It looks like another Sussex County hill, but you wouldn’t have wanted to be there 420 million years ago.

That’s about the time the Beemerville volcano erupted at Wantage, about six million years ago, according to geologists.

So much about New Jersey is familiar: the Jersey Shore, the traffic jug handles, the restaurants. We know much less that there was a time, nearly 200 million years before dinosaurs first roamed the Earthwhen a volcanic eruption reshaped the landscape.

“We don’t generally think of New Jersey as volcanoes. We are not Iceland, we are not Hawaii. But we have a very unique geologic history,” said New Jersey State Geologist Steve Domber.

The crater has long since disappeared. All that remains of Beemerville Volcano is a volcanic pass that extends 1,020 feet into the sky. It is largely covered with trees, but there are several houses there.

It’s the only remaining volcanic edifice in New Jersey, Domber said.

Beemerville Volcano takes its name from a section of Wantage, but is also known as Rutan Hill. Space Farms Zoo and Museum, the area’s best-known business, is located about four miles south. New Jersey’s highest point, site of the High Point Monument, lies seven miles to the north.

NJ Advance Media asked Domber and Jeremy Weremeichik, a geologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection, a few questions about the volcano in a Zoom interview and both answered follow-up questions via a joint email .

Is there a chance the Beemerville Volcano will erupt again?

No, at least not in the next hundreds of millions of years.

Volcanoes are classified as active, dormant or extinct, according to the US Geological Survey. The Beermerville volcano falls into the extinct category, Domber and Weremeichik said in an email.

None of the 169 active volcanoes in the United States are near New Jersey. More than 50 are in Alaska.

“The geologic forces that generated volcanoes in the eastern United States millions of years ago no longer exist. Through plate tectonics, the eastern United States has been isolated from global tectonic features (tectonic plate boundaries and mantle hotspots) that drive volcanic activity. New volcanic activity is therefore not possible now or in the near future,” the geological study states on its website.

However, the US Geological Survey has not completely closed the door to a volcanic eruption. “If you wait several hundred million years, maybe,” the site says.

Do people live on the New Jersey volcano?

Of course, why not? The remains of Beemerville Volcano offer some of the best views in northwest New Jersey. At least that’s what we’re told.

There are private homes in the area, but no public land.

“It’s not a park. It’s not available to the public,” Domber said.

A teacher spoke with The Star-Ledger in 2005 about purchasing a five-acre plot of land on the site, two decades earlier, before realizing that the stellar views that captivated her were those from the top of a volcano.

She checked with the U.S. Geological Survey before proceeding with the construction of her home.

What sealed the deal, she explained, was learning that the eruption hadn’t erupted in more than 400 million years.

“I’m comfortable with it,” she told the newspaper.

What is a volcanic neck?

A volcanic neck, like that of New Jersey, is defined by the National Park Service as the solidified remains of a volcano’s conduit and plumbing system that persist after the rest of the volcano has disappeared.

There are volcanic passes, sometimes called volcanic plugs, throughout the country. They are found in at least 10 national parks, including the Grand Canyon.

When was the Beemerville volcano discovered?

The New Jersey volcano was discovered around the turn of the 20th century, but no one seems to know an exact date.

“We are not sure when or how the area’s volcanic origins were first identified, but some of the earliest geological work on the Beemerville Volcanic Complex dates back to the early 1900s, Domber and Weremeichik said in an email. .

Is there anything left of a volcanic eruption in New Jersey?

Again, there is some uncertainty.

Nepheline syenite, a rock, is found in the area. The only other places it is found in the United States is found in Texas and Arkansas.

It is impossible to know whether the rock’s presence is the result of volcanic ash or flow dating back to 420 million years ago, geologists said.

“Nepheline syenite is present and part of the Beemerville Volcanic Complex, but we are unsure of the type of eruptive material produced as there is no evidence of volcanic ash or flows from Rutan Hill,” Domber said and Weremeichik in an email.

Is there a road leading to the volcano?

Yes. It’s called Volcanic Hill Road.

Is there anything we can learn from Beemerville Volcano?

Yes, in a global way.

“Geologists are always looking for modern analogues to explain the things we see in the geological record. Like almost all of the geology we have in New Jersey, the presence of the Beemerville Volcanic Complex reminds us that on a geological scale, New Jersey was very different than it is today,” Domber said .

“Where we are today could once have been on top of a mountain range, under the ocean, covered in ice, or where dinosaurs could have walked on. Geology gives us a historical view of the world that extends far beyond humans,” Domber said.