Corn Rock

Basalt cobble with corn impressions

The eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano occurred between 1040 and 1100 CE, and based on tribal oral history was witnessed by pre-contact people at the time. Collected in 1984 at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, this corn rock is believed to be the result of pre-contact people deliberately placing corn at or near the base of an erupting hornito, a spattering vent that forms above lava flows. In theory, as volcanic spatter erupted from the hornito or vent, it covered the corn, cooling to create a corn mold. Dozens more corn rocks have since been found in the walls of habitation structures at site NA860 about four kilometers west of Sunset Crater Volcano.