Cerro Prieto ( coc, Wee Ñaay, eng, "Black Hill") is a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

located approximately 29 km (18 mi) SSE of Mexicali in the Mexican state of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. The volcano lies astride a spreading center associated with the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located alon ...

. This spreading center is also responsible for a large geothermal field, which has been harnessed to generate electric power by the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Station. The Cerro Prieto spreading center intersects the southern end of the Imperial Fault and the northern end of the Cerro Prieto Fault.Fuis, Gary S. and

Walter D. Mooney Walter D. Mooney (born November 17, 1951) is a research seismologist and geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Menlo Park, California (1978–present). He was Chief of the USGS Branch of Seismology from 1994 to 1997. Early ...

''Salton Trough'' Lithospheric Structure and Tectonics from Seismic-Refraction and Other Data'' in USGS Professional Paper 1515
/ref> Both of these are

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subducti ...

s in the northern leg of the East Pacific Rise system that runs the length of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

and is steadily rifting the Baja California Peninsula away from the mainland of

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

References

External links

Geology of the Salton Trough, David L. Alles ed., 2007
* Volcanoes of Baja California Geothermal areas in Mexico Landforms of Baja California Salton Trough {{volcanology-stub