Harrat Ash Shaam volcano
Updated: Jun 4, 2023 14:34 GMT -
Volcanic field 1100 m / 3609 ft
Syria, Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, 32.33°N / 37.58°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Syria, Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, 32.33°N / 37.58°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Harrat Ash Shaam is a very large volcanic field extending from Syria through Jordan and into northern Saudi Arabia. It contains extensive geologically young, mostly basaltic lava flows and cinder cones.
Historic sources and modern dating techniques suggest that at least sporadic volcanic activity has occurred during the past 10,000 years.
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Harrat Ash Shaam volcano eruptions: 2670 BC
Latest nearby earthquakes
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Activity began during the Miocene; a younger eruptive stage, at the SE end of the field, occurred during the late-Pleistocene and Holocene (Brown et al., 1984). Al Harrah, a large basaltic volcanic field in northwestern Saudi Arabia, covers an area of 15,200 km2 and forms the southern third of the harrat across a 210-km-long, roughly 75-km-wide area. Other fields include the Jabal ad Druze, Es Safa, Golan Heights, and the Kra Lava Field where radiocarbon dating indicated an eruption at 2670 BCE ± 200 years. Although a "boiling lava lake" eruption has been in the volcanological literature since 1925, a translation of the original source of that report by Wetzstein (1860) clearly shows that he was describing solidified crater floor surface features and lava flows.
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