Crack in the Ground
crack in the ground, a large volcanic fissure in Central Oregon, USA
Crack in the Ground is a volcanic fissure about 2 miles (3.2 km) long
with depths measuring nearly 30 feet (9 m) below ground level in Central Oregon, United States. The formation of the fissure occurred approximately between 700,000 and 12,000 years ago.
The eruptions from the Four Craters Lava Field were accompanied by a slight sinking of the older rock surface, forming a shallow, graben-like structure about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and extending to the south into an old lake basin. Crack in the Ground marks the western edge of this small, volcano-tectonic depression. The crack is the result of a tension fracture along a hingeline produced by the draping of Green Mountain lava flows over the edge of upthrown side of the concealed fault zone. The fissure is located at the southwest corner of Four Craters Lava Field. Hikers can walk the length of the main crack and explore its tributaries.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5180326. Authority coordinates are 43.325, -120.665. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Crack in the Ground” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.