Fire and Ice Feature

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DECEMBER 2009 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM | 19

In the Southwestern desert, a frozen

cavern caused by an ancient eruption

greets visitors with its chilly beauty.

meetsFIREice

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n caption caption caption caption NEW MEXICO

RamahH

AT A GLANCE

The emerald color o the ice comes romgreen-blue algae deposits mixed with water.

While driving south on Highway 53 near Ramah, New Mexico,

about 130 miles west of Albuquerque, my cell phone alerts me

that I no longer have any service.

All Ive seen for the last half hour is the perpetual atness

of desert land, but Ponderosa Pines start popping up as I

progress farther down this windy route. It quickly becomes

clear that I am approaching a remote natural wonder.

An Incredible Journey

As Im rounding one of the bends, an old cartoonish sign

appears, showing a painting of a man wearing a cowboyhat and mining a mountain-like structure twice his size. An

arrow on the sign points me toward a gravel road leading

to northwestern New Mexicos unusual

combination of re and ice: The Bandera

Volcano and Ice Cave.

The high desert here is a sere brown,

and rugged, and seems to be wearing a

scraggly three-day-growth of evergreen

trees. Banderas classic cinder cone rises

above its surroundings, with a crater 1,400

feet across and nearly 800 feet deep.

Modest, as volcanoes go, but then its

by Monica Derevjanik


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only 10,000 years old geologically

speaking, merely a baby. Bandera

is a breached volcano. During its

eruptive creation, part of the lava

began heading sideways instead of

upward, dislodging a section of thecone as it went on its ery way.

Four miles of gravel path later, a

cabin-like trading post emerges. Its

antique exterior matches the dated

sign I saw earlier, and I think of

families rambling around in their

RVs to discover kitschy roadside

landmarks. The kelly-green faade

of the cabin stands out from the

brownish surroundings,

especially in the bright

sunlight. A screen doorreveals a gift shop lled

with all kinds of touristy

relics, from kachinas

to choke cherry jam

(made from ingredients

found at the base of

the volcano). A slightly

eroded, red-bearded,

one-man totem pole

stands next to the posts screen door

as if guarding the tour guides inside.

Past the door, I nd three

employees and Elyse, a warmhearted,

petite woman with glasses and

long hair pulled neatly back. She is

quick to explain the hour-long hike,

holding up a map and delicately

tracing over the suggested path with

her nger while keeping her smiling

eyes on me. Her soothing voice

makes you feel that theres nothing

to worry about. If youve ever feared

hiking up a volcano, Elyse could

calm you down.

She suggests the trail to thevolcano as a good warm-up before

heading into the ice cave, and off

I go. I worried about not wearing

hiking boots, but the incline isnt

nearly as bothersome to my feet

as the elevation is to my lungs. Im

already 8,000 feet above sea level,

and another 150-foot increase makes

my chest tighten.

Traces of Lavas Past

Located in the heart of the Zuni-

Bandera volcanic eld, the volcano

erupted, leaving lava fragments on

the trail that look like a blackened

coral reef washed up on desert soil.

Some of the lava forms tall standing

structures known as spatter cones which appear after an eruption when

lava melds together into clots and

creates steep formations as it falls

back to Earth.

At the end of the trail I nd myself

at the Banderas breach (the opening

on its side), where I can peer into the

core of the volcano without heading

to the top. I observe the swooping,

sandy funnels inside the

volcano. Its oor is speckled

with the same PonderosaPines I saw earlier. These

trees are probably safe

from any future volcanic

destruction, according to

geochemist Nelia Dunbar,

who works with the New

Mexico Bureau of Geology

and Mineral Resources to

study the area.

People have tried to understand

if these little volcanoes tend to erupt

only once or do they erupt many

times, Dunbar says. And what the

Zuni-Bandera told us is that most of

these volcanoes only erupt once.

The Bandera is a basaltic volcano,

made out of ne-grained, dark rock,

which also decreases the possibility

of another eruption, says Fraser Goff,

Ph.D., a geologist at The University

of New Mexico.

Underground Icicles

Hiking down the 69 wooden steps

into the ice cave is a lot like plantingyourself face rst in a freezer after

a sweaty hike in July. The air is

frigid year round even in intense

Southwest summer heat. My eece

jacket was too warm for the trek to

the volcano, but now its a welcome

blanket warding off the frosty air.

Three ights later, I descend from

the caves opening and am fully

immersed in a chilled enclosure.

Coarse, dark lava rock makes up

the walls and ceiling, but the oor

Evergreen trees dot the volcanos

foor, but experts say theyre most

likely sae rom uture eruptions.

FAST FACTThe BanderaIce Cave nevergets warmer

than 31 degrees,preserving its20-oot-thick

rozen foor.


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DECEMBER 2009 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM | 21

MoRE To SEE ALoNG HIGHwAy 53

Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary

378 Candy Kitchen Road,

Ramah, NM (505) 775-3304

More than 50 wolves and wolfdogs have been rescued from the

exotic pet market and brought

to this refuge. Your tour guide

will not only tell you about the

behaviors of these wolves,

but also how they ended up at

the sanctuary. Check out the

photographers tour that will

allow you take up-close photos

of the reserves furry friends.

Ancient Way Cafe and Outpost

4018 Ice Caves Road,

Ramah, NM (505) 783-4612

Hungry for some New Mexicancuisine made in part from locally

grown produce? Chef and artist,

Maqui, and pastry chef, Red

Wulf, will serve just that. You can

enjoy everything from burgers

to fresh fruit pies in the quirky

dining area or out on the porch

for some sunshine. And if youre

looking for some shut-eye, you

can stay in one of their cabins.

is glossy, the color of pale emeralds.

That same shade of green is layered

along the lava. Sword-length icicles

hang overhead, poised to fall onto

the thick oor beneath.

This spectacular cave was forgedafter the Bandera erupted. Lava

created a system of tubes stretching

17.5 miles from the volcanos core.

Basically the lava ow started

to solidify around the top and the

edges, but the middle part stayed

hot and the magma drained out of

the hole, says Shari Kelley, a eld

geologist at the New Mexico Bureau

of Geology and Mineral Resources.

Parts of these hollowed-out lava

structures, including most of themain tube, collapsed, she says, but

the one part that remained standing

formed this cave. The glistening,

blue-green ice covering its oor

like a gleaming frozen river began

accumulating about 3,400 years ago,

and is now 20 feet deep in places.

The cave is a natural freezer: The

temperature never rises above 31

degrees year round. In fact, the

Pueblo Indians once called the cave

Winter Lake.

It occurs in other lava tubes

around the world, says Jeff Alford,

who manages the Bandera property.

But ... its still pretty rare because


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it needs all of the

right things to come

together.

The right

things minerals,

weather patterns andgeometrics did in

fact come together in

this case. A 50-foot

opening at the top of

the cave allowed rain

water to leak inside

the current ice cave

over time, slowly transforming its

oor into a 20-foot-deep platform of

solid, green ice. The chartreuse color

developed as water mixed with Arctic

algae deposits.With the water deposit in place,

the cave needed something to trap

cold air inside so that ice could form.

Cold air is denser than warm air and

is more likely to stay inside the cave,

and the narrow opening also helps

prevent warm air from entering.

Our prevailing winds are out of

the southwest, and [the cave has]

got that Northeast-facing

opening, Kelley says. Im

sure that there is some

turbulence around the

entrance there, but the

geometry of the openingkeeps the spring winds from

mixing down in there and

scouring that cold air out.

Preserving the Paradox

One more key factor has

preserved the ice structure:

The composition of porous lava

rocks is also effective at trapping

cold air inside the cave, Kelley

explains, keeping the ice from

melting. Its made up of mineralsthat would not conduct heat

nearly as well, she says. It might

not have formed in a sandstone

or a limestone cave because both

sandstone and limestone are very

good conductors of heat.

Im warming up rapidly as I hike

up the steps out of the ice cave. Its

only 60 degrees in the sun, but the

contrasting warmth is instant and

intense. My eece jacket is folded

over my arm once again as I go

back up those three creaky ights of

wooden stairs.

In the car on the way back, I spotthe trading post, nestled quietly

between pines and that totem-pole

statue. There are four people inside

just sitting at the foot of a volcano

and its sister ice cave like its not at

all a big deal.

And that kind of unassuming

nature is the most interesting aspect

of this place. You walk up an easy

trail and nd yourself in the core

of a volcano or walk down a ight

of handmade stairs and nd afrozen cavern coddled by the same

material that would have destroyed it

thousands of years ago. It makes you

wonder what other mysteries await

just beyond that bend in the road. n

For more information about New

Mexicos Bandera Volcano and Ice

Cave, visit icecaves.com.

The dry trail leads visitors to

the volcano, where an eruption

10,000 years ago helped to

create a rozen cavern.

Hiking downinto the

cave is a lot

like plantingyoursel

ace frst ina reezer.

Go online or more photos o this geological wonder.

Fire and Ice Feature

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