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Published: March 13th 2012
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Day 3
Coso volcanic field in the foreground, the cinder cone source (Red Hill) in the background. Day 3!
I’ll start by closing out last night’s log…. We made it to our campgrounds where there was a little diner opened for us to grab a quick bite. I got a bacon cheeseburger and the best tasting beer I’ve had in quite some time. It was just a Sierra Nevada, but after a long day in the field it tasted like nectar of the gods. The best part of it all was I was able to get 3G at the exact moment the Sabres were headed into a shootout vs. Ottawa. When Ennis netted the game winner, I cheered in solitude and raised my glass!
Weeeeeeeee (are currently driving on a bumpy road, so I ‘m leaving the typo for effect) got back to set up camp. My tent is in kind of rough shape from being a veteran of several trips to Jamboree in the Hills, so I decided to give sleeping out under the stars one more shot. This time, I had a few, put on a hoodie, stayed up late, and slept like a baby. Because there was a broken tent in the group, my tent ended up getting used by a few people.
Day 3
Fossil Falls. Water cutting back through preexisting volcanic deposit. They were thankful….. at first. Then the whole thing collapsed on them, wrapping them up like a puppies that can’t figure out how to get out from under the covers. Eventually they gave up trying to get up and just slept under a collapsed tent. Ohhh Columbia goes camping. I made a fire and kicked it with Meg for a few hours before crashing out.
Alright, onto today. Our first stop was in the Coso Volcanic field at Fossil Falls. Much like both their names indicate, the Coso Volcanic Field is an expansive field with 38 monogenetic, basaltic volcanoes. There is, however, a bimodal presence of rhyolite as well. This is common in extensional regimes. When the crust stretches, it inherently thins which allows the magma to melt the crustal rocks forming rhyolite. When you couple that with the volcanic eruptions and conduits which permit the basalts to bubble to the surface, that’s where our bimodal presence occurs.
A short hike through the field led us to Fossil Falls. As its name suggests, these were waterfalls that have long since dried. During the Pleistocene, the climate was significantly wetter. When the rivers damned and lakes overflowed, water spilled
Day 3
Vesicles in Basalt from gas escaping in the cooling rock. Notebook for scale over and carved away the preexisting volcanic deposits. This geomorphology left behind a beautiful landscape (pictures of the waterfall and volcanic deposits attached). Interesting note about the basaltic outcroppings is their polygonal jointing from when they cooled. This cooling process also constricted the rock squeezing out gases that were trapped inside leaving the surface of the rocks covered in vesicles. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, “the view was phenomenal”.
Our next stop was just to snap a couple photos from a bird’s eye view of the remaining water left in the basin. The lake is called “Little Lake”, but is certainly appreciable in size. Large enough, in fact, to even accumulate a few white caps on this windy desert day. From here we were able to clearly see the source of the basalt deposit, a cinder cone volcano known as “Red Hill”. Also, it was our first panoramic view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They certainly don’t disappoint! We’re picking up some chow now, Darwin Falls in a bit! It’ll be nice to compare an active waterfall with the geologic aftermath of one of its predecessors.
Darwins Falls were spectacular! On our way up we saw
Day 3
"Little Lake". Red Hill and Sierras in the background. a great outcropping the included a dike. Dikes are igneous intrusions cutting through existing deposits. In this case, the dike cut through layered volcanic deposits (photo). Once on foot, we actually ran across another, longer one that snaked through the layers, also an impressive picture. I was lagging behind the group a bit just taking my time looking at rocks, which was nice because Meg was doing the same thing and she knows significantly more about what I was looking at than I did. Pretty sweet personalized tour all the way to Darwin’s Falls! We met up with the group again at the top of the falls, and snapped some great shots. An actual spring fed desert oasis! Even in the arid climate it cycles water year round that seeps from a spring in the local water table. Pretty warn down after a long day, and wanting to save some daylight for setting up camp, it’s time to head back for dinner and a beer!
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