Acquired April 17, 2010, this natural-color image shows SP Crater and its associated lava flow in the San Francisco Volcanic Field of northern Arizona.
Published Feb 27, 2011
A team of NASA scientists headed to Holuhraun because the volcano has geologic cousins on Mars.
Published Oct 9, 2018
In western New Mexico, the landscape’s long volcanic history can be explored above and below the ground.
Published Feb 21, 2016
A jet black plateau in central Libya harks back to a time when lava flowed across the dry landscape.
Published Apr 28, 2016
Molten rock has formed jagged, razor-like walls in both places.
Published May 13, 2017
Its name comes from the fiery orange earth around its cone.
Published Jun 18, 2017
Part of the back-arc volcanism of the Andes, this complex landscape formed over 300,000 years.
Published Dec 30, 2012
The western half of the Arabian Peninsula contains not only large expanses of sand and gravel, but extensive lava fields known as haraat. One such field is the 14,000-square-kilometer Harrat Khaybar, located approximately 137 kilometers to the northeast of the city of Al Madinah (Medina). The volcanic field was formed by eruptions along a 100-kilometer, north-south vent system over the past 5 million years. The most recent recorded eruption took place between 600–700 AD.
Published Apr 14, 2008
As Medina has grown during the past three decades, parts of the Saudi city are built atop relatively young lava flows.
Published Feb 25, 2019
The Pinacates region of Mexico’s Sonoran Desert is one of the most unique and striking landscapes in North America. Located just a few miles south of the Mexico-Arizona border, this volcanic field originated with the rifting of the Gulf of California millions of years ago, but the features seen today (volcanic peaks, lava flows, cinder cones and collapsed craters) formed in the late Pleistocene period (2 million to 11,000 years ago). The volcanic range is surrounded by one of North America’s largest dune fields, Gran Desierto. Early in May 2004, the new Space Station crew (ISS-9) obtained high-resolution images of the Pinacates, allowing for detailed observations of the surface features. One example is a large volcanic crater (see box, and detail below) called Crater Elegante which is one of the most prominent and interesting features of the Pinacates.
Published Jun 8, 2004
India’s Lonar Crater began causing confusion soon after it was identified. Lonar Crater sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock leftover from eruptions some 65 million years ago. Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater. Today, however, Lonar Crater is understood to result from a meteorite impact that occurred between 35,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Published Apr 13, 2008
