The North Crater Neighborhood: more complex than Mr. Rogers'
Brossy C. 2003. The North Crater Neighborhood: more complex than Mr. Rogers'. Arco, Idaho
The area around North Crater cinder cone and the visitor center is one of the more complex areas in the Craters of the Moon lava field. About 2300 years B.P. this area may have looked very different than it does today. North Crater and the small flank cone on the southeast side of Sunset Cone may have been larger, and another cone or cones may have existed to the north of North Crater. Five lava flows, the Highway, Devils Orchard, Serrate, Big Craters Northeast, and North Crater flows, erupted from vents in the area. Three of these flows, the Highway, Devils Orchard, and Serrate flows, are particularly high in silica (54-64 wt%, Kuntz and others, (1986)) and were viscous enough to break apart cinder cones and carry the pieces as far as 13 km to the northeast. These pieces of broken cinder cones, carried by lava flows like icebergs in ocean currents, are termed rafted blocks. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the existence of now absent cinder cones, the duration and timing of the lava flows, and the process of block rafting
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Brossy, Cooper
- Date of Issue
- 2003
- Units
- CRMO , UCBN
- Keywords
- Cinder Cones, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Geology, Lava Flows, north crater, rafted blocks