The Inyo Craters are the result of three steam explosions on the summit and south flank of Deer Mountain. Scientists think that the craters formed when rising magma encountered large pockets of groundwater causing explosive vaporization of water to steam. These phreatic explosions created funnel-shaped craters and hurled overlying rock debris to distances of about a mile, but no magma reached the surface. Inyo Craters formed shortly after the eruption of Deadman, Obsidian, and Glass Creek domes sometime between 650 to 500 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment