Death Valley – The Split Cinder Cone
Attention!
It is not allowed to leave the trail. The Split Cinder Cone is in a national park, everything is protected so please do not collect any rocks or disturb the environment of the Split Cinder Cone. Please leave everything just as you found it.
A visit to Death Valley is potentially full of danger! Considering that it is very hot and dry here and that you have to take a walk in this area.
It will be the best that you never walk alone and always take enough to drink with.
Introduction
Death Valley is located in the Mojave Desert to the east of the Sierra Nevada, with the larger part of the park in California and to a smaller extent in Nevada. It`s not only a valley of extremes, but also of differences. The Death Valley is the hottest place on earth and the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The valley is surrounded by several ranges with up to 11,049 feet high Telescope Peak. Most of the tourist attractions of the valley and those of the national park are based on geological features. Few other locations in the world offer as many opportunities to observe, explore and experience geological phenomena. The entire area reflects a long, varied and complex geological development of the region. One of these contemporary witnesses the geological development of the valley is the Split Cinder Cone. At first glance an inconspicuous low hill 3.5 miles northwest of Ashford Mill and 1.7 miles west of the paved main road in the southern Death Valley.
Birth of a cinder cone
The origin of Death Valley began about 23 million years ago due to plate tectonics and especially the movement of the North American Plate over the Pacific Plate. This continues until today and this is the reason for the emergence of the phenomenon presented here. In the Middle Pleistocene, less than 300,000 years ago, a chamber filled with liquid basalt and solid crystals under the Death Valley. The increasing pressure the magma rose further to the surface. The lava makes its way through the weakest rock under the earth’s crust. Because of the Death Valley fault, the lava came from the valley floor to the surface. The lava shot out so quickly through the crumbling rock of the valley floor that it gushed as a fiery fountain from scorching lava and gas. A lava fountain threw volcanic bombs of molten basalt hundreds of feet into the air. The main stream of lava was probably close to 2200 ° F, but quickly cooled off again and solidified scoria after reaching the earth's crust. Most of the ash fell down near the central vent, thereby allowing the construction of the small cone. The cinder cone was probably built within a few years.
The "Split" Cinder Cone
Although the volcano extinguished after a few years, the geological activity that created it still exists. The fault zone extends over the entire length of Death Valley all the way to "Fish Lake Valley" in Nevada. Although the two plates are moving continuously, volcanic eruptions and seismic activity along the Death Valley fault zone are rather low and sporadic and practically non-existent. Whenever two plates converge they can collide, pull apart, or scrape past each other. This builds up pressure in the rocky crust, until it just does not work anymore. The rocks move or break in opposite directions along a more or less flat fracture surface as a fault. Here at the southern Death Valley fault zone is called a strike slip fault before. The Split Cinder Cone is the best proof of this fault zone in the southern part of the valley. The shattering force of this very active fault, which exists since over 3 million years, moved some of the volcano in the southeast, while the other part was pulled to the northwest. Finally, the crust could no longer resist and the cinder cone was torn into two pieces. Every time, when the plates move, the two hills are pulling outwards. One part moved into the southeast and the other part in to the northwest. Consequently, the upper part of the once symmetrical cone has moved approximately 300 feet from it`s origin. The Split Cinder Cone moves about 1 feet in 1000 years.
Make your way to the Split Cinder Cone. Answer the following questions and send us the answers here.
You can log immediately. If there is a problem we will contact you.
It would be great if you could upload a picture of you / your GPS with the Split Cinder Cone.
Questions:
1. Describe the rock of the volcano (color, weight, appearance) and how it differs from the surrounding country?
2. What is the angle of inclination of the cone?
3. Guess the height of the "volcano"?
4. Cite two other kinds of faults and explain briefly why these are non-existent at Split Cinder Cone !
Sources / pictures / further literature:
· Kious, Jacquelyne and Tilling, Robert: : This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics
· Miller, Marli B. and Lauren A. Wright. Geology of Death Valley National Park: Landforms, Crustal Extension, Geological History, Road Guides
· Sharp, Robert P. and Allen F. Glazner. (1997) Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley
· Draws: Nine&Dido
· https://maps.google.de/maps
· http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_National_Park;
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death-Valley-Nationalparkgoogle.de/maps?hl=de&tab=wl;
· http://digital-desert.com/death-valley/geology/sc3.html;
· http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deva/ftcin1.html;
· http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deform/gfaults.html#strikeslip
· http://www.palomar.edu/geology/DVWeb.htm#Split Cinder Cone
· http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/deva/ftcin2.html
Special Thanks to Charlie Callagan (Wilderness Coordinator, Death Valley National Park), who reviewed and approved this EarthCache listing.
Happy Hunting wünschen
