A summary of potassium-argon dates shows that a high level of igneous activity in the Great Basin and adjacent regions during middle Tertiary time (40 to 20 my ago) was followed by a period of relative quiescence in middle Miocene time that lasted for several million years (from 20 to 17 my ago). Volcanism resumed 16 my ago mainly at the margins of the region and has continued to the present.