Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is located about 35 miles southwest of Santa Fe. Kasha-Katuwe means “White Cliffs” in the Keresan language of the nearby Cochiti Pueblo. The cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of volcanic eruptions that left pumice, ash, and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick. Tremendous explosions from the Jemez volcanic field spewed pyroclasts (rock fragments), while searing hot gases blasted down slopes in an incandescent avalanche called a “pyroclastic flow.” (
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/nm/en/prog/NLCS/KKTR_NM.html).