Yes, There’s A Volcano 1 Hour Away From NYC
Imagine seeing a real-life volcano in person was possible without having to hop on a flight to Iceland, Hawaii, or any other country known for their bubbling volcanoes? Well actually, unbeknownst to many, it is–there’s a volcano only one hour away from NYC…sort of.
Located in Wantage, New Jersey, Beemerville Volcano used to be the state’s very own lava-spouting, geologic hotspot, though you’d never guess–unless you were to have stood there more than 400 million years ago before dinosaurs first roamed Earth! That’s when the volcano (which was roughly the height of Mount St. Helens–aka 8,363 feet tall–and spanned 10 to 20 miles across) erupted and reshaped the landscape forever.
Beemerville Volcano is the only remnant of New Jersey’s geologic past. Even more, it sits in the same county as a newly discovered fault line that had everything to do with the intensity of this past April’s earthquake whose rumblings were felt all the way in NYC.
Unfortunately today the crater, known as Rutan Hill, only stretches 1,020 feet into the sky and looks like any other tree and grass-covered hill. Even crazier–there are actually homes built on it now!
The good news: the U.S. Geological Survey classifies volcanoes as active, dormant, or extinct, and Beermerville Volcano is extinct, so we don’t expect it to go bubbling over again any time soon. There is a chance a volcano can “go quiet for thousands of years and then reawaken,” though, but let’s face it, the state may be underwater by then.
So sure, it may not look like your typical volcano (or erupt like one), but it’s still cool for those residents to say they technically live on one! And though the volcano itself is long gone, the hill is still home to many volcanic rocks.
But New York is also home to a number of natural wonders itself, many of which are way more interesting to look at, like this 14,000 acre park known as the “Grand Canyon of the East,” this 100-foot underground waterfall, the world’s oldest forest, which was seen by dinosaurs, and the longest single drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains.
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