West Crater

rdf:langString West Crater

rdf:langString West Crater

rdf:langString Lookout Mountain

rdf:langString Skamania County, Washington, U.S.

rdf:langString Location of West Crater in the state of Washington

rdf:langString West Crater LeeSiebert 107020.jpg

rdf:langString West Crater is a small lava dome with associated lava flows in southern Washington, United States. Located in Skamania County, it rises to an elevation of 4,131 feet (1,259 m), and forms part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is also part of the Marble Mountain-Trout Creek Hill volcanic field, a little-known Quaternary volcanic field in the southern Cascades of Washington state. The area can be hiked, and can be accessed by roads in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. One of 13 volcanic cones in the West Crater-Soda Peaks zone, which covers an area of 39 square miles (100 km2), West Crater is part of a monogenetic volcanic field with basaltic to andesitic volcanic edifices that vary from 360,000 years old to 2,000 years old. It has a summit crater with a width of 660 feet (200 m) and a depth of 79 feet (24 m). West Crater's lava dome formed on the floor of a glacial cirque, and has a similar size to the lava dome formed after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. West Crater has erupted at least two large lava flows within the Holocene epoch, about 8,000 years Before Present, each of which extend about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the volcano. Emplaced into canyons on the sides of the crater, the flows are being eroded by local streams. The lava dome likely formed before the lava flows erupted.