Global Volcanism Program | Wapi Lava Field

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Wapi Lava Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Wapi Lava Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Wapi Lava Field.

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.

Cones

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Pillar Butte

Shield volcano

1604 m

42° 53' 0" N

113° 13' 0" W

Craters

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

King's Bowl Rift

Fissure vent

1500 m

42° 56' 0" N

113° 13' 0" W

Split Butte

Maar

1410 m

43° 0' 0" N

113° 18' 0" W

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

324030

300 BCE

1,597 m / 5,240 ft

42.8859°N
113.2166°W

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Shield

Volcano Types
Shield
Fissure vent(s)

Rock Types

Major
Basalt / Picro-Basalt

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Population

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

6
6
1,394
172,539

Geological Summary

The Wapi Lava Field, SE of the Craters of the Moon, covers about 325 km², and consists of a low shield volcano formed during an eruption around 300 BCE that produced ~6 km³ of pahoehoe lava flows. The small King's Bowl rift immediately to the north was also formed at about the same time along a central eruptive fissure flanked by two parallel non-eruptive fissures. This eruption produced a phreatic explosion that created Kings Bowl, an 80-m-long, 30-m-deep explosion crater. Eruptions overlapped with the last eruptive period of the Craters of the Moon lava field. The vent area lies along the Great Rift of the Craters of the Moon and consists of five major and a half-dozen minor vents covering an area of 0.5 km². The largest of the vents contains several pit craters truncating lava lakes that filled the crater. Pillar Butte, a mass of layered lava flows and agglutinates, forms the high point of the lava shield. The Split Butte maar to the west is partially overlapped by flows of the Wapi field.

References

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

Greeley R, King J S (eds), 1977. Volcanism of the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho: a comparative planetary geology guidebook. NASA (Washington, DC), CR-154621: 1-308.

Green J, Short N M, 1971. Volcanic Landforms and Surface Features: a Photographic Atlas and Glossary. New York: Springer-Verlag, 519 p.

Hughes S S, Smith R P, Hackett W R, Anderson S R, 1999. Mafic volcanism and environmental geology of the eastern Snake River Plain. In: Hughes S S, Thackray G D (eds), Guidebook to the Geology of eastern Idaho, Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho Musuem of Nat Hist, p 143-168.

Hughes S S, Smith R P, Hackett W R, McCurry M, Anderson S R, Ferdock G C, 1997. Bimodal magmatism, basaltic volcanic styles, tectonics, and geomorphic processes of the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho. Brigham Young Univ Geol Studies, 42: 423-458.

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

Kuntz M A, Champion D E, Lefebvre R H, Covington H R, 1988. Geologic map of the Craters of the Moon, Kings Bowl, and Wapi lava fields and the Great Rift volcanic rift zone, south-central Idaho. U S Geol Surv Misc Invest Ser Map, I:1632, 1:100,000 scale geol map.

Kuntz M A, Champion D E, Spiker E C, Lefebvre R H, McBroome L A, 1982. The Great Rift and the evolution of the Craters of the Moon lava field, Idaho. In: Bonnichsen B, Breckenridge R M (eds), The Great Rift and the Evolution of the Craters of the Moon Lava Field, Idaho, Idaho Bur Mines Geol Bull, 26: 423-437.

Kuntz M A, Covington H R, Schorr L J, 1992. An overview of basaltic volcanism of the eastern Snake River Plain. In: Link P K, Kuntz M A, Platt L B (eds), Regional Geology of Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming, Geol Soc Amer Mem, 179: 227-267.

Prinz M, 1970. Idaho rift system, Snake River Plain, Idaho. Geol Soc Amer Bull, 81: 941-948.

Eruptive History

There is data available for 1 confirmed Holocene eruptive periods.

0300 BCE (?) Confirmed Eruption VEI: 2 (?)

Episode 1 | Eruption

Kings Bowl Rift, Wapi Lava Field

0300 BCE (?) - Unknown

Evidence from Correlation: Tephrochronology

The Kings Bowl Rift flows and the massive Wapi Lava Field flows are placed at 2,250 BP by stratigraphic position in flows of eruptive period A of the Craters of the Moon Great Rift Zone (Kuntz et al., 1982). Earlier ¹⁴C dates were 2,360 ± 150 and 2,130 ± 130 BP.

List of 3 Events for Episode 1 at Kings Bowl Rift, Wapi Lava Field

Start Date	End Date	Event Type	Event Remarks
- - - -	- - - -	Phreatic activity	weak or small
- - - -	- - - -	Lava flow
0300 BCE (?)	- - - -	VEI (Explosivity Index)

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Wapi Lava Field.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Wapi Lava Field.

Photo Gallery

Dark lava flows extend from the 6-km-long Kings Bowl Rift SE of Craters of the Moon. These flows were erupted at the same time as the much more massive Wapi lava field flows immediately to the south that covered about 300 km², forming a broad, low shield volcano about 2250 years ago. The light-colored area overlying the lava flows at the lower center of the photo is an ash deposit produced by explosions from Kings Bowl crater.

Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.

The dramatic Kings Bowl rift cutting diagonally across the top of the photo produced a small 6-sq-km lava field about 2250 years ago immediately north of the much larger Wapi lava field. Kings Bowl itself is the small elongated crater on the right-center side of the rift in this photo; it formed during a phreatic explosion that deposited lighter-colored tephra to the east (upper right). The massive Wapi lava field, located out of view south (right) of Kings Bowl, covers an area of about 325 km² and originated from Pillar Butte, a small shield volcano.

Photo by Susan Sakimoto (NASA, courtesy of Scott Hughes, Idaho State University).

GVP Map Holdings

Maps are not currently available due to technical issues.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Wapi Lava Field 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 Wapi Lava Field. 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 Wapi Lava Field. 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 Wapi Lava Field

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).