Crater Flat

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Crater Flat is a flat in the Amargosa Desert in Nye County, western Nevada. [1] The flat lies between Yucca Mountain on the east and the Bare Mountains to the west. The south end of the flat borders the Amargosa Valley. [2]

A flat is a relatively level surface of land within a region of greater relief, such as hills or mountains, usually used in the plural. The term is often used to name places with such features, for example, Yucca Flat or Henninger Flats. Flat is also used to describe other level geographic areas as mud flats or tidal flats.

Amargosa Desert desert in Nevada and California, United States

The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border, comprising the northeastern portion of the geographic Amargosa Valley, north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Nye County, Nevada County in Nevada

Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,946. Its county seat is Tonopah. At 18,159 square miles (47,030 km2), Nye is the largest county by area in the state and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States.

Crater Flat contains five isolated volcanic cones including Black Cone, a basaltic scoria cone. The Lathrop Wells volcanic center lies on the southern margin of the flat just north of US Route 95. The Crater Flat cones vary in age from 1.5 million years for the northern cones to around 80 thousand years for the Lathrop Wells center. The area is part of the Southwest Nevada volcanic field. [3] [4]

Volcanic cone Landform of ejecta from a volcanic vent piled up in a conical shape

Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption. Types of volcanic cones include stratocones, spatter cones, tuff cones, and cinder cones.

Basalt A magnesium- and iron-rich extrusive igneous rock

Basalt is a mafic extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich lava exposed at or very near the surface of a terrestrial planet or a moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Basalt lava has a low viscosity, due to its low silica content, resulting in rapid lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidification. Flood basalt describes the formation in a series of lava basalt flows.

Scoria Dark vesicular volcanic rock

Scoria is a highly vesicular, dark colored volcanic rock that may or may not contain crystals (phenocrysts). It is typically dark in color, and basaltic or andesitic in composition. Scoria is relatively low in density as a result of its numerous macroscopic ellipsoidal vesicles, but in contrast to pumice, all scoria has a specific gravity greater than 1, and sinks in water. The holes or vesicles form when gases that were dissolved in the magma come out of solution as it erupts, creating bubbles in the molten rock, some of which are frozen in place as the rock cools and solidifies. Scoria may form as part of a lava flow, typically near its surface, or as fragmental ejecta, for instance in Strombolian eruptions that form steep-sided scoria cones. Chemical analysis of scoria found in Yemen showed that it was mainly composed of volcanic glass with a few zeolites. Most scoria is composed of glassy fragments, and may contain phenocrysts. The word scoria comes from the Greek σκωρία, skōria, rust. A colloquial term for scoria is cinder.

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Maar Low-relief volcanic crater

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Jackass Flats shallow alluvial basin in Nye County, Nevada

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Yucca Mountain mountain in Nevada, United States of America

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Lavic Lake volcanic field volcanic field in San Bernardino County, California, United States

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Oasis Valley is a valley in the Amargosa Desert near Beatty in Nye County, western Nevada. The valley forms part of the southern drainage of Pahute Mesa. The Amargosa River flows through the Oasis Valley between the Bare Mountains and the Bullfrog Hills to the Amargosa Valley.

Cima volcanic field volcanic field in San Bernardino County, California

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Lunar Crater volcanic field

Lunar Crater volcanic field is a volcanic field in Nye County, Nevada. It lies along the Reveille and Pancake Ranges and consists of over two hundred vents, mostly small volcanic cones with associated lava flows but also several maars and Lunar Crater. Some vents have been eroded so heavily that the structures underneath the volcanoes have been exposed. Lunar Crater itself has been used as a testing ground for Mars rovers and as training ground for astronauts.

Markagunt Plateau

Markagunt Plateau is a volcanic field in southern Utah, United States. Formed in a region of older volcanics, it consists of several cinder cones and associated lava flows. Some of the lava flows feature lava tubes such as Mammoth Cave, while others have formed lava dams and lakes like Navajo Lake. Volcanism took place during the Pliocene and latest Pleistocene but may have continued into the Holocene; legends of the Southern Paiute may reflect past eruptions.

References

  1. "Crater Flat". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey. December 12, 1980. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  2. Beatty, Nevada–California, 30x60 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1986
  3. Zreda, Marek G., et al., Cosmogenic 36Cl dating of a young basaltic eruption complex, Lathrop Wells, Nevada, Geology, January, 1993, v. 21, p. 57-60
  4. "CVO Website - America's Volcanic Past: Timber Mountain caldera - Crater Flat". Archived from the original on 2013-07-18. Retrieved 2014-05-14.

Coordinates: 36°47′N116°34′W / 36.783°N 116.567°W / 36.783; -116.567

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.