DEVIL PEAK

CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA

Devilpk.JPG (38709 bytes)

Tertiary Devil Peak (center) within the Precambrian limestones of the Spring Mountains, Nevada

This source in extreme southern Nevada was discovered independently by Shackley (1988b) and Philip Wilke. Devil Peak is a series of coalesced rhyolite domes of Tertiary age that have extruded through the Paleozoic Monte Cristo Limestones of the Spring Mountains (Longwell et al. 1965). Devil Peak is located on Stateline Pass 7.5' Provisional Quad 1985 near the center of the sheet. Here nodules are found in situ in a perlite matrix on both the east and west sides of the peak eroding into either the interior drainage basins of Mesquite Lake on the west or Roach Lake on the east. Historic perlite mining on both sides of the peak has essentially destroyed any evidence of prehistoric production. Some tool manufacturing debris was noted in the alluvium east of the peak toward Roach Lake (Shackley 1988b; Wilke: personal communication 1993). The archaeological context of the eastern locus is now designated site 26-CK-3865 (Shackley 1988b).

Perlite matrix with in situ marekenites is located on the west near the Umpire Perlite Mines between UTM 3952000 and 3951000/637000 and 639000 (no sections on map). Perlite matrix with in situ marekenites is located on a series of very small rhyolite domes on the east flank of the Spring Mountains between UTM 3953000 and 3951000/642000 and 644000 all on the Stateline Pass 7.5' Provisional Quad 1985. The density of nodules in both areas in the perlite is up to 100 per m2, although most of the marekenites are less than 30 mm in diameter. Nodules up to 100 mm in diameter have been recovered, but most are less than 40 mm. The density of nodules on the east shoreline of Mesquite Lake is about 1 per 20 m2, and about 1 per 100 m2 on the shoreline of Roach Lake to the east. Significant chemical differences in some trace elements exist between obsidian from the east and west sides of Devil Peak. The nodules on the west side are generally superior media for tool production than those on the east. The "western" marekenites are generally more translucent and brittle, while the "eastern" nodules tend to be less vitreous, opaque and contain some plagioclase or sanidine phenocrysts. This may be due to wall rock reactions with the limestone during eruptive events on the east with the small dome structures. Bipolar cores and flakes occurred rarely, in part no doubt due to the perlite mining in the area. The only published references known are Longwell et al. (1965), and Shackley (1988b). This source was reported in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology (Shackley 1994). The elemental composition of the two sources are quite different as can be seen in the mean and central tendency tables below.

Raw elemental concentrations for Devil Peak East (E) and West (W) source standards. All measurements in parts per million (ppm).

SAMPLE Ti Mn Fe Pb Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Ba La Ce
E 572 590 8780 44 210 109 30 105 23 315 55 101
E 557 535 8271 37 194 105 30 102 27 330 55 107
E 595 584 8559 43 206 106 27 106 21 354 65 116
E 753 784 10410 52 233 125 34 116 27 323 59 107
E 616 566 8554 39 200 109 33 110 23 348 61 108
E 565 586 8323 35 197 106 25 106 24 303 54 108
E 642 597 8800 44 194 103 25 108 26 415 73 142
E 583 599 8532 39 203 105 29 105 26 406 71 133
E 626 608 8895 47 210 113 26 111 31 301 52 103
E 502 550 8221 44 195 101 28 106 25 331 50 107
E 571 556 8033 39 194 103 27 109 24      
E 570 547 8092 40 197 106 28 109 26      
E 722 586 8372 44 204 107 28 108 25      
E 628 585 8379 41 195 108 30 105 23      
E 666 627 8739 45 212 114 35 110 29      
E 577 574 8146 38 197 104 27 103 26      
E 689 651 8933 40 204 111 31 108 25      
E 583 577 8022 38 193 105 31 105 26      
E 564 542 8031 39 189 106 31 102 26      
E 617 542 8051 40 194 108 32 106 23      
E 671 585 8294 39 199 108 32 107 25      
E 624 558 8117 40 191 103 28 103 27      
E 642 552 8068 37 193 103 31 104 22      
E 612 645 8912 43 211 113 31 111 27      
E 654 553 8256 42 200 109 31 108 25      
E 542 546 7798 36 183 103 29 104 26      
E 782 701 9662 43 210 115 34 110 27      
E 696 580 8606 47 210 117 32 109 33      
E 738 602 8553 43 206 112 28 109 25      
E 616 621 8585 30 205 113 29 109 28      
E 693 553 7820 29 194 105 29 106 20      
E 628 567 8290 30 200 108 32 108 25      
E 516 533 7883   194 111 26 107 29 346    
E 653 596 9423   195 163 26 133 26 505    
E 693 633 8630   211 111 27 107 27 344    
E 675 548 7997   195 106 28 108 23 331    
E 624 584 8588   214 113 32 111 27 352    
E 636 612 8227   198 107 29 106 22 336    
E 799 582 9238   204 146 23 126 24 439    
E 669 624 8394   197 110 27 107 26 334    
E 614 564 8273   199 111 29 110 26 343    
E 640 574 8134   196 110 28 112 28 353    
E 743 809 9597   241 101 35 107 31 234    
E 509 533 7623   184 100 28 104 25 334    
E 503 600 8113   201 107 30 111 26 343    
E 610 591 8176   197 107 28 109 27 317    
W 806 469 9133 37 160 236 23 146 20 975 104 178
W 835 577 10499 44 188 260 26 163 20 1073 106 204
W 990 590 10853 43 194 266 27 161 22 884 94 163
W 605 413 8661 35 158 230 25 145 23 924 91 173
W 806 548 9941 43 180 253 25 160 22 777 80 146
W 824 530 10278 45 181 261 29 167 24 745 73 144
W 941 568 10702 45 188 261 27 159 25 821 83 154
W 768 516 9521 37 174 245 27 152 25 862 84 165
W 758 550 9923 42 179 253 23 155 24 807 74 148
W 710 516 9339 36 172 247 26 153 20 830 77 159
W 828 565 10287   183 259 26 157 26 762    
W 893 524 10162   182 250 25 153 24 1193    
W 737 516 9628   173 244 26 152 23 898    
W 958 612 10552   183 252 28 156 23 812    
W 771 577 10158   184 253 25 153 25 777    

 

Mean and central tendency for Devil Peak East source standard elemental concentrations

 

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Ti

46

502

799

630.0

70.8

Mn

46

533

809

592.0

56.1

Fe

46

7623

10410

8465.2

538.5

Rb

46

183

241

201.1

10.6

Sr

46

100

163

110.1

10.8

Y

46

23

35

29.3

2.7

Zr

46

102

133

108.4

5.4

Nb

46

20

33

25.7

2.5

Ba

24

234

505

347.4

52.0

La

10

50

73

59.5

7.9

Ce

10

101

142

113.2

13.5

Pb

32

29

52

40.2

5.0

 

 Mean and central tendency for Devil Peak West source standard elemental concentrations

 

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Ti

15

605

990

815.3

100.9

Mn

15

413

612

538.1

50.1

Fe

15

8661

10853

9975.8

617.3

Rb

15

158

194

178.6

9.9

Sr

15

230

266

251.3

9.8

Y

15

23

29

25.9

1.6

Zr

15

145

167

155.5

6.0

Nb

15

20

26

23.1

1.9

Ba

15

745

1193

876.0

124.2

La

10

73

106

86.6

11.8

Ce

10

144

204

163.4

18.2

Pb

10

35

45

40.7

4.0

 

 

This page maintained by Steve Shackley (shackley@berkeley.edu).
Copyright © 2002 M. Steven Shackley. All rights reserved.
Revised: 23 November 2023

Back to the SW obsidian source page

To the EDXRF Lab home page