Black Rock Lava Flow
Black Rock Lava Flow (dark band in the middle of the photograph) and cinder cone (highest hill), looking northeast.
Sign erected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Lava flow surrounded by sand, with cinder cone in background.
Block of basalt with large crystals of feldspar (presumably plagioclase – white), clinopyroxene (black), and olivine (olive green).
Cinder Cone in Clayton Valley
The cinder cone in Clayton Valley, looking southeast from Nevada Highway 265.
The cinder cone in Clayton Valley, looking northeast from Mineral Ridge.
The cinder cone in Clayton Valley, looking north across a lithium brine pond, in which the cinder cone is reflected. Clayton Valley is the site of the largest lithium mine in the United States of America. It is an unusual mine in that the lithium occurs in groundwater in sediments that fill the valley. The lithium-rich water is pumped to the surface and partially evaporated, past the saturation point for halite (NaCl), the salt that coats the rocks in the foreground of this picture. The lithium-rich brine is then processed to produce useful products for batteries, medicines, and other uses.
Lithium brine ponds in the central part of Clayton Valley, looking southeast from Mineral Ridge.
Volcanic bombs from the cinder cone in Clayton Valley.
A small amount of cinder (a few thousand tons) was quarried from the south side of the volcano.
Sand dune at the south end of Clayton Valley.
Easy Chair Crater
Easy Chair Crater viewed from the west.
Easy Chair Crater has the form of an easy chair, with a high back and sloping sides for arm rests. The girl in the photograph is holding a four-centimeter-long clinopyroxene crystal.
Geologists have figured out that gas bubbles in magma (composed mostly of CO2 and H2O) create the holes in scoria. Scoria is also called cinder. It is used in gas-fired barbeque grills in place of charcoal briquettes. It is also used as aggregate in road construction and as a decorative, architectural aggregate. Crystals normally do not contain large holes, but some of the crystals of clinopyroxene and plagioclase and, less commonly, hornblende and olivine at Easy Chair Crater contain holes.
Volcanic bombs at Easy Chair Crater range from a few centimeters to more than one meter long.
Crystals (here olive-green olivine and black to dark-green clinopyroxene) occur in the lava bombs.
A collection of feldspar (presumably mostly plagioclase), clinopyroxene, hornblende, and olivine crystals found while hiking into the center of the crater.
Exceptionally large crystal of glassy-appearing clinopyroxene.
Hornblende crystal with characteristic two directions of cleavage at 60° and 120°.
Moon Rocks
Moon Rocks spheroidally weathered granite.
Field trippers walk up a fault plane at Moon Rocks.
My guys at the Moon Rocks area.
Project Faultless
Metal pipe at ground zero, Project Faultless. The nearly horizontal light line in the background is a break (scarp, see Figure 3) formed when the ground in the foreground sank into the cavity created by the explosion.
Plaque at ground zero.
Scarp formed after the explosion. The ground on the right (east) dropped down along the break in slope. Vegetation has not completely reestablished itself along the fault scarp.
Scarp formed after the explosion. Vertical displacement here is approximately 3 meters (10 feet). Earthquakes of magnitudes generally greater than 6.5 also cause surface faults, and larger earthquakes generally have larger displacements across the faults.
Ventifact Ridge
Wind-eroded boulder of welded tuff.
Volcanic and Sedimentary Rocks of the Monte Cristo Range, Esmeralda County, Nevada
White tuffaceous sediments and tuffs in the foreground, with higher parts of the Monte Cristo Range in the background (looking north from Blair Junction on U.S. Highway 95 and 6).
Bighorn sheep standing on tuff (Tcp on the geologic map).
Pinkish white fragments of pumice stand out in pink tuff (Tcp on the geologic map).
Water (and perhaps wind) has sculpted the tuffs (particularly Tcp on the geologicmap) into unusual shapes..
Sedimentary layers, which can be recognized by beds ranging from a few millimeters to several centimeters thick, occur within both tuffs (Tcp and Tbjt). Some of the sedimentary layers are particularly rich in smectite, which, when wet, tends to coat the surface and obliterate the layering in the rock beneath it. Petrified wood is mostly found in the sedimentary layers.
There are a few natural arches in the area.
Erosion has carved the canyons and natural sculptures in the area. Boundary Peak, the highest point in Nevada, is in the center background of this photo.
Calcite occurs in veins, sometimes along faults, in the tuff.
Fault surface (next to the hammer) that is polished and grooved (termed a slickenside) in tuff. (N38°03.611', W117°47.320')
Fault surface (next to the hammer) in tuff. (N38°03.564', W117°47.313')
Many of the unusual natural sculptures occur along the edges of the canyons. They were probably formed primarily by water that flowed down the canyons during rainstorms.
Deformed layers in tuffaceous sandstone (probably formed shortly after the sediments were deposited, while they were poorly consolidated and wet). (N38°03.462', W117°47.275')
The dark greenish andesite intrusion to the right turned the normally white tuffaceous sedimentary rocks to the left into a brick-red colored rock when it intruded. (N38°03.428', W117°47.292')
Red (baked) tuffaceous sediments next to andesite dike. This picture was taken from a point on the right-hand side of Figure 14.
Layering in the tuff and tuffaceous sediments at the EarthCache site. (N38°03.359', W117°47.234')
Columnar jointed andesite from higher in the Monte Cristo Range to the northeast of this locality. Boulders of this rock can be found throughout the area.
Warm Springs Mountain Dike Swarm
A variety of igneous rock types may be seen at this site.
A geologist examines a pegmatite dike at the site.
One of many dikes at the Warm Springs EarthCache.
View from the Warm Springs Dike Swarm EarthCache.
