
This mound was formed by glob after glob of lava falling along the edge of a spatter cone.
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One to fifteen meter (3-50 feet) high spatter cones form a string of lumpy beads along a once-active vent system near the base of Sunset Crater Volcano. Like bubbling spaghetti sauce, they form when gasses escape from molten lava beneath the crusty, solid surface of a flow.
If you look closely at this spatter cone you can easily see where individual 'spatters' fell with a SPLAT! onto the ring of solidified lava. Their heat welded them to the older spatters, gradually building the miniature volcanoes you see here.
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