Voluminous intermediate to silicic composition volcanic rocks were generated throughout the southern Rocky Mountains, western U.S., during the mid-Tertiary ?ignimbrite flare-up?, principally at the San Juan and Mogollon-Datil volcanic fields. At both volcanic centers, radiogenic isotope data have been interpreted as evidence that 50% or more of the volcanic rocks (by mass) were derived from mantle-derived, mafic parental magmas, but no consensus exists as to whether melting was largely of lithospheric or sub-lithospheric mantle. Recent xenolith studies, however, have revealed that thick (> 100 km), fertile, and hydrated continental lithosphere was present beneath at least portions of the southern Rocky Mountains during the mid-Tertiary. [...]
