Cerro La Jara Stop 8

Hikers on the Cerro La Jara Trail.

NPS

Did you notice that prairie dogs make this area their home? They like to make chirping noises to warn each other of people in the area, so they are difficult to miss! What they are also doing is trying to make future trace fossils. A trace fossil is a record of life that isn’t the animal or plant itself, but is a sign that life was there – such as a footprint or burrow. Not all footprints or burrows will be preserved in rock, but some will be preserved as trace fossils. If conditions are right, some prairie dog burrows may be preserved in the rock record.

So, will the volcano erupt again? Well, it is possible! We know there is still magma about 4.5 miles beneath part of the Preserve. When might it erupt? Good question – we don’t know, but we do know that there would be plenty of warning signs first, so no eruption today, or this month. If the volcano wakes up again, it will let us know! There would be lots of small earthquakes, and the ground temperature and the temperature of water in the springs would increase. There would be lots of excitement at Valles Caldera National Preserve as scientists rush to study it!

This is the end of the Cerro La Jara Trail tour. We hope you learned some interesting facts about the geology of this beautiful Preserve.