2009 Death Valley Visit: Ubehebe Crater 1

Destination 3:

Ubehebe Crater

Part One: The Main Crater (Maar)

I had always believed that Ubehebe Crater is 2,000 years old. That is what the official sign at the crater says:

But Wikipedia says it is more likely between 5 and 7 thousand years old, and that Native American artifacts in the area suggest 6,000 years.

OK, still pretty recent stuff, considering geologic time.

Looking at the above photo in the official sign shows other craters to the south of Ubehebe. The one with the little cone inside is Little Hebe, and the cone inside it is a spatter cone, where magma actually came to the surface (as it cooled it became basalt).

Most of the rock in the larger crater is bedrock. Magma came close to the surface, contacted underground water, and the steam-explosion took out a chunk of rock a half mile wide and 500 feet deep.

That was a big bang. And apparently there were humans nearby who likely witnessed it: hopefully from a safe distance!

The type of volcanic feature seen here is a "maar." The black rock around the edges is volcanic rock, and there is surprisingly little of it.

When you look at these tiny flowers in the next photo you can see they are growing in a mixture of volcanic rock fragments and pink and white limestone fragments, as one would expect given this steam-explosion caused volcanic terrain:

The extent of the volcanic zone is impressive. Here are two views of the area north of Ubehebe, with yet several more smaller maars visible (they can be found by looking for the white spots in their centers, where water from rain comes to a stop and evaporates, leaving behind its salt and dust loads).