page_title: Markagunt Plateau
section_title: Latest Pleistocene and Holocene
hierarchical_section_title: Markagunt Plateau / Eruption history / Latest Pleistocene and Holocene
caption_attribution_description: The Markagunt Plateau is an 800-square-mile (2,100 km2) plateau located in southwestern Utah between Interstate 15 and U.S. Route 89. It is one of the plateaus that make up the High Plateaus Section of the Colorado Plateau Province. The name is derived from a Piute word meaning &quot;Highland of Trees&quot;. The plateau encompasses Cedar Breaks National Monument, and is part of the Cedar Mountain District of Dixie National Forest. The highest point on the plateau is Brian Head Peak at 11,307 feet (3,446 m). The Markagunt Plateau volcanic field is an area of basaltic cinder cones and blocky lava flows. The most recent flows occurred around 1050 CE and were preceded by a series of trachytic, andesitic and rhyolitic lava. The field lies east of Cedar Breaks National Monument. Navajo Lake was formed when a lava flow dammed a creek on the plateau. The youngest features of the Markagunt Plateau volcanic field are blocky unvegetated lava flows known locally as the 'Black Rock Desert.' They extend from near Miller Knoll on to the southeast. These flows also extend northeast to near Panguitch Lake. &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markagunt_Plateau" rel="nofollow"&gt;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markagunt_Plateau&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License" rel="nofollow"&gt;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: Markagunt Plateau is a volcanic field in southern Utah, United States. Formed in a region of older volcanics, it consists of several cinder cones and associated lava flows. Some of the lava flows feature lava tubes such as Mammoth Cave, while others have formed lava dams and lakes like Navajo Lake. Volcanism took place during the Pliocene and latest Pleistocene but may have continued into the Holocene; legends of the Southern Paiute may reflect past eruptions.
context_section_description: The appearance and weathering characteristics of many volcanic structures imply that they have a recent age. Argon-argon dating has yielded an imprecise date of 58,000 ± 35,000 years ago for the Henrie Knolls lava flows. On the Miller Knoll flows, surface exposure dating has yielded ages of 38,000 - 36,000 years ago for the middle member and of 34,000 ± 4,000 and 32,000 ± 3,000 for two other flows which are likely of the same age. The middle member is overlaid by the Dry Valley flow which is also younger than the other two flows. The precise date of the last eruption is not known but eight cinder cones in the volcanic field appear to be less than 10,000 years old. The Southern Paiute settled into the region after 1,100 AD and their legends may contain references to lava flows.
  Aside from volcanism, landsliding, aeolian, alluvial fan and floodplain sedimentation took place in the area, beavers built beaver dams on watercourses and peat accumulated at several sites. During the Pleistocene, the Bull Lake glaciation and the Pinedale glaciation took place on the Markagunt Plateau and eroded and buried some lava flows.
caption: Lava flow near Duck Creek
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