Geologists shed light on relatively young volcanoes of the eastern United States.
Geologists generally describe eastern North America as being along a passive margin: a geologically quiet area where land transitions to sea, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are rare or absent, and sedimentary layers build up slowly in shallow seas.
“But the joke among geologists is that passive-aggressive would be a better way to describe some parts of it,” said Elizabeth Johnson, a geologist at James Madison University. “There is actually quite a bit going on in the East, especially in Virginia.”
Since 2010, Johnson and colleagues have been studying dozens of small volcanic features spread across Virginia and West Virginia. Some of the features are 48 million years old, which makes them the youngest-known volcanic features in the eastern United States.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured a natural-color image that showcases one of these volcanoes. Privately-owned, tree-covered Mole Hill rises just a few hundred feet above rolling farmland west of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
