The Wonder Book of Volcanoes and EarthquakesHouston, Edwin J. (Edwin James)
Science
The Wonder Book of Volcanoes and Earthquakes
Houston, Edwin J. (Edwin James)
Earthquakes; Volcanoes
A still more recent crater known as Tabernacle Crater is situated
four miles south of the Ice Springs Crater. Tabernacle Crater takes
its name from the building known in Salt Lake City as the Tabernacle.
According to Gilbert, this crater was formed at a time when Lake
Bonneville stood at a comparatively low level, or when the water was
only from fifty to seventy-five feet above the bottom of the valley
on which the crater now stands. At that time an explosive volcanic
eruption occurred on the bottom of the lake, and the rim of the
crater, built up by this explosion, was gradually pushed above the
surface of the lake, so as to shut out its waters.
Extinct volcanic craters, not unlike those of Utah, occur also near
Ragtown, in Nevada, in a district known as the Carson Valley Desert,
in one of the broadest areas of what was once Lake Lahontan. Ragtown
is twenty-two miles southwest of Wadsworth on the Central Pacific
Railroad. At the present time there are two circular depressions or
volcanic craters filled with pools of strongly alkaline water known
as the Ragtown Pond, or Soda Lake. The large lake covers an area of
268-1/2 acres. Its greatest diameter is over 4,000 feet. Without going
into a detailed description it will suffice to say that the larger
crater probably was destroyed by an explosive volcanic eruption.
Another intensely alkaline lake that fills an extinct volcanic crater
is the Mono Lake, situated in Mono Valley in California at the eastern
base of the Sierra Nevadas. It has an area of about 200 square miles.
The centre of the lake has two small islands named Pacha and Negit.
Immediately south of Mono Lake are a number of craters that occupy
portions of what was once apparently a fissure extending in a general
north and south direction. The highest of these craters are in the
neighborhood of 2,500 feet.
But leaving these inconspicuous craters, let us briefly examine some
of the higher mountain peaks of the United States that are of volcanic
origin. One of the most conspicuous of these is Mt. Shasta. This
mountain is situated in California, at the northern end of the Sierra
Nevadas. It has a height of 14,350 feet. It is a snow-clad mountain of
a conical form, and is a conspicuous object in the landscape, because
it stands alone.
Mt. Shasta is a double-coned mountain. Besides the cone on its summit
there is a well-developed cone known as Shastina on the western side
of the mountain, 2,000 feet lower than the main summit.
There are well-defined lava streams on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. One
of these, which issued from the southern side of the mountain at
an elevation of 5,500 feet, divided into two streams. One of these
streams is twelve miles in length. The other entered the canyon of the
Sacramento River, thus displacing the water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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