Cinder Cone and the Fantastic Lava Beds edifice. The summit of Cinder Cone has a crater with a double rim (photo), probably created by two different phases of one eruptive period. The cone also has a widespread ash deposit identifiable for from the cone. Blocks of red, cemented scoria within the Painted Dunes lava flows (photo) are pieces of this earlier cone, which were carried away by the flowing lava. When Cinder Cone formed, the magma feeding the eruption changed composition, shifting from basaltic andesite to andesite before returning to basaltic andesite with increased titanium content. While basaltic andesites are volcanic rocks containing 53 to 57% silica,
Lava channel Lava channel A lava channel is a stream of fluid lava contained within marginal zones of static (i.e., solid and stationary) lava or lava levees. The initial channel may not contain levees per se, until the parental flow solidifies over what develops into the channel and creates natural levees. This initial levee allows for the building of a more complex levee and channel. As the lava flows through the channel, the elevation of the surface of the lava flow pulsates and lava can possibly flood the associated channel walls spilling out of the channel and over the existing levees, creating