Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natural Landmark, Volcanic field and national natural landmark in San Bernardino County, California.
Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natural Landmark covers about 600 km2 in San Bernardino County, California, within the Mojave National Preserve west of Cima Dome. It holds roughly 40 cinder cones, some with intact craters and others eroded to hills, and about 60 lava flows up to 9.1 km long. Black and red cinders, lava bombs and exposed feeder dikes appear in gullies, and at least one lava tube can be visited.
Volcanic activity in the Cima field began in the Late Miocene, paused between 3 and 1 million years ago, and continued into the latest Pleistocene. The youngest cone, Black Tank cone, formed about 15,000 years before present and fed a 2-kilometer lava flow. In 1973 the area was designated the Cinder Cone Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark.
People engraved petroglyphs into the lava flows during the Holocene and into recent times. These carvings are the main visible trace of human use of the field, which today lies within the Mojave National Preserve.
Kelbaker Road crosses some of the lava flows, while dirt tracks such as the Indian Springs Trail and Aiken Mine Road run between the cones. Interstate 15 passes north of the field and California State Route 127 lies to the west and southwest. Las Vegas is about 120 kilometers to the northeast.
The field's youngest cone, Black Tank cone, formed about 15,000 years ago and fed a lava flow roughly 2 km long that begins as a levee-bound channel before narrowing into a lobate shape. It also shows traces of a lava tube, and an older vent lies just south-southwest of it.
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