Medicine Lake Volcano is in a beautiful and fascinating area. It is the home of Lava Beds National Monument and an amazing amount of obsidian can be found there (but not allowed to be collected). I have visited Medicine Lake Volcano many times. Thank you for this video.
@@tardigrades3184 Actually, most parts of the volcano are heavily forested in a mixed pine and fir forest. Even around the caldera lake it is forested. True story (I live about a 4-hour drive from the volcano, I get up there whenever I can) I had read that there wasn't much wildlife on the volcano, because there isn't much surface water (besides the caldera lake). One time I was up there picking up red scoria for a Boy Scout talk I was going to be giving (I had checked beforehand, to be sure this was ok, since where I was gathering is National Forest land, it is - or was - permissible to gather a limited amount - this was a few years ago, though, so things might have changed). Anyway, I just pulled off the side of the road in a wide spot where there was a nice scoria deposit (it's pretty much everywhere) , not paying much attention to anything, gathered about a 5-gallon bucked full, put it in my car, and I was on my way. I hadn't gone a quarter mile when I glimpsed a huge something out of the corner of my eye barreling towards me out of the forest. Seconds later a really large, blond, bear ran right in front of my car, and I had to slam on my brakes. It was there and gone in an instant. I was pretty astonished - I had never seen a bear before, but it was unmistakable as to what it was, and it looked like a grizzly. When I got home I looked it up, but there don't seem to be any records of any bears on Medicine Lake Volcano (but, hey, I saw what I saw). And that there are no grizzly bears in the entire state of California - even though the grizzly is featured in the California State flag. I did read that black bears can have a brown to blondish color - but I'll never know exactly what kind of bear it was. Anyway, you can bet I was a lot more careful after that collecting scoria on top of that volcano! I count myself lucky that bear didn't pay me a surprise visit when my back was turned.
Yeah the eastern areas of California have a lot of volcanoes that most people don't know about (myself included until a few years ago) it is fascinating how much of California the Sierra Nevada Great Valley block/microplate is basically getting sheered off the continent creating all kinds of volcanoes along with the transtensional faults. And to think that this North eastern section of the crustal block/microplate continent interface is where it is still mostly connected to NA proper like one of those cuticle/skin tags of continental crust.
@@Dragrath1 have you heard of the Baja to BC connection? Lots of terrains all the way up to Alaska came from somewhere to the south. Just as Baja is breaking off and sliding to the north, an idea being discussed is that this has happened repeatedly.
After Alaska, California is the U.S. state w/ most volcanoes. Four Volcanoes National (State?) Park is in northwest CA, and it's the only area on earth that has all 4 types of volcano within a few miles of one another.
@@kennyjones559 Hi. I live in Northern California and I'm not aware of a Four Volcanoes park, but I could be wrong. I'm wondering if you might be thinking of Lassen Volcanic National Park - Lassen Park has all four types of volcanoes within the boundaries of the park - additionally Lassen has the second largest thermal area - steam vents, boiling mud pots, boiling lakes - in the United States. Second only to Yellowstone. Lassen I would say is more in the north east part of the state, and Lassen Peak is the southern most volcano in the Cascade Range.
Medicine Lake and Glass Mountain are my favorite places in NorCal! I still have HUGE boulders of obsidian in my house from there. And the lava tubes are super fun to explore.
Just thought I would throw this out there - it is no longer permissible to gather obsidian at Medicine Lake Volcano's Glass Mountain, although I understand it was permissible at one time. There are permissible obsidian collecting areas near Davis Creek, Ca., (which is not too far from Medicine Lake Volcano) which is a ways north of Alturas. But phone the local Forest Service office before you go - last time I checked, a person needs a permit from the Forest Service to gather obsidian there.
Lava Beds National Monument has camping available; there are also several private campgrounds available in the area. Additionally, there is camping at the nearby Fair Grounds in Tule Lake.
Yesterday Newberry, today Medicine Lake. Did you know there's an extinct third shield volcano in between them, forming a line together that parallels the main Cascade trend? Yamsay Mountain. The mafic volcanic center of the Lassen complex also lies roughly on this line.
Always look forward to a new video! Mt Hudson in Chile next? Or also known as Volcán Hudson still can see its lahar from satellite from its 1991 eruption
Excellent video. If you would have done a little more research you could have found that there are “hotspots”, as the locals call them where snow pack and underground water sources, ice caves, have entered areas of high temperatures underground and emit steam through open voids in the ground year round. This steam is not always visible at distance, but it is there year round.
These extensional zones around active subduction zones are very interesting and seem to allow very large explosive eruptions to occur. I think nearly all subduction zones have at least one that fits these interesting types of volcanoes.
Do you consider Newberry Caldera a Cascade Arc volcano? There is isotopic and tomographic evidence that some geologists lean that it is; but there is also evidence of it being the latest end of the (East to West aging) High Lava Plains trend, which has been tied to slab rollback; could slab rollback be the cause of the Medicine Lake basement extension as well? Is there a possibility that ML isn't a Cascade Arc volcano?
Yeah though it is more or less just a transform offset section of the mid Ocean Ridge system albeit one younger than the Juan de Fuca plate basically a section too young to have been part of the proper Farallon plate if such a plate ever existed(seems that the split between north and south Farallon plate sections happened a very long time ago back in the Mesozoic with the Cascadia arc linked to the subduction of the North Farallon plate and having been an oceanic arc prior to the Eocene. I wonder how the detachment of Walker lane will affect this microplate's future? I imagine it will probably not last long unless some drastic tectonic adjustments occur what with NA overriding the region
Does anyone know what will happen if the Juan De Fuca plate is completely subducted in the future or the subduction process there shuts down? I imagine the main volcanoes of the Cascade Range would shut down gradually and any other volcanism would be the result of other geological forces.
Both Medicine Lake and Newberry are cool places. According to Dr. Vic Camp there are fingers of magma reaching out from the Yellowstone Hot Spot to both Newberry and Medicine Lake Volcanoes. See his paper “The Case for a Long-Lived and Robust Yellowstone Hotspot”, figure 3.
So... exactly what unit are we measuring with that 1 in 3600 number? 1 eruption outta 3600 guesses? 1 eruption anytime up to 3600 years? 1 eruption for every 3600 earthquakes 1 eruption for every 3600 Tides? 1 eruption for every 3600 other volcanoes erupting? I could go on prolly 6 times as long just off my head. But you see my dilemma. We are so used to "throwing out the odds" but we forget that 99 percent of the time, in everyday use, that number is used to denote your chances out of 3600 people. But people dont make sense here. So please, clarify what the 3600 is representing so i gots me data in the right places in my up-body, patent pending, Data Storage, Filing, Parsing, and Retrieving System. Lol
In geologic terms, it's almost always the odds of a specific event happening per year, one volcano erupting, one fault line slipping, that kind of thing. So conceptually, if you roll an imaginary dice with 3600 sides once a year and land on a 1 that year, you get an eruption.
@@Lessinath so the simple amswer is that the 3600 represents the unit: Years meaning, as far as scientist can tell, theres a greater chance of this volcano erupting between now and 3600 years from now than there is of it not erupting. As far as we know. lol thanks! :P
Medicine Lake Volcano is in a beautiful and fascinating area. It is the home of Lava Beds National Monument and an amazing amount of obsidian can be found there (but not allowed to be collected). I have visited Medicine Lake Volcano many times. Thank you for this video.
The desolate landscape is really nice
@@tardigrades3184 Actually, most parts of the volcano are heavily forested in a mixed pine and fir forest. Even around the caldera lake it is forested. True story (I live about a 4-hour drive from the volcano, I get up there whenever I can) I had read that there wasn't much wildlife on the volcano, because there isn't much surface water (besides the caldera lake). One time I was up there picking up red scoria for a Boy Scout talk I was going to be giving (I had checked beforehand, to be sure this was ok, since where I was gathering is National Forest land, it is - or was - permissible to gather a limited amount - this was a few years ago, though, so things might have changed).
Anyway, I just pulled off the side of the road in a wide spot where there was a nice scoria deposit (it's pretty much everywhere) , not paying much attention to anything, gathered about a 5-gallon bucked full, put it in my car, and I was on my way.
I hadn't gone a quarter mile when I glimpsed a huge something out of the corner of my eye barreling towards me out of the forest. Seconds later a really large, blond, bear ran right in front of my car, and I had to slam on my brakes. It was there and gone in an instant. I was pretty astonished - I had never seen a bear before, but it was unmistakable as to what it was, and it looked like a grizzly.
When I got home I looked it up, but there don't seem to be any records of any bears on Medicine Lake Volcano (but, hey, I saw what I saw). And that there are no grizzly bears in the entire state of California - even though the grizzly is featured in the California State flag. I did read that black bears can have a brown to blondish color - but I'll never know exactly what kind of bear it was.
Anyway, you can bet I was a lot more careful after that collecting scoria on top of that volcano! I count myself lucky that bear didn't pay me a surprise visit when my back was turned.
Every time I get to NE CA, I see more volcanos that I didn’t notice before. It’s fascinating!
Yeah the eastern areas of California have a lot of volcanoes that most people don't know about (myself included until a few years ago) it is fascinating how much of California the Sierra Nevada Great Valley block/microplate is basically getting sheered off the continent creating all kinds of volcanoes along with the transtensional faults. And to think that this North eastern section of the crustal block/microplate continent interface is where it is still mostly connected to NA proper like one of those cuticle/skin tags of continental crust.
@@Dragrath1 have you heard of the Baja to BC connection? Lots of terrains all the way up to Alaska came from somewhere to the south. Just as Baja is breaking off and sliding to the north, an idea being discussed is that this has happened repeatedly.
After Alaska, California is the U.S. state w/ most volcanoes. Four Volcanoes National (State?) Park is in northwest CA, and it's the only area on earth that has all 4 types of volcano within a few miles of one another.
@@kennyjones559 Hi. I live in Northern California and I'm not aware of a Four Volcanoes park, but I could be wrong. I'm wondering if you might be thinking of Lassen Volcanic National Park - Lassen Park has all four types of volcanoes within the boundaries of the park - additionally Lassen has the second largest thermal area - steam vents, boiling mud pots, boiling lakes - in the United States. Second only to Yellowstone. Lassen I would say is more in the north east part of the state, and Lassen Peak is the southern most volcano in the Cascade Range.
Wow! I was just researching this volcano this morning. Thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos!
Medicine Lake and Glass Mountain are my favorite places in NorCal! I still have HUGE boulders of obsidian in my house from there. And the lava tubes are super fun to explore.
Just thought I would throw this out there - it is no longer permissible to gather obsidian at Medicine Lake Volcano's Glass Mountain, although I understand it was permissible at one time. There are permissible obsidian collecting areas near Davis Creek, Ca., (which is not too far from Medicine Lake Volcano) which is a ways north of Alturas. But phone the local Forest Service office before you go - last time I checked, a person needs a permit from the Forest Service to gather obsidian there.
Awesome video geologyhub! I’ve always waited for your re-uploads, especially on medicine Lake
So many cones and flows on the north side of this peak in Lava Beds NM, Great spot to visit. Some of those flows look brand new.
Thanks as always, Geology Hub!
Lots of great car camping in this area.
Lava Beds National Monument has camping available; there are also several private campgrounds available in the area. Additionally, there is camping at the nearby Fair Grounds in Tule Lake.
Those lobes are incredible!
Do you have a video explaining how a single volcano can erupt different lava compositions?
Yesterday Newberry, today Medicine Lake. Did you know there's an extinct third shield volcano in between them, forming a line together that parallels the main Cascade trend? Yamsay Mountain. The mafic volcanic center of the Lassen complex also lies roughly on this line.
Always look forward to a new video!
Mt Hudson in Chile next? Or also known as Volcán Hudson still can see its lahar from satellite from its 1991 eruption
Excellent video. If you would have done a little more research you could have found that there are “hotspots”, as the locals call them where snow pack and underground water sources, ice caves, have entered areas of high temperatures underground and emit steam through open voids in the ground year round. This steam is not always visible at distance, but it is there year round.
These extensional zones around active subduction zones are very interesting and seem to allow very large explosive eruptions to occur. I think nearly all subduction zones have at least one that fits these interesting types of volcanoes.
Would you possibly be willing to explore the Hope Ranch 'volcano' at some point? (Since you're already talking continental U.S. volcanic activity?)
You really just gave props to "Happy The Man Fan"....?🤔.....
🕉🤘🏼😂🤘🏼🕉
I freaking love you my basaltic brother from another volcanic mother🤙
i live next to this beast !:-)
Lucky you!!!
Do you consider Newberry Caldera a Cascade Arc volcano? There is isotopic and tomographic evidence that some geologists lean that it is; but there is also evidence of it being the latest end of the (East to West aging) High Lava Plains trend, which has been tied to slab rollback; could slab rollback be the cause of the Medicine Lake basement extension as well? Is there a possibility that ML isn't a Cascade Arc volcano?
Can you do a video about the active Coso Volcanic Field in California?
Editing "whoops" at 0:16.
Don't forget about the Gorda plate.
Yeah though it is more or less just a transform offset section of the mid Ocean Ridge system albeit one younger than the Juan de Fuca plate basically a section too young to have been part of the proper Farallon plate if such a plate ever existed(seems that the split between north and south Farallon plate sections happened a very long time ago back in the Mesozoic with the Cascadia arc linked to the subduction of the North Farallon plate and having been an oceanic arc prior to the Eocene. I wonder how the detachment of Walker lane will affect this microplate's future? I imagine it will probably not last long unless some drastic tectonic adjustments occur what with NA overriding the region
Aww Glass Mountain didn't get a MENTION!
It's there, though, and it is pretty awesome!!
Does anyone know what will happen if the Juan De Fuca plate is completely subducted in the future or the subduction process there shuts down? I imagine the main volcanoes of the Cascade Range would shut down gradually and any other volcanism would be the result of other geological forces.
Both Medicine Lake and Newberry are cool places. According to Dr. Vic Camp there are fingers of magma reaching out from the Yellowstone Hot Spot to both Newberry and Medicine Lake Volcanoes. See his paper “The Case for a Long-Lived and Robust Yellowstone Hotspot”, figure 3.
I always wonder if you know how much you sound like Carl Sagan, and if it's accidental or? I appreciate your videos.
Day 14 of requesting
The Meers fault in Oklahoma and talk about other intraplate faults and how large earthquakes can hit away from plate boundaries
Looking in Google about it
Did I just come out of a coma or something? What happened to B.C. and A.D.? Kinda threw me off there.
Geologically recent. It's all about scale & perspective.
Shout out to Happy the Man Fan 😂
🏆
It’s not SHAsta like pasta. It’s Shasta like mast.
Who’s here in 2024?
Yea still here.
October 24 here as long as the channel will be here
2358 here 🥸
@@tiffanymarie9750 just tell me how this century ends lol
@@kishensookoo7815 ending is certainly a thing it does do
Why do you keep saying "Shah-sta?"
Rhymes with "fast-uh."
Not "pasta."
You seem bothered by English being a living language.
meh
So... exactly what unit are we measuring with that 1 in 3600 number?
1 eruption outta 3600 guesses?
1 eruption anytime up to 3600 years?
1 eruption for every 3600 earthquakes
1 eruption for every 3600 Tides?
1 eruption for every 3600 other volcanoes erupting?
I could go on prolly 6 times as long just off my head. But you see my dilemma. We are so used to "throwing out the odds" but we forget that 99 percent of the time, in everyday use, that number is used to denote your chances out of 3600 people. But people dont make sense here. So please, clarify what the 3600 is representing so i gots me data in the right places in my up-body, patent pending, Data Storage, Filing, Parsing, and Retrieving System. Lol
In geologic terms, it's almost always the odds of a specific event happening per year, one volcano erupting, one fault line slipping, that kind of thing. So conceptually, if you roll an imaginary dice with 3600 sides once a year and land on a 1 that year, you get an eruption.
@@Lessinath so the simple amswer is that the 3600 represents the unit: Years meaning, as far as scientist can tell, theres a greater chance of this volcano erupting between now and 3600 years from now than there is of it not erupting. As far as we know. lol
thanks! :P