Draft:Paisano Volcano

The Paisano Volcano is an Extinct Trachy/Rhyolitic Shield Volcano located nine miles west-southwest of Alpine, Texas in the Trans-Pecos Volcanic Field. The Paisano Volcano is the Southernmost Major volcano of the Davis Mountains, (with the other being Buckhorn Caldera in the north), that has been documented to produce ignimbrite and pyroclastic material eruptions, which created a Shield Volcano that is fifteen miles in width, and thirty miles in length.

The formation of the Volcano began with an intrusion of basaltic magma at a depth of three miles, in which began to build up pressure and in viscosity. After a substantial amount of pressure built up, pyroclastic flows were erupted and lava began to spill out in Fissure eruptions. The volcano entered a quiet period for a while after these eruptions, until a major eruption occurred forming a three miles wide Caldera, which partially emptied the magma chamber. This eruptions sent pyroclastic materials roughly twenty kilometers away. The shield volcano was created in one to two million years with these types of eruptions.

Today, The Paisano Volcano is interesting in that it is a volcano where a Flood Rhyolite can be seen. Flood Rhyolite was formed when magmatic dikes opened and caused rhyolitic magma to erupt similar to flood basalt, and has created covered some areas up to 100m thick. It flooded valleys, and flattened the local topography.