Four Craters Lava Field Four Craters Lava Field Four Craters Lava Field is a basaltic volcanic field located south east of Newberry Caldera in the U.S. state of Oregon. The volcanic field covers about 30 square kilometers. Four Pleistocene cinder cones are the source of the flows in the field and are aligned along a fissure trending N 30° W. The cones rise 75 to 120 meters above the flows and the distance between the northern most and southern most cones is about 3.5 kilometers. Closely related to the Four Craters lava field is Crack-in-the-Ground located at the southwest corner of the field. The
Lava Beds National Monument shield volcano have created an incredibly rugged landscape punctuated by these many landforms of volcanism. Cinder cones are formed when magma is under great pressure. It is released in a fountain of lava, blown into the air from a central vent. The lava cools as it falls, forming cinders that pile up around the vent. When the pressure has been relieved, the rest of the lava flows from the base of the cone. Cinder cones are typically monogenetic. The cinder cones of Hippo Butte, Three Sisters, Juniper Butte, and Crescent Butte are all older than the Mammoth and Modoc Crater