World-famous hydrothermal alteration landscape south of Goldfield where late Miocene acid-sulfate systems painted the hills in bright clays, alunite, and iron oxides. USGS and NASA remote-sensing programs (AVIRIS, ASTER, aircraft scanners) use Cuprite as a calibration field site; visitors see the multicolored waste and country rock from public desert tracks near the historic Cuprite camp on the Ralston quad.
Field facts
| Region | Esmeralda County, NV |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37.5283, -117.1870 |
| GNIS | feature_id 854728 Cuprite (historical) |
| District | Cuprite Mining District |
| Significance | Benchmark site for imaging-spectroscopy mineral mapping |
| Era | Late Miocene alteration; historic mining camp |
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