The coordinates bring you to one of the entrances to a
lava tube in the Santa Clara flow. This flow is made up of
basalt that erupted from the cinder cones just north of the
park between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. This flow continues
from the cinder cones, then drops down into Snow Canyon and
filled the originally V-shaped valley, creating the relatively
flat valley floor.
Lava tubes form as the outer surface of a lava flow cools and
forms a hard crust. This outer crust insolates the molten lava
inside allowing the lava to flow further from its source than
surface flows. At the conclusion of the eruption,
the lava drains out the end of the tube leaving
a hollow linear cave.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :
- The text "GCZ9CC Lava Tube - Snow Canyon" on the first
line
- The number of people in your group.
- Is this the start, middle, or end of the tube
- How you determined that?
The above information was compiled from the
following sources:
- Higgins, Janice M. Geology of
Snow Canyon State Park, Utah in Geology of Utah's Parks and
Monuments, 2003 Utah Geological Association Publication 28 (second
edition) D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey, Jr. and P.B. Anderson,
editors