TheAcoma-Zuni Section is aphysiographic section of the largerColorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the largerIntermontane Plateaus physiographic division.[1] It isbounded on the east by theAlbuquerque Basin, aRio Grande Rift basin in the northern part of theBasin and Range Province. TheDatil-Mogollon Section lies to the south. It is also a newly defined physiographic unit that includes the northern part of the area previously designated the Datil Section.[2] The southeastern edge of the Colorado Plateau fromSpringerville, Arizona, northeastward to the tip of the Sierra Nacimiento comprises this area.[3]
TheRio San Jose, the major tributary to theRio Puerco, drains much of the Acoma-Zuni Section. The eastern edge of the Acoma-Zuni Section is where the less-deformed rocks of the Colorado Plateau are truncated by theNeogene Rio Grande Rift, from the northern La Jencia Basin, Ladron Mountains, Mesa Lucero, and Rio Puerco fault zone to the southeastern edge of the Sierra Nacimiento. Much of the remainder of the section is late Neogene volcanic landforms—volcanoes (cinder cones andcomposite cones),lava flows,necks, anddikes, interspersed with erosional and aggradational landforms and bedrock structures typical of the Colorado Plateau.[3]
Rocks in the area range in age fromLate Triassic toHolocene, including theTriassicChinle andWingate Sandstone formations; theJurassicEntrada Sandstone, Summerville and Zuni Sandstone formations; theCretaceousDakota Sandstone;Tertiary gravels and basalts, andQuaternary landslide,eolian,alluvial, and spring deposits.[4]
 | ||
| Branches |
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Techniques and tools |
| ||||||||
| Institutions, organizations, and societies | |||||||||
| Education | |||||||||
| Publication | |||||||||
35°03′51″N107°48′52″W / 35.0641°N 107.8145°W /35.0641; -107.8145
