Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern Counties — John Shaqi
Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern CountiesFairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
History
Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern Counties
Fairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
Geology -- California, Southern; Mines and mineral resources -- California, Southern
In the top of the sandstones are pebbles of quartz, feldspar, and
mica schist. The sandstone shows no bedded structure, but seems to form
a mantle over the hill, following the irregularities of the underlying
granite. It descends 700 feet on the southern slope of the mountains
which rise so abruptly from De Luz Valley. The lava has spread out in
thin sheets on the southern slope of the mountain, descending more than
a thousand feet on the east side of Cottonwood Creek. These thin beds
are not massive, but are formed of angular lava bowlders. The flows were
so thin that they either broke up on cooling, or later through
atmospheric agencies. Fig. 15 is a sketch of Mesa Redonda from the
north.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
Cienega Peak lies east of Mesa Redonda and is separated from it by two
gulches opening in opposite directions. It has an elevation of 2,400
feet, and the mesas east rise still less. Sandstone underlies this as it
does the other lava flows. Near the eastern end of the southern slope, a
lava flow has broken out from a basin-like depression which opens
southward, and flowed down the mountain for a mile, descending a
vertical distance of 1,800 feet. It appears to have broken up entirely
into angular bowlders. The stream was probably very liquid, like the
others, and formed a thin flow. It takes a slightly winding course and
slopes often 30°. One short branch appears on the western side about
half way down, and another on the east near the bottom. The lava
descends in successive terraces, like steps, from the crater depression.
The width varies from 500 to 700 feet, terminating in a straight line
about a hundred feet above the bed of the cañon at the head of De Luz
Valley. This distance may represent the amount of erosion since the
stream flowed. There are also cañons worn to some depth on each side.
The surface of the flow is rounding, and appearances indicate that it
descended over a surface not much different from the one now shown. A
large part of the bowlders in the creek for several miles are lava. Fig.
16 shows this lava stream as it lies on the mountain side, and also
Cienega Peak, from which it flowed. These lava beds appear very
prominent from De Luz Valley. The long, winding flow is known locally as
the Oak Ridge, on account of its being covered with oaks, while the
adjacent mountains are barren and brushy. It is hard to reconcile the
appearance of these isolated peaks, with often precipitous sides, and
deep valleys between them, showing a great amount of erosion, with the
thin sheets spread out on the southern side of the mountain in so many
places, which from their position indicate so little erosion since they
flowed. It is possible that the mesas, with the high precipitous cliffs,
represent remnants of an older flow, and yet the lithological character
of the lava seems to point to a single origin. With the exception of the
long southerly flow and another short one west of it, the lava
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