Title: Geologic map of the Caliente NW quadrangle, Lincoln County, Nevada

Author: Peter D. Rowley, Ralph R. Shroba, W C Swadley, F. William Simonds, Lawrence W. Snee, and Gary J. Axen

Year: 2023

Series: Open-File Report 2023-10

Format: map sheet with cross sections: 37 x 30 inches, color; text: 25 pages, b/w

Scale: 1:24,000

This geologic map is one of two geologic quadrangles of the Caliente caldera complex to be published in 2023 by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG); five more are anticipated. These result from mapping and related petrologic, geochemical, and isotopic studies by the authors that were funded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The mapping was part of a large project named the Basin and Range to Colorado Plateau Transition (BARCO) study in southeastern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and northwestern Arizona. Mapping was to be published at detailed (1:24,000) scale, then compiled in 1:100,000-scale quadrangles. The project ended in early 1995 during the USGS Reduction in Force (RIF).

One of the subprojects of BARCO was a study of the Caliente caldera complex and its gold deposits, led by the senior author. Mapping at 1:24,000 scale began at the western end of the caldera complex, but only three quadrangles were published (Rowley and Shroba, 1991; Rowley et al., 1994; Swadley and Rowley, 1994). Abstracts cited here and summary reports (e.g., Rowley et al., 1992, 1995, 2001; Best et al., 1993; Hudson et al., 1995, 1998; Nealey et al., 1995; Unruh et al., 1995; Scott et al., 1995a, b) also were prepared before the RIF, with some published after. The seven quadrangles we intend to complete were mapped but never published. We also intend to publish with NBMG many ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates by L.W. Snee, most of them from rocks in the caldera complex, that were never released in final form (e.g., Snee et al., 1990; Snee and Rowley, 2000).

The physiography of the Caliente NW quadrangle consists of the northern end of the Delamar Mountains and several small ranges to the north, the Burnt Springs Range on the west and unnamed ranges east of it. In the Caliente NW quadrangle, west of these mountain clusters is the eastern edge of broad Dry Lake Valley, and east of the mountain clusters is the western part of the Antelope Canyon basin. The other map to be published in 2023, the Chokecherry Mountain quadrangle to the south (Rowley et al., 2023), contains the central to northern Delamar Mountains and the central Burnt Springs Range. East of the Caliente NW map area, the Chief Range and eastern Antelope Canyon basin were mapped by Rowley et al. (1994). Southwest of the map area, the western Dry Lake Valley, southern Burnt Springs Range, and western Delamar Mountains, including the western edge of the Delamar caldera, were mapped by Swadley and Rowley (1994).

Research for this publication was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, under STATEMAP award number G21AC10873.

Rowley, P.D., Shroba, R.R., Swadley, W C, Simonds, F.W., Snee, L.W., and Axen, G.J., 2023, Geologic map of the Caliente NW quadrangle, Lincoln County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2023-10, scale 1:24,000, 25 p.

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