Four Craters Lava Field

Four Craters Lava Field
Craters of the aptly named Four Craters Lava Field are seen here from the NW on Green Mountain.
Highest point
Elevation4,924 ft (1,501 m)[1]
Coordinates43°21′36″N 120°39′46″W / 43.360009°N 120.66267°W / 43.360009; -120.66267[2]
Geography
Map
LocationLake County, Oregon, U.S.
Geology
Rock ageHolocene[3]
Mountain typevolcanic 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]

  1. ^ a b "Four Craters Lava Field". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  2. ^ "Four Craters Lava Field". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
  3. ^ a b Meigs, Andrew; Kaleb Scarberry (2009). "Geological and geophysical perspectives on the magmatic and tectonic development, High Lava Plains and northwest Basin and Range". Volcanoes to Vineyards: Geologic Field Trips Through the Dynamic Landscape of the Pacific Northwest (Field Guide 15). The Geological Society of America: 447–448. doi:10.1130/2009.fld015(21). ISBN 9780813700151.
  4. ^ a b c "Oregon Volcanoes - Four Craters Flows". Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests - Crooked River National Grassland. United States Forest Service. 2003-12-24. Archived from the original on 2010-11-09. Retrieved 2008-05-12.