Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natural Landmark


The Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natural Landmark, or Cinder Cones National Natural Landmark, includes the Cima Dome, Cima Volcanic Field, and Cima Volcanic Range, and is in the Mojave Desert within San Bernardino County, California, United States.
The dome and volcanic field with cinder cones are located within the National Park Service Mojave National Preserve south of Interstate 15 and Baker, off Kelbaker Road towards Cima, and north of the Kelso Visitors Center and Interstate 40. The Joshua tree forest covering Cima Dome and the adjacent Shadow Valley is the largest and densest in the world.

Cima Dome

Cima Dome is a broad sloping upland dome, the erosional remnant of granite plutons that formed deep under the Earth's surface 180–80 million years ago when the Farallon Plate was being subducted beneath the North American Plate.
The dome rises above the volcanic plain, high, and covers. Cima Dome is an extremely symmetric dome of this granitic formation type, and one of the most visible ones by being in open desert plains.

Cima Volcanic Field and Range

The Cima Volcanic Field and Cima Volcanic Range includes 40 volcanic cinder cone vents, and extensive basaltic lava flows in a volcanic field covering more than of the Mojave Desert. It ranges from in elevation. These cinder cones range in size from in height above the volcanic plain and from in base diameters. Over 30 of these cinder cones and associated lava flows, are Pleistocene in age and are located in the southern portion of the volcanic field, with the rest from the Quaternary age.