Logging Tasks
- Actually visit the location, and tell me everyone you are submitting answers for. Everyone should log within a week of the answer submittal, or they will need to log seperatly.
- At this location what is the difference between what you are standing on, and what you see in the valley to the East and Southeast.
- How can you tell the differences in the flows from here. and how many distinct flows (from different time periods) do you think you can see.
- Describe the differences you see in those flows.
- Add a photo of you from the location or of an identifiable item (paper with trackable name). Posting a photo pulled from the internet, or photoshopped will result in instant deletion.
There are many lava flows in the park. That happen in different time periods. Geologists have taken the time to map the park and have used many different methouds of determining all of the various flows that took place. Each flow has a slightly different mineral content, and lets a geologist know when those different flows took place.
Sunset cone
You are standing on the edge of the sunset cone, and north and west of here on the other side of the highway make up on of the earliest eras in the park. The sunset cone splashed a large amount of Lapilli (cinders about this area). That makes up the viewing area that you are at now. The flows took place abou 12,000 years ago (give or take) that is where much of the volcanic activity took place. You can see this just NE of you on this side of the highway. Though it is overrun with sagebrush and other plants.
Dating
Most of the flows that are below us fall in a time frame of about 2500 years ago. With a little bit of work you can look across the lava fields East and South east and identify a few different flows. You can visually see those flows. Somtimes flows are different in color, othertimes the lava itself is a different temperature so it flows differently. We also see that over the thousands of years winds blow and deposit dust and soil particles that assist in letting plants start growing in the flows. So different flows may have different plant life and different amounts of those plants growing on them.
Leave no Trace
Remember as you visit these sites to practice Leave No Trace. Please stay on existing trails and roads, and do not gather or take anything. We want these locations to be as good as you are seeing them for future generations. Take pictures and enjoy the locations, but leave the rocks and plants behind.
Information for this cache comes from "Geology of craters of the Moon" by Douglass Owen, and Sonja Melander; USGS geological map of the Inferno Con Quadrangle by Kuntz, Lefebvre, Champion and Skipp.