Belknap Crater Viewpoint

Ricky walked out onto the lava fields. We were able to view Belknap Crater and the smaller cone of Little Belknap Crater.

Belknap Crater is the focal point of a long-continued and complex episode of Holocene basalt and basaltic andesite volcanism. The broad shield is 5 miles in diameter; it is estimated to be 1,700 feet in maximum thickness and 1.3 cubic miles in volume. The volcano probably contains a core of cinders which interfingers with peripheral lavas and whose surface expression is the summit cone. Basaltic andesite issued from vents at the north and south bases of the cone approximately 1,500 years ago