Sunset Crater is not at a plate boundary. Using data from the U.S. Geological Survey, we can calculate the average recurrence rate of eruptions for Sunset Crater Volcano: Average recurrence rate= (number of events-1)/(time of last event - time of first event) We know there has been one eruption event that created Sunset Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is approximately 20 miles northeast of downtown Flagstaf in northern Arizona. Rarely dropping below 8% (very dry) and reaching as high as 100% (very humid). San Francisco Mountain and Sunset Crater are only two of the hundreds of volcanoes in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, which covers about 1,800 square miles of northern Arizona. Volcano World. The colder upper crust cracks and breaks along faults (like peanut brittle), causing earthquakes and forming long mountains (ranges) separated by valleys (basins). vent. This latitudinal range is affected by the westerlies. Abrupt weather changes occur because of the high altitude, nearly 7000' above sea level. Modified from “Parks and Plates: The Geology of our National Parks, Monuments and Seashores,” by Robert J. Lillie, New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 298 pp., 2005, www.amazon.com/dp/0134905172. Mt. National Park Service sites in this region showcase block-fault mountains and volcanic features forming as the thick crust stretches and cracks apart, releasing magma from below. An ancient volcanic field Sunset Crater lies on the eastern boundary of the 1,931-square-mile (5,000 square kilometers) San Francisco Volcanic Field … Volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the ancient Keweenawan Rift are found in National Park Service sites in the Lake Superior region. A few common species that occupy these areas include the Acorn Woodpecker, Arizona Grey Squirrel, Brown Owl, and Western Blue Bird. // Andesitic (intermediate) magma // ex: sunset crater // bursts where lava throws into air and come down as cinders // further inward // a lot of ash. Red and yellow oxidized particles fell back onto the created, creating a permanent "sunset" look. The long valleys (“basins”) separating the mountains (“ranges”) are filled with river and lake deposits and lava flows. Magma reaching the surface erupts from volcanoes and fissures as lava flows and other volcanic materials, mingling with river and lake sediments to fill rift basins. Tule Lake basin is partially filled with sediments and lava flows. Igneous are the most common rock type because Sunset Crater Volcano erupted in 1085. Sunset Crater Volcano is a fairly young volcano. Similar, but much older, layers are found in NPS sites in the Keweenawan Rift of the Lake Superior region, where divergent plate boundary forces tried, unsuccessfully, to rip the North American continent apart 1.1 billion years ago. Sunset Crater National Park's closest tectonic plate boundary is where the Pacific Plate meets the North American plate along the coast of California. There the whole landscape is moving upward, with the ranges rising a little faster than the adjacent basins. The Bonito Lava Flow also covers 25% of the monument, creating extremely inhospitable living conditions. But in the southern part of the province, where rifting is more advanced, elevations are generally lower—much of the floor of Death Valley in eastern California is below sea level! The most recent activity was reported in 1250. Similarly, the Mojave Desert of Southern California is so hot and dry that water evaporates before it can accumulate in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America (272 feet below sea level; -83 meters). These include the world’s deepest, Lake Baikal in Siberia (5,387 feet; 1,642 meters deep) and the 2nd and 4th deepest, Lake Tanganyika (4,323 feet; 1,318 meters) and Lake Malawi (2,316 feet; 706 meters), in the East African Rift. Great deal living in the very dry ) and reaching as high as 100 % ( dry... Are the most common rock type because Sunset Crater National Monument ; the center... Blue Bird Service 's geologic Resources Division and the process stopped, but the upper part of San... More water than they do today a high fire frequency the surface ( ). Crater.Photograph courtesy of the Mogollon plateau into portions of southwestern Mexico and eastern Arizona for. The cT air masses come from the Crater is an extinct Volcano, Lenox. 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