Volcano Type: Volcanic field
Volcano Status: Holocene?
Last Known Eruption: Unknown
Summit Elevation: 1435 m 4,708 feet
Latitude: 43.10°N * 43°6’0″N
Longitude: 118.75°W 118°45’0″W
Diamond Craters volcanic field consists of a 60 sq km area of basaltic lava flows and numerous cinder cones and maars located between the SE Oregon town of Burns and Steens Mountain. A basaltic pahoehoe lava field is overlain by deposits from phreatomagmatic and strombolian eruptions that formed a late-stage central vent complex of about 20 craters and cones that densely fill a 1.1 x 1.6 km box-shaped caldera. Diamond Craters are less than 60,000 years old (Hart, in Wood and Kienle 1990) and were listed as latest Pleistocene or Holocene in age by Sarna-Wojciki et al. (1983). Friedman and Peterson (1971) obtained a hydration-rind date of 17,000 yrs BP, and Malheur Maar has a 6000-year sedimentation history. Structural doming at Diamond Craters has created a series of six overlapping topographic highs. The highest of these is known as Graben Dome; its 1435-m-high summit is cut by a NW-SE-trending graben 0.4 x 2.1 km long and 30 m deep. Lava flows on the eastern side of the volcanic field and scattered cinder cones and maars formed during the last stage of activity.
Diamond Craters
Diamond Craters is a monogenetic volcanic field in southeast Oregon. The volcanoes are all Quaternary in age. Lava flows and tephra from the volcanoes cover an area of about 23 square miles (60 square km). Diamond Craters includes numerous features associated with basaltic volcanism including cones, explosion and collapse craters, fissures, and grabens. Little Red Cone is a cinder cone in the Diamond Craters volcanic field.
Diamond Craters (Allen Woosley)
Diamond Craters
Diamond lava craters (Ken & Myrt Thompson)
Originally posted 2010-08-28 03:17:34.
