The southern flanks of Puy de Dôme, the highest peak of the Chaîne des Puys volcanic chain, rises above farmlands. Puy de Dôme originated during a series of eruptions about 10,000 years ago. Explosive destruction of the eastern side (right) of a massive lava dome was followed by growth of a second dome. Crumbling of a spine capping the second dome formed the low mound of breccia at the summit of Puy de Dôme, which has been covered by a pyroclastic flow deposit from nearby Killian volcano.

Photo by Ichio Moriya (Kanazawa University).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license terms.

Keywords: lava dome

Chaîne des Puys