Description of The Crater
- Latitude/Longitude: 31°58′19″N 106°57′53″W / 31.97194°N 106.96472°W / 31.97194; -106.96472Coordinates: 31°58′19″N 106°57′53″W / 31.97194°N 106.96472°W / 31.97194; -106.96472
- Elevation: 4,239 feet (1,292 m)
- Crater diameter: 1.5x2.1 miles (2.4x3.4 km)
- Depth: 443 feet (135 m)
The hole is over a mile wide, and over 300 feet (91 m) deep, with crumbling basalt cliffs all around except at the southwest corner. The basalt cliffs resemble the cliffs of the Devils Postpile National Monument near Yosemite National Park, with the characteristic reddish purple hexagonal columns, except that they are not as tall. The cliffs are about 40 feet (12 m) high. Lava chunks exist in abundance. The basalt column fragments are each larger than a person.
Hunt's Hole is a little smaller, with basalt cliffs only at the northeast and southeast sides of the crater. Layers of ashfall and crumbling sediment also rise about 40 feet (12 m) high, on the south rim of the crater. This ashfall section on the south rim will not support a person's weight; it is safer to stay on the basalt cliffs and the sand dunes. Sand dunes have collected on the east sides of the both craters, rising about 100 feet (30 m) above the desert floor.
A dry lakebed lies on the floor of each crater.
Green peridot crystals occur in the lava.
Apollo astronauts trained in these craters in 1969.
Read more about this topic: Kilbourne Hole
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—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
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