Posted on 01/23/2012 7:26:42 PM PST by george76
California's Death Valley, already one of the hottest places on Earth, may have the potential to get a whole lot hotter — and live up to its name in a surprising (and possibly scary) new way, according to new research.
Scientists have long known that the craters that pepper this dry landscape were formed by long-ago volcanic eruptions, triggered when hot magma ascending from inside the planet hit pockets of water.
Some researchers now think the area erupted far more recently than thought, meaning the parched swath of central California, home to desolate salt flats and scalding temperatures, could be primed for a follow-up.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ubehebe last erupted only 800 hundred years ago ?
Well, since I live only about 20 miles from Ubehebe Crater, I guess I’m doomed.
Death Valley is in "central California"?
I need some new maps.
“...meaning the parched swath of central California,...
I caught that, too.
Yeah, it doesn't get more "Eastern" California than Death Valley. Part of the park is in Nevada.
The Great Basin is a rift with blocks being thrust up and down, if you will. Death Valley is a garben or a block being thrust down between blocks that are being thust up. Lots of volcanic activity can be expected as evidenced by hot springs, etc. over time, Death Valley is sure to be active. That’s geologic time so I wouldn’t move just now.
A part of this is the horst possibly behind the Grand Canyon where a block was up thrust gradually all the while the Colorado River was cutting the canyon rapidly (once again, rapidly is a relative term). I recall there was a creationist article posted ridiculing geology for its denial of “the flood”. There have been any number of great (as in big) floods but they were likely of secondary importance in the Grand Canyon or Death Valley.
Wouldn't this effect occur with the Death Valley region as well? IOW, might the next explosive eruption appear farther to the east?
I'm sure you didn't mean 'garden'. So you meant 'graben?'
San Diego is almost east of Death Valley, I think.
Someone should tell the author of this piece, Sacramento in in the Central CA area. Death Valley is on the extreme eastern side of CA, literally on the Nevada border.
RN: 119.82194°W
LA: 117.83361°W
Death Valley is on the *extreme* eastern border, sitting on Nevada's front yard.
Death Valley is not considered central CA by any stretch of the imagination.
Is the volcanic area of Death Valley connected to the volcanic activity at Mammoth Mountain?
I think Mammoth shows more potential for becoming active in our lifetime than Death Valley. It vents some gas, and there are little earthquakes in the area from time to time.
Just peachy! Another doomsday volcano!
How do you suppose the California Legislature is going to tax it?
Sorry, when you have a rift valley forming like the one in the Great Basin, horsts are blocks of crust that are pushed up and garbens are blocks that are pushed down as the crust at either margin are moving away from each other. So Death Valley is a garben where the hot stuff becomes closer to the surface. I think that the Kiabab (Sp?) Plateau is an example of a horst. Horsts and garbens are always next to each other. One goes up the other goes down and the two edges go east and west. From Google Earth, the African Great Rift Valley is the easiest to see. Rifting explains volcanos not above edge of the plate subduction zones.
So Cal is LA, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern and Imperial Counties.
North of SF is Northern California. Death Valley is in Inyo County Central CA.
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