Aden Crater

Aden Crater is a small shield volcano located in Doña Ana County, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is located in the northwest part of the Aden-Afton basalt field, which is part of the central area of the Potrillo volcanic field. A fossilized ground sloth, now at the Peabody Museum, was found in a fumarole roughly 100' deep located on the SE portion of the crater rim. Several ground sloth coprolites were also recovered and were stored in the Geology department at UTEP. No volcanic activity at Aden Crater is known from historic times. The most recent known activity has been dated to roughly 16,000 years ago. The flows associated with the crater can be divided into two groups. The earlier lavas were more fluid and formed most of the flows to the east and south of the crater. These flows are characterized by inflation plateaus, formed when a solid crust begins to develop around a flow and the lava inflates the more ductile upper surface of the flow. The second group of flows were less fluid and accumulated closer to the vent to form the shield of the crater.