Mount Calavera looms over a pristine lake.
…when the volcano blows! You might ask, What volcano? It’s the one that is located—as the crow flies—about a mile from my California home. Seriously?
WHAT THE HECK IS A PLUG DOME?
I live in a 55+ community in north San Diego County whose large campus sports 1,600 homes. It butts up against the even larger Carlsbad Highlands Ecological Reserve, which blends into the Calavera Nature Preserve. There, in the latter, stands the 500-foot Mount Calavera, looming over nearby Lake Calavera. And yes, Mount Calavera is the volcano in question.
This mountain—more like a huge hill—was formed 22 million years ago when pressure in the planet’s core shot molten lava and toxic gasses into the sky. When the lava got too thick, it formed Mount Calavera in what geologists referred to as a plug dome volcano. It is one of the smallest known volcanos.
So is Mount Calavera dormant, or what? Should I be worried? Its last eruption also occurred about 22 million years ago, give or take. (Disclaimer: despite public opinion I was not around to witness it.) Well, dormant volcanos cause mini-earthquakes with magma still flowing below the surface. Mount Calavera does not have any magma underground, nor are there any registered mini-quakes. This volcano, geologists are certain, is extinct.
So I should be relieved, right? But in his “Volcano” song the late, great Jimmy Buffett opines, “I don’t want to land in no San Diego.” Why not? Maybe he knew something the geologists did not. 😊