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All the United States Virginia Dayton Mole Hill

Mole Hill

One of the last active volcanoes on the Eastern seaboard.

Dayton, Virginia

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Steve Dowell
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  rfinkels / Atlas Obscura User
  rfinkels / Atlas Obscura User
View from Valley Vista Drive   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
From the intersection of Mole Hill Rd. and Swope Rd.   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
  PatientRock / Atlas Obscura User
  PatientRock / Atlas Obscura User
Mole Hill seen from VA 913   Jstuby at English Wikipedia
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About

Mole Hill is one of the youngest volcanoes in the Eastern United States. It was last active 47 million years ago. It is one of two volcanoes in the Commonwealth of Virginia. (The other is Trimble Knob in Monterey, Virginia.) Classifying a volcano as dormant or extinct is a subjective and inexact exercise. Mole Hill is most likely extinct but could be considered long dormant.

Whether or not inactive volcanoes are considered truly extinct, or just dormant, depends partly on the average repose interval between eruptions. As noted in eruptive variability, explosive eruptions like those at Toba and Yellowstone have repose intervals of hundreds of thousands of years, whereas non-explosive eruptions have very short repose intervals. Thus, the Yellowstone region, which has not experienced an eruption for 70,000 years, can not be considered extinct. In fact, many scientists consider Yellowstone to be active because of high uplift rates, frequent earthquakes, and a very active geothermal system. Many inactive scoria cones, on the other hand, may be viewed as extinct shortly after they erupt, because such volcanoes are typically monogenetic and only erupt once.  

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Volcanoes Geology

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From Harrisonburg, VA: Take US 33W, then turn left onto State Rte 701. Next, turn right onto VA-736, then turn right onto VA-913. Finally, turn right onto Valley Vista Drive.

Community Contributors

Added By

Sdowell3

Edited By

dfeury, charlottejrf, scarlettnala, rfinkels...

  • dfeury
  • charlottejrf
  • scarlettnala
  • rfinkels
  • blimpcaptain
  • PatientRock

Published

July 22, 2016

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Sources
  • http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/vageol/outreach/fieldtrips/rockingham/molehill.html
  • http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Volcano-in-the-Valley-Mole-Hills-active-history-424171614.html
Mole Hill
Valley Vista Dr
Dayton, Virginia
United States
38.44818, -78.952807
Get Directions

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