Valles Caldera: A Geologic History

Formed by massive volcanic eruptions over a million years ago, the Valles Caldera offers scientists unprecedented opportunities for studying its geologic wonders, and now as a national preserve, it offers the public a unique outdoor experience.

Fraser Goff is adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. A Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Goff retired from the Geology/Geochemistry Group at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 2004 after twenty-six years of service. In 1994, the respected volcanologist discovered that the Galeras volcano in the Colombian Andes was spewing more than a pound of gold each day into the atmosphere and estimated that forty-five pounds of gold a year was deposited into the rocks beneath the crater. Goff has worked on more than forty geothermal systems and fifteen active volcanoes during his career.