Ubehebe Crater has a paved parking lot and is accessed along a
paved. A short walk brings you to the edge of the crater. The walk
down to the crater floor is easy, but the climb back up is
challenging.
As with all locations in National Parks, everything is
protected, so leave it as you found it. Ubehebe (pronounced
YOU-bee-HEE-bee) Crater is the largest and youngest crater in the
Ubehebe Volcanic Field. At least twelve other craters can be found
in two nearby clusters. All of these craters are thought to have
formed as the result of steam explosions.
The steam was created as a small amount of magma came into
contact with groundwater. As the groundwater boiled, forming steam,
pressure built up. At some point, the pressure of the steam
exceeded the weight and cohesion of the rocks above it and
exploded. The overlying rock was ejected up and out, covering the
area with debris. This kind of eruption is called a pheatomagmatic eruption. Craters formed through this
process are called maar craters.
The blast blew through 700 feet of the Navadu Formation covering
40 square kilometers of Death Valely. The Navadu Formation is made
up of sand and conglomerate deposits that were deposited in a
fluvial and/or lacustrine environment between 6.2 and 12.1 million
years ago.
Looking at the sides of the crater these layers can be easily
seen, but are not continuous around the entire crater. Different
colored layers, most notably an orange and yellow, layer come
together at a fault. Several fault zones converge in the vicinity
of the Ubehebe volcanic field. Some of the more significant fault
zones include the Tin Mountain fault, the main trace of the the
Death Valley Fault, the Ubehebe Crater Fault, the Ubehebe thrust.
These faults likely weakened the rocks in the Ubehebe Volcanic
Field making it easier for the steam to explode up through it.
Prior estimates of the age of the crater range from 10,000 to
1,000 years old. These estimates were based on the relationship of
approximately dated archeological artifacts and the ash fall and
stratigraphic relationships between the ash fall laayer and the
estimated age of the recent alluvium deposited on the valley floor.
None of these age estimates were precise.
Recently a piece of charcoal was located buried just below the
ash fall layer from Ubehebe Crater. This fragment was not only
radiocarbon dated to between 300 to 140 years ago it was also
identified as coming from salt bush, a native of the Death Valley
area.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :
- The text "GC2WCVB Ubehebe Crater – A Maar Crater" on the
first line
- One of the faults is visible on the side of the crater. Orange
banded rocks are next to yellow rocks. Which side of the crater is
this fault found?
- Describe type of rocks on the trail heading down into the
crater. How do those rocks relate to the explosion and crater
formation?
The following sources were used to generate this
cache:
- Sharp and Glazner, 1997. Geology Underfoot in
Death Valley and Owens Valley. Mountain Press Publishing Company.
Missoula, Montana
- Spear, 2009, Stephen G. Ph.D. Death Valley
Geology A Field Guide and Virtual Tour of the Geology of Death
Valley National Park and Environs, California and Nevada, Last
Updated August 25, 2009.
http://www.palomar.edu/geology/dvweb.htm.
- Machette, Michael, Margo L. Johnson, and Janet
L. Slate,editors 2001 Quaternary and Late Pliocene Geology of the
Death Valley Region: Recent Observations on Tectonics,
Stratigraphy, and Lake Cycles (Guidebook for the 2001 Pacific Cell
Friends of the Pleistocene Fieldtrip) USGS, Open-File Report 01-51
http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/djvu/OFR/2001/ofr_01_51.djvu
- http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1203-16-