Crater Lake's Big Geologic Secret: Insights from Cleetwood Cove
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- čas přidán 3. 09. 2023
- While you may know the broad story of Crater Lake's formation as Mount Mazama erupted and collapsed, join geology professor Shawn Willsey to learn about an exciting and lesser known chapter of the eruptive sequence.
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".... and she ate up her own children as the legend goes"
A local said " there are a lot buried" There, the ancients in the surrounding area that did not survive
I've been to Crater Lake, but I've never heard that story. It was very interesting and informative. Thanks!
What a great geology lesson! Thanks Shawn. Such a beautiful, interesting place! The only thing missing is one of those famous Professor Willsey diagrams, lol.
Such a beautiful place, brings back so many memories. That is super interesting! I'd have puzzled forever about those lava rocks going into the crater. I'd never have guessed that. As a young man I worked consruction. We did the asphalt overlay of the rim village parking lot, etc. It took a couple weeks and were the best days working I've ever had. That was 1978. I was a shovel operator... as in the wooden handle kind. Very hard labor, but still the best.
A cataclysmic event of an inimaginable scale. Fascinating story!
Fours years ago the National Park Service did an interesting video on the collapse of Mount Mazama using animation. It's
an excerpt from the film Crater Lake: Into the Deep. Well worth the watch! It does help in understanding why the different types of rock laying around here exists today in addition to what the professor showed us here.
A few years ago I took the Crater Lake Trolley that had a Park Ranger onboard. He shared the information about the creation of Crater Lake and subsequent natural formations, and recovery of the natural landscape. Well worth the two hour tour. Didn't have to drive and learned much about this National Park. Shawn provides a lot of interesting facts about the lake.
Looks like a nice road to drive recklessly on. One of the things that surprises me with this video and a good many others is how relatively recent events such as this are.
We were there back in 2010 in late June but never saw any ground. There was 20 ft. of ice and snow covering the ground and the road around the lake was closed. Only the area around the lodge was cleared. Still awe inspiring. Cool video, thanks much!
The size of that crater lake is immense, just judging from the video. To think that people were anywhere close to Mt. Mazama when that volcano went off and collapsed into its magma chamber is... overwhelming.They most probably had a really bad day.
There were Indian Tribes in the area that witnessed it. I took the shuttle tour around the lake.
An amazing part of the story about Crater Lake (aside from Shawn Willsey's really GREAT geological interpretation) is that is early European settlers on the east side of the Cascades didn't even know it existed. That actually makes a weird sort of sense, given that the crater doesn't stand out on the topography of this part of the southern Cascade range where I live. While the Klamath people knew of it and held it as a sacred place, gold miners stumbling across it in 1853 was what first brought it to Euroamerican attention...
@@GrumpyForester _"where I live"_
Must be great to have that gorgeous landscape directly at your feet.
The crater is 5 miles across and the rim is 8,000 ft above sea level.
My wife dad and mom lived in Roseburg and this Kansas boy’s first motorcycle trip would include this unbelievable place. Bluest water ever seen - just about takes your breath away!
20 bucks a car for the shortcut thru the park pays for itself. (Without even going for the gold.....) Looking into the bowl and at Mt Shasta from whats left of the super strato volcano that is Mt Thielsen and north to The Sisters puts the volcanic arc activity into perspective. There is more lumberable wood buried from eruptions and preserved, than there is growing on the top, like exposed over at Lemolo Lake or petrified down the canal road to Toketee.
Better invested in NPblm annual pass.
Another fascinating and educational explainer video. I always learn so much from you. I think you are an exceptional geological science communicator. Thank you so much for doing these, Prof. Willsey!
P.S. I would send more but I'm disabled and live on a fixed income. I pretty much live vicariously through you.
Your contribution is much appreciated and always optional. Thanks for your viewership and glad you enjoy my videos.
Super Gnarly. Thank you Prof. Willsey!
To get a clear view of Crater Lake (and anywhere in the West for that matter, other than the coast,) visit the park before fire season starts in late June. Summers are extremely dry in the West; even Western Oregon, perceived as wet, green and lush doesn’t get any measurable rain in July and August, and September is hit and miss limited thunder storms that don’t last. Any system that does move through, just raises the humidity some and starts fires with dry-lightning.
Man seeing the area with you walking around really shows the grand scope of it all. I suspected that was what it was when showing it, ive seen in in Arizona HUGE old lava flows that highways cut straight through and had discoloration like that.
Crater Lake is an astonishing story. There are many calderas in the Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming region. The fascinating thing is their diversity. Crater Lake caldera is so young, so deep, with a large lake in it. Others are much older, much larger (formed from supervolcanic eruptions), often nearly completely filled in, most with no standing water in them any more. Some nearby calderas make Crater Lake caldera look pitifully small in comparison. Some have yet to be recognized officially. Why all of this intense dramatic action in this particular region?............Possibly because of the juncture of the Cascades, and the Basin and Range, and Columbia Plateau volcanics. Stretching and thinning of the crust. Weak areas in the thinned crust. Keep going north and you will be amazed by the Crooked River caldera formed from a supervolcanic eruption. It is huge. I have friends that are moving to Pagosa Springs, Colorado.........that area is nearly the center of the La Garita supervolcanic eruption. It think it was the largest of all of the supervolcanic eruptions known.
A really fascinating story! Looks a fantastic place to.
An awe inspiring place that I HAVE to get back to. Thanks for all that you do Shawn.
You bet
Thanks for sharing. Crater Lake is one of my favorite places.
I grew up near there, in klamath falls. When i was 15 my friend and i rode our bicycles to the lake and rented cabins for a few days. I had just returned from Canada where i was about to learn i contracted Guardia. I had to stop constantly to double up on the ground. We made it up there but i was a mess. We cut it short and had my dad come pick us up. But he did so at the entrance to the park. There was no way in hell I wasn't riding down that damn mountain that nearly killed me to climb. Good times.
Thank You Shawn & Hello from Albany....your presentation was so well packed with amazing information that I'm watching it again immediately after I post this comment with the new knowledge and now enhanced perceptions that you provided about Crater Lake, a place I've enjoyed many times since childhood through the decades that IMO is one of the top natural wonders of the world.
When I try to describe to younger people what actual clear sky's used to look like and how they would get so dark blue that they looked almost purple, I tell them like the water in Crater Lake, that deep, dark, untaintated pure blue like no other lake on earth. The sky's no longer get clear, ever, not any more, not this century😢
Crater Lake is miraculous, especially on a partly cloudy day because there aren't many places where you can clearly watch a whole large cloud and it's shadow cross an entire massive lake with a birds eye view that allows you to visibly see the color variations caused by sunlight as it is filtered by the clouds as they pass through surrounded by the full sun exposure portions of the most incredible lake water on earth......and if you're lucky there will be some spectacular pollen patches floating on the top of the water somewhere.
Thanks again, glad I found you, subscribed, I am an avid rockhound for nearly all of my 54 yrs and also have a younger brother with the same birthday who is a Geologist that graduated from UCSC. It's bed time....will explore your channel tomorrow.🥰
Wow. So great you found my channel and I think you will enjoy the videos I have here. They aren't fancy or polished but very diverse and full of good stuff. Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing this time-travel exciting story so clearly and avidly (we expect no less). Terrific wildly cold swimming in Crater Lake, every imaginable hue of blue seen below in waves of vividness-
These on-site seminars are the best. I swam in Crater Lake at Cleetwood Cove, which was the only place where people were allowed to visit the shoreline of this magnificent lake. So interesting and informative to learn these details of its formation.
Man you make me look at the ground differently than I used to. When I’m driving and see rocks or cliffs around the Cumberland Plateau now I wonder what happened and how did they form?
That's the best compliment of all! Reading the rocks and landscapes and trying to decipher their stories is so amazing. Stay curious.
Just think of the things you could tell people if you were indestructible and could walk through the cataclysm as it was happening, experiencing every second of it first hand. The power of such things cannot truly be known or experienced. All we can do is survey the aftermath and form conclusions based on the evidence left laying around. Super interesting to say the least. Thank you Professor Wilsey for this explanation of the evidence.
The energy that would have been involved is somewhat mild boggling.
I was at Crater Lake several years ago and never looked at what was on the rim. The lake itself is so hard to ignore, as you mentioned. However, when I do go back, I will definitely be a lot more informed and look a more than just the lake😉😁
I was fortunate to see Crater Lake when I was 7 years old. I became fascinated with geology. my daughter has a PhD in Geomorphology.
Very interesting video Shawn, I'll be visiting Crater Lake in a week and will watch this video again and look things over. I wouldn't understand what I was looking at without your help! Thanks Prof.
A new way to look at the park. Thank you.
You are a good teacher man. Thank you very much for taking me along.
You bet!
I visited here for a short time at the rim next to the visitor center in September 1990. I enjoyed your talk, sir, of that magnificent caldera, right here in the Cascades.
Really enjoyed this one, particularly what happens when pumice falls on top of a still warm lava flow. Cool!
I assume it was a stratovolcano generated by the Farallon subduction? That is an amazing story, and you explained it very well Professor - Thank you!
Yes, stratovolcano and part of Cascades caused by subduction of Juan de Fuca plate (what's left of the Farallon).
Wow great dramatic capture of the collapse and its aftermath, whilst still erupting.
Spewing lava, some may been more "processed" by being extruded as lava being cast out, but falling back through the heat gradient being aerated then cast on other denser, lava, the orangish-red lava, where it would be again super heated as you mentioned. So much the amazing Eruption of Mt. Manama, forming the Caldera now holding eons of precipitation, which is a regular facet of Crater Lake's weather pattern of snow and rainfall.
Great video explaining the timeline of Vulcanic deposits! Thank You
This is an amazing explanation of cause and effect. Thank you!
Amazing story - though I'm glad I was not there to see it that day 7,700 bp...
If you had been close enough to see it, you would have died a nasty death.
Thank you. Very interesting.
I love that spot.
Thanks for the information.
So interesting.
Such an interesting and complicated story. Gorgeous rocks!!
I had watched weeks of drone videos of Icelandic volcanoes, so it was easy to follow your clear (and interesting) recreation of an older, isolated series of quick events. Loved it! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this story ! When we visited Crater Lake one thing that impressed me was the almost 5 square miles Pumice Desert that is up to 200 feet deep filling a valley near the mountain. I remember the pieces of pumice were several different colors because I pocketed a few small pieces. Trees and plants are having a difficult time colonizing the area because water just drains away, soil particles can’t build up and thus no plants.
Thank you Professor Willsey!
Shawn, thank you for the great video. Very well done explanation. Thank you.
That's fascinating, I really appreciate it!
excellent observation and explanation. Thanks
Can't but think about the impact , and its geographical scope , on the native population of that time. Is there any oral history of it extant ? Awesome feature that speaks loudly of the enormity and power of this event. Keep up the your fascinating scrambling Shawn. Glad you are young and active and able to take older and distant people on these field trips.
Nice video. I love science especially Earth science. To be able to self-study by watching a short video like this from an expert, is really nice for me. Thank you!
Thankyou for the view.
Neat story, thanks for posting!
Good stuff, thanks.
love your Trips
Great explanation!!!
Great video, we just visited crater lake a month ago.
Thanks for this Prof! When I was there in July, I was wondering why the lava layers were at such strange and extreme angles.
Fascinating!
One of my favorite places in Oregon!
Such a beautiful place
was there any giants ? I seen a face in one of the rocks you passed by. I thank you for showing your trip very nice. I wish I could walk along with you but that will not happen for me for I,am crippled up. You are a wonderful help! Made me fill alive again! Much blessings sir
Great video!!
Glad you enjoyed it
One of my favorite places. I tried to feed a squirrel when I was a kid and got a ten minute lecture from a park ranger 😂
The first time I visited Crater Lake as a young lad was 1949 when it had frozen over. Hasn't happened since.
A powerful eruption panhandle of Idaho has a layer of reddish colored ash that is very consistent 16 to 18 inches thick.however i been told that it happened 10 thousand years ago and the ice sheet was here 10 thousand years ago.the ice sheet was gone there is no way all the ash fell on top of the ice sheet and was deposited and is now consistent 16 to 18 inches thick.really makes the timber grow fast.
😍😍😍😍😍AWESOME, Thank You !!!
You're welcome 😊
Beautiful location and the lake looks very large, it must have been an enormous eruption.
Like peeling back layers of an onion.
Thanks!
very cool!
You have to see this lake in person to appreciate the color. I've never seen blue like that.
I now look forward to every one of your videos.
And donations will help you make more.. Thanks!
Much appreciated!
Thanks Shawn!! Love your FB vids!!! Come back to Montana some time.
I will!
There is so much Geologic history here in Montana, it would be great to see your interpretation of it. I love Geology (no degree, self taught) and the history of it, spent most of my younger years wandering around the state, following the volcanism of the Yellowstone area and its nearby effects, such incredible power. I've left footprints all over the Absaroka range, looking and learning the story in the rocks. Thanks so much!
Neat!
Subscribed
Thanks for the sub! Enjoy the existing videos. Look for some more Crater Lake vids soon!
A little boy, Samuel Boehlke when missing from that area in October, 2006. He was only eight. It was almost that exact area.
I was looking at my piece of oxidized pumice from that exact location while watching along.
So a question for Shawn or anyone else who would know. From about where the road is, that being the edge of the caldera, how much higher was the volcano b-4 it blew it's top?
I think the mountain, called Mount Mazama, was about 12,000 feet tall.
Yep. Estimated elevation at summit of Mazama was about 11-12 thousand feet.
The geologic story continues to unfold as roadcuts are made.
Love road cuts 🤗
Shawn, thanks for the tale. I think I followed the story. I'm curious about the rhyodacite you first mention at about 3:33. The outcrop looks very blobby and globular like a pillow basalt. Is that something unique about that lava flow or is it just a trick of the weathering and lighting? The other outcrop of that rock type that you mention has flow structures and layering and looks quite different.
Could be a bit of both. Lighting wasn't optional at this time of morning. The rhyodacite lava at first spot is very stiff, thick, and pasty so it tends to form steep blobs as it oozes to surface. The second spot was where the lava was exposed and cooled much more quickly, making it glassy.
Thanks for the great geology videos. $10 heading your way. Okay, so at 10:05, the lava flow heading downslope toward the lake was originally flowing down the flanks of Mt. Mazama prior to its core collapse? If that's correct, that is amazing. The fact that that edge is still intact in present time is equally amazing. What a story. Crater Lake is now on my bucket list.
Thank you! Much appreciated. Yes, that's the interpretation. Flow was reversed (backflow) once caldera formed.
I told myself "Self, heat changed the color of the pumice" How would I know this? I view the content provided by Shawn Willsey geology professor at the College of Southern Idaho that's how.
Win-win. Nice work.
thanks for this great story! however, the information looks more clear when combined with diagrams)
I appreciate this video as it tells a good story! Can you comment on an alternate explanation I was thinking about as you laid out the story? Up north on east side of MSH, there is an orange stained hillside that stands out from surrounding gray rock. The explanation for that site is a dacite dome altered by fumarolic events. In other words, hot acidic gases from a dome or vent. that altered the rock and overburden, staining it orange. Or perhaps they are related processes? Anyway- keep up the good work.
Wow, if i was 24 and not 74, and in college again, I'd take your classes..
The story does give some context/history to what is left of Mount Mazama. Clearly, the volcano had recently erupted before the caldera forming event, otherwise the lava flow would have been solid and cold. The story of the formation of Crater Lake often simply begins with Mount Mazama being there, with no sense of its eruptive history other than it was a stratovolcano of some size.
I live about an hour away from Crater Lake. It is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend a visit to the park. Thanks for the information on the geological aspects of the place. I would also recommend visiting Bend Oregon. So much volcanism everywhere. And lake Paulina is another caldera lake that has the most amazing trout due to the hydrothermal vents that supercharge the food chain.
Look for a Newberry volcano video soon.
I look forward to seeing it!
Has anyone ever mapped the floor of Crater Lake?
Yes indeed. Here you go: www.nps.gov/crla/learn/nature/bathymetry.htm
That's a terrific link thank you.
Planet Earth is simply amazing....we should take better care of it while we're still here.
I lava your video
Cooked pumice! Cool! 8-)
How deep is the lake ? ,,,,, how big was the mountain( volcano) before???😮......tnx, pat&family... land o' lakes,wi....holy cats,that beautiful there,.
Lake is almost 2,000 ft deep. Mt Mazama was likely 11-12 thousand feet tall. Thanks for watching.
1943 feet (my birth year)@@shawnwillsey
Shawn, has there been any studies that have revealed how long the actual collapse took? Was it minutes, hours, days? I am assuming that the summit of Mount Mazama was already gone before the collapse because of the depth of the lake/caldera.
A few days at most is what I learned.
When you first walked up to the edge….yikes! That’s a long way down!
2,000’
Did anybody else happen to see the ghost face in the mountain off to the right @ 5:42-5:45!?
How long a process caldera forming is? Hours or days or weeks?
Probably hours to days.
Amazing how it didn’t destroy the road 😂
How long did the collapse take? Minutes? Hours? Weeks? Decades?
I think it was mentioned in a video by the National Park Service that it took a couple of hours.
That had to been a huge explosion
I saw and comprehend, the Obsidian Island mounds, 500 ft off the nort coast of Oregon, at ‘Oceanside’ , as an end point to 1000+years, where glaciers , floods, magma flow and eruptions, a place where family live, and ties the revelation , for me.
So much , out of our awareness, that any moment we can envision and incorporate as a physical change, has minor changes during the 1000 yrs, we are chatting about. I resist the ‘overnight theory, then the next day..’ theory, and it matters not if it happened in 3 stages , 300 yrs apart.👀 Witness the quickness,👈🏽 and adjust your expectation.🙉
Lol "ill try to restrain myself"
is rock collecting permitted along Rim Road and elsewhere ?
No. It’s a national park so no collecting is allowed.