Sunset Crater

-Sunset Crater hike -Aa not pahoihoi -Ground up, it makes nice fertile soil -young pinion pine forest -Native Americans used to live near then and moved away -legends of it being too active? -oldest eruption – 600,000 years ago – Indian village in it? -last eruption 1100 AD – remembered in legends of the Wupatki, -lichen breaks down volcanic rock to create soil -Spatter cones, cinder cones, lava flows, lava tubes, volcanic peaks (missing top?) -Sunset crater – one of 400 or so cinder-cone volcanoes that dot this small region. -Woodpeckers that put nuts in trees? – harvest bugs -surprisingly very active?? - Several mountains in this area are clustered together. They appear to have been, at one time, a single giant volcano standing about 16,000 feet high. -“Although history records that Sunset Crater formed 900 years ago, potassium-argon dating of the rock gave an excessively old age. Two samples of the lava flow yielded “ages” of 210,000 and 230,000 years! The explanation offered by S.J. Reynolds and others (Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology Bulletin 197) is that argon gas was retained in the rocks as they cooled. Because argon-40 would normally be considered to have formed by radioactive decay of potassium-40, these rocks appear excessively old. M2

A 40-minute hike across one of the frozen lava flows gives the visitor an impression of the magnitude of volcanic power. Sometime following the lava flows, the volcano belched out great volumes of cinder, which are pieces of once molten lava which congealed as they made contact with air, and fell, literally as a shower of rocks over an area of 120 square miles. Sunset Crater is made from a loose pile of such cinders that is too unstable upon which to build. This is why there are no roads to the top.”

Sunset Crater: Record your observations at the Visitor Center;

What kind of volcanic activity/volcanic rock do you see here compared with Craters of the Moon?

Volcanic History - What Can We Learn About Volcanic Eruptions of the Past? -Bill Hoesch – Supervolcanoes (paper at icr?, email Dave – Steve Austin involved in this) -Morrison and Chinle originated from California (maybe Owens Valley (N Central CA)) -Yosemite – Granitic Uplift – rock layers upended to the East (Part of the Sierra Nevadas maybe) -Redwall Limestone tilted up (and other layers) -Owen’s Valley east of Yosemite – Mona Lake – Salt -A lot of volcanism in Owen’s Valley (still active) -Chemical signature of Morrison Formation at Owen’s Valley -Size Distribution -What caused this hot spot -Tremendous amount of heat causing the granitic uplift -Uplift of Yosemite, Owen’s Valley Volcanism and Morrison Formation interconnected? -Enigma – Yosemite uplift old M5

-Morrison 140-180 mya -Owen’s Valley Volcanism - recent -Washboard rock – volcanic plug (like Devil’s Tower) -near Cimarron – during purchase of the property – lake moved to YWAM property -La Sal Peaks – Lacolith peaks – volcanic material pushed up but did not break the surface -Basalt Flows through Idaho and Washington (Columbia Plateau Basalts) -Huge Flows of Materials

-up to a mile thick -Mt St Helens doesn’t compare -Columnar Basalt flows have no modern examples of formation -100,000 square miles covered – 40,000 cubic miles of material -Largest historic lava flow – Iceland – 1783 – 200 square miles, less than 3 cubic miles of material -Spread really quickly so as not to cool off -Days or Hours of travel -Columnar Basalt

-Yellowstone Hot Spot -Yellowstone Eruptions 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago. -Craters of the Moon, Island Park, next is Red Lodge, MT -Bottom of Yellowstone Lake rising – 2007ish? -San Francisco Peaks – volcanic uplift from lava flows -Flagstaff on Southern flanks -Humphrey’s peak – highest -last episode – 600,000 years ago for lava flow -Archaeologist Hannah Rush – found remnants of Ancient Native American Villages under West Flanks of lava flows??? -Tour Guide with ICR -Top completely missing – painted desert east of there – Chinle – not supposed to be connected…

-Grand Mesa

-Petrified Trees in Yellowstone (Yellowstone Guide, p. 160-161) -Specimen Ridge and Amethyst Mountain -most upright – thought to be successive forests over tens of thousands of years -“The stumps are usually barkless and limbless and most of the roots are broken off abruptly. The trees appear to have been broken off from their roots, transported, and deposited (often upright) in beds one above another.

Additionally, matching tree ring patterns for trees on several different levels have been found, indicating the trees lived at the same time. Similar growth ring patterns suggest the different levels were deposited in rapid succession over a short time period. M8

If each level represented a separate volcanic episode, we would expect the mineral content of each level to be quite different. But the mineral content is actually consistent throughout the whole sequence, indicating there was only one major volcanic event occurring within a fairly short time frame.

Every modern forest has its complement of plants, animals, and soils that make up a supportive ecosystem. Yet the petrified “forests” of Yellowstone lack all of these…

…In fact, there are about 200 species of trees, ranging from tropical to cool temperate climates, mixed throughout the layers.”

Wupatki Ruins

-group investigation time -blow-hole -sports arena – religious significance – Mayan in central America story? -"America's oldest apartment house"? -3 stories, 100 rooms -varying pottery – indicate major trade in the area – all the way to Mexico and Central America -thrived in harsh (dry) environment -Egypt and elsewhere being more wet in the past. -Spring that ran and when blasted no longer runs (or did it run out long before, maybe due to earthquake, which sent people away) -Native Americans incorporated the natural rock outcroppings in their architecture. -Volcanic rock? -How many ruins? Thousands? -Pueblo ruin abandoned before 1250 AD -Anasazi -- Navaho for "Ancient Ones" -Anasazi Culture -Beautiful basketry and pottery with geometric designs -Hunting, gathering, dry land farming -Metate -- grinding stones Most likely animists (i.e. believe plants, animals, wind, rocks, people all have life consciousness and indwelling spirits; spirits appeased with dances and ceremonies) -Kivas -- circular buildings used for religious and social events -Sipapu -- symbolizes entrance to spirit world -Decline of culture -Implications in creation/evolution debate -These people had sophisticated culture -- not primitive -Connection with Tower of Babel (Ancient pagan religions and New Age) -Flood legends in many cultures (Havasupai)

-“Wupatki Pueblo, called “Tall House” because of its three-story units, may be North America’s oldest apartment building. It contains some 100 rooms, a large kiva, and a ball court. The uncovering of the ball court in 1965 gave clear evidence of the influence from the Hohokam, and Mexico to the south. The ball court, an open-air structure where players propelled a rubber ball around a court, originated in Mesoamerica. The game, at various times, was played over a wide area of the Americas, and, here at Wupatki, reached its northern-most limit. Also, such trade items as copper bells, shells, and macaws indicate contact with the Hohokam and, possibly, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Examples of fine architecture and decorative walls can be seen at Wupatki. The area was abandoned by 1250 A.D., shortly before the Great Drough of 1276- 1297.” -Austin

-Overview of painted hills again

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