Erupting less than 1,000 years ago, Sunset Crater is the youngest in a field of volcanoes in the surrounding area. The 1,000-foot-high cinder cone formed when basalt magma rose directly to the surface through a primary vent. Gas pressure produced a roaring fountain of lava estimated at 850 feet high, and the pressure blasted the lava into pieces that cooled in flight and piled into the cone-shaped hill. As gas pressure decreased, lava oozed several times from the base of the cone, and when the magma ran out of gas, lava spattered the rim. The volcano was short-lived, lasting only months or at most a couple of years from birth to extinction. The bright-rimmed cone impressed John Wesley Powell, who explored the San Francisco volcanic field in 1885 and wrote that the contrast in the colors made the red cinders seem to be on fire from a distance; his "Sunset" mountain later became known officially as Sunset Crater. The volcano also has traditional names including Dzil K'ídzítsooí, Navajo Mahdt billah, Yavapai Ha gudni Káá, and Apache Palatsmo. A nearly identical cinder cone formed when Parícutin erupted in a Mexican corn field in 1943 and was documented from birth to extinction in 1952, helping explain what happened here 1,000 years ago. Like Parícutin, the eruption that created Sunset Crater destroyed the fields and homes of Native peoples who had lived in this area for centuries, and some families may have relocated to lower elevations and established new farming villages now preserved within Wupatki National Monument.