Four Craters Lava Field | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 4,924 ft (1,501 m) [1] |
Coordinates | 43°21′36″N 120°39′46″W / 43.360009°N 120.66267°W [2] |
Geography | |
Location | Lake County, Oregon, U.S. |
Geology | |
Age of rock | Holocene [3] |
Mountain type | volcanic field |
Last eruption | < 50,000 years ago [4] |
Four Craters Lava Field is a basaltic volcanic field located south east of Newberry Caldera in the U.S. state of Oregon. [1] The volcanic field covers about 30 square kilometers and post-dates Mount Mazama's eruption. [3] Four Holocene cinder cones are the source of the flows in the field and are aligned along a fissure trending N 30° W. The cones rise 75 to 120 meters above the flows and the distance between the northernmost and southernmost cones is about 3.5 kilometers. [4]
Closely related to the Four Craters lava field is Crack-in-the-Ground located at the southwest corner of the field. The eruptions from the field were accompanied by a slight sinking of the older rock surface. This shallow, graben-like sink is about 3 kilometers wide and extends to the south into an old lake basin. Crack-in-the-Ground marks the western edge of this small, volcano-tectonic depression and is nearly 9 meters deep and over a meter wide. The crack is the result of a tension fracture along a hingeline produced by the draping of Green Mountain lava flows over the edge of upthrown side of the concealed fault zone. [4]
This article incorporates public domain material from Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests - Crooked River National Grassland. United States Forest Service. (archived)