Cinder Cone is a cinder cone volcano in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Within the park it is located about 10 miles northeast of Lassen Peak and provides a magnificent view of Brokeoff Mountain, Lassen Peak, and Chaos Crags.
Cinder Cone was probably created in two eruptions of ash and volcanic cinders in the 1650s. However, from 1850-1851 wittinesses reported seeing ash, steam, and ejected volcanic cinders in the area of Cinder Cone. For many years these reported eruptions were attributed to Cinder Cone, but more recent geologic studies of the volcano indicate that it was formed 200 years earlier.
The cone was built to a height of 750 feet above the surrounding area and spread ash over 30 square miles. Then, like many cinder cones, was snuffed out when several basalt lava flows erupted from its base. These flows, called the Fantastic Lava Beds, spread northeast and southwest, which dammed creeks, first creating Snag Lake on the south and then Butte Lake to the north. Butte Lake is kept from drying up by water from Snag Lake seeping through the lava beds. Nobles Emigrant Trail goes around Snag Lake and follows the edge of the lava beds.
An unusual characteristic of the Fantastic Lava Beds basalt is the presence of quartz crystal xenocrysts (foreign bodies in igneous rock), which should not be there according to Bowen's Reaction Series. Geologists think that they were picked up by the lava as it moved toward the surface.