The One Texas City With A Volcano Within Its City Limits

Here's something many of us (at least one of us) may be learning today: Six American cities have a volcano within their city limits. Hold up, what! And that includes a major city here in Texas.

The cities with volcanoes include Portland, Oregon, Bend, Oregon, Jackson, Mississippi, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Prescott Valley, Arizona. All of those cities just became a lot cooler to me. So, which Texas city makes the list?

The answer is the capital of The Lone Star State, Austin. Did you know this? I'm only a little bit surprised I didn't know.

The volcano is named Pilot Knob and it's located in southeast Austin, near McKinney Falls State Park, it's not far from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Pilot Knob is extinct, and it is the largest extinct volcano in the state. It is a low-slung hill with a diameter of over two miles. It's also the only exposed submarine volcano in the state.

Pilot Knob is extinct (for now).

For those of us who don't recall Volcano: 101 in elementary school, "an extinct volcano is a volcano that scientists believe is unlikely to erupt again because it no longer has a magma supply."

Pilot Knob has been extinct for a very long time. It was active during the Cretaceous Period, which was about 144 million to 66 million years ago. Local geologists consider it to be a window into history.

You can visit Pilot Knob. It's open 24/7 and just about a 20-minute drive from Austin.

For those keeping score at home, there are around 200 volcanoes in Texas that have been extinct for millions of years. Don't get too comfy though, it may be possible for them to become active again in the future, according to geologists.