Indian Heaven

Indian Heaven
Lemei Rock in the Indian Heaven Wilderness
Highest peak	Lemei Rock ( 1806  m )
location	Skamania County , Washington , USA
Cascade volcanoes	Cascade chain
Coordinates	45 ° 56 ′  N , 121 ° 49 ′  W Coordinates: 45 ° 56 ′  N , 121 ° 49 ′  W
Type	Volcanic field
Age of the rock	Pleistocene / Holocene
surface	450 km²
particularities	Ascent via Lemei Trail / Indian Heaven Trail with climbing sections

Indian Heaven is a volcanic field in Skamania County in the US state of Washington . Located halfway between Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams , the volcanic field dates from the Pleistocene to the early Holocene . It runs in a north-south direction and is dominated by six small shield volcanoes ; their shields are surmounted by small welding slag and cinder cones . The field also contains a number of subglacial and tabular volcanoes . The northernmost point in the field is Sawtooth Mountain, the southernmost is Red Mountain; its highest point, Lemei Rock , reaches a height of 5,925 ft (1,806 m).

Indian Heaven has both polygenetic and monogenetic volcanoes ; many of these volcanoes only erupted once before extinguishing again, while others erupted multiple times. About 50 eruptive centers are located in the volcanic field of Indian Heaven, from which about 40 lava flows emanated. The total eruptive output of the field over the past 700,000 years was 58… 79 km³. The last volcanic activity produced a large cinder cone, the Big Lava Bed , as well as voluminous lava and sweat slag flows around 8250 ± 100 years ago . A future eruption is possible, even if the Volcano Hazards Program of the United States Geological Survey classifies emanating from Indian Heaven risk as low.

The volcanic field is surrounded by the Indian Heaven Wilderness , a protected wilderness area within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest , which is home to diverse fauna and flora. The area was settled by Indians about 10,000 years ago ; the name Indian Heaven is derived from the aboriginal name for the area. As a popular recreational area, the region offers a number of hiking trails and more than 150 lakes for fishing, swimming, and boating.

geography

The Indian Heaven volcanic field and Mount Adams on a relief map

With its location in Skamania County in Washington, the Indian Heaven volcanic field is part of the High Cascades, an eastern segment of the cascade chain , which is oriented north-south. Formed at the end of the Pleistocene, these mountains are piled over more primitive volcanoes, the activity of which has declined due to the parallel north-south faults in the surrounding region. Indian Heaven is 40 miles east of Vancouver, Washington, and 14 miles north of the Columbia River .

The Indian Heaven volcanic field lies between Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams, about 30 km southeast of the latter. The Simcoe Mountains are to the east. In the west lies a diffuse volcanic belt about 40 km long consisting of at least 22 eruption centers, i. H. a large volcanically active region trending in a southeastern direction and including Marble Mountain, Bare Mountain, West Crater, and Trout Creek Hill. The field is 20 mi (32 km) in diameter and has a total area of ​​450 square kilometers. The highest point is the shield volcano Lemei Rock, which reaches a height of 1,806 meters.

Wilderness area

The Indian Heaven Wilderness , the area of ​​which is 84.11 square kilometers, ^b lies on a wooded plateau . It includes subalpine meadows , the volcanic field itself and a number of other volcanic elements, as well as more than 150 lakes and forests. Created by the Washington Wilderness Bill of 1984, it lies between Mount Adams and the Columbia River Gorge , a canyon of the Columbia River. As part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest , the wilderness area includes 16.4 mi (26.4 km) of the Pacific Crest Trail , which traverses it from north to south, and seven other connected hiking trails that form a network of 42 mi (68 km ) Form length. The area is quite inaccessible as the roads are covered in snow well into June each year, although the snow has mostly melted by mid-July, allowing visits in late summer and fall.

ecology

The plateau of the Indian Heaven Wilderness offers forests that are mainly formed by purple firs , noble firs and rock mountain firs , although there are also stocks of giant arborvitae , mountain hemlock , coastal fir and Engelmann spruce . The forests in the area include an understory of Huckleberrys and bear grass , also colorful wild flowers , vine leaf maple , flowering plants such as blueberries , heathers , Achlys triphylla and Germer and aromatic "wintergreen" types ( English wintergreen ) as sham berries . Many of the region's lakes are home to trout species such as cutthroat , rainbow trout and brook trout . Amphibians such as frogs can be seen in the wilderness as well as deer , elk and black bears . Due to the high population of mosquitoes , Indian Heaven is sometimes referred to as "Insect Heaven".

Settlement history

The Indian Racetrack in the Indian Heaven Wilderness

Indian Heaven and the surrounding wilderness area have played a significant role in the local natives in the past 10,000 years, the area Sahalee Tyee called, releasing "Indian Heaven" translated ( German  Indians sky means). The Sawtooth Berry Fields , known worldwide for their huckleberries, burned in the late 1890s and again in 1902. Later fires helped maintain the fields by drying the berries. From 1902 through the mid-1920s, local Indian tribes such as the Yakama , Klickitat , Wasco-Wishram, and Umatilla, as well as groups of Montana and Wyoming indigenous people in the Indian Heaven area , gathered supplies for the Huckleberry festival during the summer months. During these collections, they celebrated and passed on the rituals carried out; there was also horse racing, various games, basket weaving, dried meat, tanned hides and locally caught fish. In 1932 the Yakama Indian Reservation and the United States Forest Service agreed to reserve part of the Berry Fields exclusively for the use of the Indians; the harvest has remained an important local tradition ever since. Today, the markings for the Race Track, the meadow used by the Indians for horse racing, can be seen from the Pacific Crest Trail, 0.5 mi (1 km) away. Trees in this area show scars where their bark was peeled to make wood for baskets. The area is rich in game and a number of root and tuber plants .

geology

Satellite map of the volcanoes in the volcanic field of Indian Heaven

The area around Indian Heaven is made up of the rocks of the West Cascades dating from the Eocene to Miocene , including andesites , tuffs , and deposits of lahars , pyroclastic flows and other volcanoclastic material; it also consists of rocks from the high cascades that formed in the Pliocene and Holocene . Layers of rock beneath the material were deformed, creating faults, crevices (separations in the geological formation), volcanic intrusions and a graduated sloping syncline running north to south. Indian Heaven lies in the channel of this syncline and consists of rocks from the high cascades, which have been much less changed than the surrounding rock layers. Much like other cascading volcanoes, the Indian Heaven volcanoes were fed by magma chambers created by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate below the western edge of the North American Plate .

Indian Heaven consists of several overlapping shield volcanoes, which extend in a line from Sawtooth Mountain in the north to Red Mountain in the south, as well as lava flows and cinder and sweat cinder cones (low, steep-walled hills or ramparts, which consist of lava fragments welded together) . At a total output of 250 cubic kilometers of the field was approximately 50 mafic (rich in magnesium and iron) eruptive structures, ^a ranged their activities from Pleistozän to early Holozän. About half of these chimneys mark a mountainous, 19 mi (31 km) long highland , which runs roughly parallel to the north-south orientation of the cascade arc in south Washington.

Most of the volcanoes that make up the Indian Heaven field are monogenic; H. they are only once before their extinction erupted. The rest are polygenic shield volcanoes. About 80 percent of the lava expelled by the volcanoes in Indian Heaven is basalt ; it represents the largest volume of Quaternary basalt from a volcanic field in the cascade arc north of the Newberry volcano in Oregon with a total of 60 ... 80 cubic kilometers. The composition of the basalt rock varies from potassium -poor aluminum-rich olivine - Tholeiiten up to lime-alkaline Shoshoniten and alkaline anorogenischen compositions, although basaltbürtige Olivine with various proportions porphyritic plagioclase dominate. Volcanoes within the field produced lower amounts of basaltic andesite and andesite with silica -Anteilen of up to 59%, though dacite is not very widespread among the eruption products in Indian Heaven. In contrast to Mount St. Helens, Indian Heaven has produced large volumes of basalt, but no melting of the crust . Most of the lava flows consisted of Pāhoehoe lava , less common were block lava and ʻAʻā lava . They reached different thicknesses between 0.4 and 24 meters with volumes of up to 1.2 cubic kilometers; there are about 40 different groups of lava flows within the field covering a total of about 116 square kilometers.

Indian Heaven has been significantly altered by glacial erosion ; there were at least four main periods of glaciation. During the Hayden Creek Ice Age from 190,000 to 130,000 years ago, the Lewis River Glacier advanced from Mount Adams and filled the Lewis River Canyon, partially covering the volcanic field of Indian Heaven. An ice cap, originally from the north end of the field, expanded during this period. The Lone Butte, a tuya of the field, erupted through this 770 ft (235 m) thick glacier.

History of the outbreaks and potential hazards

The cinder cone that created the Big Lava Bed rises above a forest that covers parts of the lava flow it created.

One of the vents in Indian Heaven produced a large effusive eruption around 9,000 years ago that created the Big Lava Bed, which is made of basaltic lava. With an area of ​​52 square kilometers and a volume of 0.9 cubic kilometers, the Big Lava Bed consists mainly of bare basalt. It moved south to the Little White Salmon River , the valley of which it filled for 10 mi (16 km) in length. Eventually, the lava flow expanded over 25 km from its source, an unnamed cinder cone. It came within five miles of the Columbia River. Another, older and particularly fluid lava flow struck what is now Trout Lake and extended several miles to the south, also approaching Columbia. It has a high volume and also contains lava tubes . These tubes can be seen in many of the lava flows that make up the Indian Heaven volcanic field; they are basaltic to andesitic in composition and extend up to 46 kilometers away from their source. The eruptive units of the field show normal magnetic remanence , so that they all seem to have originated 780,000 years ago at the latest; the only exception is the lava within the core area of ​​Gifford Peak.

A number of Pleistocene subglacial volcanoes can be found in the volcanic field, many of which formed so-called "Móbergs", table mountains formed by subglacial eruptions. These mountains, like the Crazy Hills, formed pillow-like outlines when their lava came into contact with ice or meltwater . The field also includes Tuyas such as the Lone Buttle, which emerged as flat and steep volcanic cones because they erupted through glaciers or ice sheets . The Lone Butte in particular erupted through a glacier on the Indian Heaven field, forming the upper cone over water and producing pyroclastic material, lava flows and pyroclastics that piled up to a height of 3,300 ft (approx. 1,000 m) above its base were. However, the Lone Butte was subject to significant glacial erosion and lost half of its original structure.

The activity changed sporadically over the past 700,000 years. Therefore, it remains likely that the volcanoes could erupt again and create voluminous lava flows. Regardless of this, the Volcano Hazards Program of the United States Geological Survey classified the Indian Heaven volcanic field as “low / very low” with regard to its hazard potential. In order to be able to assess the dangers of potential lava flows in Indian Heaven or on the nearby Mount Adams, geologists from the USGS under the direction of WE Scott determined his average spill rate in 1995, which was calculated from the volume of lava ejected per unit of time divided by the area of ​​the lava field. They found that the average spill rate in Indian Heaven was low, but noted that Indian Heaven "had created a large flow of lava over the past 10,000 years." In estimating the likelihood that the lava flows could cover a certain point in the vicinity of Indian Heaven, the geologists came to a range between 1: 100,000 and 1: 1,000,000.

Main chimneys

The Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution lists a number of main vents in Indian Heaven on, including the pyroclastic crater and created the Big Lava Bed in a recent eruptions shield volcanoes Bird Mountain, East Crater, Gifford Peak, Lemei skirt, Red Mountain and Sawtooth Mountain as well as the Tuya Lone Butte. The Big Lava Bed vent has a gently sloping slope and created a lava flow that is one of the most recent eruptive activity in the entire field. Red Mountain marks the southernmost point of the shield volcanoes in the field with a height of 1,513 meters, while Sawtooth Mountain is the northernmost volcano in the field.

 Map with all coordinates of the section main chimneys : OSM

Surname	Height in meters	Coordinates
Big Lava Bed	1,279	45 ° 55 ′  N , 121 ° 45 ′  W.
Bird Mountain	1,712	46 ° 2 ′  N , 121 ° 47 ′  W.
East Crater	1,614	46 ° 0 ′  N , 121 ° 47 ′  W.
Lemei skirt	1,806	46 ° 1 ′  N , 121 ° 46 ′  W.
Lone butte	1,457	46 ° 3 ′  N , 121 ° 50 ′  W.
Red Mountain	1,513	45 ° 56 '  N , 121 ° 49'  W.
Sawtooth Mountain	1,632	46 ° 4 ′  N , 121 ° 46 ′  W.

tourism

A small lake in the Indian Heaven Wilderness

Visitors to the Indian Heaven Wilderness can fish in lakes and ponds, hike, camp, ride horses and observe nature. A popular hiking trail is the Indian Heaven Loop, which runs 10 mi (16 km) and starts at Cultus Creek Campground. Following the Indian Heaven Trail to the Deep Trail and then to the Lemei Lake Trail, it leads over meadows and past lakes to the Pacific Crest Trail, and then returns to its starting point at Cultus Creek Campground. After climbing from the last paved road to the entrance to the wilderness area, which stretches for about 2 mi (3.2 km), hiking in Indian Heaven is relatively easy. However, the hiking trails can be of varying difficulty for riders and hikers.

The Lake Wapiki Trail, 9.6 mi (15.4 km) long, overcomes 2,500 ft (800 m) ascent and offers beautiful views of Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. The Blue Lake Trail in the Indian Heaven Wilderness runs approximately 3.25 mi (5.2 km); together with the Lemei Lake Trail, it forms a circular route over 12.3 mi (19.8 km). With moderate difficulty, it offers views of lakes, pools, meadows and forests, as well as access to popular fishing lakes such as Dee Lake, Heather Lake, Thomas Lake and Eunice Lake. These lakes are also very popular for swimming, especially among hikers with children. Before reaching the Pacific Crest Trail, the route runs alongside Blue Lake, which is up to 46 ft (14 m) deep, making it the deepest lake in the entire wilderness area. The Blue Lake was created by glacier activities.

One of the most popular campsites is Goose Lake Campground, which is frequented by anglers, boaters, and swimmers. It is operated by the United States Forest Service and is open July through October. Near Thomas Lake and Blue Lake in the middle of the wilderness area, rangers of the Pinchot National Forest have designated a campsite with the hope of concentrating the degradation of natural resources in high-traffic areas on smaller, more compact areas.

^aThe sources regarding the exact number of chimneys are not uniform; Harris (2005) speaks of 48, while Hildreth (2007) names 52 ..

^bThe United States Forest Service specifies the area of ​​the Indian Heaven Wilderness as both 20,784 acres (84 km²) and 20,600 acres (83 km²).

See also

• Cascade volcanoes
• List of volcanoes in the United States

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Charles A. Wood, Jűrgen Kienle: Volcanoes of North America . Cambridge University Press , 1993, ISBN 0-521-43811-X , pp. 166-167.
2. ^ JE Schuster, DD Blackwell, PE Hammond, MT Huntting: Heat Flow Studies in the Steamboat Mountain-Lemei Rock Area, Skamania County, Washington: Information Circular 62 . Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources, Olympia 1978.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} R. J. Mitchell, DJ Jaeger, JF Diehl, PE Hammond: Palaeomagnetic results from the Indian Heaven volcanic field, south-central Washington . In: Oxford University Press (Ed.): Geophysical Journal International . 97, 1989, pp. 381-390. doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-246X.1989.tb00509.x .
4. ^ ^{A b} L. Joslin: The Wilderness Concept and the Three Sisters Wilderness: Deschutes and Willamette National Forests, Oregon . Wilderness Associates, Bend, Oregon 2005, ISBN 978-0-9647167-4-2 .
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Indian Heaven . Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved February 11, 2019.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Indian Heaven Volcanic Field . In: Cascades Volcano Observatory . United States Geological Survey . February 2, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} S. L. Harris: Chapter 16: Mount Adams . In: Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes , 3rd Edition, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana 2005, ISBN 0-87842-511-X .
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} W. Hildreth: Quaternary Magmatism in the Cascades, Geologic Perspectives  (= Professional Paper 1744). United States Geological Survey, 2007 (Retrieved November 29, 2017).
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Indian Heaven Wilderness . United States Forest Service . Retrieved January 5, 2018.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Wilderness: Indian Heaven . United States Forest Service . Retrieved January 5, 2018.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} K. Berger, DR Smith: The Pacific Crest Trail: A Hiker's Companion , 2nd Edition, The Countryman Press, 2014.
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} D. Lorain: One Night Wilderness: Portland: Quick and Convenient Backcountry Getaways within Three Hours of the City . Wilderness Press, 2010.
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} A. Bernstein, A. Jackman: Portland Hikes: Day Hikes in Oregon and Washington Within 100 Miles of Portland . Mountain N 'Air Books, 2000.
14. ^ ^{A b} Peter Frick-Wright: Backpacking in Indian Heaven: A small dose of misery just enhances the experience, right? . In: OregonLive.com , Oregonian Media Group, August 12, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2018. 
15. ↑ D. Nelson: Day Hiking South Cascades: Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Columbia Gorge . The Mountaineers Books, 2007.
16. ↑ ^{a b} ML Hill title = Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of America: Decade of North American Geology, Centennial Field Guide (Ed.): {{{Title}}} , Volume 1. Geological Society of America , 1987.
17. ↑ Reference Entry: moberg . In: Oxford English Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences . Oxford University Press . September 2013. Accessed January 5, 2018.
18. ^ ^{A b} W. E. Scott, RM Iverson, JW Vallance, W. Hildreth: Volcano Hazards in the Mount Adams Region, Washington: Open-File Report 95-492 . United States Geological Survey , 1995.
19. ↑ Big Lava Bed Crater, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
20. ^ Bird Mountain - Southeast Peak, United States . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
21. ^ East Crater, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
22. ↑ Lemei Rock, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
23. ↑ Lone Butte, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
24. ↑ Red Mountain, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
25. ↑ Sawtooth Mountain, Washington . PeakBagger.com. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
26. ↑ Campground: Goose Lake . United States Forest Service . 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
27. ↑ Camping in designated areas . United States Forest Service . Retrieved January 5, 2018.