Arizona's Ancient Super Volcano
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- The spectacular roadcuts through the Peach Spring Tuff along Interstate 40 where it passes through Kingman, Arizona bear witness to a titanic volcanic eruption that occurred approximately 18.8 million years ago.
Thanks. Used to live there miss driving by those formations on the way to Oatman, or Avi.
thank you stay safe
Awesome video!
My Dad lives in Kingman, Az. Ive passed those rock formations a hundred times.
This is so exciting!!!
Great video.
Always wondered about geology of this area (bent tablelands and all). Figured there was a faultline through Oatman judging from observation, and your visual graphics confirm my ideas about it's orientation. Always thought something was unusual about this reigion in Mojave co. There's some volcanic debris along I40 about 50 miles W of here in San Bernadino Co., but I always thought it might have been far flung ejecta from San Francisco Mountain event. Probably entirely wrong about all my presuppositions since they've been in my head since I was a teenager (1980s), and your evidence suggests Silver Creek Caldera event is so ancient, little physical evidence would still be apparent today. Thanks for your presentation, just popped up on my feed today. God Bless!
drove past it many times never would have guessed in a million years is was so huge and so far away.
Thank you for posting this. I knew that AZ has at least one supervolcano but this has made it much clearer.
Hi Harriet! The Superstition Mountains are also composed of large scale ancient high silica volcanic centers, but the Peach Spring Tuff is by far the most accessible ancient eruption of this type in Arizona.
@@scolecodoc Thank you for the information! This makes the geology of the state even more interesting, at least for me.
I wonder if that explains all the lava rocks scattered across the desert off the 8 between Gila bend and Yuma ?
Sorry for the slow reply! Lost my to-do list. I haven't had a chance to explore this area yet, but according to Halka Chronic's "Roadside Geology of Arizona" there is an extensive basaltic lava field west of Gila Bend called the Sentinal Peaks Volcanic Field. These were fluid basaltic lavas, very different from the Peach Spring Tuff, but definitely volcanic.
Excellent information !!
That's very interesting. I had not heard of that before. Thanks! I'm exploring Washington State for September this year. I hope to get to explore California and points along the route there and back next year. I'll definitely check this out!
U are one of the rare ones , most excellent !¡!
This is just geeky enough to keep me glued
And I mean that in the nicest way possible. I especially like the inclusion of a friend's music at the end.
The senior author of the paper including the chemical analysis of is Ayla Pamukcu, not Pamakcu. My thanks to Calvin Miller for catching this.
I just found ur channel...
This is AWESOME!!
Wow really well done doc thanx no bull , no on n on n onjust quick clean to the pointwhere. Also don't think i ever new of it n im well read n traveled in the west. C u out there, somewhere.
Excellent video, very informative.
I live in bullhead and love volcanoes. This is wonderful information.
Great! Glad it proved useful.
wow I actually drove to Cali in 2003 from Florida and we stopped in Kingman, nice little desert town
Nicholas Matyas --- Just don't leave your car parked somewhere where you can't observe it.
Marilyn Guinnane why is that love
Very interesting.....
sick vid! thanks dr c!
That was really interesting, thanks.
This is interesting. Geologist I have known about the superstition Mountain super volcano for quite a long time now. This one must be a new discovery obviously. I wonder which one is larger because superstition Mountain caldera is supposed to be massive when you see it’s range from satellite images.
They are roughly the same size, with eruption volumes of multiple hundreds of cubic kilometers. Ferguson published a field guide to Fish Creek Canyon with details about the Superstitions in 2005 - AZ Geol Survey Open File Rept 05-01. He describes the Apache Leap Tuff as having a volume of roughly 800 cubic kilometers.
Thank you for this informative video!!!
My pleasure!
There's also ancient lava fields with some vents on the east side of US89 north out of Flagstaff, with more to both sides of the highway a little further north. The triangular area to the northwest of Flagstaff, bordered by I-40 on the south, State Highway 64 to the west and US180 to the north and east, also contains several ancient volcanoes. All visible on Google Earth.
You are correct. Those vents are part of the San Francisco Peaks Volcanic Field, which includes over 600 extinct volcanoes. None of them are super volcanoes, but the field includes just about every other type of volcanic landform. I'm currently working on my next video about this volcanic field.
gkcgeoscience if you are ever down in the Big Bend area of Texas east of El Paso and near Marfa, there appears to be a few ancient volcanic peaks there as well, in addition to the ones in central NM
I live in kingman . i seem to have an ancient lava flow in my back yard. i was looking for info. any idea how old the oatman caldera is? thanks.
18.78 million years old, plus or minus .02 million. The caldera formed at the same time the Peach Spring Tuff erupted.
there appeared to be a lot of volcanic activity going on in Arizona at around that time.
mark vanleeuwen Hornblower sagas
Was the Spirit Mountain batholith (Newberry Mts.) ejected by this volcano?
you ever heard of normalizing the volume in the music?
I can't help but notice the age similarity with the beginning of the Yellowstone Hotspot in NW Nevada. Sub-continental faulting?
There was a burst of explosive volcanic activity within what is now the Great Basin from 42 to 17 million years ago, and the onset of the Yellowstone hot spot certainly falls within this range. In the case of Yellowstone, however, the geophysical evidence indicates the presence of a mantle plume which has persisted for tens of millions of years, unlike the Silver Creek Caldera.
Does the theory of Devils Tower is the plug left from an ancient volcano, have merit to it?
That is one of the theories under discussion. So far nobody has found evidence of erupted material, and it may be from an igneous intrusion (called a stock) that never reached the earth's surface. Definitely formed from cooled magma either way.
@@gkcgeoscience Others say it's a giant petrified tree trunk....
I heard it was constructed with mashed potatoes and a fork.
Very informative video...but could definitely use some "audio leveling" as the end credits jingle is quite loud. Headphone users beware!
Thanks for the heads up. I haven't listened to this thing through head phones. Will keep that in mind for future productions.
Why about sunset crater?
Very interesting, I had never heard of this caldera before. However 640km3 of ejected material make this eruption a solid VEI7, which in turn makes this *not* a supervolcano. Still a massive eruption though, even more so if true that it took place in a single day.
The total eruption was closer to 1400 cubic kilometers. Roughly half fell back into the caldera. The 640 cubic kilometer number is for the Peach Spring Tuff alone.
Thanks for the info about Arizona, I live there!!! What are your thoughts about the superstition mountains??? I know at one time it was active eons ago I believe it's thought to be dormant!!! Just wondering!!!!
The Superstitions are also the remains of an explosive volcanic center even older than the Silver Springs Caldera (dated at about 25 million years old). It's considered extinct rather than dormant (dormant implies at least a small chance of future eruptions).
Well, apparently quiet. Did anyone know Guadalajara, Mexico unbeknownst to most residents its next if nor literally on top of an active supervolcano: one moment your listening to a Mariachi and the next your listening to a choir of angels.
The good thing about these monster volcanoes is that movement of that much magma underground will trigger swarms of earthquakes, ground uplift, thermal anomalies etc. Volcanologists will let us know if they think something is up (that's shy Yellowstone is blanketed by instruments). Plenty of time for the Mariachi's to finish one more number before you leave town!
Gkcgeoscience, do you have or know of any discussion or video on the deposit on the east side of Wickenburg Az? It's a very large and violent looking ashflow. Just very curious, and don't know where to look for information. Thanks in advance!
I haven't had a chance to hike in that area yet. The Arizona Geological Survey has a map on line from 1987 which should help: Open File Report 87-9. Looks like there's a thick pile of latest Oligocene to Early Miocene volcanics in that area (1-2 km thick), but no giant ash flow sheets like the Peach Spring Tuff.
@@gkcgeoscience thanks for responding! I'll look into this.
Turkey Creek Caldera. Rhyolite.
Do one on Sunset Crater in Flagstaff!
I'm considering doing a series of short hiking guides to some of our local extinct volcanoes. Sunset is definitely on the list, along with Old Caves Crater, Strawberry Crater, Mount Elden, and (my favorite) Red Mountain. For general info on cinder cones I do have a video up called "The Volcanoes of Flagstaff: Cinder Cones" that includes shots of Sunset Crater.
Superstition Mountains: Willow Springs Caldera, Black Mesa Caldera, Superstition Caldera, Haunted Canyon Caldera and Florence Junction Caldera. Tuff and welded tuff. Rhyolite or rhyodacite.
I'm dying to hike in the Superstitions at some point, and yes indeed those are high silica calderas! The Peach Spring Tuff has I 40 carved right through the middle of it - got to be one of the most accessible ignimbrite deposits anywhere.
Yep, lived in Kings Ranch for a decade back in the 90`s (now days called Gold Canyon), north of Baseline, and its amazing to live within the Caldera of a Volcano, ancient or otherwise. The geology of the area is fascinating, entire ridge lines torn upwards out of the earth at extremely high angles of incident, the core of the volcano left exposed for all to marvel. Our neighbors well would run hot and brown every now and then. Perhaps all is not as quite as we like to think.
The creek that runs through the property I live on formed in Turkey Creek Caldera. It's really faint. Left over from the Basin and Range spreading in southeastern Arizona.
Laura Bunyard - I lived in Arizona for 6 years. I worked in Gold Canyon near the Lost Dutchmens Cave. Could see the cave from my view. So beautiful there.
Great video-I never knew there was that much volcanic action in the area!
It was a huge eruption, ejecting 640 cubic kilometes of volcanic material, but still no real super eruption. To be classified as a super eruption it had to eject more then 1,000 cubic kilometers of volcanic material (tephra). In the last 100,000 years only 2 eruptions classify as true super eruptions. 74,000 years ago, the Toba eruption, ejected about 2,800 km3, and 26,500 years ago, the Oruanui eruption of New Zealand's Taupo Volcano, ejected about 1,170 km3 of tephra volume.
The 640 cubic kilometers is the volume of the Peach Spring Tuff proper. If you add in the material that fell back into the caldera the total volume is apparently double that (according to the published literature -- need to be very clear this isn't my work!). Only one of the last three Yellowstone eruptions was larger.
Summary: Anywhere we go, we are sitting on a thin egg shell atop who know's what, but it's at least a lot of molten fiery stuff. You don't have to drill to far until it becomes hot enough to melt the drills.
It definitely gets hotter as you drill down everywhere, but only specific places have molten magma. Best to think of the mantle having a thick layer of silly putty in the middle of it that slowly deforms as the rigid plates move around the surface.
We can only directly observe a thin "shell" so far. You only have to go down into a relatively shallow cave before the temperature becomes a constant 60 degrees all year around. The deepest mines are unbearable, and we have really only scratched the surface. I know how hard it is to tell what's behind a wall with precise acoustic measurements. I await more direct observation before declaring what's below the crust. It may not all be molten, of course, but it will likely melt any every-day material at standard pressure. Is this crowd a "solid core" or a "plasma core" crowd?
The big surprise is that although the temperature increases with depth, increasing pressure raises the melting point of "dry rock" at the same rate, so in most places the mantle remains solid all the way to the core/mantle boundary (experimental petrologists can actually re-create these conditions in the lab using diamond anvils and high temperature furnaces - wild stuff!) To produce magma requires a decrease in pressure (pressure release melting), adding water (typically along a subduction zone - as in the Cascades or the Andes), or adding extra heat (as in a mantle plume under Hawaii or Rapa Nui). This is pretty deep in the weeds, and of course geologists have a lot more to learn about this stuff, but it makes a lot more sense than it did when I was a college freshman!
Pressure moving phase change point is no surprise. Probably almost everyone has put water in a good vacuum chamber at room temperature to watch it boil. What is still a surprise is that we rely on experiment to determine simple material properties and still can't reliably use any models to predict such seemingly basic properties of only two variables. One thing I'm trying to find is empirical data and theoretical projections on current flow as a function of depth, lat, and lon, but I can't find any information on this.
I wouldn't rule out anything considering the fact that there's tons of hot springs all over the place from the southwest going north past Yellowstone . From the Cascade range going south and then going east the entire continent was pushed up . The size of the magma pool must be massive . By no means would I rule out another eruption in Arizona . Sunset crater volcano last erupted in 1085 A.D. So obviously the possibility exists for future eruptions.
Never under estimate mother nature .
There is geophysical evidence that we still have magma at lower crustal depths below part of the San Francisco Peaks Volcanic Field, and it is very likely that we will have more eruptions in the future (though that could be 5,000 years from now, or could be next year). We don't have evidence for a gigantic magma reservoir (like the one beneath Yellowstone) needed for a super volcano.
crazy
I guess they called it Peach Spring Tuft, because the community of Peach spring isn't far away?
That's the basic idea. Names of geological formations have to use geographic place names, hopefully those that are near by. The town is actually name Peach Springs, with an s, and in the older literature you'll see the formation called the "Peach Springs Tuff." Turned out, however, that Ed McKee, the well known geologist who studied the Grand Canyon, had already used the name for a different rock formation. To reduce confusion, the volcanologists studying this formation named it after Peach Spring, which is an actual spring near the town of Peach Springs.
Yeah, absurdly picky. Still a really spectacular volcanic deposit.
Looks like a bad hair day !
Just subbed @pulsa
My neighbor witnessed the eruption. He is also a pothead.....
And does anyone know the plant that smells and makes.arizona have it own beautiful dessert smell when it rains? I forgot.and need to refresh my.memory!
Jayson Molina Creosote bush
Ethereal Phenotype , thank you so much for your knowledge 👌
Love that smell, but I have noticed the same smell near El, Paso TX during winter.
Creosote
its actually a mixture, Cresote, Palo verde and cacti all produce odors when they get wet. :)
so volcanic vents can be ash holes.
Groan .........
I was told.when i.was.young ( born.and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, ) that Phoenix was a valley , because Phoenix was an extinct valcano, and that it was covered in ash and dirt, and it covered over and made the caves underneath which holds our water source, would someone tell me if this is true or look.and find if this is true or not?
Phoenix is in what's called the Basin and Range Province, where the earth has been stretched by tectonic forces. The valleys are low areas dropped down along faults, so not a caldera (hmm .. wonder if anybody has posted a video explaining this - future topic, perhaps?) There are volcanic rocks around Phoenix, but they are the result rather than the cause of the extension.
gkcgeoscience thanks for your knowledge, , I'm truly thankful for your help, and am curious to see what others might teach an Arizona Highways Gangsta nerd,😎
My Dad told me the Hualapai's is a volcano.
According to the geologic map there are indeed volcanic rocks in the northern Hualapais, in addition to much older (over 1 billion years old) granitic and metamorphic rocks. Doesn't look like it's a single volcano, however. I haven't had a chance to hike around out there yet. I moved to Arizona in 2005, and there's still so much interesting stuff to explore!
Yep. :)
Havasupai is a canyon and a Native American Nation in the Grand Canyon of Arizona. There is evidence of volcanism in the past in the lava flows and today with the 70 degrees water in Havasupai Creek.
M. Brennan no she's talking about the Hualapai mountains in Kingman,AZ... It's named after an Indian Tribe & pronounced Wall-uh-pie...I was born in Kingman,AZ but now live in Aiea,HI & Hualalai Volcano is not the same as Hualapai mountains...
Ben Trill --- Have you had your rabies shot? I think not. It's overdue, FYI.
Was a good video until that obnoxious music at the end.
The beer volcano
Lol we live in kingman. Not good soil to grow anything in.
Sandra Weilbrenner silica doesn’t make good topsoil
I understand that there is a hotspot, like Yellowstone in Northern Arizona currently, responsible for the San Fransisco peaks, which used to be one 15,000 ft peak before blowing itself to bits. Is this related to the Supervolcano, whose tuff is the star of this video?
Great question! The simple answer is no. The Peach Spring Tuff super eruption was part of what's been called "the ignimbrite flare up," which occurred in the Western US and Mexico from 38-18 million years ago. Most geologists think these monstrous eruptions were triggered by a change in the pattern of subduction during that time. (As pointed out in one of the comments on this video, the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix were also formed by these types of eruptions, so this isn't Arizona's only super volcano, just the easiest one to visit).
In contrast The San Francisco Peaks Volcanic Field is the result of the formation of a pocket of magma in the uppermost mantle just below the crust that has persisted for the past 4.5 million years. It's produced over 600 eruptions and counting. Exactly what caused this melting is still under discussion. (And yes, there's evidence magma is still down there northeast of Flagstaff) It's ok to call it a hot spot if the term is used descriptively. Unlike Yellowstone and Hawaii, however, there is no geophysical evidence of a plume of heat rising all the way from the core-mantle boundary.
One last point which might be of interest. The Inner Basin in the San Francisco Peaks is no longer considered a caldera. There's compelling evidence it was formed by a huge landslide when the peak of the mountain collapsed and slid off to the northeast.
@@scolecodoc Thanks for the answer. Its a odd location for a magma upwelling, trapped in between two Rift Zones so to speak. One Rifting California, the other in New Mexico. I thought the San Fransisco Mountains were a mechanism of being stuck at the border of the Colorado Plateau, and the Spreading Basin and range. So the hotspot idea kinda struck me out of left field, and the easterly migrating volcanic zones of Arizona kind of match up with the westward motion of North America.
@@twotone3471 Rifting has also affected the southern half of Arizona. We have extensive lava flows called the Rim Basalts that erupted from approximately 6-8 million years ago running across the state. As you pointed out, the San Francisco Peaks Volcanic Field shows a clear pattern of the volcanoes getting younger from west to east as the North American Plate moves from east to west. Something triggered a pocket of melt down there that's remained in place for 4.5 million years. Fascinating stuff!
Nice video but 18.8 million years, REALLY???
The age is based on argon/argon dating of individual sanidine crystals from 10 different rock samples, pretty much the gold standard for dating rocks of this type. Erosion has left the center of the caldera projecting above the surrounding rocks (originally that would have been below ground level). In the valley west of Kingman a huge block has dropped down under tension, and the Peach Spring Tuff is below the surface buried under thousands of feet of sediment. Hard to see that happening without millions of years involved, as mind boggling as that is.
Fracking will cause earthquakes.
Forget the millions of years!
We need a new eruptiion
Probably don't need one like that! Odds are best for something much more modest, like a cinder cone. Both the Uinkaret and San Francisco Peaks volcanic fields are still active from a geological perspective (pretty good odds of at least one eruption in the next 5,000 to 10,000 years).
A super volcano is supposed to erupt this year... is this it ?
No evidence at this point. Movement of magma on the scale of this thing would set off every seismometer on the planet.
aliel Who says so?
no, and no.
IT WAS NOT 18.8 MILLION YEARS AGO!
Shut da fuq up already and go back under your rock
How old is it? You assert correct knowledge and deny the stated age is correct. Well, complete your claim, and tell how old it is. Apparently you have alternative information. What is it? What is the basis of your assertion?
The world is not that old.
How do explain carbon dating and thermoluminesence dating that indicates that it is,
4.5 billion years
That is one theory? You never considered electric geology why? If your really interested you can add a different theory. Michael Steinbacher ruclips.net/video/wz8eoIJAOKY/видео.html is a good start. Andy Hall ruclips.net/video/mPcF40vBqzs/видео.html . Its etched in rock on every planet.
Now they say even Main and New Hampshire has a volcano under neath. Where are those Martians when we need them. Take us up ET. 😂
Well no volcanoes yet under New England, just early stirrings that might lead to volcanism. Apparently we have about 50 million years to prepare for the first eruption!
You lost me on the 18.8 million years ago so I left the video.
Sure. You wouldn't want to use the brain that God gave you.
cleo just because humanity is 6 thousand years old doesn't mean the earth is...it's beliefs like that that cause people to laugh at Christians.
Okay. I appreciate your opinion. I'll look into it.
Cleo, I think you might enjoy. I'm old now but I enjoyed collecting rocks for many years and reading about those in different places. There is so much beauty in our natural world.
Priscilla Ross-Fox Agreed
Earth zit/cyst
👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👄👄👄👄
18 million years ago and gravity are just a few preposterous things mentioned in this video
Almost as preposterous as the camera work in the intro to this video! Have you ever seen such nervous shakey hands?? I bet whoever was filming that is a real spaz...
I can understand your skepticism about the timeline if you read The Bible literally, Gravity? How does that conflict with The Bible?
Robert Blakemore never once did i mention the bible so you must be assuming just like you assume gravity is real
Robt. Blakemore --- Evidently "Ethereal Phenotype" is a flat earther. Flat earthers don't think that gravity exists.
It reminds me of an old grafitti I saw in the 1970s."There is no gravity,The Earth sucks". LOL
It's pronounced "toof"!
Have to disagree with you on that one Bill! Are you thinking of tufa? (pronounced toofa) Totally unrelated rocks (tufa is a type of limestone deposited around springs) that look similar in spelling. Causes lots of problems for geology students.
haha I remember mixing those two up in first year geology. I still mix them up today. lol and yeah I didnt make it past year 1 oh well
I'll be sure not to buy a home that's built on flour :)
Cool info......but that "music", the synth-drum-bullshit, gotta go.
I wonder how the book author figured the age of the tuff to be 18.78 million years old. Oh, I know... he picked the number out of the clear blue sky.
another assmonkey that doesn't believe in science but believes in the a made up superhero - smh
Bullshit!
the earth is only 6,000 yrs old so you are off on time
You're being facetious, right?
Armaugh Blackwolf --- No, I'm afraid david mayo is completely serious. He's plainly a bible thumper.
Marilyn Guinnane Oh boy.
Armaugh Blackwolf -- I hear ya'. And flat Earthers claim that, after all, it says "four corners of the world" in the bible, and the bible doesn't lie. This is supposedly a time of waking up but, um.
Marilyn Guinnane More like a time of regression, in many regards.
I'm a pretty open-minded person, but the flat earth thing is just ridiculous; there are so many examples of how inane the theory is, that I just can't wrap my head around how anyone in the "age of information", where pretty much the entire world's knowledge is literally at our fingertips, could go back to bronze age beliefs.
But then, we still have billions of humans who still subscribe to other popular beliefs of that era in history, so...
18.87 million years ago?? And you KNOW this how? The world is only 6,000+/- years old. Read a Bible and also see: ruclips.net/video/WdqYPjA9VxA/видео.html Scientists Baffled-New Discoveries-Darwinian Evolution Crumbling-Scientists Abandon Theory
Please leave your stupidity out of this informative video.
Fact, there is no god! Neither yours nor theirs! All you have is your wishful imagination and even that only imagines things it would like to be.
Great video