Big Cave is a small shield volcano located in northern California in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of the Pacific Northwest.

[4] The eastern boundary of the Southern Cascades known as the Hat Creek Graben region is cut by many faults and incorporates several tectonic provinces and volcanoes.

[4] Big Cave lies at the northern end of a belt of late, Quaternary volcanoes moving north from Lassen Peak.

[1] It is a small shield volcano, likely formed during the Holocene epoch, though scientists from the United States Geological Survey are unsure.

[2] It could also be from the late Pleistocene epoch; M. A. Clynne thought it may be of similar age to the nearby Cinder Butte volcano, at 38,000 ± 7,000 years.