Cerro Prieto ( coc, Wee Ñaay, eng, "Black Hill") is a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Ear ...

located approximately 29 km (18 mi) SSE of

Mexicali Mexicali (; ) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California. The city, seat of the Mexicali Municipality, has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the Calexico–Mexicali metropolitan area is home to 1,000,0 ...

in the Mexican state of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. The volcano lies astride a spreading center associated with the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located alon ...

. This spreading center is also responsible for a large geothermal field, which has been harnessed to generate electric power by the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Station. The Cerro Prieto spreading center intersects the southern end of the

Imperial Fault The Imperial Fault Zone is a system of geological faults located in Imperial County in the Southern California region, and adjacent Baja California state in Mexico. It cuts across the border between the United States and Mexico. Geology The I ...

and the northern end of the Cerro Prieto Fault.Fuis, Gary S. and Walter D. Mooney
''Salton Trough'' Lithospheric Structure and Tectonics from Seismic-Refraction and Other Data'' in USGS Professional Paper 1515
/ref> Both of these are

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduct ...

s in the northern leg of the East Pacific Rise system that runs the length of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

and is steadily rifting the Baja California Peninsula away from the mainland of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

References

External links

Geology of the Salton Trough, David L. Alles ed., 2007
* Volcanoes of Baja California Geothermal areas in Mexico Landforms of Baja California Salton Trough {{volcanology-stub