Easy Chair Crater – Nye County, Nevada - Atlas Obscura

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Easy Chair Crater

An unusual double cinder cone with a bent oval crater, in the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field. 

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Cinder cones are a common type of volcano. They are relatively small and composed of basalt, a dark fluid lava that is rich in iron and magnesium. The basalt is also scoriaceous (frothy), as the magma is typically rich in gass. The eruption starts out as fountains of fire with frothy basalt cinders falling out around the vent to build up into a cone. Other material is usually incorporated into the ascending magma, so big crystals and even bits of the surrounding rock (the “country rock”) are also ejected with the cinders. Occasionally a large blob of lava, a so-called “bomb,” will be thrown out as well. Commonly the last eruptive activity is a flow of basalt lava that pushes its way out the base of the cone through the loose cinders. Mexico’s Paricutín, which erupted in the 20th century, is a modern example.

Although not completely symmetric, due to the vagaries of the winds blowing the cinders around, cinder cones are usually not markedly asymmetric, and are often one-off events. Easy Chair Crater is unusual, however, in its asymmetric form. It is not just oval, but has the northeast rim some 550 feet higher, which gives it the chair-like form for which it is named.

This seems to be a case where a second eruption did occur almost on top of the original one. The older crater is the higher part to the northeast, while the younger is in the lower part to the southwest.

Know Before You Go

Turn south off US-6 at the junction for Lunar Crater (at about 38.4788 N, 116.05508 W) onto a graded road and go 2.6 miles to a primitive road coming in from the left, at about 38.44042 N, 1116.05817 W. Turn left here. The cinder cone containing Easy Chair Crater will be obvious on the skyline to the left. Proceed 0.7 miles to where an even smaller dirt road comes in on the left, at about 38.43504 N, 116.04684 W. Turn left here and drive a bit more than 0.5 miles to a small parking area for a trailhead. This trailhead is at about 38.43808 N, 116.03702 W. Follow the obvious footpath about 500 feet up to the southwest, and lowest, rim of Easy Chair Crater.


Lunar Crater is a little less than four miles farther down the main road, beyond the first turnoff. It's an easy side trip while in the area.

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October 4, 2024

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