent and consist dominantly of 

plagioclase, sanidine, and quartz in the approximate proportions of 

4:~:2 (table 3). Plagioclase crystals are generally 0.5 to 1.5 mm 
100 

en 

ffi 

1-

:E >-

~ 

50 ~-( en 

~ -()- z 

:00: )-

t.l -I.,. :i: 

1- -( .-r 

STRATIGRAPHY 15 

~ Belleville Tuff IMiocenei-Red coarse-grained densely welded tuff with dark-gray vitrophyre at base. Upper part 

has 20-25 percent flattened purrice fragments as much as 5 an long; vitrophyre has sparse purrice. Rock fragments 

1-2 percent, 1-10 mm, volcanic. Crystals 10-15 percent, all plagioclase, hypersthene, and iron oxides, subhedral, 

~ 0.5-2 mm. 

Tuff of Eastside Mine-Light-gray to reddish-gray weakly to moderately welded lithic-rich tuff. Lower one-third 

is gray unwelded glassy tuff with 5-10 percent white angular pumice lapilli as much as 2 em across. Upper twothirds is well-indurated moderately welded reddish-brown crystallized tuff with 10-15 percent flattened pumice 

fragments. Rock fragments 5-6 percent, subrounded, 1-15 mm, volcal\ic. Crystals 20-25 percent, 0.5-3 mm, 

subhedral to euhedral, PI:S:O = 2:1:3, traces of biotite. 

_ __/"" Metalic City Tuff !Miocene or Oligocene)-White to gray fine- to medium-grained moderately to densely welded crystalrich tuff. Pumice fragments 1-2 percent elongate, 2-3 mm. Rock fragments absent in lower two-thirds, sparse 

in upper one-third, 1-10 mm, subangular, volcanic. Crystals 20-25 percent, 0.5-3 mm, subhedral, quartz crystals 

vermicular, P1:S:O =6:1:3, 1-2 percent biotite and traces of iron oxides. 

Tuff of Pinchot Creek-White to light-gray fine-grained weakly welded tuff. Pumice 1 percent, 1-3 mm, slightly 

flattened. Rock fragments <1 percent, subrounded, 1-2 mm, shale and volcanic material. Crystals 10 percent, 

1-2 mm, subhedral, P1:S:O =5:1:2, 1 percent biotite and traces of iron oxides. 

Tuff of Miller Mountain-Grayish-brown fine-grained crystal-rich welded tuff characterized by abundant biotite. 

Basal4 m is light-gray moderately welded tuff grading upward into darker-gray vitrophyre, 2-3m thick. Upper 

30m consists of reddish- to grayish-brown densely to moderately welded crystallized tuff. No pumice fragments. 

Rock fragments < 1 percent. subrounded, 1-2 mm, siltstone. Crystals 20 percent, 0.5-2 mm, subhedral, 

PI:S:O =3:1:2, 5 percent biotite and 1-2 percent altered hornblende. 

J Tuff of Columbus-Yellowish-brown to gray medium-grained densely welded tuff. Pumice fragments 5 percent in 

lower 5 m, flattened, 1-2 em, sparse in upper part. Rock fragments 5-10 percent in lower 2m, 1-2 percent 

\ in upper part, subangular, 2 mm to 2 em, black chert and siltstone. Crystals 10 percent, 0.5-2 mm, PI:S:Q =2:1:1, 

\_ traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

~Black siltstone and chert (Paleozoic). 

FIGURE 3.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence on northeast side 

of Miller Mountain, Columbus quadrangle, Nevada. Number 1 at top of column 

indicates location in figure 2. 

long, with a few glomerophyric clots as much as 3 mm across. 

Individual crystals are subhedral to subrounded, commonly broken, and rarely corroded or resorbed. Most plagioclase crystals are 

strongly zoned from andesine to oligoclase. Sanidine forms subhedrallaths or prismsfrom about 0.5 to 2 mm long, some of which 

are zoned. Some sanidine laths enclose small crystals of plagioclase. Quartz forms rounded, corroded, or vermicular crystals 

from about 0.5 to 1.5 mm across. Trace amounts of biotite, iron 

oxides, and zircon are also present. 

Sparse xenocrysts are also scattered in the tuff. The largest of 

these, as much as 1 mm across, appear to be subhedral olivine 

grains pseudomorphed by iron oxides and smectite. Smaller grains 

are angular fragments of the same material, presumably formed by 

breakup of the larger fragments. 

The groundmass consists largely of shards and glass dust 

surrounding the flattened pumice fragments. Most shards are less 

than 0.5 mm long and none exceed 2 mm. Where fresh, the glass is 
16 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

pale brown to colorless. Devitrified shards consist of microcrystalline mixtures of cristobalite and alkali feldspar, commonly 

with axiolitic textures. The grain size of the devitrified 

groundmass increases somewhat in the upper parts of the unit, and 

tridymite crystals form small irregular patches in the crystallized 

zones. 

TUFF OF MILLER MOUNTAIN 

The tuff of Miller Mountain is a prominent ledge-forming ashflow sheet that crops out extensively in the Candelaria Hills and 

Miller Mountain area (unit 1 of Speed and Cogbill, 1979b; unit Tt-2a 

of Stewart, 1979). It is a single cooling unit of light- to yellowishgray or grayish-brown fine-grained moderately compacted crystalrich tuff averaging about 40 m thick. Locally, it conformably(?) 

overlies the tuff of Columbus; elsewhere it rests unconformably on 

Paleozoic basement rocks or is separated from the basement by 

thin lenses of conglomerate. At most localities it is separated from 

the overlying tuff of Pinchot Creek by a 1- to 2-m-thick layer of 

gravel composed of basement clasts. The unit is informally named 

for exposures on the northeast side of Miller Mountain in the 

Columbus quadrangle (fig. 3). 

In the type locality this tuff has a moderately welded basal 

zone 1 to 5 m thick, grading upward into a 2- to 3-m-thick dark-gray 

vitrophyre. This, in turn, is overlain by 25 to 35m of moderately to 

weakly welded gray to yellowish-gray or reddish-brown crystallized tuff. In some sections the upper part of the unit consists of 

poorly indurated white tuff that weathers to low rounded hills. 

There are no pumice fragments in this tuff, and rock fragments are sparse. The latter are mostly small rounded pieces of 

silicic volcanic material as much as 0.2J11m across. A few fragments 

of chert, siltstone, and limestone occur in the basal part of the unit 

where it overlies pre-Tertiary rocks. 

Crystals make up about 5 to 25 percent by volume and are 

chiefly plagioclase and biotite, with minor quartz, sanidine, and 

opaque minerals (table 4). Crystals are most abundant in the 

densely welded sections on Miller Mountain and least abundant in 

the unwelded distal parts of the unit. Most specimens also contain 1 

to 2 percent of fresh or altered hornblende. The plagioclase occurs 

as euhedral to subhedral prisms, generally 1 to 1.5 mm long, or as 

smaller angular crystal fragments. Most of the plagioclase crystals 

are highly zoned, ranging from sodic andesine to oligoclase, and 

many contain small glassy inclusions in concentric zones parallel to 

the crystal faces. Sanidine crystals average about 0.5 mm in length 

and are generally subhedral prisms. Quartz forms rounded and 
150 -( 

y-\ 

y 

100-+--il-'--~ 

-(>-

)-).. 

STRATIGRAPHY 17 

Olivine basalt flows 

Tuff of Eastside Mine-light-gray to brownish-gray medium- to coarse-grained moderately indurated unwelded tuft. 

Upper 5 m is very coarse grained lithic-rich well-indurated tuff. Pumice fragments 2-3 percent in lower part, 

5-10 percent in upper part. angular to subrounded. unflattened, 1 mm to 2 em. Rock fragments 2-3 percent 

in lower part. 10-15 percent in upper 5 m, subangular, 5 mm to 2 em, volcanic. Crystals 15 percent, 0.5-3 

mm. subhedral, PI:S:Q =3:1:3, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

MetaUic City Tuff (Miocene or Oligocenei-Brown medium-grained well-indurated moderately to densely welded crystallized tuff. Pumice fragments 2-3 percent in lower part.<1 percent in upper 5 m. angular to elongate, 1-3 mm. 

Rock fragments. 1-2 percent, angular to subangular, 1-5 mm, volcanic. Crystals 15-25 percent, lowest in upper 

5 m. 0.5-3 mm, P1:S:O=B:1:2, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

T ufl of Volcanic Hills-light-gray fine-grained slightly altered unwelded to weakly welded tuff. Pumice fragments 

1-2 percent, 1-2 mm, angular. Rock fragments 1 percent, 0.5-1 mm, subrounded. volcanic. Crystals 10 percent. 

0.5-2 mm, subhedral, PI:S:Q =1:1:1, traces of iron oxides. 

Tuff of Pinchot Creek-Bull medium-grained moderately indurated crystal-poor unwelded ash-flow tuff. Pumice 

fragments 1-2 percent. white. angular. 1-5 mm. Rock fragments <1 percent. subangular, 0.5-5 mm. volcanic. 

Crystals 5 percent. 0.5-1 mm, subhedral, PI:S:O = 10:4:1, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

___/Tuff of Columbus-light-gray with red streaks medium-grained highly indurated weakly welded crystallized tuff. 

P1111ice fragments 1-2 percent, wt'ite, angular, 1-3 mm. Rock fragments< 1 percent. subrounded. 1-2 mm. volcanic. 

~ Crystals 10 percent, 0.5-3 mm, PI:S:Q = 2:3:2. traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

Base not exposed 

FIGURE 4.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence in Volcanic Hills, 

northern Davis Mountain quadrangle, Nevada. Number 2 at top of column 

indicates location in figure 2. 

highly corroded crystals, as much as 1.5 mm across, with a wormy 

or vermicular habit. Biotite flakes are euhedral to subhedral, are as 

much as 1.5 mm across, and have a dark-brown to yellowish- or 

reddish-brown pleochroic scheme. Hornblende crystals are subhedral prisms generally between 0.5 and 1.5 mm long. Fresh 

crystals occur only in a few outcrops; elsewhere the grains are 
18 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

replaced by yellowish-brown birefringent smectite. Opaque minerals are slightly rounded octahedra of magnetite, generally less 

than 0.2 mm across. Trace amounts of apatite, zircon, and allanite 

are also present in most specimens. 

The groundmass consists of moderately to intensely deformed 

glass shards and dust. In the basal vitrophyre the shards are fresh 

and colorless; in the devitrified zones they are replaced by microcrystalline mixtures of cristobalite and alkali feldspar. In zones of 

incipient devitrification the interstitial dust is crystallized, 

whereas the shards are still glassy. 

TUFF OF PINCHOT CREEK 

The tuff of Pinchot Creek (unit 2 of Speed and Cogbill, 1979b; 

part of unit Tt-2b of Stewart, 1979) is a white to yellowish-gray 

fine-grained unwelded to weakly welded moderately indurated 

ash-flow tuff that crops out chiefly in the Candelaria Hills and the 

Miller Mountain area. This unit is thickest and best developed in 

the Candelaria mining district, where it comprises two distinct 

cooling units with a combined thickness of about 35 m (Speed and 

Cogbill, 1979b ). In this area, it is separated from the underlying 

tuff of Miller Mountain by a thin gravel layer and has a redweathering zone at the top; elsewhere these discontinuities are 

absent, but the unit can be distinguished from the underlying and 

overlying tuffs on the basis of lithology and phenocryst mineralogy 

TABLE 3.-Modal analyses ofthe tuffofColumbus 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 

Groundmass ------- 89.0 89 .o 83.5 92.4 

Plaqioclase ------ 4.2 5.0 4.5 2.2* 

SAn irl ine --------- 2.3 1.6 6.0 3.1 

Quartz ----------- 1.8 3.0 3.0 1.8 

RiotitP ---------- .1 • 3 .2 

Opaoues ---------- tr .4 • 2 .1 

?:ircon ----------- tr tr tr 

Rock fraol'1ents --- 2.h 1.0 2.5 .2 

1. Basal vitronhyre, 1-lille r ~1oun ta in section, Columbus 

oua"lran<1le. 

2. Devitrifien welded tuff, Miller Mountain section, 

Columbus auadrangle. 

1. Devitrifien welded tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

5 

88.4 

4.0 

3.3 

2.4 

.1 

.2 

tr 

1.6 

4. DPvitrifien welderi tuff, Volcanic Hills, Davis Mountain 

ouarlranqle. 

r:;. }\veraqe mo<ial composition of the tuff of Columbus. 

*Altere~ grains identified as plagioclase 
STRATIGRAPHY 19 

(table 13). The tuff is informally named for exposures in the vicinity 

of Pinchot Creek along the south margin of Miller Mountain (figs. 

2, 4). 

In the Candelaria mining district the lower cooling unit is 20 to 

25 m thick and consists of weakly welded moderately compacted 

glassy tuff with 2 to 5 percent of small rounded pumice fragments. 

It is separated from the upper cooling unit by 1 to 7 m of wellbedded sandstone and conglomerate containing clasts of tuff as 

much as 30 em across and a few small fragments of pre-Tertiary 

rocks (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b). The upper cooling unit, which is 

as much as 10m thick, consists of light-gray unwelded tuff with 2 to 

3 percent of pumice and sparse rock fragments. A somewhat 

higher crystal content and the presence of megascopic biotite 

distinguish the upper cooling unit from the lower one. In other 

sections, such as those in the Miller Mountain area, the bedded 

tuffs are absent and only one cooling unit can be recognized. On the 

basis of its mineralogy, this cooling unit appears to be equivalent to 

the lower one in the Candelaria mining district. 

Phenocrysts average about 10 modal percent and consist 

chiefly of plagioclase and quartz, with lesser amounts of sanidine, 

biotite, and iron oxides (table 5). Plagioclase grains are subhedral 

to anhedral commonly broken prisms averaging less than 0.5 mm 

across. Most are moderately zoned oligoclase, but some grains 

have cores of sodic andesine. Sanidine occurs as weakly zoned 

subhedral crystals as much as 1.5 mm across, some of which have 

colorless volcanic glass adhering to their rims. Quartz forms 

rounded corroded commonly vermicular bipyramids from 0. 5 to 1. 5 

mm across. Small flakes of biotite are always present but never 

exceed 1 modal percent. Magnetite occurs in subhedral to irregular 

crystals as much as 0.3 mm across, and trace amounts of zircon and 

reddish-brown allanite are also present. 

In most specimens the groundmass is glassy and consists of 

small pumice and rock fragments surrounded by glass shards and 

dust. Most of the pumice fragments are equidimensional or slightly 

flattened and range from 0.5 to 3 mm across. These consist of gray 

glass wit4 tubular vesicles, some of which are lined with minute 

grains of iron oxide. Sparse undeformed fragments of brown 

pumice enclosing crystals of biotite and plagioclase are interpreted 

as fragments of older pyroclastic material. The rare lithic fragments are as much as 5 mm across and consist of fine-grained 

andesite. Glass shards are small, angular, and uniform in size, 

averaging about 0.25 mm long. These consist of fresh colorless 

glass but the interst_itial glass dust is usually devitrified to a 

mixture of cristobalite and alkali feldspar. 
20 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

TUFF OF VOLCANIC HILLS 

The tuff of Volcanic Hills (unit 3 of Speed and Cogbill, 1979b; 

part of unit Tt-2b of Stewart, 1979) is a widespread ash-flow sheet 

that crops out extensively in the Candelaria and Miller Mountain 

areas, extending from the Columbus quadrangle on the east to the 

Basalt quadrangle (Stewart, 1981a) on the west. It consists of a 

single cooling unit as much as 40 m thick composed of grayishbrown weakly to strongly welded well-indurated tuff characterized 

TABLE 4.-Modal analyses of the tuff of Miller Mountain 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 

Groundmass ---------- 72.2 80.6 74.8 79.4 78.0 

Plagioclase --------- 15.9 10.0 13.2 12.6 11.0 

Sanidine ------------ 1.0 1 • 1 .8 1.3 1.0 

Quartz -------------- 2.1 1.0 4.4 1.3 1. 9 

Biotite ------------- 5.4 3-9 4.4 3.3 4. 1 

Hornblende ---------- 2.4 

Altered hornblende? - 2.2 2.2 1.2 tr 

Opaques ------------- .6 .7 .6 

Allanite ------------ tr 

Zircon -------------- tr tr tr tr tr 

Apatite ------------- tr tr 

Rock fragments ------ .6 .5 .6 2.1 1.6 

1. Basal vitrophyre, Miller Mountain section, Columbus 

quadrangle. 

6 

77 .o 

12.5 

1.0 

2.2 

4.2 

.4 

1.0 

.4 

tr 

tr 

1.3 

2. Devitrified welded tuff, upper part of unit, Miller Mountain 

section, Columbus quadrangle. 

3. Basal vitrophyre, Columbus quadrangle. 

4. Glassy welded tuff, Candelaria Hills, Columbus quadrangle. 

5. Glassy welded tuff, Candelaria Hills, Candelaria quadrangle. 

6. Average modal composition of the tuff of Miller Mountain. 

by abundant small pumice fragments. In the Candelaria Hills the 

tuff is bounded above and below by erosional unconformities. A 

red-weathering zone typically occurs at the top of the underlying 

tuff of Pinchot Creek, and a thin bed of Paleozoic-pebble con-
STRATIGRAPHY 

TABLE 5.-M odal analyses of the tuff of Pinchot Creek 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 

Groundmass ----- 88.5 91.0 86.4 90.0 89.0 

"Plaqioclase ---- 4.7 6.0 7.6 5.1 

Saniciine ------- 1.2 .7 1.2 1.4 

Quartz --------- 4.3 1.0 3. 1 2.1 

Biotite -------- .7 .3 1.0 1. 0 

npaques -------- .2 tr 

Allanite ------- tr tr tr 

Zircon --------- tr tr tr 

Rock fragments - .6 1.0 .5 .4 

1. Basal vitrophyre, Candelaria Hills, Columbus 

quac'l ranq le. 

2. Glassy moderately welded tuff, Candelaria Hills, 

Can~P.laria quadrangle. 

5.9 

1 • 1 

2.6 

.a 

tr 

tr 

tr 

.6 

3. Glassy unwelded tuff, Candelaria Hills, Candelaria 

quadranglP.. 

4. Glassy moderately welded tuff, Miller Mountain 

section, Columhus quadrangle. 

5. Average modal composition of the tuff of Pinchot 

C'reek. 

21 

glomerate separates the tuff of Volcanic Hills from the overlying 

tuff of Candelaria Mountain. To the west, in the Basalt quadrangle, 

the unit is about 35 m thick and consists of gray to brownish-gray 

unwelded glassy tuff. There, it overlies several meters of finegrained well-sorted vitric tuff and is overlain by 6 to 7 m of gray 

cross-bedded tuff and lapilli tuff. The unit is informally named for 

exposures in the Volcanic Hills in the northern part of the Davis 

Mountain quadrangle (figs. 2, 4). 

The most complete section occurs in the Candelaria area (fig. 

5). Here, the tuff is about 30 m thick and consists of moderately to 

densely welded pumiceous tuff that crops out in resistant ledges. A 

basal zone of poorly welded material, 2 to 3m thick, grades upward 

into a dark-gray vitrophyre of variable thickness, which in turn is 

overlain by as much as 25 m of white to grayish-brown wellindurated stony tuff (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b ). Flattened pumice 

fragments as much as 2 em long constitute from 10 to 15 modal 

percent and impart a strong eutaxitic texture to the rock. Sparse 
22 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

150 

100 

50 

+--it-

-II-*' 

Tuff of Candelaria Mountain-light-gray very coarse grained friable unwelded ash-flow tuff. Pumice fragments 

10-15 percent, angular, as much as 5 em long. Rock fragments 5-10 percent, subangular, as much as 2 em. 

volcanic. Crystals 5 percent. 0.5-2 mm. subhedral, P1:S:O =6:2:1, 1-2 percent biotite and traces of iron oxides. 

Tuff of Volcanic Hills-Gray to brownish-gray coarse-grained moderately to densely welded tuff with good eutaxitic 

texture. Basal vitrcphyre grades upward into brownish-gray crystallized tuff. Pumice fragments 5-10 percent, 

white, flattened, as much as 3 em kmg, mostly 1 em. Rock fragments 1-2 percent. subrounded, 1-10 mm, volcanic. 

Crystals 10-15 percent. as much as 3 mm, subhedral. PI:S:O =3:3:2, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

Sedimentary rocks-Brownish-gray fine- to coarse-grained bedded tuffaceous sandstone and fine-grained conglomerate. Clasts are srltstone and subrounded pumice as much as 20 em. 

Tuff of Pinchot Creek-light-gray relatively fine grained moderately to weakly welded tuff. Basal glassy zone, 2-3 

m thick, grades upward into weakly welded devitnfied material. Pumice fragments 1-2 percent, white. subrounded, 

1-5 mm. Rock fragments 1 percent. subangular.1-5 mm, volcanrc. Crystals 7-8 percent, 0.5-2 mm, PI:S:O =6:1:1. 

traces of biotite. 

=Gravel-Poorly sorted poorly bedded gravel composed of siltstone clasts. 

Tuff of Miller Mountain -light-gray fine-grained glassy biotrte-rrch welded tuff. No pumice fragments. Rock fragments 

1-2 percent. subrounded. 1-5 mm. volcanic. Crystals 20 percent. 0.5-2 mm. subhedral, PI:S:O =11:1:5, 4-5 

percent biotite and 2-3 percent green hornblende. 

Dark-gray siltstone (Paleozoic} 

FIGURE 5.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence 2 km southwest of 

Metallic City, Candelaria quadrangle, Nevada. Number 3 at top of column 

indicates location in figure 2. 

rock fragments occur as small subrounded granules scattered in 

the tuff. 

Crystals constitute from 10 to 20 percent of the tuff and are 

most abundant in the basal densely welded zones (table 6). Plagioclase, sanidine, and quartz are the common phenocrysts, and 

they occur in the approximate proportions 2:2:1. Plagioclase crystals are subhedral prisms 0.5 to 3 mm long, many of which are 

rounded and corroded. Most of the crystals exhibit strong normal 

zoning in the sodic andesine-oligoclase range. Sanidine crystals 
STRATIGRAPHY 23 

form slightly zoned subhedral or broken prisms as much as 2 mm 

long, but these are rarely corroded. A few crystals enclose small 

plagioclase laths, and some have marginal granophyric overgrowths. Quartz occurs as rounded and highly corroded hipyramids as much as 2 mm across. Small flakes of brown biotite, as 

much as 0.5 mm across, are present in all specimens but never 

exceed 1 modal percent. Magnetite forms euhedral to irregular 

crystals, about 0.2 mm across, that are widely dispersed. Trace 

amounts of zircon, apatite, and allanite are also present. 

Pumice fragments consist of gray to light-brown glass containing phenocrysts of feldspar and quartz. In most of the tuff the 

fragments are strongly deformed and as much as 2 em long. In 

unwelded portions they are equidimensional and angular and average about 5 mm across. Crystallized fragments consist of microcrystalline cristobalite and alkali feldspar, often with a core of 

coarser grained quartz or tridymite. Rock fragments are chiefly 

small rounded pieces of altered volcanic rock less than 0.5 mm 

across, but sparse fragments of Paleozoic siltstone as much as 5 

mm across are also present. 

The groundmass consists of glass shards and minor dust surrounding the crystals and pumice fragments. Most shards are 

strongly deformed and range from 0.25 to 0.5 mm long. In the 

vitrophyric zones they consist of colorless glass surrounded by 

devitrified interstitial material. In crystallized rocks the 

groundmass is a mixture of cristobalite and alkali feldspar with 

relict shard textures. 

TUFF OF CANDELARIA MOUNTAIN 

The tuff of Candelaria Mountain (unit 4 of Speed and Cogbill, 

1979b; unit Tt-2c of Stewart, 1979) is a distinctive pumice-rich ashflow sheet that crops out only in the Candelaria mining district and 

in the Candelaria Hills along the north edge of the Miller Mountain 

and Columbus quadrangles (fig. 6). It is informally named for 

exposures on the Candelaria Mountain in the southwest corner of 

the Candelaria quadrangle. 

This unit is separated from the underlying tuff of Volcanic 

Hills and the overlying Metallic City Tuff by erosional unconformities. A thin layer ofPaleozoic-pebble conglomerate occurs locally 

below the unit, and 2 to 3m of red tuffaceous sediment occurs above 

it. In the Candelaria mining district the unit is as much as 80 m 

thick; to the south in the Candelaria Hills only about 15 m is 

exposed in an incomplete section. Elsewhere in the region the ashflow sheet is missing and this stratigraphic interval is occupied by 
Groundmass ----- 81.3 

Plagioclase ---- 6.5 

Saninine ------- 6. 1 

Quartz --------- 4.6 

· ~iotite -------- • 1 

Opaques -------- .4 

~llanite ------- tr 

Zircon --------- tr 

Anatite -------- - Rock fragments - 1 • () 

Other ---------- -

TABLE 6.-Modal analyses of the tuff of Volcanic Hills 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 7 

87.9 79.9 89.6 87.9 90.2 88.0 

4.3 7.0 3.0 5.0 3.3 4.3 

3.9 7.0 3.1 3.7 3.0 2.2 

1.8 4.4 2.9 1. 5 2. 1 3.3 

tr .3 .8 .2 .3 .9 

.2 .3 .2 .5 .3 tr 

• 1 - tr - • 1 tr 

tr tr tr tr tr tr 

- tr tr - tr tr 

1.5 1. 0 .4 .4 .7 1.3 

.3 • 1 - .8 - -

1 • Basal vitrophyre Candelaria Hills, Candelaria quadrangle. 

8 9 10 

88.4 82.4 86.6 

4.7 5.4 4.8 

2.5 7.8 3.9 

1.0 3.3 2.7 

.5 .4 .4 

.4 .2 .3 

tr tr tr 

tr tr tr 

tr tr tr 

2.5 .5 1.1 

tr - .2 

2. Devitrifien welded tuff, upper part of unit in Candelaria Hills; Candelaria 

nuanrangle. 

3. Devitrified moderately welded tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

4. ~ltered weakly weloed tuff, Volcanic Hills, Davis Mountain quadrangle. 

5. Devitrified weakly welded tuff, Candelaria Hills, Belleville quadrangle. 

n. Glassy unweJded tuff at base of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

7. Glassy unwelded tuff at middle of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

R. Glassy unwelded tuff at top of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

9. Devitrified weakly welde(1 tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

10. Average modal composition of the tuff of Volcanic Hills. 

~ 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

0 

0 

0 

tz:j 

z 

tz:j 

> z 

t:j 

~ ~ 

0 

0 

tz:j 

z 

tz:j 

> r:n 

~ 

~ ~ 

~ ~ 

c::: 

"%j 

"%j 

~UJ. 

z 

tz:j 

~ t:j 

> 
STRATIGRAPHY 25 

as much as 7 m of well-bedded and crossbedded tuffaceous sediment. 

The tuff of Candelaria Mountain consists of white to yellowishor brownish-gray coarse-grained weakly welded tuff characterized 

by abundant pumice and rock fragments and small chips of black 

obsidian. White pumice composes 15 to 30 percent of the rock and 

occurs chiefly as small fragments less than 2 em across, although 

pumice lumps as coarse as 20 em are locally abundant, typically 

being concentrated in lenses or layers. Rock fragments are also 

conspicuous, composing 1 to 6 modal percent. These are angular 

fragments as much as 2 em across composed of dark-gray andesite 

and brown welded tuff. Small angular chips and flakes of black 

obsidian as much as 5 mm across are scattered in the rock. Only one 

cooling unit can be recognized in this tuff, but the presence of an 

interbedded olivine basalt flow in the Candelaria mining district 

(Speed and Cogbill, 1979b) and the uneven distribution of coarse 

pumice suggest the presence of multiple flow units. 

Plagioclase and biotite are the most abundant crystals, and 

they are accompanied by small amounts of quartz and sanidine 

(table 7). The plagioclase forms subhedral prisms from 0.5 to 1 mm 

long, some of which are broken, rounded, or slightly corroded. 

Most of the plagioclase crystals are highly zoned oligoclase, although some have cores of sadie andesine. Sanidine occurs as 

subhedrallaths as much as 2 mm long, and quartz forms small 

rounded crystals less than 1 mm across. Biotite flakes are pale 

yellow to reddish brown and range from 0.5 to 1 mm across. Trace 

amounts of magnetite, allanite, and zircon are present in most 

specimens. 

The groundmass consists of glass shards with small amounts 

of interstitial dust and minute crystal fragments. The shards are 

undeformed to slightly flattened and average about 0.4 mm long. 

Most consist of colorless glass, but some have pale-brown cores and 

colorless rims, suggesting some bleaching. The unit is everywhere 

glassy with only minor devitrification of the interstitial material. 

METALLIC CITY TUFF 

The Metallic City Tuff (unit Tt-2d of Stewart, 1979b) is a 

voluminous, widespread ash-flow sheet that is present in nearly 

every section of the Candelaria Hills sequence. The thickest and 

most complete sections occur in the Candelaria Hills (figs. 6, 7), but 

the unit extends from the Garfield Hills on the north (fig. 8) to the 

central Silver Peak Range on the south (fig. 9) and from Huntoon 

Valley quadrangle on the west to Big Smoky Valley on the east. It 
26 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

en 

ffi 

1-

~ 

~ 

en 

~ z 

llo: 

t.) 

~ 

1-

200 -it' 

--11-' 

-it' 

-it100 

50 

-ll-' 

11--

-It-

..... 

Candelaria Junction Tuff (Miocene)-Two cooling units: lower unit 20-25 m thick, reddish-brown relatively coarsegrained crystallized moderately welded tuff; upper unit 80-90 m thick, dark-gray coarse-grained densely welded 

crystallized tuff. Pumice fragments 10-15 percent, somewhat elongate, 2 mm to 2 em. Rock fragments < 1 

percent, 1-2 mm, subrounded, volcanic. Crystals 15-20 percent, 0.5-3 mm, subhedral to broken, quartz crystals 

vermicular, PI:S:O =3:1:2, traces of biotite, hornblende, and iron oxides. 

Belleville Tuff IMiocene)-Light-grayish-brown coarse-grained crystal-poor densely welded crystallized tuff. Pumice 

fragments 30-35 percent, as much as 10 em long, flattened. Rock fragments < 1 percent, 1-2 mm. subrounded, 

volcanic. Crystals 8-10 percent. 1-3 mm, subhedral, chiefly plagioclase and hypersthene with traces of quartz. 

Metallic City Tuff (Miocene or Oligocenei-Gray relatively fine grained crystal-nth densely welded glassy tuff with 

5-10 m of brownish-gray moderately welded crystallized tuff at top. Pumice fragments 1-2 percent, 1- 5 mm. 

flattened. Rock fragments 1-2 percent, 1-2 mm. subrounded, shale and altered volcanic material. Crystals 25-

30 percent, 0.5-3 mm, PI:S:O =9:1:6, b1otite 3-4 percent, traces of iron oxides. 

Tuff of Pinchot Creek-1-2 m of light-gray fme- to medium-grained glassy moderately welded tuff at base. Unit 

becomes coarse grained and more crystal rich upward with 5-6 m of red crystallized and opalized tuff at top. 

Pumice fragments 2-3 percent, angular to somewhat flattened, 2-10 mm long. Rock fragments 1 percent, 0.5-3 

mm. subrounded. andesite. Crystals 10 percent at base. about 25 percent in upper part. 0.5-3 mm, subhedral, 

PI:S:0=2:1:3, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

=Gravel-1-2m of poorly sorted gravel composed of siltstone and chert clasts. 

T uti of Miller Mountain-Light-gray fine-grained moderately welded glassy biotite-nch tuff. No pumice fragments. 

Rock fragments < 1 percent, 0.5-10 mm, subrounded, siltstone and altered volcanic material. Crystals 15-20 

percent, 0.5-2 mm, PI:S:Q =10:1:1, biotite 4-5 percent, traces of iron oxides. 

0-h. .................. J = Gravel-30 to 50 em of poorly sorted poorly bedded gravel: composed of siltstone and chert clasts. 

__ Oark-gray siltstone and chert (Paleozoic I 

FIGURE 6.-Composite stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills, Columbus quadrangle, Nevada. Number 4 at top of column indicates location in figure 2. 
100 

en 

ffi 

~ 

~ 

!!!!: 

ui 

~ z 

:a.: 

t.J 

:i: 

~ 

50 

~ 

STRATIGRAPHY 27 

Basalt-Dark-gray fine-grained nonvesicular olivine-rich trachybasalt. 

Candelaria Junction Tuff IMiocenel-light-brown to brownish-gray crystal-rich zoned ash-flow sheet. lower 6-7 

m nonwelded to weakly welded, grading upward into densely welded indurated tuff. Pumice fragments 10-15 

percent, 2-10 mm, angular to flattened, crystallized. Rock fragments < 1 percent, 1-2 mm, subrounded, volcanic. 

Crystals 20-25 percent, 0.5-3 mm, euhedral to subhedral, quartz crystals often vermicular, PI:S:O =2:1:2, traces 

of biotite, hornblende, and iron ox1des. 

Sedimentary rocks-light-brownish-gray medium-grained moderately well bedded tuffaceous sandstone. 

Upper andesite tuff unit -Brownish-gray coarse-grained glassy moderately indurated unwelded ash-flow tuff. 

Pumice fragments 10-20 percent, 5 rnm to 10 em, subangular, equidimensional. Rock fragments 5-7 percent, 

1-5 mm, subrounde~. andesite. Glass fragments 1-2 percent, 1-3 mm, angular, fresh. Crystals 3-5 percent, 

0.5-1.5 mm, anhedral, chiefly plagioclase with traces of quartz and iron oxides. 

Andesite breccia of little Summit-Brownish-gray very coarse grained poorly bedded very poorly sorted moderately 

indurated andesitic lahar. Clasts 5 ern to 1m. angular, hornblende-hypersthene andesite. Matrix sandy to silty, 

poorly sorted, composed of same material as clasts. 

____r lower andesite tuft unit-Purplish-gray coarse-grained pumice-rich poorly bedded tuff. Pumice 20-40 percent, 1-20 

ern, angular. Rock fragments 3-5 percent, 1-5 mm, subrounded, andesite. Crystals 10 percent, 1-2 mm, chiefly 

~ plagioclase. 

Belleville Tuff IMiocenei-Dark-gray medium-grained glassy moderately to densely welded tuff. Two cooling units, 

l_ each 7-8 m thick with 1- to 2-m-thick vitrophyre near center. Pumice 10-15 percent, 1-5 em, flattened. Rock 

fragments 1-2 percent, 0.5-1 mm, subrounded, andesite. Crystals 7-8 percent, 0.5-3 mm, subhedral to anhedral, 

aN plagioclase and pyroxene. 

Tuff of Eastside Mine-Pinkish- to brownish-gray weakly indurated fine- to medium-gramed glassy unwelded tuff 

w1th numerous small rock fragments. Pumice fragments 1-2 percent, 1-3 mm, subangular, equidimensional. Rock 

fragments 3-5 percent. 0.5-10 mm. subrounded, dark andesite. Crystals 10 percent. 0.5-1.5 mm, subhedral, 

PI:S:O =5:2:5, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

Metallic City Tuff (Miocene or Oligocenei-Brownish-gray crystal-nth well-indurated fine- to medium-grained glassy 

weakly welded tuff. Pumice 5-10 percent, 1-3 mm, angular, slightly flattened. Rock fragments 0.5-1.5 percent, 

\ < 1 mm, subrounded, andesite. Crystals 20-25 percent. 0.5-3 mm, subhedral, quartz vermicular, PI:S:O = 7:1:2, 

\._ 2-3 percent biot1te. 

Tuft of Pine hot Creek-light-gray to white moderately indurated unwelded glassy ash-flow tuff. Upper 5 m white 

friable. fine-grained tuff. Pumice fra.gments 3-4 perc en. tin low. er part, < 1 percent in upper part, gray, 1-6 mm, 

subrounded. Sparse glass fragments as much as 2 em. Rock fragments 0.5-3.5 percent, common only m upper 

1

5 m, 1-5 mm, subrounded, volcamc. Crystals 5-7 percent, 0.5-3 mm, largest and most abundant in upper 5 

m, suohedral, PI:S:O =20:1:3, traces of b1otite and 1ron ox1des. 

Tuff of Volcanic Hills-Pink weakly welded crystallized moderately indurated ash-flow tuff. Pumice < 1 percent, 

2-3 mm, slightly flattened. Rock fragments < 1 percent. 1 mm, subrounded, andes1te. Crystals 5-10 percent, 

0.5-2 mm, PI:S:O =6:4:3, traces of biotite and 1ron oxides. 

Dark-gray siltstone (Paleozoic!. 

FIGURE 7.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence about 2.5 km south 

of Candelaria Junction, Belleville quadrangle, Nevada. Number 5 at top of 

column indicates location in figure 2. 

has been formally named by Speed and Cogbill (1979b) for exposures located 2.5 km southwest (S. 64° W.) of Metallic City, 

Nevada, in the southeast-facing cliff of hill 6010 in the Candelaria 

quadrangle. At most localities it is separated from the underlying 

tuff of Candelaria Mountain by 5 to 6 m of crossbedded tuff and 

lapilli tuff and from the overlying tuff of Eastside Mine by a thin 

bed of red tuffaceous siltstone. In the Candelaria mining district 

and the Camp Douglas quadrangle the upper contact is an angular 

unconformity, but this discordance is not observed elsewhere. 
28 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

The Metallic City Tuff ranges from about 20 to 70 m in thickness and comprises a single cooling unit of gray densely welded tuff 

that weathers to steep, cliff-forming outcrops. Pumice fragments 

are small and sparse, and the unit has only a weakly developed 

eutaxitic structure. Lithic fragments are also sparse, rarely exceeding 1 percent of the rock. Typical sections have a basal zone of 

weak to moderate welding which grades upward into a dark-gray 

vitrophyre from 3 to 7 m in thickness. This is followed by strongly 

to moderately welded tuff which commonly exhibits crude columnar jointing. In some sections the top of the unit exhibits platy 

jointing and weathers to thin slabs. In many outcrops, particularly 

those near the distal edges of the sheet, the entire unit is glassy 

and light gray; in others, the upper part of the tuff is stony and 

varicolored in shades of brown, red, and gray. 

The Metallic City Tuff is everywhere characterized by having 

large and abundant phenocrysts (table 8). Plagioclase, sanidine, 

and quartz combined average 20 to 25 modal percent and occur in 

the approximate proportions of 6:1:2. Plagioclase crystals are euhedral to subhedral, occasionally corroded prisms as much as 2 mm 

long. Most are normally zoned, but the range of composition is 

difficult to determine because the cores of many crystals are replaced by brown smectite. Sanidine typically forms euhedral twinned prisms as much as to 1.5 mm long, all of which are fresh. Quartz 

TABLE 7.-Modal analyses of the tuff of Candelaria Mountain 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 

Groc,nnmass ----- 89.5 88.4 94.3 89.3 90.5 

Pla.qioclase ---- 3.3 3.2 3.9 4.4 

Snninine ------- .1 .8 .2 .2 

Qua.rtz --------- .3 .4 .s .8 

Biot. i te -------- 1.2 1.2 .8 1.7 

Cl!"RC!Ues -------- • 1 .1 

Allanite ------- tr tr 

~i rc~on --------- tr tr 

Rnr\< fraqMents - S.f- 5.9 • 3 3.5 

1. Glassv unwelned tuff, Candelaria Hills, Columbus 

C!Unnranqle. 

2. Glassy unwelded tuff, Candelaria mining district, 

Can~Plnria nuanranqle. 

1. Glassy unwelnen tuff, Cannelaria mining district, 

Belleville quadranqle. 

4. Glassy unwelden tuff, Candelaria mining district, 

BP 11 f>V i l1 e rptaclra ngle. 

3.7 

.3 

.5 

1.2 

tr 

tr 

tr 

3.8 

S. Averaqe modal composition of the tuff of Candelaria 

l'nuntnin. 
STRATIGRAPHY 29 

crystals are large subhedral bipyramids as much as 6 mm across, 

and they typically lack the corroded, vermicular habit that is 

characteristic of quartz in many of the other ash-flow sheets. 

Euhedral flakes of biotite as much as 1 mm across are scattered in 

the rock and are accompanied by small amounts of green 

hornblende. In most cases the hornblende has been replaced by 

brown smectite, but fresh grains are preserved in some devitrified 

specimens. The amphibole crystals are subhedral commonly broken prisms as much as 2 mm long. Magnetite occurs as small 

octahedra as much as 0.5 mm across, and zircon, apatite, and 

allanite are present in trace amounts. 

Although the unit is everywhere characterized by having 

abundant crystals and a high proportion of plagioclase, the modal 

compositions are quite variable (table 8). In at least two sampled 

sections the basal zone contains fewer and smaller crystals than 

the upper part of the unit. This compositional variability suggests 

the presence of several flow units, but these have not been distinguished on the basis of other criteria. 

In vitric specimens the groundmass consists of highly deformed colorless shards as much as 0.5 mm long and minor interstitial glass dust. Minute crystal fragments are also abundant in 

the spaces between shards. A few highly deformed pumice fragments as much as 2 em long are present, but they never exceed 10 

modal percent. Where the rock is devitrified, the groundmass is a 

microcrystalline mixture of cristobalite and alkali feldspar, often 

with well-developed axiolitic and sphefulitic textures. The sparse 

rock fragments are from 3 to 5 mm across and consist of andesite 

and welded tuff. 

TUFF OF EASTSIDE MINE 

The tuff of Eastside Mine (unit 6 of Speed and Cogbill, 1979b) 

was named by Stewart (1981a) for a thick generally poorly welded 

ash-flow tuff characterized by large lithic fragments and abundant 

pumice. The tuff crops out over a large area, extending from the 

Columbus quadrangle on the east to the Jacks Spring quadrangle 

on the west (Stewart, 1979; 1981a, b). In the Candelaria mining 

district this unit overlies the Metallic City Tuff with an angular 

unconformity (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b); elsewhere the two units 

are structurally conformable but are separated by a thin layer of 

tuffaceous siltstone. The overlying Belleville Tuff fills deep channels incised into or completely through the tuff of Eastside Mine. 

The unit was informally named by Stewart (1979) for exposures 

about 2.5 km west-northwest of the Eastside Mine in the Basalt 
TABLE 8.-Modal analyses of the MetalHc City Tuff 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

Grounnmass -------- 81.9 73.2 77.6 63.5 69.8 67.5 78.5 74.4 74.1 78.1 

Plagioclase ------- 7.8 17.6 10.6 20.3 19.7 17 .o 12.5 13.1 13.9 14.5 

Saninine ---------- 3.5 2.3 2.0 .6 1.2 2. 1 1. 5 2.7 2.5 .7 

Quartz ------------ 2.8 .9 6.1 7.9 3.3 8.5 5.5 6.0 5.3 2.4 

Riotite ----------- 1.8 2.9 2.7 3.9 3.7 3.4 1.7 1.9 3.3 2.3 

Hornblende--------- - .4 - - - - - .4 - tr 

Altered horblende?- - - - .2 • 1 .5 tr - • 1 .2 

Opaques ----------- .2 .5 .5 .4 - .7 - .7 - .4 

Allanite ---------- tr tr tr tr - - - tr - tr 

7.ircon ------------ tr tr tr tr tr • 1 .1 tr tr tr 

Apatite ----------- tr tr tr tr - - - .1 - - Rock fragments ---- 2.0 2.2 .5 3.2 2.2 .2 .4 .7 .s 1.4 

1. Glassy unwelnen tuff, base of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

2. Glassy unwelded tuff, midnle of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

3. Glassy unwelded tuff, top of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

4. Glassy welden tuff, Columbus quanranqle. 

s. Glassy welded tuff, base of unit in Candelaria Hills, Columbus quadrangle. 

11 

69.6 

16.2 

6.1 

2.0 

2.0 

-

.2 

.2 

-

tr 

tr 

.2 

6. Devitrified w~lden tuff, top of unit in Candelaria Hills, Columbus quadrangle. 

12 

65.9 

17.2 

1.8 

9.5 

3.1 

-

.3 

.9 

tr 

tr 

tr 

.9 

7. Devitrified welded tuff, base of unit in Miller Mountain section, Columbus quadrangle. 

B. Devitrified welded tuff, top of unit in Miller Mountain section, Columbus quadrangle. 

9. Glassy unwelded tuff, base of unit, Belleville quadrangle. 

10. Glassy moderately welded tuff, top of unit, Belleville quadrangle. 

11. Devitrified weakly welded tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

12. Devitrified weldeo tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

13. Devitrified welded tuff, northern Fish Lake Valley, Davis Mountain quadrangle. 

14. Altered welden tuff, Icehouse Canyon, Silver Peak Range, Rhyolite Ridge quadrangle. 

15. Average modal composition of the Metallic City Tuff 

13 14 

73.6 59.6 

15.6 21.2 

1.6 2.8 

1. 4 7.6 

3.4 4.5 

- -

2.0 3.4 

.3 .2 

tr tr 

tr tr 

tr tr 

2.1 .7 

15 

72.0 

15.5 

2.2 

5.1 

2.9 

.1 

.5 

.4 

tr 

tr 

tr 

1.3 

C/.!) 

0 

0 

t'-4 

...... 

0 

0 

0 

M 

z 

M 

> z 

t) 

~ ...... 

0 

0 

M 

z 

M 

> U1 

::r: 

~ t'-4 

~ ;-3 

d 

"%j 

"%j 

~w 

z 

M 

~ t) 

> 
STRATIGRAPHY 31 

quadrangle (Stewart, 1981a; fig. 10). 

In most outcrops, the tuff of Eastside Mine is a single cooling 

unit of white weakly welded tuff that weathers to low rounded 

slopes or to small pinnacles. Locally, a glassy zone as much as 2m 

thick occurs at the base of the unit, and in the Miller Mountain area 

the middle and upper parts of the unit are composed of reddishbrown moderately welded well-indurated tuff that weathers to a 

resistant ledge. The thickness of the unit varies considerably, but 

its maximum is about 130 m in the Candelaria mining district 

(Speed and Cogbill, 1979b). The thickness decreases gradually 

outward from this area, but most of the variation is due to local 

erosion before eruption of the overlying Belleville Tuff. 

Angular pumice lumps are ubiquitous throughout the tuff but 

vary considerably in size and abundance. In the Miller Mountain 

section (fig. 3), the tuff is moderately welded and the pumice 

50 

en 

ffi 

~ 

~ 

~ 

ui 

~ z 

:00: 

u 

%: 

~ 

® 

-11--

--11--

-11-

-II-

-it-

-11-

Hornblende andesite flows 

Belleville Tuff IMiocene)-llght-gray to pale-brown coarse-grained moderately to densely welded crystallized tuff. 

Basal vitrophyre present locally. Pumice fragments 25 percent. flattened, crystallized. Rock fragments 1-2 percent. 

0.5-10 mm, chert. andesite, and tuff. Crystals 12-15 percent. tabular, 1-3 mm, chiefly plagioclase with traces 

of biotite, pyroxene, and quartz. 

:::::--:::_ -=:. ~Gravel-Dark-gray poorly sorted clasts of pre-Tertiary chert. conglomerate, and graywac~e. 

·:::. -It' =::::r-'Metallic City Tuff !Miocene or Oligocenel-llght-gray moderately welded glassy crystal-nth ash-flow tuff. Pumice 

::: ·. · .. * fragments 10-20 percent, white, slightly flattened. 2-5 mm. Rock fragments 5 percent, 2 mm-5 em. dark gray. 

::::: : · ~ volcanic. Crystals 20-30 percent, anhedral. broken. PI:S:Q =4:B:5, common biotite and traces of hornblende and 

\\_ iron oxides. 

\:: Mina Formation of Speed 1197711Permian)-Graywacke, chert. and siltstone. 

FIGURE B.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence in Camp Douglas 

quadrangle, Nevada (after Garside, 1979). Number 6 at top of column indicates 

location in figure 2. 
32 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

fragments are flattened. In the Candelaria area they compose 10 to 

15 modal percent and are as much as 4 em in diameter, but in a good 

exposure along the highway about 6 km north of Basalt, pumice 

fragments compose only about 1 to 2 percent of the unit and 

average 5 mm in size. Farther west, near the west edge of the 

Basalt quadrangle, pumice composes 2 to 3 percent of the rock and 

measures as much as 2 em across (fig. 10). Lithic fragments average 

from 2 to 10 percent, being most abundant in the lower parts of the 

unit. Individual fragments are subangular to subrounded and have 

a maximum diameter of about 8 em; however, size and abundance 

vary markedly, generally decreasing westward away from the 

Candelaria mining district. The fragments are chiefly brown or 

black porphyritic andesite with minor amounts of Paleozoic siltstone and chert. 

Phenocrysts compose 10 to 15 percent of typical specimens but 

exhibit considerable lateral and vertical variation in the unit (table 

9). Plagioclase crystals average 0.5 mm across and are subhedral 

blocky prisms. Most are strongly zoned oligoclase, but some have 

corroded cores that may be slightly more calcic. Sanidine crystals 

are subhedral prisms, 0.5 to 1 mm long, many of which are broken. 

Quartz forms corroded and broken bipyramids from 0.5 to 1.5 mm 

across. Biotite and opaque grains are present in small quantities, 

TABLE 9.-Modal analyses of the t'Uf( of the Eastside Mine 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 

Groun<'lmass ----- 92.7 87.2 74.6 70.1 84.1 84.4 82.2 

Plagioclas~ ---- 3.8 6.0 9.9 7.8 5.8 4.6 6.3 

SanirUne ------- .9 2.4 1.7 4.5 1.1 1.8 2.1 

Quartz --------- .8 2.4 4.S 11.8 4.6 5.0 4.9 

Biotite -------- .6 .6 .4 .4 .5 .8 .5 

Opaques -------- .1 • 3 .1 • 2 .4 .2 .2 

Allanite ------- tr 

?:ircon --------- tr 

Apatite -------- tr 

tr 

tr 

tr 

tr tr 

tr 

tr 

tr 

Rock fragments - 1.1 1.1 8.8 5.0 3.5 3.2 3.8 

1. Glassy moderately welded tuff, base of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

2. Glassy unwelded tuff, top of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

3. Glassy weakly welded tuff, base of unit in Miller Mountain 

section, Columbus Quadrangle. 

4. Devitrified moderately welded tuff, top of unit in Miller 

~1ountain section, Columbus quadrangle. 

5. Devitrified unwelded tuff, Basalt quadrangle. 

6. Glassy 'mwelned tuff, Candelaria mining district, Belleville 

quadrangle. 

7. Average modal composition of the tuff of Eastside 1'1ine. 
STRATIGRAPHY 33 

and most specimens contain trace amounts of zircon and allanite. 

The average grain size of the phenocrysts decreases away 

from the Candelaria mining district, and there is an indication of 

preferential loss of the large quartz and sanidine crystals in the 

distal parts of the ash-flow sheet. The vertical variations, particularly in phenocryst ratios, suggest the presence of multiple 

flow units. 

The groundmass consists largely of undeformed glass shards 

surrounded by dust and sparse crystal fragments. The shards are 

well sorted and average about 0.5 mm in length. Fresh glass is very 

pale brown, whereas devitrified material is brown to golden brown 

and consists of microcrystalline cristobalite and alkali feldspar, 

often with axiolitic textures. Small amounts of tridymite occur in 

some devitrified pumice fragments. 

BELLEVILLE TUFF 

The Belleville Tuff (unit Tt-3a of Stewart, 1979) consists of 

varicolored coarse-grained pumice-rich tuff with a distinctive phenocryst assemblage (table 13). It overlies the tuff of Eastside Mine 

with pronounced erosional unconformity, typically occurring in 

steep-sided channels cut into the underlying unit. In the Candelaria area it is as much as 80 m thick (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b ), 

but the thickness decreases rapidly away from this location. In the 

Columbus and Miller Mountain quadrangles Bellville Tuff is as 

much as 30 m thick where it fills channels but more commonly it is 

10 m or less in thickness (figs. 3, 6). In a few places erosion has 

completely removed the tuff of Eastside Mine and the Belleville 

Tuff rests directly on the underlying Metallic City Tuff (figs. 6, 8). 

The unit was formally named by Speed and Cogbill (1979b) for 

exposures located 2. 3 km southeast (S. 20° E.) of Belleville on the 

east side of hill 5954 in the Belleville quadrangle. 

In the Candelaria area Speed and Cogbill (1979b) recognized 

two cooling units, and three cooling units are locally present in the 

Miller Mountain quadrangle. Each cooling unit typically has a 

weakly welded basal zone grading upward into a dark-gray 

vitrophyre, with the vitrophyres being best developed and thickest where the tuff fills a channel. Above the vitrophyres the rock 

consists of densely to moderately welded brick-red to orange or 

white crystallized tuff, typically with large flattened pumice fragments that impart a well-developed eutaxitic texture to the rock. 

The pumice fragments are small and sparse in the lowest parts of 

the unit, becoming coarser grained and more abundant upward. 

Near the top of the unit, flattened pumice fragments may be as 
34 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

100 

Cf.) 

ffi 

1-

:iE 

~ 

en 

~ z 

:0.: 

(,.) 50 :r: 

1-

(j) 

y 

'r 

)-

>-

~ 

)- 'r 

,l 

t .....< 

Andesite breccia 

Candelaria Junction Tuff !Miocene)-Two cooling units of about equal thickness consist of medium-grained weakly 

welded partly altered tuff. Each cooling unit has lower zone of greenish-gray weakly welded weakly indurated 

highly altered tuff and upper zone of reddish-brown weakly welded strongly indurated crystallized tuff that is only 

weakly altered. Pumice fragments < 1 percent, <5 mm, slightly flattened. Rock fragments < 1 percent, 0.5-2 

mm, subrounded, chiefly siltstone. Crystals 15-20 percent, 0.5-2 mm, subhedral to broken, quartz crystals ver· 

micular, PI:S:Q = 1:2:1, traces of biotite and iron oxides. 

Metallic City Tuff !Miocene or Oligocene)-Biuish- to purplish-gray fine- to medium-grained crystal-rich moderate· 

ly to densely welded tuff. No pumice fragments, but abundant biotite flakes impart a subhorizontal foliation. Rock 

fragments 1-2 percent in basal 10 m, < 1 em, subrounded, chert and siltstone. Crystals 35-40 percent, 0.5-2 

mm, subhedral to broken, quartz crystals vermicular, PI:S:Q =10:1:4, 5-6 percent biotite and 1-2 percent altered 

hornblende. 

Harkless Formation !lower Cambriani-Green sandstone and siltstone. 

FIGURE 9.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence in central Silver 

Peak Range, Rhyolite Ridge quadrangle, Nevada. Figure 7 at top of column 

indicates location in figure 2. 

much as 10 em long and may compose 30 to 35 percent of the rock 

(fig. 6). Lithic fragments as much as 1 em in diameter are also 

common throughout the tuff. These are porphyritic andesite containing phenocrysts of plagioclase, hypersthene, and magnetite. 

Farther west, in the Basalt quadrangle, the tuff averages 7 to 

8 min thickness and contains 20 to 30 percent pumice fragments, 

generally less than 5 em long (fig. 10). Lithic fragments are also 

common here, but occur as small, rounded grains less than 5 mm 

across. 

Mineralogically, the Belleville Tuff is distinct from other ashflow sheets in the sequence, containing chiefly plagioclase and 

hypersthene (table 10). Quartz, sanidine, and" biotite are locally 

present, but combined they compose less than 1 modal percent. 

The plagioclase forms subhedral, occasionally broken or corroded 

crystals as much as 3 mm long, which occur either singly or in 
STRATIGRAPHY 35 

glomerophyric clots with hypersthene and magnetite. Much of the 

plagioclase is strongly zoned, ranging from sodic labradorite to 

calcic oligoclase in composition. The hypersthene occurs in corroded and broken crystals, 0.5 to 1.5 mm across, many of which are 

partly to completely replaced by brown smectite. The few specimens that do not contain hypersthene crystals have hypersthenebearing rock fragments. All of the hypersthene and at least some of 

the plagioclase crystals are probably xenocrystic, on the basis of 

their highly corroded habits and their occurrence in the lithic 

fragments. 

The groundmass consists of densely welded shards and small 

flattened pumice fragments surrounded by glass dust. The shards 

are as much as 0.5 mm long and, where fresh, consist of pale-brown 

glass. Devitrified shards and pumice fragments consist of 

cristobalite and alkali feldspar. A few angular equidimensional 

pumice fragments were probably derived from older ash-flow 

tuffs. 

ANDESITE BRECCIA OF LITTLE SUMMIT WITH ASSOCIATED TUFF AND 

SEDIMENTARY ROCKS 

A laterally varying succession of tuff, ash-flow tuff, andesite 

breccia, and tuffaceous sedimentary rock occurs between the 

Belleville Tuff and the Candelaria Junction Tuff. The sequence 

crops out in an east-west belt extending from the Columbus quadrangle on the east to the Huntoon Valley on the west (Stewart, 

1979; 1981a, b). It is thickest and best developed in the Candelaria 

Hills, where it forms a conspicuous part of the trough facies of 

Speed and Cogbill (1979b). At most localities it conformably overlies the Belleville Tuff and is separated from the overlying Candelaria Junction Tuff by an erosional unconformity. Locally, a thin 

layer of boulder to cobble conglomerate occurs along the lower 

contact (fig. 10). A volcanic breccia unit that forms part of the 

succession is informally named the andesite breccia of Little Summit after an inconspicuous pass in the Belleville quadrangle. 

A typical section consists, from the base upward, of a gray 

poorly sorted poorly bedded unwelded andesite tuff, 15 to 25 m 

thick; the andesite breccia of Little Summit; and an unwelded to 

weakly welded ash-flow andesite tuff, generally less than 15 m 

thick (fig. 7). In some sections a variable thickness of bedded and 

cross-bedded sandstone and granule conglomerate separates the 

breccia from the upper tuff (fig. 10). The tuffs are lithologically and 

compositionally similar, the upper one being somewhat finer 

grained than the lower. The upper tuff is clearly an ash-flow de-
Cl) 

ffi 

..... 

!& 

3!: 

en 

f3 

z 

:.0: 

L:l 

z 

..... 

36 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

posit, but the lower one may have been somewhat reworked. 

The upper andesite tuff is composed of light-gray to brownishgray pumice-rich unwelded glassy material with abundant lithic 

fragments. In the Candelaria area pumice fragments compose 10 

to 20 modal percent and are as much as 10 em across (fig. 7), but 

they decrease in size and abundance outward from this area. For 

® 

Candelaria Junction Tuff (Miocenei-Reddish-to yellowish-brown fine-grained well-indurated moderately welded 

crystallized tuft. Pumice fragments 2-3 percent in lower part. absent in upper part. 1-3 mm. angular to slightly 

flattened. Rock fragments < 1 percent. 0. 5-1 mm. subrounded, volcanic. Crystals 15-20 percent. 0.5-2 mm. 

150 -#- subhedral to broken. quartz crystals slightly vermicular. PI:S:O = 1:1:2. traces of biotite and iron oxides . 

.............. 

100 

50 

0 

r ---Upper andesite tuff unit -Light-gray glassy unwelded ash-flow tuff with 5-10 percent uncollapsed pumice I rag. 

""'- ments as much as 5 mm across. Rock fragments 1-2 percent. < 1 mm. mostly andesite. Crystals 2-3 percent. 

-( ___ 0.5-lmm. subhedral, mostly plagioclase. 

Upper sedimentary rocks unit -Light-gray bedded and cross-bedded sandstone and minor conglomerate. Clasts as 

much as 2 em. subangular to subrounded, composed of andesite. 

Andesite breccia of Little Summit-Brownish-gray very coarse grained poorly bedded very poorly sorted moderately 

indurated andesite lahar. Clasts 5 em to 1.5 m. angular. often glassy, andesite. Matrix sandy to silty, poorly 

sorted, composed of andesitic material. 

_J Lower andesite tuff unit -Light-gray coarse-grained pumice-rich glassy tuff. Poorly sorted poorly bedded probably 

· ash-flow tuff but completely unwelded. Pumice fragments 60-70 percent. 2 mm to 3 em, angular, size and 

abundance decreases upward. Rock fragments 5-10 percent, as much as 1 em in lower part. 2 mm in upper onethird. angular to subrounded, chiefly andesite and minor siltstone. Crystals 10-15 percent. 0.5-2 mm, chiefly 

plagioclase and minor hypersthene. 

-----::::·Conglomerate-Gray poorly sorted cobble to boulder conglomerate. Clasts 2-20 em. angular. andesite and pumice . 

Belleville Tuff IMiocene)-Light-gray medium-grained glassy moderately welded tuff with 2-m-thick red layer at 

. top and thin pebble layer at base. Pumice 20-30 percent. 5 mm to 5 em, slightly flattened. decreasing in size 

\ and abundance upward. Rock fragments 1-2 percent. 1-5 mm. andesite. Crystals 10 percent. 0.5-2 mm. chiefly 

\_ plagioclase. 

Tuff of Eastside Mine-White to brownish-gray line-grained glassy weakly to moderately welded tuff. Lower 1-5 

l

. m is moderately welded and indurated, upper part is unwelded and friable. Pllllite fragments 2-3 percent. angular • 

5 mm to 2 em. Rock fragments < 1 percent. rounded, 0.5-1 mm. andesite and shale. Crystals 10 percent. 0.5-2 

mm. PI:S:O =3:1:1. 

Reworked tuff-Gray medium-grained bedded and cross-bedded tuft. 

Metaltic City T ull (Miocene or Oligocenei-Basal 5 m consists of salmon-coi~J"ed medium-grained unwelded to moderately 

welded tuff This grades upward rnto gray vttrophyre. 3-4 m thrck, with crude platy Jointing. Vrtrophyre overlarn 

l by about 10m of grayrsh-brown rndurated moderately welded crystallized tuff wrth crude columnar (ointing. Upper 

1

2-3m conSists of browmsh-gray unwelded poorly rndurated tuff. Pumrce fragments 5-10 percent, angular to 

elongate, 3 mm to 2 em. Rock fragments 1-3 percent, subrounded. 0.5-2 mm. chrefly andesite and some shale. 

)- Crystals 20-25 percent. 1-3 mm. subhedral to broken, PI:S:O =6:1:2. brotrte 2-3 percent and as much as 1 per-

'( /- cent green hornblende 

>- Lower sedrmentary rocks unrt-Lrght-grayrsh-brown medrum-grarned bedded and cross-bedded tuff and laprlh tuff 

).. some sandstone. 

Tuff of Volcanic Hills-Gray to brownish-gray moderately indurated glassy unwelded ash-flow tuft. Pumrce fragments 

-< 2-3 percent. 5-10 mm. angular. Rock fragments 1-3 percent, subrounded. 1-3 mm. andesite and shale. Crystals 

'\ 10 percent. 0.5-2 mm. subhedral, PI:S:O =4:3:2. traces of biotite and iron oxides . 

.==Tuff-Light-brown fine-~rained well-sorted poorly bedded friable vitric tuff. 

Tuff-Gray fine~grained poorly sorted poorly bedded vitric tuff with 10 percent angular pumice lumps as much as 

~. 2 em. Rock fragments < 5 percent. 1-5 mm. black chert and gray andesite. Sparse obsidian chips, 1-1.5 em. 

\. black. angular. 

Base not exposed 

FIGURE 10.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence 2.5 km westnorthwest of Eastside Mine, Basalt quadrangle, Nevada. Number 8 at top of 

column indicates location in figure 2. 
STRATIGRAPHY 37 

example, outcrops in the Basalt quadrangle to the west contain 

about 5 to 10 percent pumice with a maximum diameter of 5 mm 

(fig. 10). All of the pumice is fresh and is composed of brown highly 

vesicular glass with a tubular texture. Lithic fragments vary from 

7 percent in the Candelaria mining district to 1 to 2 percent in the 

Basalt quadrangle. Most fragments are subangular to subrounded, range from 1 to 5 mm across, and consist chiefly of 

porphyritic andesite, locally accompanied by Paleozoic siltstone 

and shale. 

Phenocrysts compose 1 to 4 modal percent and consist chiefly 

of plagioclase with very small quantities of quartz and biotite (table 

11). A few specimens also contain partly altered grains of hypersthene, probably xenocrysts derived from the andesitic rock fragments. The plagioclase occurs as subhedral prisms, often broken 

and corroded, ranging from about 0.2 to 1 mm across. Most grains 

are strongly zoned and many have irregular corroded cores as 

calcic as andesine. Some of the more calcic plagioclase grains may 

also be xenocrysts. 

The groundmass consists of small pumice lumps, glass fragments as much as 2 mm across, shards as much as 0.8 mm long, and 

interstitial glass dust. The shards, fragments, and pumice lumps 

are glassy, whereas the interstitial material is devitrified or altered 

to clay minerals. In most specimens the glass is pale to dark brown, 

but in others it is colorless probably due to bleaching. 

The lower andesite tuff is compositionally similar to the upper 

one but is coarser grained and contains higher percentages of 

pumice and crystals (table 11). Lateral variations are less regular in 

this tuff than in the upper one. Both pumice and rock fragments 

are less abundant in outcrops in the Candelaria district than in 

areas farther west (figs. 7, 10). The size of the rock fragments 

increases to the west, but the pumice fragments become smaller. 

The interlayered andesite breccia of Little Summit is a widespread unit that has been traced from the Columbus quadrangle as 

far west as Huntoon Valley. It often fills channels cut in the underlying tuff and usually grades upward into bedded tuffaceous sediments. The andesite breccia (lahar) is poorly sorted, poorly 

bedded, and consists of angular blocks of hypersthene andesite 

ranging from 1 em to 2 m in diameter. The clasts are set in a sandy 

matrix of the same composition. Some fragments of the Belleville 

Tuff are locally present in the upper few meters of the unit. 

The bedded and cross bedded tuffaceous sediments of the sequence are moderately to poorly sorted lithic sandstones and granule conglomerates composed largely of andesitic detritus. The 

sediments range from 5 to 50 m in thickness and average about 15 
TABLE 10.-Modal analyses qfthe Belleville Tuff 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 

Groundmass ------ 79.4 87.8 90.0 80.2 82.4 83.5 89.0 90.6 90.1 84.1 85.7 

Plaqioclase ----- 15.7 8.8 6.4 11.4 8.5 10.4 9.2 7.6 6.9 9. 1 9.4 

Saninine -------- - - tr • 2 .4 .6 - - - - • 1 

Quartz ---------- .1 - .2 .2 2.2 .4 tr .2 - - .3 

Biotite --------- - - .1 .3 .2 - .1 • 1 - - • 1 

Pyroxene -------- 1.7 1 • 2 - - - - .2 .2 1.2 1.9 .6 

Opaques --------- 1.1 .6 .8 • 1 .2 .6 .2 • 1 .5 .3 .4 

~ircon ---------- - - - - - - - - - tr 

Ap~tite.--------- .3 - tr tr tr - tr - tr tr tr 

Roc~ fr~qments -- 1. 7 1 .6 2.5 7.6 6.1 4.5 1.3 1. 2 1. 3 4.6 3.2 

Other ----------- - - - - - - - - tr 

1. 'Jitrophyre, 1;ase of unit, Miller Mountain section, Colwnbus quadrangle. 

2. Devitrifie<i mouerately welded tuff, top of unit, Miller Mountain section, 

Colmnh'IS rruadrangle. 

3. Devitrified welded tuff, base of unit, Miller Mountain quadrangle. 

4. Devitrified moderately welnen tuff, top of unit, Miller 1-iountain quadrangle. 

5. Devitrifien moderately welded tuff, middle of unit, Miller Mountain 

rrnanxangle. 

(:,. Devi trified moderately welded tuff, Columbus quadrangle. 

7. 

8. 

a 

1 0. 

Glassy welde<l tuff near base of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

Devitrified moderately welded tuff, top of unit, Basalt quadrangle. 

Glassy welded tuf~, base of unit, Belleville quadrangle. 

Glassy welde<i tuff, mi<idle of unit, Belleville quadrangle. 

11. ~verage modal composition of the Belleville Tuff. 

~ 

00 

0 

~ ~ 

C1 

0 

0 

t_:rj 

z 

t_:rj 

> z 

l;j 

~ ~ 

0 

0 

t_:rj 

z 

t_:rj 

> UJ. 

:I: 

~ ~ 

~ ~ 

c::: 

~ 

~ Jfl 

z 

t_:rj 

~ l;j 

> 
STRATIGRAPHY 39 

m. Where the sediments are thickest, the upper andesite tuff is 

absent. 

CANDELARIA JUNCTION TUFF 

The Candelaria Junction Tuff (unit Tt-5 of Stewart, 1979) is a 

densely welded ash-flow sheet that crops out over a large area in 

this part of western Nevada. Present-day outcrops extend from the 

Candelaria Hills on the north to the central Silver Peak Range on 

the south, and from Big Smoky Valley on the east to Huntoon 

Valley on the west. Earlier ash flows in the uppermost Oligocene 

and lowermost Miocene Candelaria Hills sequence apparently 

filled in topographic lows so that the Candelaria Junction Tuff 

could flow unobstructed for long distances. However, in the distal 

areas of emplacement this tuff overlaps older units and rests directly on pre-Tertiary basement rocks. 

This unit rests with erosional unconformity on tuffs and sedimentary rocks associated with the andesite breccia of Little Summit and, within the Candelaria mining district, is conformably 

overlain by the tuff of Candelaria. In other areas, the tuff of 

Capdelaria lowermost Miocene sequence. The Candelaria Junction 

Tuff has been formally named by Speed and Cogbill (1979b) for 

exposures located 2.15 km southwest (S. 15° W.) of Candelaria 

Junction in the north- trending canyon between hills 5992 and 6010 

in the Belleville quadrangle. 

The Candelaria Junction Tuff is a distinctive cliff-forming 

relatively crystal-rich ash-flow sheet, easily distinguished from 

other units in the sequence. It attains its maximum thickness of 

about 105 m in the Candelaria Hills and generally thins outward 

from this locality, so that in most outcrops it is from 20 to 50 m 

thick. In some sections two distinct ledges are visible, representing separate cooling units, although there are no discernible differences in lithology or mineralogy between the two (figs. 6, 9). 

Elsewhere, the unit consists of a single unbroken sequence. 

In the type section the tuff shows well-developed compaction 

and welding zones (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b). A basal zone, ranging 

from 5 to 15 m thick, consists of grayish-brown weakly welded 

glassy tuff. This grades upward into a 10- to 20-m-thick dark-gray 

vitrophyre which in turn is overlain by about 20 to 30 m of moderately welded stony tuff grading upward into gray glassy unwelded 

tuff as thick as 25 m. In other areas, particularly near the distal 

edges of the ash-flow sheet where it laps onto pre-Tertiary highs, 

the zonation is much less pronounced. In these areas, the lower half 

of the unit commonly consists of white moderately compacted friable 
40 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

tuff and the upper half of reddish-brown weakly welded but 

strongly indurated tuff. 

Pumice fragments compose as much as 20 percent of this unit, 

being less abundant in the upper parts of the section and in the 

distal parts. These are small pink or black fragments less than 1 em 

across, typically accompanied by chips of black glass. However, in 

some parts of the vitrophyre strongly flattened pumice fragments 

are as much as 2 em in length. Rock fragments are sparse, except in 

the basal part of the unit where it rests directly on pre- Tertiary 

rocks. Most of the fragments are Paleozoic sedimentary rocks 

which were picked up from the underlying surface, but some 

volcanic rock fragments are also present. 

The Candelaria Junction Tuff everywhere is moderately crystal rich, containing abundant large phenocrysts of plagioclase, 

sanidine, and quartz in an average ratio of about 3:2:4 (table 12). 

Plagioclase occurs as subhedral or broken crystals as much as 2 

mm long. These are mostly zoned oligoclase, but a few highly 

resorbed grains are more calcic and may be xenocrysts. Sanidine 

crystals are square to prismatic, subhedral to euhedral, and range 

from 1 to 2 mm across. Large subhedral quartz bipyramids are 

characteristic of this unit and compose as much as 10 modal percent. Individual crystals are as much as 5 mm across and are 

moderately corroded. Both biotite and hornblende are present, 

but together they never exceed 1 modal percent. Biotite forms 

brown to yellowish-brown flakes as much as 1 mm across, and 

hornblende occurs as green pleochroic prisms less than 0.5 mm 

across. Opaque minerals are sparse but occur as relatively large 

subhedral crystals as much as 1 mm across. 

Small pumice fragments, glass shards, and interstitial glass 

dust compose the groundmass. The shards are weakly to moderately deformed and range from 0.2 to 1 mm across. Fresh glass is 

pale brown, but many shards have bleached, colorless rims. Large 

glassy pumice fragments typically have a distinctive perlitic fracture pattern. In devitrified specimens the groundmass consists of 

microcrystalline cristobalite and alkali feldspar, usually with axiolitic textures. 

TUFF OF CANDELARIA 

The tuff of Candelaria is a weakly to densely welded lithic-rich 

ash-flow tuff that crops out only in one small area in the Candelaria 

mining district (unit 10 of Speed and Cogbill, 1979b). It is informally 

named for exposures about 2 km northwest of the Candelaria 

townsite, where it conformably overlies the Candelaria Junction 
STRATIGRAPHY 41 

Tuff. It is the youngest of the uppermost Oligocene and lowermost 

Miocene tuffs and is overlain unconformably by Miocene andesite 

or Pliocene basalt (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b ). This tuff was not 

studied petrographically by us, so the description given here is 

from Speed and Cogbill (1979b). 

In its type locality the unit has a maximum thickness of about 

75 m and displays well-developed zonation. The lower 2 to 3 m 

consists of white to brownish-gray weakly welded tuff that grades 

upward into a densely welded dark-gray vitrophyre with good 

eutaxitic texture. This is overlain by gray moderately to weakly 

welded stony tuff that extends to the top of the unit. The tuff of 

Candelaria is easily distinguished from the older units by its abundant pumice and lithic fragments (Speed and Cogbill, 1979b ). 

Pumice composes about 20 to 30 modal percent and occurs as 

angular lumps, generally less than 1 em across, often accompanied 

by small obsidian chips. Lithic fragments consist of tuff, scoria, 

and porphyritic andesite and make up as much as 30 percent of the 

tuff. These are less than 1 em across and are subrounded to subangular. Crystals make up 15 to 20 modal percent and consist 

chiefly of plagioclase, sanidine, and quartz in the ratio 8:1:1 (Speed 

and Cogbill, 1979b). Biotite is relatively abundant, composing 5 

percent or more of the unit. 

TABLE 11.-Modal analyses of tuffs associated with the andesite 

breccia of Little Surnrnit 

[tr, trace] 

2 3· 

Groundmass ----- 85.2 81.2 89.6 

Plagioclase ---- 9.2 12.1 3.2 

Snnidine ------- .4 

Quartz --------- .4 1.0 .3 

Biotite-------- .1 .1 

Pyroxene ------- .s 

Opaques -------- .4 .8 .1 

Allanite ------- tr 

Zircon --------- tr tr 

Apatite -------- tr tr 

Rock fragments - 4.2 4.0 6.8 

1. Glassy tuff, lower andesite tuff unit, 

Belleville quadrangle. 

4 

97.7 

1.3 

tr 

.2 

tr 

tr 

.8 

2. Glassy tuff, lower andesite tuff unit, Basalt 

quadrangle. 

3. Glassy moderately welded tuff, upper andesite 

tuff unit, Belleville quadrangle. 

4. Glassy unwelded tuff, upper andesite tuff unit, 

Basalt quadrangle 
42 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

The groundmass consists of small black shards in glassy specimens or microcrystalline mixtures of cristobalite and alkali feldspar in devitrified samples. 

COMPOSITION 

The Candelaria Hills sequence consists predominantly of silicic ash-flow tuffs and derivative tuffaceous sediments.Silicic lavas 

or domes are not present, but flows of basalt and andesite are 

intercalated with the ash-flow sheets in the Candelaria Hills (Page, 

1959; Speed and Cogbill, 1979b), and the andesite breccia of Little 

Summit occurs in a large part of the region (Stewart, 1979; 

1981a, b). 

100 

en 

ffi 

1-

~ 

!!!: 50 

r.n 

~ z 

:..:: 

u 

5: 

1-

® 

+ "il-' 

-11-

-11-

-tf-

-tf-

-tl-

-11--

..-#--

-11-

-11-

-11-

-11--

+ -11--

+ 

-il-

-11--

-i+-

-tf-

-11-

Andesite flows and breccia 

Candelaria Junction !?I Tuff (Miocenel-light-gray to white medium- to coarse-grained moderately welded tuff. 

Weakly developed eutaxitic texture in lower part. Weakly altered and silic1fied. Pumice fragments 2-10 

percent. locally as much as 20 percent, most abundant in lower part, 5 mm to 5 em long, slightly flattened. 

Rock fragments 1-2 percent in lower part. sparse in middle and upper parts, 1-2 mm, subrounded, siltstone. 

Crystals about 20 percent, 1-4 mm, subhedral, quartz crystals somewhat corroded, PI:S:Q = 1:1:2, traces 

of biotite. iron oxides,. and zircon. 

Conglomerate-light-brown poorly bedded moderately mdurated pebble to cobble conglomerate composed of fragments 

of sedimentary and plutonic rocks. 

Granitic basement rocks 

FIGURE H.-Stratigraphic section of Candelaria Hills sequence in northern White 

Mountains, Benton quadrangle, Nevada. Number 9 at top of column indicates 

location in figure 2. 
AGE 43 

No chemical data are available for the tuffs, but their phenocryst mineralogies suggest that most are rhyolitic to quartz 

latitic in composition. All but the tuff of Candelaria Mountain, the 

Belleville Tuff, and the tuffs and sedimentary rocks associated 

with the andesite breccia of Little Summit contain significant 

quantities ofphenocrystic quartz and most contain sanidine (table 

13). Plagioclase in these units is dominantly oligoclase, and the 

groundmass minerals in devitrified specimens are cristobalite and 

alkali feldspar. Biotite is the common mafic mineral, but it is 

abundant only in the tuff of Miller Mountain, the Metallic City Tuff, 

and the tuff of Candelaria. In these units the biotite is usually 

accompanied by 1 to 2 percent of green hornblende, now largely 

altered. 

The Belleville Tuff and overlying tuffs and tuffaceous sedimentary rocks associated with the andesite breccia of Little Summit are distinctly less siliceous than the remainder of the sequence. 

Plagioclase is the only common phenocryst in these tuffs, and it is 

generally andesine in composition. Quartz and sanidine are rare, 

but small amounts of hypersthene are typically present. However, 

because of their anhedral and corroded habits, the hypersthene 

grains are interpreted as xenocrysts derived from the breakup of 

numerous andesitic rock fragments. Even in these tuffs the devitrified groundmass minerals are cristobalite and alkali feldspar, 

suggesting an overall dacitic composition. 

AGE 

The available K-Ar dates for the uppermost Oligocene and 

lowermost Miocene tuffs range from 25.5 ± 1.0 to 22.0 ± 0.9 m.y. 

(table 14). The youngest date, which is from the Belleville Tuff, is 

probably slightly in error because this unit is overlain by the 

Candelaria Junction Tuff, which has five dates averaging 23.6 m.y. 

One date of 22.1 ± 1.0 m.y. from the Metallic City Tuff is also 

somewhat younger than the average (23.9 m.y.) for that unit. 

Excluding the dates from the Belleville Tuff the sequence spans 

approximately a 2-m.y. period from about 25.5 to 23.5 m.y. B.P. 

The common presence of erosional unconformities between units 

attests to episodic eruption of the tuffs during this period. Based 

on the amount of erosion the longest hiatus between eruptions was 

between the tuff of Eastside Mine and the Belleville Tuff. A major 

compositional change from rhyolite to dacite also occurs at this 

boundary. 
44 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

REGIONAL RELATIONS 

THICKNESS VARIATIONS AND FACIES CHANGES 

Present-day outcrops of the uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene tuffs extend from the Garfield Hills on the north to 

the central Silver Peak Range on the south and from Big Smoky 

Valley on the east to Huntoon Valley on the west (fig. 2). These 

outcrops, coupled with the inferred subsurface distribution, suggest that the tuffs presently occur over an area of about 3,200 km2• 

Despite the wide areal extent of this sequence, only three of 

the ash-flow sheets, the Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria 

Junction Tuffs, are voluminous and widespread. The earliest eruptions appear to have filled in topographic lows in the Candelaria 

area, allowing succeeding ash flows to travel greater distances. 

Hence, the five units older than the Metallic City Tuff are found 

chiefly in the Candelaria area, pinching out against the basement 

in their distal parts. 

In all cases, the thickest and most complete sections of individual ash-flow units occur in the Candelaria mining district. Speed 

and Cogbill (1979b; 1979c) estimate a maximum thickness in excess 

of 1,300 m for the uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene 

tuffs in this area. This great thickness is due to accumulation of the 

tuffs in the Candelaria trough, a feature that developed contemporaneously with emplacement of the ash flows (Speed and Cogbill, 

1979c). In the surrounding region the sequence is much thinner, 

generally less than 300m thick. Most individual ash-flow sheets 

thin gradually away from the Candelaria district, although local 

fluctuations occur where units are separated by erosional unconformities. The Belleville Tuff shows the most extreme thickness 

variations, typically filling deep channels cut into, or through, the 

underlying tuff of Eastside Mine. The regional thinning is such 

that the peripheral outcrops of the sequence consist of only the 

Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria Junction Tuffs (figs. 8, 9, 

11). The overall sequence also thins away from the Candelaria Hills, 

being about 160m thick in the Basalt quadrangle (fig. 10), about 150 

m thick in the Volcanic Hills (fig. 4), about 120m thick in the central 

Silver Peak Range (fig. 9), and about 60 m thick in the Garfield Hills 

(fig. 8). 

Thinning of the individual ash-flow sheets away from the Candelaria Hills is accompanied by notable decreases in intensity of 

welding, grain size, and abundance of pumice and lithic fragments. 

Units that are densely welded in the Candelaria Hills are weakly to 

moderately welded elsewhere. Even the voluminous and widespread units such as the Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria 
REGIONAL RELATIONS 45 

Junction Tuffs are weakly welded in their distal outcrops. Variations in size and abundance of pumice fragments have already been 

described for individual units. The most notable changes are in the 

pumice- rich units such as the tuff of Volcanic Hills, the tuff of 

Candelaria Mountain, the tuff of Eastside Mine, and the Belleville 

Tuff. In all of these units the outcrops in the Candelaria mining 

district contain the largest and most abundant pumice fragments. 

In more distal outcrops the fragments are smaller and less abundant, and these changes can be correlated with distance from the 

Candelaria area. Rock fragments show a similar pattern of variation, but their abundance reflects the nature of the underlying 

surface as well as the outcrop location. Where a given unit overlaps 

the underlying tuffs and rests directly on pre-Tertiary basement 

rocks, fragments of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks are usually abundant, regardless of distance from the Candelaria Hills. In these 

cases, however, the rock fragments are concentrated in the lower 

part of the ash-flow sheet and decrease rapidly in abundance 

upward. Despite these local variations, systematic variations in 

size and abundance of rock fragments are observed in some units, 

such as the tuff of Eastside Mine, which everywhere rest on older 

tuffs. In the heart of the Candelaria area lithic fragments compose 

as much as 10 percent of the tuff of Eastside mine (Speed and 

Cogbill, 1979b) and are as much as 8 em across; near Candelaria 

Junction rock fragments compose 3 to 5 percent and are as large as 

1 em (fig. 7), whereas in the Basalt quadrangle farther west lithic 

fragments make up < 1 percent of the tuff and have a maximum 

diameter of about 1 mm (fig. 10). 

Within the Candelaria mining district, angular unconformities 

occur above and below the tuff of Eastside Mine, but these discontinuities are not observed elsewhere. They reflect faulting during 

deposition of the ttiffs, leading to the formation of the Candelaria 

trough, a northeast-trending graben extending through the Candelaria Hills (Speed and Cogbill, 1979c). This trough is about 5 km 

wide, 15 km long, and 1.5 km deep. If it extends to the edge of 

Rhodes Salt Marsh, as suggested by the gravity' data (Speed and 

Cogbill, 1979c), it could be as much as 20 km long. Based on gravity 

profiles the trough is filled with low-density, weakly compacted 

uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene tuff that constitutes 

the trough facies of Speed and Cogbill (1979b). Within the trough, 

unconformities are less common and more subdued than in surrounding outcrops, and angular unconformities occur only along 

the trough margins. Decollement structures have been identified 

locally along the south margin of the trough (Speed and Cogbill, 

1979c). In the uplift facies, sections are thinner and incomplete, 
TABLE 12.-Modal analyses of the Candelaria Junction Tuff 

[tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 

Groundmass ----- 77.7 78.2 84.9 82.7 82.0 88.3 84.6 77.8 79.1 81.4 77.5 

Plagioclase ---- 6.5 4.6 4.9 7.4 8.0 3.3 4.5 7.1 5.2 6.2 5.0 

Sanidine ------- 6.8 5.8 4.6 4.2 2. 1 2.4 2.7 4.5 5.5 5.8 4.2 

Quartz --------- 8.7 10.5 4.5 4.7 7. 1 5.7 5.9 9.9 10.1 6.1 7.3 

Biotite -------- .2 .4 .5 .7 .4 .2 .1 .1 .1 • 1 .6 

Hornblende ----- - - - tr - tr tr - - - tr 

Pyroxene ------- - - - tr 

Opaques -------- .1 .1 • 1 .2 .1 .1 .2 tr tr • 1 .2 

Allanite ------- - - - tr 

Zircon --------- tr - - .1 . 1 tr tr tr tr tr tr 

Apatite -------- tr - - - - - - - - - tr 

Rock fragments - - .4 .2 - .2 - 2.0 .6 - .2 5.4 

Other ---------- - tr .3 - - - -- - - • 1 -

1. Devitrified welded tuff, Miller Mountain quadrangle. 

2. Devitrified moderately welded tuff, Basalt quadrangle. 

3. Devitrified moderately welded tuff, Basalt quadrangle. 

4. Vitrophyre at base of unit, northern Fish Lake Valley, Davis Mountain 

quadrangle. 

5. Devitrified welded tuff, northern Fish Lake Valley, Davis Mountain quadrangle. 

6. Devitrified welded tuff, basal cooling unit, Columbus quadrangle. 

7. Devitrified welded tuff, upper cooling unit, Columbus quadrangle. 

8. Devitrified welded tuff, Belleville quadrangle. 

9. Altered moderately welded tuff, northern White Mountains, Benton quadrangle. 

10. Altered moderately welded tuff, central Silver Peak Range, Rhyolite Ridge 

quadrangle. 

11. Devitrified weakly welded tuff, northern Silver Peak Range, Rhyolite Ridge 

quadrangle. 

12. Average modal composition of the Candelaria Junction Tuff. 

12 

b1.3 

5.7 

4.4 

7.3 

.4 

tr 

• 1 

tr 

.8 

tr 

~ 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

Q 

0 

(1 

t:_:l:j 

z 

t:_:l:j 

> z 

t:j 

~ ~ 

0 

(1 

t:_:l:j 

z 

t:_:l:j 

> r.n 

::c: 

~ 

~ 

~ ~ 

d 

~ 

~ 

sn 

z 

t:_:l:j 

~ t:j 

> 
REGIONAL RELATIONS 47 

consisting largely of densely welded and indurated tuff. 

VOLUME 

At present, the Candelaria Hills sequence crops out over an 

area of about 3,200 km2 • Because the outlying outcrops in the 

Garfield Hills, the Silver Peak Range, and Big Smoky and Huntoon 

Valleys represent the distal edges of the ash-flow sheets, the 

original distribution was probably not much greater than the present distribution. In the Candelaria mining district, outside the 

Candelaria trough, the thickness of the sequence is 200 to 300 m, 

and most of the units thin away from this area. Outside the Candelaria Hills area we estimate an average thickness of about 80 m 

for the sequence and therefore a volume of about 256 km3. Assuming that the Candelaria trough is 5 km wide, 15 km long, and 1.5 km 

deep (Speed and Cogbill, 1979c), the volume of tuff that fills this 

feature is about 112 km3 and the total volume of the Candelaria 

Hills sequence is about 368 km3. Lithic fragments compose an 

average of about 5 percent of the sequence for a volume of about 18 

km3. Crystals average about 15 modal percent indicating a volume 

of about 55 km3, leaving about 295 km3 of glass. 

The sequence consists of both welded and unwelded tuff in 

variable proportions. Densely welded specimens have an average 

specific gravity of about 2.30 while unwelded samples are 1.90 

(Speed and Cogbill, 1979c). Porosities are highly variable, ranging 

from about 7 to 40 percent. Overall, we estimate that the uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene tuffs consist of about 75 

percent uncompacted material and 25 percent welded material, 

with an average density for the sequence of 2. 0 g/cm3. This is close 

to the average density of the sequence filling the Candelaria trough 

(Speed and Cogbill, 1979c). We estimate a volume correction of 

about 35 percent to account for the effects of vesiculation, based on 

a density of unvesiculated rhyolite of approximately 2. 6. The application of this correction to the estimated volume of tuff leads to 

an estimated overall volume of erupted magma, including crystals, 

of about 24 7 km3. 

SOURCE 

All of the available evidence suggests a source for the Candelaria Hills sequence within the Candelaria Hills. The thickest 

and best developed sections of tuff always occur in the Candelaria 

area, and individual ash-flow sheets all show decreases in thickness, grain size, and degree of welding away from this locality. 
TABLE 13.-Average modal analyses of uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene ash-flow tuffs 

of western N eva.da 

[No modal analyses are available for the tuff of Candelaria. tr, trace] 

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 

Groundmass ---------- 88.4 77 .o 89.0 86.6 90.5 72.0 82.2 85.8 81.2 93.6 81.3 

Plagioclase --------- 4.0 12.5 5.9 4.8 3.7 15.5 6.3 9.4 12.1 2.3 5.7 

Sanidine ------------ 3-3 1.0 1 • 1 3.9 .3 2.2 ~ .1 .1 .4 - 4.4 

Quartz -------------- 2.4 2.2 2.6 2.7 .5 5.1 4.9 .3 1 .0 .2 7.3 

Biotite ------------- • 1 4.2 .8 .4 1 .2 2.9 .5 • 1 • 1 • 1 .4 

Hornblende ---------- - .4 - - - • 1 - - - - tr 

Altered hornblende? - - 1.0 - .2 - .5 - - - - tr 

Pyroxene ------------ - - - - - - - .6 .4 

Opaques ------------- .2 .4 tr .3 tr .4 .2 .4 .8 tr • 1 

Allanite ------------ - - tr tr tr tr tr - - tr 

Zircon -------------- tr tr tr tr tr tr tr - tr tr tr 

Apatite ------------- - tr - tr - tr tr tr tr 

Rock fragments ------ 1 .6 1.3 .6 1.1 3.8 1.3 3.8 3-3 4.0 3.8 .8 

- l. Tuff of Columbus 

2. Tuff of Miller Mountain 

3. Tuff of Pinchot Creek 

4. Tuff of Volcanic Hills 

5. Tuff of Candelaria Mountain 

6. Metallic City Tuff 

7. Tuff of Eastside Mine 

8. Belleville Tuff 

9. Lower andesite tuff 

10. Upper andesite tuff 

11 • Candelaria Junction Tuff 

~ 

0 

~ 1--1 

0 

0 

0 

t?:l 

z 

t?:l 

> z 

t:1 

~ 1--1 

0 

0 

t?:l 

z 

t?j 

> U1 

~ 

~ ~ 

~ ~ 

c::: 

~ 

~ 

sn 

z 

t?:l 

~ t:1 

> 
REGIONAL RELATIONS 

TABLE 14.-K-Ar ages of the Candelaria Hills sequence 

[Ages recalculated using new decay and abundance constants (Steiger and 

Jager, 1977; Dalrymple, 1979)] 

Unit 

Candelaria Junction Tuff -------

Belleville Tuff ----------------

Tuff of Eastside Mine ----------

Metallic City Tuff -------------

Tuff of Volcanic Hills ---------

Tuff of Miller Mountain--------

1. .'4arvin and others ( 1977) 

2. Gilbert and others (1968) 

3. Rohinson and others (1968) 

4. Silberman and others (1975) 

5. Garside and Silberman (1978) 

Age + 21T 

(m.y.) 

22.8+0.4 

22.8+0.6 

23.5+0.5 

23.5+1.3 

25.3+0.9 

22.0+0.9 

22.6+0.7 

24.1+1.9 

22.1+1.0 

22.7+0.4 

23.4+0.6 

23.4+1.0 

23.4+1.0 

24.7+1.0 

24.9+0.7 

24.9+0.9 

25.5+1.0 

2 3.4+1 0 0 

25.4+0.8 

Mineral 

Biotite 

Sanidine 

Sanidine 

Plagioclase 

Biotite 

Plagioclase 

Plagioclase 

Basalt 

(whole rock) 

Biotite 

Sanioine 

Plagioclase 

Biotite 

Sanidine 

Biotite 

Biotite 

Biotite 

Plagioclase 

Sanidine 

Biotite 

49 

Source 

2 

1 

2 

1 

5 

r 

3 

2 

2 

3 

4 

2 

5 

1 

5 

4 

Eruption of nearly 250 km3 of magma should produce cauldron 

collapse in the source area. Speed and Cogbill (1979b, c) found no 

clear evidence of a typical caldera in the Candelaria Hills, but they 

described a major fault-bounded trough that formed contemporaneously with emplacement of the ash-flow tuffs. They assumed 

that all of the ash flows originated from outside the Candelaria area 

and interpreted the fault trough as evidence of early basin-andrange faulting. However, the regional facies variations in the Candelaria Hills sequence indicate strongly that the tuffs were erupted 

from vents within the Candelaria Hills. This interpretation is 

strengthened by the fact that regional extensional faulting did not 

occur in western Nevada until about 17 m.y. B.P. (McKee and 

Noble, 1974; Stewart, 1978) and by the presence of basaltic and 

andesitic lava flows in the Candelaria Hills sequence indicating that 

local volcanism occurred here in latest Oligocene and earliest 

Miocene time. 

Speed and Cogbill (1979c) argued that the trough is not a 
50 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

calderalike feature because there are no siliceous lava flows or 

domes in the area and the tuffs are not hydrothermally altered. 

They interpreted the extension in the Candelaria Hills to have 

resulted from a regional oblique slip system and related the 

basaltic volcanism to this fault regime. Silicic flows and domes, 

although common in calderas, do not occur in all of them, and 

hydrothermal alteration may affect only the deeper parts of the 

caldera fill. In the Candelaria trough the lower parts of the trough 

sequence are not exposed. Eruption of small quantities of basalt 

lava, such as that found in the Candelaria Hills, does not necessarily indicate the onset of block faulting. Such basaltic lava flows 

often occur in predominantly silicic volcanic centers. For example, 

in the nearby Silver Peak volcanic center, basalt flows were 

erupted from a ring fracture zone at a late stage and are interlayered with intracaldera sediments (Robinson, 1972). 

Clearly the Candelaria trough is not a typical subcircular 

caldera and the estimated volume of the trough (112 km3 ) is only 

about one-half that of the estimated volume of magma erupted. 

However, if the trough extends as far as Rhodes Salt Marsh, as 

suggested by the gravity data (Speed and Cogbill, 1979c), it may be 

much larger. The presence of numerous erosional unconformities in 

the sequence indicates that the tuffs were erupted episodically 

over about a 2-m.y. period. The volume of material erupted during 

emplacement of any one ash flow was significantly less than the 

overall volume. Under these circumstances subsidence may have 

occurred in small increments, leading to a relatively broad depression, rather than to a single sharply defined caldera. The stratigraphic relations indicate that the earliest ash flows filled a general depression in the Candelaria area and were overlapped by 

younger units. 

Although thickness variations and facies relations preclude a 

source for the Candelaria Hills sequence to the north, west, or 

south of the Candelaria Hills, an eastern source cannot be completely excluded. There are no exposures of the tuffs east of the 

Candelaria Hills, but the sequence presumably extends beneath 

Columbus Salt Marsh. A buried source could possibly lie beneath 

Columbus Salt Marsh or possibly in the Monte Cristo Range 

farther east. In the latter area, Stewart (unpub. data, 1982) has 

found a volcanic center with possible cauldron collapse from which 

major ash-flow tuffs may have been erupted. These tuffs, however, 

are petrographically different, on the basis of preliminary WQrk, 

from those of the Candelaria Hills sequence. Thus, it is unlikely 

that the tuffs of the Candelaria Hills sequence were derived from 

the volcanic center in the Monte Cristo Range, but this possibility 
LATEST OLIGOCENE - EARLIEST MIOCENE PALEOGEOGRAPHY 51 

cannot be definitely ruled out until the age of the tuff of Castle Peak 

has been determined. It is also possible that the Candelaria Hills 

sequence was derived from an older, buried center in the Monte 

Cristo Range, but there is no evidence to support such an interpretation. , 

In summary, we believe that the available evidence suggests 

the presence of an ancient volcanic center in the Candelaria Hills 

from which the uppermost Oligocene and lowermost Miocene tuffs 

were erupted. Speed and Cogbill (1979a, b, c) have clearly demonstrated that faulting and trough formation occurred contemporaneously with deposition of the ash-flow sheets, and we tentatively interpret the Candelaria trough as a collapse feature 

resulting from eruption of the pyroclastic rocks. 

LATEST OLIGOCENE AND EARLIEST MIOCENE 

PALEOGEOGRAPHY 

The Candelaria Hills sequence of uppermost Oligocene and 

lowermost Miocene ash-flow tuffs occurs over a broad area- in 

western Nevada, providing a marker horizon that can be used to 

interpret the structure and paleotopography of the area. Although 

faulting and subsidence occurred contemporaneously with emplacement of the tuffs in the Candelaria Hills, there is no evidence 

of tectonic activity elsewhere in the region at this time. Outside the 

Candelaria area the ash-flow tuffs are all structurally conformable, 

being locally separated only by erosional unconformities. The wide 

distribution of the ash-flow sheets, particularly the upper units, 

indicates that they flowed over an area of relatively low relief. Small 

basement highs are indicated where older tuffs are overlapped by 

younger units, but since the entire sequence is generally less than 

200 m thick, the topographic relief was probably small. Only the 

Metallic City, Belleville, and Candelaria Junction Tuffs occur at the 

periphery of the Candelaria Hills sequence. The absence of the 

other units around the periphery suggests that they were of relatively small volume and not widespread. Postdepositional uplift 

and erosion of these units before eruption of the more voluminous 

tuffs is unlikely because of the absence of angular unconformities in 

the sequence. We find no evidence to suggest that late Oligocene 

extensional faulting occurred in this region outside of the Candelaria Hills. Thus, we conclude that the ash flows were emplaced 

on a stable erosional surface with relief of a few hundred meters 

and that the major episode of extensional faulting did not occur 

until later. 
52 OLIGOCENE AND MIOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS, NEVADA 

REFERENCES CITED 

Crowder, D. F., Robinson, P. T., and Harris, D. L., 1972, Geologic map of the 

Benton quadrangle, Mono County, California, and Esmeralda and Mineral 

Counties, Nevada: U. S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map 

GQ-1013, scale 1:62,500. 

Dalrymple, G. B., 1979, Critical tables for conversion ofK-Ar ages from old to new 

constants: Geology, v. 7, p. 558-560. 

Ekren, E. B., Byers, F. M., Jr., Hardyman, R. F., Marvin, R. F., and Silberman, 

M. L., 1980, Stratigraphy, preliminary petrology, and some structural features of Tertiary volcanic rocks in the Gabbs Valley and Gillis Ranges, Mineral 

County, Nevada: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1464, 54 p. 

Garside, L. J., 1979, Geologic map of the Camp Douglas quadrangle, Nevada: 

Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Map 63, 1:24,000. 

Garside, L. J., and Silberman, M. L., 1978, New K-Ar ages of volcanic and 

plutonic rocks from the Camp Douglas quadrangle, Mineral County, Nevada: 

Isochron!West, no. 22, p. 29-32. 

Gilbert, C. M., Christensen, M. N., Al-Rawi, Yehya, and Lajoie, K. R., 1968, 

Structural and volcanic history of Mono Basin, California-Nevada, in Studies 

in volcanology- a memoir in honor of Howel Williams: Geological Society of 

America Memoir 116, p. 27fr.329. 

Krauskopf, K. B., 1971, Geologic map of the Mount Barcroft quadrangle, California-Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-960, scale 

1:62,500. 

Marvin, R. H., Speed, R. C., and Cogbill, A. H., 1977, K-Ar ages of Tertiary 

igneous and sedimentary rocks of the Mina-Candelaria region, Nevada: Isochron!West, no. 18, p. 9-12. 

McKee, E. H., 1971, Tertiary igneous chronology of the Great Basin of western 

United States-implications for tectonic models: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 82, p. 3497-3502. 

McKee, E. H., and Noble, D. C., 1974, Timing oflate Cenozoic crustal extension in 

the western United States [abs.]: Geological Society of America Abstract 

with Programs, v. 6, p. 218. 

Page, B. M., 1959, Geology of the Candelaria mining district, Mineral County, 

Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin 56, 67 p. 

Proffett,J. M.,Jr., andProffett, B. H., 1976, StratigraphyoftheTertiaryash-flow 

tuffs in the Yerington District, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology 

Report no. 27, 28 p. 

Robinson, P. T., 1972, Petrology of the Silver Peak volcanic center, Nevada: 

Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 83, p. 1693-1708. 

Robinson, P. T., and Crowder, D. F., 1973, Geologic map of the Davis Mountain 

quadrangle, Esmeralda and Mineral Counties, Nevada, and Mono County, 

California: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1078, scale 

1:62,500. 

Robinson, P. T., McKee, E. H., and Moiola, R. J., 1968, Cenozoic volcanism and 

sedimentation, Silver Peak region, Nevada and California, in studies in 

volcanology-a memoir in honor of Howel Williams: Geological Society of 

America Memoir 116, p. 577-611. 

Robinson, P. T., Stewart, J. H., Moiola, R. J., and Albers, J. P., 1976, Geologic map 

of the Rhyolite Ridge quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic 

Quadrangle Map GQ-1325, scale 1:62,500. 

Ross, D. C., 1961, Geology and mineral deposits of Mineral County, Nevada: 

Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin 58, 98 p. 
REFERENCES CITED 53 

Silberman, M. L., Bonham, H. F., Jr., and Osborne, D. H., 1975, New K-Arages 

of volcanic and plutonic rocks and ore deposits in western Nevada: Isochron/ 

West, no. 13, p. 13-21. 

Speed, R. C., 1977, Excelsior Formation, west-central Nevada-stratigraphic 

appraisal, new divisions, and paleogeographic interpretations, in Stewart, J. 

H., Stevens, C. H., and Fritsche, A. E., eds., Paleozoic paleogeography of 

the western United States: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Pacific Sections, Pacific Coast Paleogeography Symposium 1, p. 

325-336. 

Speed, R. C., and Cogbill, A. H., 1979a, Candelaria and other left-oblique slip 

faults of the Candelaria region, Nevada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, pt. 1, v. 90, p. 149-163. 

---1979b, Cenozoic volcanism of the Candelaria region, Nevada: Geological 

Society of America Bulletin, pt. 2, v. 90, p. 456-493. 

---1979c, Deep fault trough of Oligocene age, Candelaria Hills, Nevada: 

Geological Society of America Bulletin, pt. 2, v. 90, p. 494-527. 

Steiger, R. H., andJager, E., 1977, Subcommission on geochronology: Convention 

on the use of decay constants in geo- and cosmochronology: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 36, p. 359-362. 

Stewart, J. H., 1978, Basin-Range structure in western North America: A review, 

in Smith, R. B., and Eaton, G. P., eds., Cenozoic tectonics and regional 

geophysics of the western Cordillera: Geological Society of America Memoir 

152, p. 1-31. 

---1979, Geologic map of Miller Mountain and Columbus quadrangles, Mineral 

and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 

79-ll45, scale 1:24,000. 

---1981a, Geologic map of the Jacks Spring quadrangle, Mineral County, 

Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-368, scale 1:24,000. 

---1981b, Geologic map of the Basalt quadrangle, Mineral County, Nevada: 

U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-369, scale 1:24,000. 

Stewart, J. H., Carlson, J. E., and Johannesen; D. C., 1983, Geologic map of the 

Walker Laker by 2° quadrangle, California and Nevada: U.S. Geological 

Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1382-A, scale 1:250,000. 

Stewart, J. H., Kleinhampl, F. J., Johannesen, D. C., Speed, R. C., and Dohrenwend, J. C., 1981, Geologic map of the Huntoon Valley quadrangle, Mineral 

County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-274, scale 

1:62,500. 

Stewart, J. H., Moore, W. J., and Zietz, Isidore, 1977, East-west patterns of 

Cenozoic igneous rocks, aeromagnetic anomalies and mineral deposits, Nevada and Utah: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 88, p. 67-77. 

Stewart, J. H., Robinson, P. T., Albers, J.P. and Crowder, p. F., 1975, Geologic 

map of the Piper Peak quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic 

Quadrangle Map GQ-ll86, scale 1:62,500. 
GPO 787-042/1000