This chain extends from Mammoth Mountain at the southwest rim of the caldera northward 25 miles to Mono Lake . Eruptions along this chain began 400,000 years ago, and Mammoth Mountain itself was formed by a series of eruptions ending 50,000 years ago. The volcanic system is still active. The caldera walls rise steeply to elevations of 3,000 to 3,500 meters on all sides except the east and southeast, where the floor rises only 150 meters before merging with the Volcanic Tableland at 2,300 meters elevation. The Mono-Inyo Craters volcanic chain extends from the western part of Long Valley caldera northward from Mammoth Mountain to Mono Lake , a distance of 50 kilometers.
View is West-Southwest.
Mount Shasta is on the skyline. Medicine Lake volcano is a Pleistocene and Holocene shield volcano located in northeastern California about 50 kilometers east of Mount Shasta , near the western margin of the Basin and Range tectonic province. Lava Beds National Monument is located on the northern flank of Medicine Lake volcano and encompasses mostly basaltic and some andesitic lavas. Higher on the volcano, basaltic lava is mostly absent, andesite dominates, and rhyolite and small volumes of dacite are present, the latter mainly near the 7 x 12 kilometer Medicine Lake caldera . At the heart of Yellowstone's past, present, and future lies volcanism.