I have visited Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It is an incredible
place, but I hear very little about it when people talk about volcanos.
It is an unimportant site when studying volcanos?
Mad2s
Hi Mad2s,
You're right, Craters of the Moon is an area that isn't usually on the top
of volcano lists. It is certainly a site that is worth visiting and
studying, though. For one thing, the volcanism here is recent, in their
book "Volcanoes of North America" Chuck Wood and Jurgen Kienle note that
the most recent volcanism at Craters of the Moon was only about 2000 years
ago. Secondly, tectonically this area is not as clearly understood as
other volcanic zones, and studying the erupted products and their
distributions may provide some clues. Finally, just looking at the lava
flows and vent structures is worthwhile because these help us to
understand how basaltic volcanism works on the surface. Most of what we
know about basaltic volcanism comes from studies in Hawai'i, and it is
important to study other areas to make sure that our overall theories
about it are not biased by the Hawaiian work.
Someday I'd like to go to Craters of the Moon myself.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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