Jordan Craters

Geography & Climate

Jordan Craters is located in United States, within the High Lava Plains Volcanic Province of the broader North America Volcanic Regions. Situated at 43.15° N, 117.46° W in the Northern Hemisphere, the volcano lies within a temperate climate zone. With a summit elevation of 1,473 meters above sea level, Jordan Craters is a moderately sized peak that remains accessible to hikers and researchers for much of the year. The volcanic landform is characterized as a cluster, which describes the physical shape and structure of the volcanic edifice as observed from the surface.

Geological Context

Jordan Craters is situated along a rift zone, where tectonic plates are pulling apart. As the crust thins and fractures, magma rises to fill the gap, creating volcanic activity. Rift volcanism typically produces more fluid lava flows rather than explosive blasts, which means communities near Jordan Craters in United States generally face slower-moving hazards like lava flows and ground fissures rather than sudden pyroclastic events. However, rift volcanoes can still generate significant ash emissions and gas releases that affect local air quality. The dominant rock type is basalt / picro-basalt, a dark, fine-grained volcanic rock that forms from rapidly cooling, low-viscosity lava. Basaltic eruptions tend to be less explosive and produce fluid lava flows that can travel long distances. While less immediately dangerous than explosive eruptions, basaltic lava flows can destroy structures and infrastructure in their path, and volcanic gases released during these eruptions can affect air quality over a wide area.

Eruption History Summary

Jordan Craters has 1 recorded eruption in the geological database, spanning from 1250 BCE to 1250 BCE. The most powerful recorded event was an explosive event producing ash plumes up to several kilometers in 1250 BCE, reaching VEI 2 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

GVP Reference Summary

Jordan Craters volcanic field consists of well-preserved basaltic lava flows and scoria cones that are the youngest and northernmost of a group of three Quaternary lava fields covering an area of 250 km2 in SE Oregon. The Pleistocene Clarks Butte shield volcano and Rocky Butte (Lava Butte) lava fields lie to the south, along the trend of regional Basin and Range faulting. Jordan Craters lie on the Owyhee-Oregon plateau at the SE end of a series of widely scattered young volcanic fields extending SE from Bend, Oregon. Coffeepot Crater at the NW end of the field was the source, about 3,200 years ago or later, of one of Oregon's youngest lava flows. The flows covered 75 km2 with 1.6 km3 of olivine-basalt pahoehoe and dammed local drainages, forming the two small Upper and Lower Cow Lakes at the SE end of the lava field. Jordan Craters is renowned for its excellent exposures of a wide variety of youthful lava-flow features and has similarities to Holocene basaltic flows of Idaho's Snake River Plain to the east.

— Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program