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Less than 300,000
years ago, a chamber filled with molten basaltic rocks simmered beneath Death
Valley. Magma rose toward the
surface, following weaknesses in the Earth's crust. Nearing the
surface, the black lava encountered the fractured surface of the Death Valley
Fault Zone. |
View of Death Valley from Dante’s View |
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Arrows indicate the direction of movement. Dotted line
shows approximate location of the fault that created Split Cinder Cone |
Let’s think as if lava
fountains threw blobs of molten basalt hundreds of meters into the air. And
although lava erupted at 1200°C (2200°F), most of the molten globs cooled and
solidified to form cinders before reaching the ground. Most cinders fell very
near the central vent, building a small cone. These hills mark the opposite sides
of a cone that is now offset several hundred meters by right-lateral movement
on a strand of the Southern Death Valley Fault Zone. The upper part of
the once symmetrical cone has been moved to the right 300 (91 meters)
relative to the lower part. |
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From the road you can see these
features. This is a good stop to take
a look at the basaltic rocks that form this cone. Split Cinder Cone was probably built over a very short time; its
birth and death probably spanned less than a few decades. |
View
of the western side of the split cinder cone. Dashed
lines and arrows indicate the fault’s direction. |
By M. Soledad Velasco
