Volcanodle
Puzzle #16 was Mono-Inyo Craters.
The Mono-Inyo Craters chain, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada between Mono Lake and Long Valley caldera, form a sickle-shaped, 25-km-long group of 35 dominantly rhyolitic lava domes, lava flows, and tephra rings. The partially overlapping dike-fed domes of the Mono Craters at the north end were erupted near the margin of a pull-apart basin. Explosive eruptions began more than 50,000 years ago from now-buried vents, but almost all of the exposed domes and flows are of Holocene age.
Read about it at the Global Volcanism Program →
Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution
What the record says
Puzzle 16 ran on 25 Jul 2026 and the answer was Mono-Inyo Craters, played with 6 guesses against 8 columns. On the record: Country - United States; Region - North America Volcanic Regions; Type - lava-dome; Tectonic setting - rift; Elevation - 1500-3000; Last eruption - older-Holocene; Rock type - rhyolite; Historically observed - observed.
Beyond the grid the record adds Largest recorded eruption - VEI 4; Holocene eruptions recorded - 13 eruptions.
Volcanodle builds its record from Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution (Venzke, E. (ed.), Volcanoes of the World, volcano.si.edu). The description above comes from the same place the game credits on every reveal: A verbatim excerpt of the volcano's GVP Geological Summary. The puzzle itself is still playable in the archive, and every answer that has been and gone is listed on the past-answers page.
How it scored
- Country
- United States
- Region
- North America Volcanic Regions
- Type
- lava-dome
- Tectonic setting
- rift
- Elevation
- 1500-3000
- Last eruption
- older-Holocene
- Rock type
- rhyolite
- Historically observed
- observed
Also on the record
- Largest recorded eruption
- VEI 4
- Holocene eruptions recorded
- 13 eruptions