The basin and Range Province extends as a south to north corridor throughout central New Mexico. This corridor is a faulted landscape of uplifted mountains between down-dropped valleys and of north-south trending volcanoes. This geography is the result of the Rio Grande rift being pulled apart. Some blocks of rock like the Sandia Mountains have moved up relative to other blocks that have moved down, with a total displacement of more than 20,000 feet. Where the land is being pulled apart, it also cracks so that magma ascends up the cracks to form volcanoes. The Albuquerque volcanoes and the Jemez Mountains are examples of volcanic activity along the Rio Grande rift zone. Explore the distinctive geology of Central New Mexico and learn what makes Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains so unique.