Volcanic field

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The north face of Mount Garibaldi rises above The Table and Garibaldi Lake in the Garibaldi Lake volcanic field

A volcanic field is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes such as cinder cones. Lava flows may also occur. They may occur as a monogenetic volcanic field or a polygenetic volcanic field.

Description

Alexander von Humboldt observed in 1823 that geologically young volcanoes are not distributed uniformly across the Earth's surface, but tend to be clustered into specific regions. Young volcanoes are rarely found within cratons, but are characteristic of subduction zones, rift zones, or in ocean basins. Intraplate volcanoes are clustered along hotspot traces.<ref name="schmincke-2003-17-19">Template:Cite book</ref>

Within regions of volcanic activity, volcanic fields are clusters of volcanoes that share a common magma source.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Unlike a large volcano with satellite or subsidiary vents, a volcanic field's vents have their own source of magma, possibly of different compositions (such as basalt and rhyolite), and these vents may span an area of thousands of square miles.<ref name="CaliUSGS21May2023">Template:Cite web</ref> Scoria cones are particularly prone to cluster into volcanic fields, which are typically Template:Convert in diameter and consist of several tens to several hundred individual cones. The unusually large Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt has nearly 1000 cones covering an area of Template:Convert.<ref name="schmincke-2003-100">Schmincke 2003, p.100</ref>