Midnight Volcano facts for kids

Midnight Volcano is thought to be a hidden, extinct volcano located in southern Humphreys County, Mississippi. It gets its name from the nearby town of Midnight, Mississippi. When Midnight Volcano was active, it might have been a volcanic island in the Mississippi Embayment. The Mississippi Embayment was a large, shallow sea that once covered parts of the southern United States.

What is Midnight Volcano?

Midnight Volcano is not like the tall, cone-shaped volcanoes you might imagine. It's a "buried" volcano, meaning it's completely covered by layers of rock and soil. Scientists believe it stopped erupting a very long time ago, making it an extinct volcano. This means it's unlikely to ever erupt again.

How Was Midnight Volcano Formed?

The volcanic activity that created Midnight Volcano is linked to something called the Monroe Uplift. An "uplift" is an area of land that has been pushed upwards by forces deep within the Earth. The Monroe Uplift is a large dome-shaped area of rock that extends across parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

The rocks found around Midnight Volcano are called igneous rocks. These are rocks formed from cooled lava or magma. Scientists have studied these rocks to figure out when the volcano was active.

When Was Midnight Volcano Active?

Scientists have used special dating methods to find out how old the rocks from Midnight Volcano are. The igneous rocks in this area have been dated from about 84 to 73 million years ago (Ma). This means the volcano was active during the Cretaceous period, a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth!

Discovering the Buried Volcano

How do we know about a volcano that's buried so deep? Scientists drilled a well in Humphreys County. This well went very deep into the ground. They found about 600 meters (2,000 feet) of volcanic rock. This rock started about 1,110 meters (3,641 feet) below the surface. That's deeper than the tallest skyscrapers!

The newest volcanic rock found was about 66 million years old. Older rocks, found even deeper, were dated at 81 and 94 million years old. This tells us that Midnight Volcano erupted multiple times over millions of years.

Midnight Volcano and Other Volcanoes

The most recent volcanic activity at Midnight Volcano, around 66 million years ago, happened at a similar time to eruptions from another buried volcano. This other volcano is called Jackson Volcano, and it's located southeast of Midnight Volcano. This suggests that these volcanoes might have been part of a larger system of volcanic activity in the region.

Volcanic debris, like tiny pieces of ash and rock, from these ancient eruptions has also been found far away. For example, some debris was found in a layer of sand called the "Coffee sands" to the north. This shows how powerful these ancient eruptions must have been to spread volcanic material so widely.