Week 6 - Geological Interpretations

Sutter County, CA.

Snow covered slopes of Sutter Buttes. fineartamerica.com

Sutter County, CA is where a mountain range called the Sutter Buttes lies, in the middle of the large California Valley, there is remnants of an ancient volcano about 1.6 million years old. The mountain range sticks out like a sore thumb and is called "The smallest mountain range in the world" according to livescience.com.

I would like to know more about the land around the volcano to try to determine if the volcano was formed as a result of subduction or if it was made from a hotspot before the crust underneath collided with the North American plate. Since there is sedimentary rock in the Valley, does the volcano contain that same rock where lava pushed its way through? Are there any other ancient volcanos like this one in the valley area? Is the soil around this ancient volcano different from other soil in the valley?

A View of the ancient volcano from the International Space Station. livescience.com

n.d. (9/04/2012) The smallest mountain range in the world, livescience.com. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/22912-smallest-mountain-range-photo.html