is a large cinder cone in
Mexico.
Cinder cones, also known as
scoria cones and less commonly
scoria mounds, are small, steep-sided volcanic cones built of loose
pyroclastic fragments, such as either volcanic clinkers, cinders, volcanic ash, or
scoria. They consist of loose pyroclastic debris formed by explosive eruptions or lava fountains from a single, typically cylindrical, vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as either cinders, clinkers, or scoria around the vent to form a cone that often is noticeably symmetrical; with slopes between 30 and 40°; and a nearly circular ground plan. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped
crater at the summit. Cinder cones most commonly occur as isolated cones in large basaltic volcanic fields. They also occur in nested clusters in association with complex tuff ring and maar complexes. Finally, they are also common as parasitic and monogenetic cones on complex shield and stratovolcanoes. Globally, cinder cones are the most typical volcanic landform found within continental intraplate volcanic fields and also occur in some subduction zone settings as well.
Parícutin, the
Mexican cinder cone which was born in a cornfield on February 20, 1943, and
Sunset Crater in Northern
Arizona in the US Southwest are classic examples of cinder cones, as are ancient volcanic cones found in New Mexico's
Petroglyph National Monument.
Ulysses Colles and
Hydraotes Chaos are argued to be cinder cones. Cinder cones typically only erupt once like Parícutin. As a result, they are considered to be monogenetic volcanoes and most of them form
monogenetic volcanic fields. Cinder cones are typically active for very brief periods of time before becoming inactive. Their eruptions range in duration from a few days to a few years. Of observed cinder cone eruptions, 50% have lasted for less than 30 days, and 95% stopped within one year. In case of Parícutin, its eruption lasted for nine years from 1943 to 1952. Rarely do they erupt either two, three, or more times. Later eruptions typically produce new cones within a volcanic field at separation distances of a few kilometers and separate by periods of 100 to 1,000 years. Within a volcanic field, eruptions can occur over a period of a million years. Once eruptions cease, being unconsolidated, cinder cones tend to erode rapidly unless further eruptions occur. ==Rootless cones==