Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Newberry National Volcanic Monument
Big obsidian flow in the caldera of the volcano
Coordinates: 43 ° 44 ′ 21 ″  N , 121 ° 16 ′ 1 ″  W.
Location:	Oregon , United States
Next city:	Bend
Surface:	224.6 km²
Founding:	5th November 1990

Newberry National Volcanic Monument is a national monument- type nature reserve in the US state of Oregon . It includes the Newberry Volcano , one of the largest shield volcanoes in the Cascade Range , and an approximately 40 km long lava river to the northwest. The more than 224 square kilometers large reserve was designated in November 1990 by the US Congress and is administered by the US Forest Service . It is entirely within the Deschutes National Forest , a national forest .

The volcano and the sanctuary are named after John Strong Newberry (1822-1892), a scientist who accompanied an expedition of the US Army from 1857 to 1858 to survey possible railroad routes. Newberry was instrumental in the study of the geology and botany of Oregon.

geography

The Newberry Volcano is located in Deschutes County about 45 km south of Bend . With a diameter of around 40 km, it is a particularly large shield volcano. Like all shield volcanoes, it rises relatively flat from its surroundings. The highest point Paulina Peak with 2434  m is about 1000 m above the Deschutes River west of the mountain.

The center of the volcano is the caldera with a diameter of about 6.5 km. In it are the two lakes Paulina Lake and East Lake , the youngest lava flow Big Obsidian Flow and a small cinder cone called Central Pumice Cone . Paulina Lake, located at an altitude of 1935 m and up to 76 meters deep, is 615 hectares in size, East Lake is smaller. Both lakes are only fed by rainwater, meltwater and hot volcanic springs. The outflow of the lakes is Paulina Creek, which flows out of the caldera through a gorge on the west side. Except for this gorge, the caldera is surrounded by a crater rim that is 200 to 300 meters high. The Paulina Peak forms a part of the edge. Around 400 small cinder cones are distributed over the entire area of ​​the volcano. Geologists suspect that the caldera was formed by the collapse of a volcano about 2700 meters high and about 40 kilometers in diameter about 500,000 years ago. Large parts of the area around Newberry Crater have been covered by lava flows that have flowed up to 110 kilometers. The Lava Cast Forest is located in a lava flow running in a north-westerly direction , where imprints of tree trunks have been preserved in the cooled lava. Nearby are the Lava Butte , a 1,528 m high volcanic cone that rises over 150 meters above the area, and several lava tubes . The Lava River Cave, located 13 km south of Bend on Highway 97 , is one such lava tube, which is over 1.8 km long, up to 15 m wide and up to 18 m high. The Deschutes River was temporarily dammed by the lava flows; Even today the threshold is preserved as the 30 m high Benham Falls called waterfalls.

The oldest rocks in the volcano are only around 700,000 years old. In the last 10,000 years there have been about 25 eruptions in the crater, the Big Obsidian Flow lava flow dates back to about 650 and represents the most recent volcanic activity in central Oregon. The volcano has not been extinct, in the future both lava flows and eruptions are closed expect.

history

Excavations at Paulina Lake have shown that Paleo-Indians visited the caldera 10,000 years ago. The East Lake Obsidian Flow and the Big Obsidian Flow provided valuable obsidian for the Indians , which they used for stone tools such as scrapers and blades. The Newberry Crater has been part of the Deschutes National Forest since 1908. In November 1990 the crater was declared a National Monument. The site of the Lava River Cave, discovered in 1889, was donated to the State of Oregon in 1926, which declared it a State Park . In 1981 Oregon traded the park for other US Forest Service areas.

Tourist facilities

The National Monument's main visitor center, the Lava Lands Visitor Center, is located south of Bend on Highway 97 and provides information on geology, ecology and cultural history. From the visitor center there is also a path leading to the Lava Butte, from whose summit there is a broad view and a view into the crater up to 60 m deep. The Lava Lands Visitor Center is open from May to October. A second, smaller visitor center on Paulina Lake is only open in summer.

The Lava River Cave is located on Highway 97 south of Bend. Highway 97 crosses the cave, which can be visited in summer.

Since 1912, fish have been used in the two lakes of the caldera, mainly rainbow trout and sockeye salmon . Therefore, fishing is the main tourist activity in the area. There is a rustic hotel on both lakes with facilities for anglers; a total of seven campsites are spread across the entire protected area. The 33-kilometer Crater Rim Trail and numerous other paths with a total length of 96 kilometers lead through the reserve .

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  Paulina Peak over Paulina Lake

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  Caldera with East Lake in the foreground

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  Lava Butte, a distinctive ash cone at the Lava Lands Visitor Center

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  Imprint of a tree trunk in the Lava Cast Forest

Web links

Commons : Newberry National Volcanic Monument  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries: Big Obsidian Flow (geol. Photomontage)

Official websites

• US Forest Service: Newberry National Volcanic Monument (official site )
• Newberry National Volcanic Monument at www.oregonencyclopedia.org

Scientific Article

• Newberry in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
• United States Geological Survey: Newberry Volcano (English) - on the geology of the area

Individual evidence

1. ^ Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests: Paulina Lake. Retrieved April 21, 2011 . 
2. ^ Lava Butte Vicinity, Oregon. Retrieved June 18, 2011 . 
3. ^ Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries: Lava River Cave. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; Retrieved June 18, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.