El Elegante Crater at El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Posted by: 
GT.US
N 31° 51.168 W 113° 23.271
12R E 274066 N 3526605
The El Elegante Crater is one of three volcanic craters in the El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve.
Waymark Code: WMRHFC
Location: Sonora, Mexico
Date Posted: 06/22/2016
Views: 6
This volcanic crater is geologically significant because it shows the effects of the volcano.
The website at (
visit link) parapharsed tells us:
El Elegante is the largest crater in the Pinacate volcanic field, 1,400 metres wide and 140 metres deep. The crater was formed by a violent volcanic eruption when rising magma encountered groundwater, producing highly pressurized steam. This caused large rocks to be projected onto the surrounding land, and smaller fragments (cinder) to be dispersed widely over what is now the current desert floor.
After its eruption, the volcanic cone collapsed back into the earth, leading to the formation of a crater. Signs of this collapse can be seen around the crater rim, where the rock layers are stepped.
The lowest part of the crater is a green and white area, coloured by salt deposits and salt-tolerant plants. The rock outcrop is part of the core of an earlier volcano.
The banding pattern represents successive lava flows over geological time, before the latest eruption caused the cone tp collapse. Between the lava old layers (basalt) are bands of "tuff" (compacted red-coloured volcanic ash).