Lassen County

Lassen Volcanic National Park

(Lassen County)

After looking over our map we finally decided on our destination, Lassen National Volcanic Park.   It was the most obvious decision since we had already been in Lassen county viewing Sulphur works.  Sulphur Works is one of the hydrothermal areas in Lassen National Park and its caused all the volcanic activity in the area.  I will never forget the smell of the hydrogen sulfide coming from that bubbling mud pit.  It smelled just like rotten eggs!

We decided to hike up to the top of Lassen peak as a place to start our geological survey of the mountain.  It will be a good place for us to get a full view of the area as we begin.  It’s about a 4 hour round trip hike with a distance of about 5 miles and an elevation of about 10,500 feet.  I have requested a geological map of Lassen National Park, a soils resources report, and lastly a volcanic seismic activity report.  These three things will help us get a good idea of what has been currently going on in the area.

I chose the geological map first because this map is more than just a map.  It lists the general area just like an ordinary map but additionally has other bits of information.  In addition to regional volcanic rocks it lists water, slope movement and hydrothermal deposits. The next piece of data I requested was the land and soils report.  Although the geological map gives us a good idea of what areas have different minerals, it doesn’t go into as much detail as the soils report does.  The soils report will give us much more detail such as exact soil types and even the slope of the landscape.

The last request that I made was for a volcanic seismic activity report.  The volcanic activity in the Lassen area is due to the subduction of the Juan de Fuca oceanic plate beneath the North American Continental plate.  There is a lot of ongoing seismic and volcanic activity in the area although a lot can go unnoticed by most.  This report will tell us exactly when any seismic activity has taken place including the magnitude and depth. What a lot of people don’t know about seismic activity is that it is happening almost on a daily basis. Most people never notice it because it is usually at such a low magnitude.

All of these resources will help us get acquainted with the area as we start our interpretation.  It’s important that the team takes advantage of every resource available.  It is important to use the information that others have already contributed.  It will give our team the ability to add to further research instead of wasting time discovering what has already been found.  Looking forward to this and I’m sure it’s going to be fun! 

Reference: https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/lassen_volcanic_center/lassen_volcanic_center_geo_hist_41.html