Field Trip Stop 4: Interesting Volcanic and Intrusive Rocks Near Scotty's Castle
As the road to Scotty's Castle turns eastward (coming out from Death Valley) there is a low ridge with some interesting phenomena embedded in it such as pillow lava (where basalt flowed into water);
And around the corner the lava seems to have engulfed some reeds living at the water's edge, just as they do now (what follows are several photos giving different looks at these fossilized remains of ancient plant life, but first we see the basalt rock face we are going to take a closer look at):
Then we look at some fossil vegetation in several photos:
In some places the stems were white, and in some they were black, no doubt an artifact of their history since becoming encased in molten rock, Why did they not burn away completely? Good question. I suppose it has something to do with a lack of oxygen inside flowing lava, can't burn in the normal sense of the word without oxygen.
The setting is made more evident in this next photo which also shows a light-colored circular formation in the valley below. That is a remnant of the Mesquite Spring Tuff from a nearby volcanic eruption, and it is about 3.2 million years old. The two blue shiny things in the rock are a mystery, probably something on the lens?
Across the street from Scotty's Castle sits a limestone bed within the Ninemile Shale Formation, a part of the Ordovician period Pogonip Group of generally deep marine limestones. The rock is approximately 475 million years old:
East of Scotty's Castle once sat a small circular volcano that has been largely eroded away, leaving only its northern edge exposed:
In several places, more recent volcanic "ash" fell on this area (perhaps from the Timber Mountain Caldera to the east that created ridges like Yucca Mountain about 16 to 10 million years ago). It washed down fractures and is preserved in place:
The basalt wall shows several episodes of different molten rock outflows building the crater:
So, this is all around Scotty's Castle which is in a spring-fed water-rich setting where wild grapevines flourish:
Great place to get ice cream and soda after a long day's field trip!
Go back to 2006 Yearbook page (Item 13 has other Death Valley photo pages)
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