THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



APRIL-MAY, 1905 



THE ZUNI SALT LAKE 1 



N. H. DARTON 

 U. S. Geological Survey 



Forty-two miles south-by-east from the Pueblo of Zuni there is 

 a small salt lake, affording a local supply of salt for the Indians and 

 others. It occupies a portion of the bottom of a remarkable steep- 

 sided, circular depression about a mile in diameter, near the center 

 of which rise two fresh volcanic dnder cones. The depression 

 appears not to be a volcanic crater, but has walls of Cretaceous 

 sandstone capped by a lava sheet and deposits of volcanic ejecta. 

 One of the cinder cones rising near the center of the depression has 

 a deep crater containing a pool of salt water at the lake-level. 



This salt lake has been known to the Zuhi Indians for a very long 

 period, and for a half-century or more to Mexicans and a few travelers. 

 The first account of its geologic relations was a brief note by E. E. 

 Howell, of the Wheeler Survey, 2 who visited the locality in 1873. 

 This observer noted the sandstone walls capped in part by lava 

 flows, and the cinder cone with deep crater, but offered no suggestion 

 as to their origin. Professor C. L. Herrick visited the salt lake in 

 December, 1899, and afforded some further descriptive details. 3 



1 Read to the Geological Society of America, December 28, 1904, and pub- 

 lished by permission of the director of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



2 George M. Wheeler, "U. S. Geographical Surveys West of 100th Meridian," 

 Reports, Vol. Ill, pp. 538, 539. 



3 American Geologist, Vol. XXV. 



Vol. XIII, No. 3 185 



