Mount Porndon facts for kids
Mount Porndon is a 278-metre-high (912 ft) volcano found about 13 kilometres southeast of Camperdown in western Victoria, Australia. It's a special kind of volcano called a composite volcano.
Mount Porndon sits on private land. At its top, you can see a fire tower and some radio equipment. The volcano is made up of different layers, including a type of rock called scoria, which rests on older lava disc and tuff layers. The area around Mount Porndon is famous for its rocky landscape, known as the "stony rises." Long ago, early settlers used these many rocks to build long stone fences all around the area.
What is Mount Porndon?
Mount Porndon is the main part of a larger volcanic area. This area includes lava flows, layers of tuff (ash), and many scoria cones and craters. It shows how the volcano formed over a long time.
How the Volcano Formed
Many basalt lava flows spread out from Mount Porndon. These flows created the rough, rocky land known as the stony rises. Some of these ancient lava flows even reached Lake Corangamite.
The newer lava flows formed a roundish lava disc about 3 kilometres wide. This disc has a clear edge that sometimes looks like a rocky wall, standing 10 to 15 meters high! Scientists believe these stony rise flows are about 300,000 years old.
Layers of Rock
On top of the lava disc, there's a thin layer of tuff. The main hills and cones of Mount Porndon were built from eruptions of scoria. These scoria eruptions happened after the volcano's early explosive stage, when the underground water had dried up.
The very last activity at Mount Porndon was small lava flows from vents beneath the scoria. The main cone of Mount Porndon has a crater that is about 15 meters deep and opens towards the west.
