Volcano, natural and volcanic heritage in Jaujac

Opening : All year round.

The volcano of the Jaujac Cup takes its name «Cup» of its shape, evoking, it is said, a cup to drink. «It is one of the most regular volcanoes in France, the most perfect even» (Brousse & Berger, 1967, p.3).

“Arriving at Jaujac, we see on the left a beautiful mountain that offers an opening on its summit; it is a magnificent crater from which all the lava that have formed this series of roads that reign along the Lignon River have flowed. … /… It shows a tear that the lava produced as it flowed out of this vast crucible. one can conveniently enter this crater only through an opening, the red and black porous washes that have piled up, preventing one can clearly distinguish the lava stream that descends by undulation from the mouth of the crater, to the bottom of the plain where it appears, and we can follow it from distance to distance to the edge of the Lignon, a river that flows at the foot of Jaujac where are immense basalt pavements, the highest of all the Vivarais. … /…” (Brousse & Berger, 1967).

The cone is typically of the Strombolian type (even if the application of this terminology to small devices with a lifetime that probably did not exceed a few weeks to a few months, is abusive). The building consists mainly of projections and, to a much lesser degree, small levels of flows. Various authors believe that, at least once during its construction, the crater was filled by a lava lake. Indeed traces of frozen lava have been described in the heart of the crater. The basalt flow, vomited by the Jaujac Cup, is characterized by its strong power. It reaches a thickness of about fifty meters for a length that does not exceed 3.5 km. It was probably blocked by the Souilhol flow, previously emitted.

This peculiarity leads to think that the flow, emitted by the Coupe de Jaujac, is perhaps the expression of the last eruptive manifestation of the Pays des Jeunes Volcans d’Ardèche.