Crater Lake, Oregon

 Crater lake from the gift shop parking lot looking southeast. (copyright 2009)

Dead tree stump at the western overlook of Crater Lake (copyright 2009)

Since we are on a volcano kick lets talk about one of the most famous volcanic craters in the United States. No not Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Oregon. You will never see water so blue. It is 1943 ft deep, which makes it the deepest lake in the United States and the 9th deepest in the world. [1] It is so clean and clear you can drink from it. How did this beautiful lake get there? It is a story of fire and ice and water.

The earth’s crust is not stable. It doesn’t sit in one place. It moves on a lake of molten lava and has several tectonic plates. These plates float and move from place to place, albeit, very slowly. The Pacific Ocean plate is pulling apart at the middle creating a rift zone that allows the molten earth beneath to ooze to the top creating volcanic islands like those of Hawaii. These volcanoes are not usually explosive but just pour the lava over the plate creating a “shield” volcano. At the shores of the Pacific the plates that are moving east and west from the rift get subducted beneath the continental plates that are denser than the oceanic plates. At the edges of these subduction zones explosive volcanoes form what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Crater Lake sits in the eastern part subduction zone where the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the North American Plate.

The volcano that Crater lake sits in is named Mazama. It’s largest eruption happened at 7700 years ago and was probably the largest in North America for more than half a million years. After minor eruptions and a pause during the ice age that changed the consistency of the gases and molten rock beneath Mazama the Rhyolite in the core of the volcano mixed with water it became an explosive volcano known as a stratovolcano with many parasitic vents on its parameter. It isn’t the only stratovolcano in the area. It is part of a chain of volcanoes that is known as the Cascade Range that streatches from British Columbia to Mt Shasta in California.[2]

Mazama began growing over a half million years ago. At 8000 yag it stood at 12,000 feet. Then it blew with great force 7700 years ago. The ash from this explosion can be found as far away as Wyoming and Alberta Canada. It displaced so much ash from the insides of the volcano that the walls collapsed Mazama lost thousands of feet of mountain top in a span of a few short days. It didn’t stop erupting. Evidence of that is found within the Caldera in the form of Wizard Island and others that are under the water now. [3] Over several hundred years rain and snowmelt gathered in the deep Caldera which has no outlet or intake like many other lakes. Because of its depth and the clarity and cleanness of the water it is a deep azure blue. The water is completely replaced about every 250 years[4] Keeping the water in the lake is not a problem since it is in an area that gets large deep snowfalls. One of the pictures shown was taken in late May of 2011. The snow was so deep you had to stand on it to see the lake and the gift shop was hidden to the middle of the first floor with 4 foot basement walls below it. The heaviest snow fall occurred in 1971 was 37 inches. The average yearly snow fall is 488 inches or almost 41 ft. Per year and like most of Central Oregon you can see snow any time of the year with cold temperatures at night sometimes freezing even in July and August. [5]

Crater Lake in late May 2011 taken standing on about 20 feet of snow above the parking lot.

Can Mazam blow again? It is probable that it will become active as will many of the volcanoes of the Cascade Range since they are relatively young and many like Crater Lake show signs of geothermal activity. A submersible sent down to survey Crater Lake found such activity on the bottom of the lake.[6] It is not expected that it will be as large as the Caldera forming event and it won’t pose danger to areas below because the walls show no signs of collapse. However the mixture of rhyolite and water does make for an explosive combination. Earthquakes are another possibility in the area of up to a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale.

If you come to Oregon in June, July or August seeing Crater Lake is a must. It is one of those places that qualifies as otherworldly in it beauty and geology. Check ahead for the weather since sometimes the lake is shrouded in fog and you won’t be able to see it if it is. Also if you can, try to get tickets for the boat tour. It will give you a much different view than from the rim. You also will get to visit Wizard Island in the lake. Crater Lake Oregon is truly a sapphire gem surrounded by the green emeralds of ponderosa pines. It is well worth the visit.


[1] http://www.nps.gov/crla/historyculture/index.htm

[2] http://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/Geology.pdf

[3] http://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/Geology.pdf

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake

[6] http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/crater-lake-national-park/

Capulin Volcano

I have been away for a while with other pursuits.  You can see some of them at transcendentrunning.blogspot.com. But I am finally getting a chance to write for myself again.  Here is my newest installment.

 View from the rim trail Mt Capulin (copyright 2008)

You leave the flat Texas plains behind you and begin to move into a somewhat rolling area of green hills populated by deer, antelope and birds of prey. Soon after leaving Clayton, New Mexico behind, you begin seeing cone shaped mountains rise up out of the high desert floor and black lava flows on either side of the road. Up ahead there is a perfect shaped cone of a mountain. As you get closer you can see road encircling it. This is Mount Capulin. Standing as a sentry it guided those traveling the Santa Fe Trail.

The volcano rises 8182 ft above sea level and 1300 feet above the plains around it. The base of it is 4 miles around. The crater is 415 feet deep. Capulin got its name from the Spanish word for chokecherry. The plant grows prolifically on the slopes and in the crater. The area from Raton to Clayton New Mexico and up to the Colorado border is dotted with volcanoes. They make up a high ridge that was most inhospitable to the white settlers attempting the Santa Fe Trail. The volcanic field covers 8,000 sq miles from Trinidad, Colorado to Clayton New Mexico. Capulin was thought to have last erupted 60,000 years ago and was one of the most recent eruptions in the field. [1]

Capulin is a cinder cone. That means that the eruption was mainly of ash, rock and cinders that exploded upwards and then fell back to earth creating a cone. [2] The volcanoes of the area are considered dormant but it is believed that there could be an eruption at anytime though it is not anticipated in the near future.[3] The Capulin volcano is different from, say, Mount St. Helens because of its origins. Mount St. Helens sits on the boundary of a tectonic plate subduction zone; a place where the oceanic plate is sliding beneath (subducted) the North American Continental plate. Most of the volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire are this type of volcano. However, the Capulin volcano is considered a “hotspot” volcano. Volcanologists recognize only 49 volcanic "hot spots" in the world. A few other famous volcanic hot spots include the Azores, Reunion Island, Iceland, Hawaii, and parts of East Africa[4] These volcanoes are basaltic in nature rather than rhyolitic. Basaltic volcanoes are less explosive than those that contain rhyolite which becomes very explosive when water is added to the mixture.[5] The Yellowstone volcano started out as a Rhyolitic volcano and had one of the largest eruptions every known on earth. But once the rhyolite is spent as with Yellowstone, lesser eruptions can occur if the volcano sits over a hotspot with molten basalt rising through lithospheric fissures. These fissures continue to provide molten material over a long period of time. Tuzo Wilson, the Canadian geophysicist who discovered, the "hotspot" theory, believed that as the tectonic plate moves the volcano that has been erupting moves beyond the hotspot, another volcano begins to erupt behind the former one creating a chain of volcanoes now lead by extinct volcanoes. Hotspots are long-lived so they may create many successive volcanoes.[6] You see this with Hawaii where the younger island is to the south east and the older islands are located at the top of the chain. You can follow a trail of older volcanoes to the west of Yellowstone through Idaho and Oregon.[7] The Capulin Volcano is believed to be part of the Yellowstone hotspot. [8]

As you stand at the top of Capulin you get a bird’s eye view of this kind of volcanic history. Visiting Mt Capulin is easy. You just drive right up the road to the rim of the crater. It is an easy walk down into the crater. At the right time of year you will find chokecherries on the bushes that have grown up inside and along the volcanoes sides. There are many birds, especially humming birds in the area along with crows and birds of prey circling above. The rim trail is a longer trail. Make sure to heed the signs of snakes in the area. I did not see any rattle snakes but was chased by a non-poisonous snake that was very aggressive. I was merely walking down the rim trail and a couple was walking up and had scared the snake. It felt my heat signature and made a bee line for me. I moved backwards very quickly and it veered off at the last minute. Make sure that you take water with you since it is fairly warm and protected inside the crater and there is no water at the trail head. Also make sure you have gas in your car before you head up the mountain since there are no gas stations in Capulin. There is no camping inside the park. You will find a very small rv park in Capulin. [9]

Make sure to take your camera to capture the breathtaking views. Have fun!


[1] http://www.nps.gov/cavo/naturescience/index.htm
[2] http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/cavo/
[3] http://www.ohranger.com/capulin-volcano/geology
[4] http://www.cimarronnm.com/PDF/Capulin%20Volcano.pdf
[5] Alt, David and Hyndman, Donald W, Roadside Geology of Oregon, Mountain Press Publishing Company, copyright 1978
[6] http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/hotspots.html
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_%28geology%29
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_%28geology%29
[9] http://www.nps.gov/cavo/planyourvisit/index.htm