GEOGRAPHY 5Rachel Hultgren

Cinder HillCinder Hill is a cinder cone which is a mound “of basaltic scoria that forms by streaming gases that carry lava blobs and ribbons into the atmosphere to form lava fountains.” http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lava+flows+cinder+hill%2C+CA&view=detail&id=CB5D5FA31F9EEB72C823CC8AABA6891359EC026D&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR

The lava blobs usually harden before they hit the ground.

Cinder Hill

The height of the cone is determined by the length of the eruption.

There are 21 composite volcanoes around Little Lake, CA . The last eruption occurred 500 years ago. Cinders are still seen in the soil around the volcanoes today.

Lava Flows

Lava flows move very slowly and are the least hazardous part of an eruption.

Cinder Rock

Orange Lichen Moss

Lichen moss slowly breaks down the rock it grows on and is a combination of moss and fungus.

Yellow: Wallace’s Woolly Daisy Purple: Purple Mat

Extras and Wildlife

Basalt forms created by quickly cooling lava emerging from an eruption.

Fossil Falls

Fossil Falls

Metate Hole

The rocks in fossil falls are made of basalt. During the ice age the Owens River flowed south out of Owens Lake. An eruption of the nearby volcanoes dammed up the river and flowed over the falls creating the shapes of rock you now see.

Metate holes are created by small rocks oscillating in place due to rapid running water.

http://digital-desert.com/fossil-falls/Obsidian Flakes

Native American

“Workspace”

The obsidian flakes seen near Fossil Falls are actually signs of human life. Obsidian are actually big chunks of rock when they come out of the volcano but due to the Native Americans, that once inhabited the area, carving obsidian to use it for tools there are now millions of flakes of it everywhere.

This curved tall rock might have been the perfect shady workspace for tool production.

Part of Owens Dry Lake Bed

Petroglyphes

House Ring

Petroglyphes are carvings on rock walls of animals people and stories, in North America, carved by native Americans.

House rings are of what's left of Native American tipis; an area designated for their house surrounded by rocks.

Bush Lupine

Rattle Snake Weed

Wildlife

Block Scorpion

Whiptail LizardDesert Rose

Mormon Rocks

Mormon Rocks

Granular Structure

Mormon Rock is not one solid rock, it actually consists of many different kinds of rock all embedded together from water flow during rainy seasons. As you can see, the granular structure has many “layers”. These layers show the amount of rain the area got that year depending on how many different rocks you see.

Sedimentary rocks are present due to the fault/earthquakes.

San Andreas Rift Zone

Mormon Rocks Stream Bed

Dragon Lubber Grasshopper

Wildlife

The San Andreas Rift Zone is a natural stream bed that shows when the San Andreas slip fault has been active.

This fault is the boundary between the north and south plates of which are moving in opposite directions.

Diaz Lake

Diaz Lake

Lone Pine Fault

Diaz Lake was formed by the Lone Pine earthquake of 1872, opening a new spring and filling the area.

The 1872 Lone Pine earthquake on lone pine fault was one of the biggest recorded earthquakes to hit California.

Mt. Whitney Interagency Visitors Center

Mt. Whitney

Inyo-White Mountains and Alluvial Fan

Mt. Whitney is the mountain in North America with an elevation 14,505 feet.

On the sides of the mountain are Sequoia National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Inyo National Park.

The Inyo Mountains separate Owens Valley and Saline Valley.

Alluvial fans are created by debris falling down the mountain side.

Keogh Hot Spring

The Keogh hot springs are the largest natural hot springs on the eastern side of the sierras.

Mono Lake

Former Shorelines

Tufa Formations

The ancient shoreline can be prominently seen at the base of the hills surrounding mono lake (the white line beneath them). The old shoreline is where all the bushes and vegetation cease before you get to the beach, and the current shoreline is seen where the water stops and land begins.

Mono Lake’s water is filled with sale and alkali so fish no longer live in it and birds are more scarce than before. There were cold and hot springs all around the lake and when fresh water would flow in from outside of the like and mix with the diluted water over time it created tufas, which are made of calcium carbonate and lime.

Wildlife

OspreyViolet Green Swallow

Canadian Goose Black Bird

Convict Lake

Terminal Moraine

Convict lakeYellow: lateral moraineBlack: oldest rock formations in the sierras

Convict Lake was named after an incident in 1871 when a group of convicts escaped from prison and hid in the lake area.

The metamorphic rock layers are the oldest in the Sierras dating back almost 400 million years

Lateral moraines are lines of sediment deposited along the sides of a glacier and can run from the top of the glacier down to the bottom.

Terminal moraine is the sediment deposition furthest from the source of the glacier.

Owens River

Benchmark Owens River

Circled in Black: swallows nests

Bristlecone trees on top of the Inyo-White Mountains

Bristlecone trees are the oldest living organisms known today.

The swallows like to nest near water.

Benchmarks indicate the elevation of the area it is placed.

Eastern California Museum

This is a slab of a Bristlecone Pine tree. I found it interesting because it shows how old it is by labeling major events in history with the grain in the wood.

Manzanar

Area where the main office used to be

Names and dates embedded in the stone circle

Manzanar was an internment camp for the Japanese during WW2 to keep both the country safe from potential domestic terrorism and violence against the Japanese-American people.

People relocated to the camp had to build their own houses and administrative buildings.

In Transit Photos

LA Aqueduct Doppler Radar

Joshua trees

Mine Tailings

Owens Dry Lake Garlock Fault