Durango volcanic field, Volcanic field in Durango, Mexico

The Durango volcanic field covers 2,100 square kilometres east of the Sierra Madre Occidental and holds around a hundred cones. Its most prominent centres are the La Breña and El Jagüey maars, intersected craters rising above a lava plain at about 2,000 metres; La Breña measures 1,400 metres across and Jagüey 700 metres, each ringed by a tuff ring 30 to 70 metres high.

The volcanic formations date to the Quaternary period, spanning millions of years of geological activity that shaped the current landscape. This extended history of volcanic processes fundamentally transformed northern Mexico's terrain.

The maars are named La Breña and El Jagüey, and Jagüey holds a permanent lake inside its crater. The field lies in the Tepehuano terrane, and its basanite lavas carry mantle xenoliths, fragments of deep rock that visitors and collectors look for in the flows.

The field lies east of the Sierra Madre Occidental, around coordinates 24.15 N, 104.45 W, and the sources describe it as inhospitable terrain. The two maars rise above a lava plain at about 2,000 m elevation, each ringed by a tuff wall 30 to 70 m high. Jaguey holds a permanent lake, while Brena's crater encloses cinder cones.

The rocks of La Breña-El Jagüey carry mantle xenoliths, fragments of deep rock brought up by the magma, and the Jagüey maar now holds a permanent lake. The two maars are probably the field's youngest eruption products, of likely Holocene age.