Week 7 – Jacob Fisher – Ubehebe Crater

The Ubehebe Craters is a collection of maars formed during eruptions of alkali basalt along a fault on the flanks of Tin Mountain in Death Valley. The largest of these craters is the Ubehebe, a .5 mile across 600-foot deep maar surrounded by a tuff ring.

Ubehebe Craters in Death Valley National Park [PHOTO: https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/short-story-ubehebe-crater-death-valley-national-park By, Duane Champion]

On the walls of the crater, you can clearly see the stratum.

Sediment stripes on the walls of the Ubehebe crater [PHOTO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ubehebe-walls.jpg By, Elizabeth Saxton Henry]

I can clearly see the different layers of reddish-orange, tan, with gray and black sediments on top post eruption. I would be interested to know what a geologic map would have as the pre eruption geology; it looks like in my second photo that is some faulting between the tan and reddish-orange layers. I am sure the current day area is marked on geologic maps as pyroclastic flow.

References

Global Volcanism Program, 2013. Volcanoes of the World, v. 4.8.8 (17 Apr 2020). Venzke, E (n.d.). Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 23 Apr 2020. https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=323160.