Black Volcano is an

inactive volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

located near

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, and is part of the Albuquerque volcanic field. Black Volcano is located directly north of JA volcano. Black Volcano is the second of five volcanoes (traveling south to north) within the western boundary of

Petroglyph National Monument Petroglyph National Monument stretches along Albuquerque, New Mexico's West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city's western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre (29.28 km2) monument is cooperatively man ...

. North of Black Volcano are

Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...

, Bond and Butte volcanoes. JA, Black, and Vulcan Volcanoes are located along a single fissure through which the lava erupted. The volcanoes are a rare example of a series of vents associated with a

fissure eruption A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure, eruption fissure or simply a fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is often a few metres wide and may be many kilom ...

. The volcano is composed of a type of volcanic rock called

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...

tholeiitic The tholeiitic magma series is one of two main magma series in subalkaline igneous rocks, the other being the calc-alkaline series. A magma series is a chemically distinct range of magma compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma i ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

Radiometric dating Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares t ...

indicates an age for this rock of about 156,000 years. The volcano consists of lava flows radiation from the summit, which has a small

pyroclastic Pyroclastic rocks (derived from the el, πῦρ, links=no, meaning fire; and , meaning broken) are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroc ...

cone and a large filled crater. Several smaller craters, formed late in the eruption, are located on the summit and northeast flank of the volcano. Much of the pyroclastic cone was removed by mining of

cinder Cinder is an alternate term for scoria. Cinder or Cinders may also refer to: In computing *Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization *Cinder, OpenStack's block storage component * Cyber Insider Threat, CINDER, a ...

by 1978. The northern part of the cone includes

xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...

s, pieces of surrounding rock caught up in the eruption and carried to the surface. These are partially melted sandstone, likely of the Santa Fe Group sediments on which the volcano sits.

Gallery

Petroglyph National Monument - walking to the top of Back Volcano.jpg, Trail up to the top of Black Volcano in Petroglyph National Monument Rocks at the top of Black Volcano, Petroglyph National Monument.jpg, Rocks at the top of Black Volcano

References

Volcanoes of New Mexico Inactive volcanoes Geography of Albuquerque, New Mexico Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Landforms of Bernalillo County, New Mexico Volcanoes of the United States National Park Service National Monuments in New Mexico Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub