The crater of Jabal Al-Bidaa, located in the middle of the black Harrat Khaybar in the Madinah region, stands out among the other volcanoes that the region is famous for. This is due to its attractive white color and because it is composed of volcanic comendite rocks, making it one of the rarest geological features in the Arabian Peninsula. It is approximately 2,000 meters above sea level, and many desert plants and trees grow inside it.
Abdulaziz bin Laboun, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Geologists Cooperative, said that Jabal Al-Bidaa is one of the rarest volcanoes in the Arabian Peninsula and the world. The volcanic field of Harrat Khaybar contains three rare volcanoes, namely, Jabal Al-Bidaa, Jabal Al-Abyad and Jabal Al-Mansaf. They consist of light gray acidic volcanic rocks and volcanic glass that exploded thousands of years ago and gave it its white color. The site has become a destination for explorers, researchers and tourists from all over the world.
Bin Laboun said that the classification of volcanic rocks is based on the degree of crystallization of their grains and the percentage of silica and other minerals present in them. Rocks are acidic when they contain high silica and appear glassy, bubbly and fine-grained such as rhyolite, andesite, tracite and comendite. They are alkaline when silica levels are low and pyroxene and olefin minerals are high, such as basalt.
He added that the Kingdom is one of the Arab countries with the highest number of lava fields: Saudi Arabia has 23 lava fields, while Yemen has 7, Syria 6, Sudan 5 and Libya 2. Harrat Khaybar is the largest in the Kingdom with an area of about 21,500 sq. km.
