Pavant Butte, Utah

Elevation: 4,921-5,906 feet (1,500-1,800 m)

View of Pavant Butte, a 16,000 year old tuff cone that formed in Lake Bonneville. Waves in the lake eroded a shoreline terrace which is visible on the right side (north) side on the cone. Photo by Steve Mattox.

Pavant Butte (39N, 112.5W) is part of the Black Rock Desert volcanic field in southwestern Utah. The volcanic field consists of a rhyolite dome and many mafic cones and flows that erupted from about two dozen vents Activity began about 1.5 million years ago. Some of the oldest flows are buried by sediments of Lake Bonneville, a lake that covered much of western Utah and eastern Nevada during the last major glacial period. Pavant Butte is a large (275-m-high, 3-km-diameter) tuff cone . It formed on top of pahoehoe and aa lava and erupted through the lake when it was about 85 m deep. Subsequent erosion of the cone by waves produced a prominent shoreline terrace.



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