China Hat is a

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure 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 fo ...

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

on the southeastern flank of

Newberry Volcano Newberry Volcano is a large, active, shield-shaped stratovolcano located about south of Bend, Oregon, United States, east of the major crest of the Cascade Range, within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Its highest point is Paulina P ...

Deschutes County Deschutes County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 198,253. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschu ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is a

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

dating from the age of the Middle Pleistocene. Both China Hat and nearby East Butte are covered by

Mazama Ash The Mazama Ash (formally named the Mazama Member in some areas) is an extensive, geologically recent deposit of volcanic ash that is present throughout much of northern North America. The ash was ejected from Mount Mazama, a volcano in south-cen ...

and Newberry Ash. Although China Hat is often thought of as a side vent of Newberry Volcano less than ten miles away, it is estimated to be older than first formation of the Newberry Caldera, 780,000 thousand years old versus 500,000 years ago and is on the western edge of a series of high lava plains eruptions derived from a tongue of the same mantle plume that fuels the

Yellowstone Caldera The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, is a Quaternary caldera complex and volcanic plateau spanning parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It is driven by the Yellowstone hotspot and is largely within Yel ...

China Hat Road, named after the butte, starts in Bend and heads to

Fort Rock Fort Rock is a tuff ring located on an ice age lake bed in north Lake County, Oregon, Lake County, Oregon, United States. The ring is about in diameter and stands about high above the surrounding plain. Its name is derived from the tall, stra ...

. The road is a hotspot for law enforcement. China Hat Campground is a

campground Campsite, campground, and camping pitch are all related terms regarding a place used for camping (an overnight stay in an outdoor area). The usage differs between British English and American English. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an ...

located near China Hat butte along this road. The butte was named for its similarity in appearance, when viewed from Fort Rock, to the

Asian conical hat The Asian conical hat is a simple style of conically shaped sun hat notable in modern-day nations and regions of China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and ...

worn by

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

immigrant laborers.

References

Buttes of Oregon Landforms of Deschutes County, Oregon Mountains of Oregon Volcanoes of Oregon Miocene volcanoes Lava domes of the United States {{DeschutesCountyOR-geo-stub