Ubehebe Crater

Ubehebe Craters include over a dozen volcanoes. They were created when magma rising along a fault on the north side of Tin Mountain came in contact with shallow groundwater. The water explosively turned to steam, generating great blasts of rock, and volcanic tuff and ash. The stratigraphic position and lack of erosion on the rocks of Ubehebe Crater (shown here) suggests that the last eruption was in the Holocene (perhaps less than 10,000 years ago;Crowe, 1990). For a wider panoramic view of Ubehebe Crater, click here.