Global Volcanism Program | Jordan Craters

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Jordan Craters.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Jordan Craters.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Jordan Craters.

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

322190

1250 BCE

1,473 m / 4,833 ft

43.147°N
117.46°W

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Cluster

Volcano Types
Volcanic field

Rock Types

Major
Basalt / Picro-Basalt
Rhyolite

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

0
0
28
232,946

Geological Summary

Jordan Craters volcanic field consists of well-preserved basaltic lava flows and scoria cones that are the youngest and northernmost of a group of three Quaternary lava fields covering an area of 250 km² in SE Oregon. The Pleistocene Clarks Butte shield volcano and Rocky Butte (Lava Butte) lava fields lie to the south, along the trend of regional Basin and Range faulting. Jordan Craters lie on the Owyhee-Oregon plateau at the SE end of a series of widely scattered young volcanic fields extending SE from Bend, Oregon. Coffeepot Crater at the NW end of the field was the source, about 3,200 years ago or later, of one of Oregon's youngest lava flows. The flows covered 75 km² with 1.6 km³ of olivine-basalt pahoehoe and dammed local drainages, forming the two small Upper and Lower Cow Lakes at the SE end of the lava field. Jordan Craters is renowned for its excellent exposures of a wide variety of youthful lava-flow features and has similarities to Holocene basaltic flows of Idaho's Snake River Plain to the east.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Cascades Volcano Observatory, 2013-. Young volcanoes in WA, OR & ID. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/.

Chitwood L A, 1994. Inflated basaltic lava--examples of processes and landforms from central and southeast Oregon. Oregon Geol, 56: 11-21.

Hart W K, Mertzman S A, 1983. Late Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Jordan Valley area, southeastern Oregon. Oregon Geol, 45: 15-19.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior.

Otto B R, Hutchison D A, 1977. The geology of the Jordan Craters, Malhuer County, Oregon. Ore Bin, 39: 125-140.

Russell J K, Nicholls J, 1987. Early crystallization history of alkali olivine basalts, Diamond Craters, Oregon. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 51: 143-154.

Smith R L, Shaw H R, 1975. Igneous-related geothermal systems. U S Geol Surv Circ, 726: 58-83.

Eruptive History

There is data available for 1 confirmed Holocene eruptive periods.

1250 BCE (in or after) Confirmed Eruption (Explosive / Effusive) VEI: 2 (?)

Episode 1 | Eruption (Explosive / Effusive)

Coffeepot Crater

1250 BCE (in or after) - Unknown

Evidence from Isotopic: 14C (uncalibrated)

List of 5 Events for Episode 1 at Coffeepot Crater

Start Date	End Date	Event Type
- - - -	- - - -	Explosion
- - - -	- - - -	Phreatic activity
- - - -	- - - -	Lava flow
- - - -	- - - -	Lava lake
1250 BCE (?)	- - - -	VEI (Explosivity Index)

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Synonyms

Cow Lakes Lava Field

Craters

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Coffeepot Crater

Crater

1421 m

43° 8' 53.00" N

117° 27' 39.00" W

Photo Gallery

Coffeepot Crater (left of the cone) was the source of voluminous basaltic lava flows in the Jordan Craters volcanic field of SE Oregon. The roughly 200-m-wide crater lies at the NW end of the 1.6 km³ lava field. A WSW-ENE-trending line of spatter cones in the right foreground extends towards the crater. The lava field forms one of Oregon's youngest lava flows at less than 3,200 years old.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 2002 (Smithsonian Institution).

Lava flows covering 68 km² of the Jordan Craters volcanic field in Oregon, USA, are seen in this September 2019 Planet Labs satellite image monthly mosaic (N is at the top; this image is approximately 15 km across). The Coffeepot Crater in the NW corner is the largest vent and once contained a lava pond.

Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs Inc., 2019 (https://www.planet.com/).

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Jordan Craters in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

MIROVA

Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from volcanic activity.

MODVOLC Thermal Alerts

Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

Volcanic Hazard Maps

The IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Hazards and Risk has a Volcanic Hazard Maps database designed to serve as a resource for hazard mappers (or other interested parties) to explore how common issues in hazard map development have been addressed at different volcanoes, in different countries, for different hazards, and for different intended audiences. In addition to the comprehensive, searchable Volcanic Hazard Maps Database, this website contains information about diversity of volcanic hazard maps, illustrated using examples from the database. This site is for educational purposes related to volcanic hazard maps. Hazard maps found on this website should not be used for emergency purposes. For the most recent, official hazard map for a particular volcano, please seek out the proper institutional authorities on the matter.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Jordan Craters. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Jordan Craters. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

DECADE Data

The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Mapping Gas Emissions (MaGa) Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO₂ to the atmosphere, but installing CO₂ monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.

Large Eruptions of Jordan Craters

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).