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The mysterious Bemiville Alkaline Complex: How did it form and change our understanding of volcanic activity?
Rutan Hill (also known as Volcanic Hill) located in New Jersey, USA, is now an important part of the Beimiville Alkaline Complex. This hidden and inconspicuous hill makes people rethink past volcanic activities and its geological background. . Rising approximately 1,030 feet (310 meters) above sea level and rising approximately 270 feet (82 meters) from the surrounding creek valley, Rutan Hill stands silently within a private property.
Rutan Hill is more than just a natural landscape, it is the surface expression of a volcanic throat in the northern part of the Late Ordovician Bemiville Alkaline Complex. The complex contains several geological features, including two large nepheline syenite bodies. These rocks are located southwest of Rutan Hill and form the contact between the Martinsburg and Shawangunk Formations.
Surface exposures of the Beimiville Alkaline Complex include two large albite taulite plutons, an adjacent volcanic tube (Rutan Hill), and several smaller veins, sheets, and volcanic tubes.
The volcanic activity in this area shows a variety of rock combinations, including phonolite, tinguaite, lamprophyre, etc. These special rocks record the diversity and complexity of volcanic activity. Rutan Hill has the largest lamprophyric diatreme in the Beimiville Alkaline Complex, which contains small albite shoite bodies with a diameter of about 30 meters, and the interior is filled with different types of breccias and remnants.
These remnants include albite, pyrite and carbonate rocks, while the breccia consists of shale, gray sandstone, fine-grained light blue dolomite, cream-colored fine-grained limestone and flakes. Composed of granite.
By analyzing the composition of Rutan Hill, it can be seen that the volcanic activity in the area was uniform in geological time, which indicates that its rocks entered the formation 4.2 million ± 6 million years ago. In addition, fission track age dating of this complex shows that this series of volcanic activities did not exist in isolation, but was closely related to the Dekakoni Mountains orogeny at that time.
The formation of this volcanic complex may be related to the breakup of mantle rocks at the intersection of two Decaconian crustal bulges.
The volcanic activity and formation time here belong to the final stage of the Decaconian Movement. At that time, the western side of the Yapetus Ocean was closing. This movement not only affected the local crustal structure, but even changed the volcano Characteristics of the activity. Although Rutan Hill's caldera has been eroded, its core remains today, challenging past understandings of volcanoes.
In the past few decades, geologists' exploration of the Miville Alkaline Complex has started a wave of research on volcanic activity. They were amazed by the richness of the region's geological history and activity, discovered many incredible geological structures, and further explored their impact on today's environment.
How many mysteries of nature are hidden in Rutan Hill and its Bemiville alkaline complex that we have not yet understood?
As more research information continues to be revealed, scientists hope to decipher the history of these rocks to gain a clearer understanding of the impact of volcanic activity and geological background at that time. However, this hidden geological area is still a frontier of earth science that needs to be explored. So, what other amazing undiscovered phenomena are waiting for us to uncover it?
