Capulin Volcano National Monument
New Mexico
When Capulin erupted, the lava didn't come out the top — it leaked out a weak spot at the base called the boca.
Capulin is a cinder cone in northeastern New Mexico, and it erupted about fifty four thousand years ago. The whole thing may have taken only a few weeks, or at most a few years. Cinders piled up into a cone sixteen hundred feet tall. But the lava never poured out of the crater at the summit. Instead it found a weak spot down at the base, a gap the Spanish called the boca, meaning mouth. Molten rock spread from there across more than fifteen square miles. That is why the cone still looks the way it did when it stopped. Vegetation grew back fast and locked the shape in place. The crater measures about fourteen hundred and fifty feet across and a bit over four hundred feet deep. The rim is lopsided. Winds blowing from the southwest during the eruption dumped more material on the eastern flank, so the west side sits noticeably lower than the east.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
Lava flowed afterwards around the weak spot of the base or "boca" (Spanish for mouth), spreading over more than 15 square miles (39 km2), rather than flowing out the crater of the cinder cone.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearby, on the same roads
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