Falls Trail Tour - Stop 14

This pattern of layers was caused by an ancient maar volcano.

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Across the canyon, you can see layered volcanic rock. These are sediments from an ancient maar volcano. A maar volcano is one that erupts through water, such as an underground aquifer. When underground water is suddenly heated, it expands into a significant volume of steam. This expansion creates a vertical eruption of steam, water, molten rock, and debris. Maar volcanos are low and wide. This one is approximately two miles across and 100 feet high. As is common with this type of volcano, the volcano’s bowl was later covered by basalt after the eruption ended. Maar volcanoes are the second most common type of volcanic landforms in the world. (The most common are cinder cones, like Capulin Volcano in northeastern New Mexico.)