Historical Significance UBEHEBE CRATER

The crater was formed when magma migrated close to the surface and the heat of the magma caused groundwater to flash into steam, throwing large quantities of pulverized old rock and new magma across the stony draped across the valley floor. Ubehebe Crater is a large volcanic crater 600 feet deep and half a mile across. We often hear mistakenly that “Ubehebe” means “big basket”, but the Paiute name Ubehebe was first applied to the 5,678 ft. The magma rose through a fault that lies along the western base of Tin Mountain. Movement on this fault was responsible for uplift of the entire Cottonwood Mountains range. In 2012, new evidence suggested that the cra- ter may be as young as 800 years old, although this estimation was a lower bound, and it’s still possible the crater is much older than that.

Sergio Mares/ Landscape Architecture/ Spring 2019 Geographic Significance Cultural Significance

Ubehebe Crater, located near the northern end of , California, on a spur that extends north from Tin Mountain of the , and at a site slightly northwest from the elevation marked 3,925 feet on the Ballarat, California, quadrangle topographic sheet of the U.S. Geological Survey are two volcanic cones. The larger crater, nevertheless, is approximately 2,000 feet wide at the top and 500 feet deep. The smaller crater, Little Hebe is estimated to be 500 feet wide at the top and 150 feet deep. Due to the great porosity of the deposits, heavy rainfall goes into rather than over their surfaces - hence the clay accumulations at the bot- tom of the craters and it is only after chemical weathering of the fragments brings about some degree of consolidation that active dissection of the outer slopes of such cones takes place.

Nevada

The larger of the craters is well known locally, though it is not often visited by tourists. Very few people seem to be aware

Death Valley of the existence of the smaller crater which is higher up on the mountain. As Death Valley becomes increasingly popular and accessible to tourists through the construction of roads and provision of hotels, ever greater numbers of persons will discov- er these craters. One gets the impression when walking over the deposits that something pristine is being destroyed. It will be regrettable if no measures are taken to prevent visitors to these perfect geological monuments from trampling the deposits out of all semblance of their original condition.

UbehebeCraters