BIG OBSIDIAN FLOW of Newberry Volcano, Oregon: Geologic Insights
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Learn about the internal structure of the Big Obsidian Flow at Newberry Volcanic National Monument in central Oregon with geology professor Shawn Willsey. Explore two types of pumice along with the obsidian of this 1,300-year-old, iconic, silica-rich lava flow.
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Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
315 Falls Avenue
Twin Falls, ID 83303 
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I looks like a giant cat used the lava pile for a litter box (good-upload-sir)
Aloha hugs 🤗 from my Volcano 🌋 to your Volcano 🌋 can it be mined? They made Arrowhead too
Also to remove the Fur skin from meat. Would the Labria Tar Tip end up oh its not Magmatic ? Teach me please
Wonderful stuff. I never realized that it was between just 1000 and 2000 years old. I've lived in Oregon for a total of 40+ years, and never been to this specific location. Yet ANOTHER thing for my bucket list!
There are several other very interesting things to see at Newberry Volcano besides the Big Obsidian Flow; a lava tube cave, a lava cast forest, great views, Lava Lands Visitor Center, and Lava Butte. Also, it is close to the High Desert Museum.
The Cascade Volcano Observatory (CVO) has lots of neat information about the whole chain. I grew up in Portland and have always been at least midly obsessed!
@@maritasue5067I love the forest, it's crazy! And I agree, Lava Land is a good stop if you're in that area. I have tons of good memories as a kid going on the tours, hiking the caves, and trying very hard to get lost in the middle of the desert in a 4x4 with no rear seatbelts. I will NOT admit how old I am.
I take the family at least once a summer. It's the perfect place to remind you how small we are on this earth. Truly awe inspiring being at the top of Paulina peak looking down at east/ Paulina lakes. Don't put it off any longer than you have to, it's worth every second!!
With all do respect, may i offer an experienced Word of advice.?
Drop that "bucket" and get on the road and go see it. Don't even think, Just get up and go. 😊
So nice to watch a calm, informative video, no one screaming about politics or race or ideology, just the rocks, sitting there doin' their rocky thing, oblivious to all our human drama,
Thank you. I love the "time frame" of geology. A human lifetime is a blink of the eye in geology.
Not all volcano flows are the same. That is an understatement for this particular volcano. It is 600,000 years old and still
very active. Most of the last activity (seen in this video) occured 1300 years ago. Thanks so much for showing it professor!
@@aspenfriend435 I'm not sure that kind of linear progression model works for Newberry as it is a complicated tectonic setting with the Cascades and if we consider the seismic tomography results it seems to indicate a relatively nearby upwelling ridge structure in the upper mantle passes through parts of Oregon that links the Juan de Fuca ridge to the Snake River Plain and Yellowstone and thus might contribute an additional source of melt. I don't think the science is settled overall on this volcano thus any arguments on its future evolution seem premature.
The Volcano is still pretty young and has erupted basalt andesite and rhyolite rather than the basalt that would be expected from a mafic volcano.
But yeah its probably not going to b e the next major volcano to erupt within the cascades.
That said the timing of eruptions within subduction arcs appear to be nonrandom likely linked to the overall behavior of the underlying subducting slab in that sense the quiescence of the cascades probably has something to do with the arc having entered a phase of lower than average activity. There seems to have been a number of eruptions in the intervening few centuries of the last Cascadia megathrust so we might see a surge in volcanic activity start to develop whenever that ticking time bomb goes off.
I grew up in that area. My house in Deschutes river woods was right next to the lava flow from Lava Butte. My house was built on top of ancient lava flows.
I love that place! Been there twice! It’s a mountain of obsidian.
Thank's Shawn -- fascinating. I appreciate the thought you put into these onsite mini-lab/lectures. Masterfully designed -- e.g., your diagram directly relates to what you're showing us--I was on the lookout for something brecciated and sure enough, there it was at the end.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Appreciate learning about the formation of obsidian!
Shawn,
You explained this formation- macro and micro very well. I loved the sound of the obsidian under my feel when I was there, like what you’d expect in an alien world. I’m going back in a few days.
You’d also enjoy explaining the geology of the Belknap Crater lava flows; @250 square miles of basalt AA lava, much like Craters of the Moon, but surrounded by 8-10,000’ Holocene volcanoes. This time of year, between fire and snow seasons is the perfect time to visit this magnificent formation. It’s so alien, NASA used it to train their Apollo astronauts.
Thank you Shawn!
Everyone else,
Do not bring your dogs to the Big Obsidian Flow, the obsidian will cut their paws and you’ll end up with an injured animal that has to be carried out.
Thank you so much for making this content I love learning about my local geology!
It's just great, and it's on my list (also) to see once again with some geology knowledge. A nod to the folks leaving comments that add to our knowledge, as well.
You've supplied the most detail on BOF I've been able to get, outside of a USGS publication which tends to be pretty dry reading. One thing that screws up a lot of people trying to keep their rock types straight, is that while obsidian _looks_ mafic, it is actually _felsic_ -- a product of those iron particles you were talking about, plus the lack of gasses within the rock flow as it hardens.
That is an amazing place, so much obsidian. It's hard to any good fire obsidian, only in pockets.......
I have never seen such a huge jumble to rocks. Thanks for explaining the order to be found there.
This is very interesting. I didn't know about the types of pumice. Your videos are very educational.
Thanks! I climbed all over that when I was a kid. Nice to learn more about it.
It is interesting to hear the pumice under foot as you walk about. Very interesting video.
Awesome Obsidian deposits, thank you for explaining some of the processes involved!
Thanks Shawn, it's great to see your videos and learn more about formation like this.
I was at the flow in Newberry Caldera a couple of years ago and hiked around a little bit. It's interesting to see the interaction of the flow with the surrounding topography and forest along with the lake that was created by the flow. Also interesting is investigating the ground around the flow, the fine pumice that was erupted before the flow arrived, and the steepness of the sides that requires a steep set of steps to get up on top of the flow. If you go hiking on top, wear sturdy shoes and expect them to get chewed up because you are walking on broken (volcanic) glass and abrasive pumice. Handy parking lot and a good pit toilet available. It's illegal to take sample but pictures are free.
Excellent commentary and site walk.
The Newberry National Volcanic Monument is my favorite place to visit! So many sites - definitely start at the visitor center!
Got a load of it and bordered my rock garden with it. It is indeed beautiful.
There is no way I could walk over that. I broke my ankle several times just watching you.
😂
You need to do a video on British Columbia Canada, your videos are so informative and we don’t have that here in BC
My memories of exploring the lava flow as a child, roasting. We always managed to go there when it was cooking hot outside. 😂 Pretty amazing place to visit, I highly recommend everyone go take a look!
If you want to see a slow eruption, a good example is the “Whale-back” extrusion at Mt. St. Helens about 20 years ago. The USGS time lapse sequence is quite illustrative, though I think that might have been dacite.
Thanks very much. Was here in May of 2023, but of course was unable to see anything due to deep snow cover. Some rocks in your video remind me of light colored ash containing chunks of black obsidian that I observed on a 10K walk along the rim of the crater of Santorini in Greece last year. Volcanic wonderland!
Thanks, Shawn for the gooeyness leading to sluggish ions explanation of glass versus crystal formation. Of course!
Fascinating! Thank you.
Love your videos very informative
A Very intressting video. Thanks
When the snow melts over the Blues, please do a big video about Smith Rock and the Crooked River Gorge. I grew up hiking and climbing those rocks and would so love to learn about their formation. Especially if you can talk about Monkey Face and the Woodstock head at Christian Brothers 🤗
Thank you so much for this. Fascinating.
Nice study video with lots of interesting info. Pumice and Obsidian, fascinating stuff.
Thankyou. I just found you. I can't wait to see more 😍
Awesome. Welcome aboard. Lots of existing videos to peruse.
@@shawnwillsey looking forward to it !
Truly amazing that you can walk about on a volcanic flow only 1,300 years old - I expect there's even a few Injun ( sorry - 1st Nation - Indigenous Peoples ) tales that include the fire from the earth - hopefully said in sonorous tones that my mum liked about them ( not that she ever met any - even when given the chance.) That amount of Obsidian just laying about is crazy but the first thing that occurred to me - who the hell made that track!! What a commitment.
1,300 years and Nature has only managed to crack it up a bit, plant a few stunted conifers and dabbed a few lichens here and there - she has plenty of time.
Very cool flow with info!
Glad you liked it!
Glad this showed up in my feed, always had an interest in geology but never the time to really get into it. Much appreciated, subscribed to check out your channel even more (even if only casually)!
Welcome aboard! Enjoy the existing videos. More new ones coming soon. Usually 2-3 per week.
Thanks for the explanation man. I'll have to check the place out.
Thanks! To view rocks in their formative times is really tricky. Thanks for making it easier to embrace intellectually. 😵. Sticky lava with lots of gas…can be beautiful!
Newberry Crater is amazing, but be aware and choose good sturdy shoes for a walkaround - no sandals or flipflops. This obsidian has very sharp edges and cuts like hell. Besides this it is typically warm or hot ontop of the flow caused by the reflection on the mirrorlike surface. It was springtime and a dust of snow lay in the shade on the flow it was pretty warm. Very interesting videos. Greatings from Germany.
I picture it more like the dome up on St Helens, it grows slow, it's dacite, though more degassed, so it's similar to this felsic melt. I work primarily in mafics, flood basalts and their impacts, but I've been to Newberry a couple of times. We were looking more at the phreatomagmatics (basalts that erupt through water quench fast enough that we can sample melt inclusions for gasses, it's wild) so we also went to a few other vents but you can't be in the area without stopping at the BOF! Really enjoyed this.
Thanks!
Everyone should try and visit an active lava flow somewhere in the world. It’s really impressive in person.
Absolutely. Bucket list item.
Thank you 😊
Very cool place.
Cool spot!
Another good geology video..
Glad you enjoyed it
Really special lava flow! Love your explanation. Would have lived to have seen an example of ryolite as it manifests there.
Thank you thank you a million times for this teaching , I am a visual person and now I understand and know what I am looking at when I go hiking in the obsidian canyon and I live by in Rosarito Baja Mexico, I collect rocks and I don't know what a lot of them are this information helps me identify, where and what kind of rocks to look for ... Can you do a video on Jasper?
Glad this helps. Watch my rocks and mineral series too. I did mention jasper in the quartz video.
Thanks for watching and glad this helped. Watch my rocks and minerals series. I covered jasper briefly in the quartz video.
I’m just learning about the difference between silica rich lava and it’s counterpart, being low and silica. I’m new to the world of geology, but I’ve collected rocks for years, and have known for a while, like as a 5 year old kid, I’ve know. How to identify igneous rocks. We have a lot in the area where I live. But most of the extensive igneous rocks here are basaltic rocks, which I’ve recently learned are LOW in silica. I always wondered why there wasn’t obsidian in the area. The First Nations here have used obsidian with their tools, so they would get it from somewhere. Anyways, this video was really fascinating to me, to show the relationship of obsidian to pumice. Always so much to learn. Love your hands on approach in the field to teaching rock formation.
Thanks for sharing and glad you liked it. You might want to watch my series on rock types: ruclips.net/p/PLOf4plee9UzCH2w8e2_xpvaq6w1gGCf5Q
I like the rainbow obsidian.
Yes was obsidian that brought me
Thanks for another great video. I'm curious as to what has caused the break up of the lava flow into all those chunks. Was it just 1300 years of freezing and thawing of water?
Even when erupted, the lava is only molten in the interior. The exterior cools quickly and is quite brittle so it breaks up. Later freeze-thaw extenuates the appearance.
New berry has over 200 buttes and still me of them do not have names. You have all magma types with that. You have mostly A’a but there is some Poe, especially being erupted out of Lava butte. Plus you have Lava river cave. Word of advice, take a jacket and gloves. It gets cold inside that cave.
Amazing that there is very little plant life up on the flow. It’s taking a long time for seeds and soil to blow up onto the flow, and the pumice and stuff probably doesn’t do much to help
Too few nutrients I would imagine and probably fantastic drainage would wash away any wind borne nutrients . Besides little plant food , there would likely be quite a difference in day and night time temperature . Whatever the reason you are so right about the little plant growth .
At home though I think the pumice might make an excellent material for the bottom layer in planting pots , or growing beds in the garden , for drainage below compost or decent soil ? But you are not allowed to remove anything from that particular place .
I remember my mother having pumice stones to defoliate hard foot skin ! Once I was shown a perfectly formed ( shaped by knapping I presume ) Viking axe head made from obsidian or some other volcanic rock , which was very beautiful to behold . It looked fully functional , but maybe it was symbolic . Gorgeous to see and hold .
I would enjoy visiting the site , but live in England . Saying that I have visited the States twice so far .... Las Vagus and Disney Florida .... not your typical American places , but you have a lot to see over the pond ! One day again , if I am lucky , maybe I can return .
I did visit the big Meteor site in Arizona and Death valley when I was staying at Vegas . I am not a gambler at all , but I found Legas very interesting ..... no ladies were bothered by me either , lol , Took a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon , flown by an ex police pilot from Mexico who was amusing to say the least . Recommend Vegas for a place to visit for geology near by !
This is where I was _supposed_ to meet up with you, Shawn, and health issues got in the way -- in fact they still are, so I doubt I'll be catching up with you in CA either. But I'm hell-bent to get to Big Obsidian Flow, maybe on my next trip to Long Valley/Owens Valley.
Maybe another time.
You are very close to the Crooked River caldera that includes Prineville and Smith Rocks. Quite large.
I did a search on Crooked River caldera as the place was new to me . Wow , thanks for highlighting it for us . Just imagine what area must have been like when the volcanics were active ! Hell on Earth ; but a lot of places we see today would not exist otherwise I suppose !
Thanks Shawn. Going to Bend in February! So not sure if this will be covered by snow. But will try to see it. Two questions: if the obsidian is high in silica why is it so black? And secondly, didn’t you say, in your rock-type training, that obsidian is not actually a rock? And now I understand that it’s ions have difficulty grabbing onto other ions to form crystals, so that makes sense. Thanks again for another learning episode from Professor Willsey!
Black color comes from tiny impurities of iron in the glass. If some of the iron is oxidized, you get colors like orange (pumpkin obsidian). If we go with the definition a rock as being made of minerals, then obsidian is not a rock. However, to most it seems very rock-like and even fits nicely with the igneous rocks in terms or origin so we fudge a bit and stick it in that group. Thanks for watching!
Newberry Calif also has a few volcanos.
I watched Nick Zentner's YT visit of a couple years back and this certainly fills in some of the questions raised therein. Would be nice if you could show us some rhyolite, especially the rhyolite/obsidian boundary. They must be blended to some degree in places?
Didn't see any along trail.
So was any of that rock rhyolite? I always thought some of the beige or tan colored rocks was rhyolite. Thanks for making this video. I’ve been here once and it is truly amazing. I want to go back. It’d be cool to go to one of these places and have someone like you there to answer questions.
Most of what I saw was pumice and obsidian with a bit of breccia. Likely could find some with a little more time and looking.
Another fascinating vid. Considered doing Mono Lake?
I’ll be there this weekend.
If you're still there, Whoa Nellie Deli has great food!
Amazing! How did this large flow affect the Climate and trajectory of Civilization? Eg, the mini Ice Age of the 525-700 AD that affected Viking Europe and Byzantium?
What about the larger flows in the Quinn Basin?
No affect on climate. This was a very localized and small eruption of lava with very little gas content.
❤
Hole-in-the-Ground is an interesting structure near you.
Yeah. It was on the list but I ran out of time.
Marked as enemy munitions mountain on calvery maps.
What's the largest piece of pumice you could pick up?
I can watch geo videos about Oregon, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, and even some Arizona, from fine hosts like Shawn, Myron, Nick and others; but is there a vlog for Colorado? I’m calling out the Colorado geo grad students and their profs.
Let me know what areas or topics in CO you are interested in.
The obsidian is high in silica and mostly a Rhyolite/Andesite family of rock types of flow.
You seem to love volcanoes. The most impressive thing I have seen is a volcano that was quarried for isolation material, so nowadays all is gone except for the lava flows. You seem to stand inside this volcano. It is close to a volcano museum in the chene des puis near Clairmont Ferand in France. The volcano was not very big but still very impressive. There are different types of volcanoes and you can see them all from the puis de dome.
I do love all volcanoes.
@@shawnwillsey Try visiting the East African Rift valley Shawn. That has fantastic geology as well , you would be spell bound !
Going to be at China Hat this weekend, hoping to check that place out, so perfectly timed video for me!
Possible anyone knows, are there more interesting POI to hit like the Ice cave, or what someone told me was called "hole in the ground" in the area that might be interesting?
Try the Alpibe Lakes drive, lava cast forest, and lava butte if you're in the Bend area. Also Smith Rocks and the Crooked River Gorge to the north in the Redmond area. McKenzie Pass is also cool, west of Sisters. Lots of other cool things as well.
Thank you for all the suggestions ! Will try and hit as many as we can!
I was also suggested something called “Crack in the ground” that was interesting near another lava flow in the are. @@phazen3175
The geology available in the mtns here is wild. Get over to Dee Wright at the top of McKensie pass. Permit season is over, so if you don’t mind the outdoors at elevation, that whole zone is worth a look. The route out to Yapoah Crater specifically is great.
What is the difference (chemically) between "regular" black obsidian and the green obsidian found in Mexico?
Hmm. I had not heard of green obsidian. A quick Google search states the color comes from varying amounts of iron and magnesium. www.geologyin.com/2019/12/what-is-green-obsidian.html
What is the gas and where did the gas come from ?
Why does it stratify ?
Gas is dissolved in magma.
Shawn, is the dark course pumice heavier than the light color pumice?
I would think the dark pumice would be lighter, just because of the size and number of vesicles in it.
Wrong question.
A big piece of one thing may be heavier than a small piece of another or vice versa. For example a small lump of osmium would be heavier than a much larger piece of pumice.
What's the correct question? Is the dark, coarse pumice *denser* than the light colour pumice? Density or mass per unit volume is what you're after.
A day of geology magic for me. First Nick on basalt flows complete with the lost hammer story. Followed immediately by your Big Obsidian Flow video. The last few days I've been remembering my own trip to the Big Obsidian Flow! I enjoyed today's in depth lesson on the Obsidian and Pumas. Today is a real treat. Thanks.
@@Anne5440_ Nick's montage popped up in my recommended _after_ Shawn's video; but saw it in its entirety. That's been quite awhile ago now -- about 12 or 13 years.
Hmm. Good question. I didn't notice a difference while there but didn't really focus on that. I would guess the mass of both would be comparable. Dark colored material has larger vesicles (but fewer of them) vs light colored with smaller but more numerous vesicles.
Was just in Bend for a Dave Matthews Band show....it rocked
Great band!
@@shawnwillsey ha yes i know! Been to 45 shows, trying to hit my 50th next year
What a dangerous place to slip and land on your knee, to cleanly sever your own leg by a simple trip..
Really enjoy your videos. I just don’t understand what keeps you from getting snake bit…
I hardly seem them and I am outside a lot. On this day, it was too chilly.
Isn’t it ready to erupt again? According to USGS it is!
I’ve not heard of any signs of an imminent eruption. It will erupt at some point but could be 100s of years or more.
the biggest danger from these flows, if you were present, would be the gasses.
Another great place in Oregon for obsidian is glass Butte glass Butte you can pick it up where you're at right through you cannot pick it up you can't take it against the law but a glass Butte take all you want I got five gallon buckets full of it
Yes indeed. I've been there too. Great spot.
That place must have been Mecca for the native Americans.
Another good one prof! Always appreciate the diagram. Think Nick went here also. Just promise us you will never get a bow tie and a guitar and sing that horrible song 2 minute geology! 🙏
Ha! Deal!
First
Thanks!
Thanks!
Much appreciated. Glad you liked it.