Volcanoes

So about a year ago I took a trip to a place called Sunset Crate, which is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Sunset Crater is a cinder cone considered to be one of the youngest volcanoes in the U.S. It belongs to a string of volcanoes called the San Francisco field which covers the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau. This volcano field seems to have been formed from intraplate volcanism. As the North American Plate moves over volcanic hotspots, new volcanoes formed on the east side of the field. Since Sunset Crater is a cinder cone, it is safe to assume that its eruption was explosive, mainly because for it to be a cinder cone it needs cinders, which are formed from gas rapidly expanding and escaping from the molten lava making the lava fly up and cool down. The most recent eruption from this volcano was around A.D. 1085, which is a very long time ago so many consider it as dormant. However, any of the volcanoes located on the San Francisco field are capable of erupting again including Sunset Crater. Whenever this volcano erupts again, the main hazard will be the pyroclastic flow caused by the eruption.