Geo 1095: May 29, Day 879: Lost Springs

I don't know if this system of springs has a name, but the outflow drains down Lost Creek to the McKenzie River, so it seems reasonable to call it "Lost Springs." They're easy to find, but from the road, there's no clue to what most people sail past on their way to or from the pass. So perhaps a better name would be "Missed Springs." In person you can see fish- I'd guess trout; I'm not a fish person, so that is a guess- swimming languidly in the crystal-clear water, but they're not easy to pick out in these photos. I think I'm seeing a few over the lighter sand, and under the long pole across the middle of this shot:

Dana got some video of the fish swimming, but I don't know if she ever posted it.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 27, Day 877: Simple Contact, or Channel?

Down in those vine maples, you can see the contact between the edge of the Collier Cone Lava Flow (right) and the older, glacially carved, volcanic rock of the valley floor (left). The question is, has this contact been modified by rare to occasional burst floods from above the valley? It seems clear to me that there has been no such activity recently; the thick-bedded moss would not be so consistent. Likewise, there's some down logs in pretty advanced states of decay near the center of the photo. Any recent (past decade or so) would have left both of those features more chewed up. The contact seems rounded, which might indicate erosional modification... but look at all that living and dead plant material! Surely that might be the explanation for the apparent rounding.

In the end, as is so often the case, the answer is, "I don't know; I need more information." I'm okay with that. It means I have a reason to go look again.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 26, Day 876: Upper Proxy Notch

Looking back down the path from Upper Proxy Falls (i.e., the falls are behind us in this view), The Collier Flow is on the right, and the southern edge of the valley is on the left. Has this notch been reworked by running water? It's not clear, but it seems possible. It would certainly fit with the idea of burst floods contributing soil components (clastic sediment and plant debris) to the surface of the lava flow, and fostering an environment for rapid recolonization and reforestation. I have a few more photos of this notch, and I'll post at least one more, but looking over them, I see nothing convincing either way. Next time I get back here, I should see if I can spot rounded gravel farther down the notch- it drops quickly just past that saddle.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 25, Day 875: Collier Flow Berm

My camera's flash has a tendency to go off at times I think it's unnecessary, but it can lead to some interesting shots, such as this one. One has to clamber over the root system of this Doug fir to get at the rubbly hillside- the south edge of the Collier Cone Lava Flow- where you can see Anne and Chris in the upper left corner. It might be interesting to come up here with a couple bottles of food coloring to see if you can actually find the area(s) where the water is leaving the pool. It's shallow, and the volume is fairly small compared to the rate of flow from Upper Proxy Falls into it, so I'd bet the residence time of water in this pool is in the range of ten minutes or less.

Photo unmodified. July 6, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 24, Day 874: Upper Proxy Runout

Sitting up on the berm of the Collier Cone Lava Flow, looking down to the runout of Upper Proxy Falls is a peaceful experience. I love the little Doug fir that has managed to get established on a tiny island in the pool... I think I'll call it The Little Prince. As I mentioned in the previous post, this pool has no outlet. However, looking at the shape of the gap between this little cove and the lower valley, where the trail leads to this spot, I'm pretty confident this stream does overflow its basin from time to time. This may be related to the burst floods that (rarely) make it into channels up on the flow behind us here.

Photo unmodified. July 6, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 20, Day 870: Hard Evidence

Can you spot the hard (pardon the pun) evidence of running water in this photo? And we're not talking about a minor trickle, but a fairly competent flow. If not, take a look at the crop below. The Douglas fir cones scattered around are typically 2-3 inches long, for a sense of scale.

Look how rounded that gravel is! This is very clearly not simply a lava gutter, though it may have started out as one. I don't know if water has ever been actually witnessed flowing through this channel, but clearly it has at some point. Eyeballing the woody debris, and its generally not-too-decomposed state, I'd bet it hasn't been very long, maybe in the range of a decade or so. During the winter season, the road to this trail is closed. People do visit during the winter season, but it's a fair trek in from the gate (~7 miles round trip), so the number is limited. Take into account that the kind of weather that I'd guess is responsible for burst floods that might behave like this is heavy warm rain on a heavy snow pack, it seems likely that even those venturous folk might hesitate to visit on days when this might happen.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 19, Day 869: Channel Conveyor?

If Anne hadn't pointed these channels on our trip the previous summer, I would've either not noticed them, or I would've assumed they were probably lava gutters (here are a couple of examples of lava gutters). However, these may actually be water carved channels, or possibly water-modified lava gutters. I'm relying on a short discussion a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure how clearly I remember it. But look at how verdant the vegetation is here! There are rhododendrons in the upper left, a young cedar on the center left, and another in the lower right. This does not look at all like an extremely young lava flow; it looks more like a late-stage second growth conifer forest. The general idea, as I understand it, is that rare burst floods from the slopes above this glacially carved valley may be responsible for carving or modifying channels like this one, and provide a potential explanation for how portions of the Collier Cone Flow in this area have been so rapidly reforested. Such floods may have provided sediment and plant debris, allowing a jump start to soil formation. Otherwise, the slow breakdown and colonization of fresh lava would taken several times as long. Similar flows with similar climatic and environmental conditions nearby are nowhere near as heavily vegetated.  As I pointed out in the previous post, the distribution of heavily tree covered areas on this flow is patchy. Here, close to this channel, we're in lush, mature forest.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 18, Day 868: Pretty Pathway

The geology here is redundant and relatively trivial with respect to the High Cascades: blocky basaltic andesite. But I really like this photo. It's pretty, and just screams "PNW autumn!" If you look at the FlashEarth link, you can see that the tree cover is highly variable on this flow. The outline of the lava lobe ir easy to pick out, but the tree distribution is very uneven. It's pretty clear that some areas are more hospitable to colonization than others.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 17, Day 867: Big Doug(s)

I think, but I'm not sure, that these two shots are of the same Douglas fir, at a nice viewpoint along the Proxy Falls trail. A couple years ago, I posted a panorama to show the glacial aspects of the north side of the valley the day after we visited the area. Those shots were taken in between these two, so I had moved to a different perspective between, and Chris and Anne got into the frame for scale in the second.

One of the features that can help accelerate the colonization of barren rock is abundant organic material. You can see there's plenty of it on the ground here, but I suspect most of what we're seeing has fallen off the big tree(s) in the photos. Vegetable debris, such as fallen leaves, needles, and slowly rotting woody material, are very effective at retaining moisture and providing nutrients. These are two of the most lacking environmental conditions on newly repaved volcanic landscapes. However, what we're seeing here likely can't be used to explain how this ground was colonized so quickly, as it post-dates the establishment of the trees we're seeing.

However, unexpected additions of organic matter may provide at least a partial solution to the problem I described in yesterday's post.

Photos unmodified. July 6, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: May 16, Day 866: Conifer Confusion

If you look back at some of the photos from late March and early April of this year, on lava flows almost double the age of this one (~3000 years versus ~1600 years), you can see the trees near McKenzie Junction are scattered and stressed. That's not to say some of them aren't large and healthy, but the fresh surface to the east are clearly difficult for the conifers to flourish upon. We see a similar situation here. However, given that this flow is roughly half the age of the flows near the junction, it's a bit of a puzzle how these ones are doing as well, and are as mature, as they are. This area is perhaps more sheltered from strong winds (though I'm guessing; the valley could act as a funnel, and strengthen them), and being higher elevation, may get more annual precipitation. On the flip side, higher elevation means cooler, shorter growing seasons. The short version is that it's difficult to imagine even scattered trees growing to the sort of maturity we see here, from barren, sterile lava, in only 1600 years.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth location.

Geo 1095: April 8, Day 828: Belknap and Echoes of the Past

Looking roughly southeast from near the concession building, we can see the irregular toe of the lava flows on the opposite side of Clear Lake, and I'm pretty sure that's Belknap Crater, up near McKenzie Pass, on the right horizon. Once again, I love the way the golds and reds of the fall foliage echo the fiery events of three millennia ago.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: April 7, Day 827: Ghost Forest

That underwater stump lived and died about 3000 years ago. Think about that. It's one ghost from a forest of many others that were drowned when a lava flow blocked this drainage, to create Clear Lake three millennia in the past. For reference, Rome was founded about 250 years later. The big springs in this basin must have been spectacular to the Native Americans living in the area, as surely they did, though they may have migrated to lower elevations for the winter. Gazing upon, and through, these crystalline waters seems to trigger an introspective chord in me. Think of what was lost in this event. Look at what was gained.

This is why I love geology.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: April 3, Day 823: Fish Lake

This is the site of the seasonal Fish Lake. And no, it doesn't look much like a lake to me, either. But winter and spring runoff from the Western Cascades backs up behind the barrier of the young lava flows shown over the previous days, and creates a temporary standing pool. That water slowly drains into the basalt breccia, and drains the lake by early to mid-summer. Prior to last fall, I had never bothered to stop at what looked to me like a meadow mislabeled as a lake, but prior to Ann Jefferson's visit in 2013, I'd not thought too much about the amazing hydrology of this area.

The peak in the distance is Iron Mountian.

Now, the most interesting information I learned here was contained in a sign, which I stupidly didn't think to photograph. Fortunately, some other, smarter, soul did think to photograph it and post it on the interwebz. The text reads,

You are standing on the shore of a lake that may seem old but in geologic terms was formed yesterday. Fish lake continues to change, seasonally and through the decades

Around three thousand years ago an eruption of Nash Crater formed Fish Lake by damming Hackleman Creek. Seasonal rains and snow overwhelm this little valley’s ability to drain the inflow so that each winter a lake is formed. In the summer, after the last snow melts off the ridges overlooking the valley, the lake quickly disappears and Hackleman Creek vanishes into the lava lakebed.

Grasses that have adapted to the seasonal drying of Fish Lake quickly transform the lake into a lush meadow. The local Hackleman trout [a subspecies of cutthroat trout] population has adapted to this seasonal disappearance of their lake home. When the temperature of the lake starts to rise, the trout head upstream into the creek where they wait for the arrival of winter and the lake’s return.

During times of especially heavy runoff, there is an overland channel from this basin to Clear Lake, but for the most part, the trout in this drainage are reproductively isolated from those lower down in Clear Lake and the McKenzie River. The fact that the subspecies has its own name suggests that evolutionary divergence may be occurring, though I don't know enough to make that claim with any confidence.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2014. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: April 1, Day 821: Struggling Sentinal

Another near-repeat photo , compare this to one from 2+ years ago. That post explains my understanding of this side of the High Cascades Graben.As I mentioned a few days ago, individual trees out on the fresh lava flow, once they get established, can get quite large. The one closest to the middle here is another example, but it looks as if it's struggling to hold on now.

Farther back in the photo, Route 126 turns south through the lava field. The geologist in me loves this scene, but the simple human in me looks at this rough, rubbley landscape and cringes. I would not want to walk directly across this short distance, and likely couldn't do so without some sort of injury, possibly quite serious. The fact that engineers and equipment can build such a structure as that highway across this landscape is, on hand, inspiring, but on the other, sobering and a little scary. If we can shape this landscape to fit our needs and desires, what lands are safe from our hands? Very few, I'm afraid.

Photos unmodified. October 9, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 30, Day 819: Coolly Incandescent

This was a crisp, but sunny, fall day, with temperatures in the low sixties, but the vine maples were incandescently glorious. Combined with the sunshine, we didn't feel the least bit chilly. In the upper portion of the photo, just below the rotting logs, you can see some of the fresh (~3 ka) basalt flow. The logs and the flaming foliage about to drop generate various organic acids as they decompose, which contribute to the slow but inexorable chemical weathering of the rock. In addition, the decomposed organic material serves as a source of nutrients and a moisture reservoir that will sustain future generations of plants. At this point, rain and snow melt percolate directly down into the rubble, and flow as ground water to Clear Lake a few miles south of here, where the water emerges as the head of the McKenzie River. Plants, past, present, and future, will eventually block much of the permeability in the ground here, along with the slow accumulation of weathering products from the lava. Barring new flows from close by, in a few hundreds of thousands to maybe a million years, there will likely be a gorgeous babbling stream in this location. However, given the recent history of the area, it's more likely this area will be repaved with new flows, and the process will start all over again.

Photos unmodified. October 9, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 29, Day 818: Borderland

Here we see a recent lava flow, about 3000 years old, butting up against the gentle slope of the eastern edge of the Western Cascades. A thick stand of old growth Douglas fir covers that slope. 3000 years is enough time for the same trees to get established, and grow quite large, on the flow, but a seed has to be quite lucky to sprout in a spot that's just right to support it. The tree along the upper right edge is one such example. As a result, the mature trees out on the flow aren't necessarily much smaller than those on the slope, but they're much sparser.

Also, across the middle, we see another flaming swath of vine maples in their fall colors.

Photos unmodified. October 9, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 19, Day 808: Miniature Badlands

"Badlands" are a type of landscape that are characterized by deep incision and densely-packed drainage paths. This is a sweet little example, from above the car across to the right side of the photo. First and foremost, what this tells you is that water doesn't percolate into this unit well; it almost entirely runs off. This was established in the previous post, but here we're seeing another consequence of that fact. And since water doesn't get into that unit, it doesn't hold water in such a way that plants can easily get established. The exceptions to that rule are in spots where water is weeping out of the overlying contact, such as directly above the car.

The deeply dissected surface also tells you that the material in the lower unit erodes fairly easily. Soil development includes a number of processes, including weathering, accumulation of organic material,  biological succession and reworking on the surface, and the establishment of a sub-surface biota. But with bedrock like this, which is inhospitable to colonization, that's a long process. Add in the fact that every time there's a heavy rain, any accumulated weathering products and organic material are washed off, the process is reset to zero, and has to start all over. Until this face is worn down much closer to flat, or is covered by debris from deposition or mass movement, it will remain more or less bare.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 18, Day 807: Perched Water

Visible here are the same two units we saw at the cut ~100 yards westward: a lower, apparently homogenous and more or less massive finer layer, and an upper layer of poorly sorted, but overall, much coarser material. The upward grading seen in that previous exposure, if it exists at all, is not as evident here. However, there is an immediately obvious and interesting phenomenon illustrated in this photo: the lower unit is clearly not as permeable to water as the upper one. So water percolates down through the upper unit until it reaches its lower contact, then flows along that surface until it reaches the exposure, where its reliable presence has allowed a small colony of shrubs to become established. If you look below and to the right of the largest clump of plants, you can see a darkened area where the surface is much damper than its surroundings. This was a late, dry fall; we normally get some rain in September, but I don't think we'd seen any rain since June or July over this summer. So the presence of significant moisture this much later in the season, and at this high an elevation (we're near 5000 feet here), indicates that it really is a very reliable source of moisture.

Funny... I knew I had posted an analogous photo toward the end of last year, and intended to link it. Turns out, I had given that post the same title I gave this one.

Photo unmodified. October 9, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 6, Day 795: Oregon Caves HQ

This is Oregon Caves National Monument Headquarters. Like so many buildings in the western National Parks and Monuments, it's a gorgeous example of rustic architecture. The Klamath-Siskyou Mountains are much higher and more rugged than can be readily appreciated traveling through or near the area on major roads. This means the rain shadow off the Pacific is quite sharp and extreme. Summers here are long and very, very dry. The scary thing in this photo is easy to miss: those dead trees on the ridge behind the building were killed by a major fire just a few years before our visit. It would be truly tragic to lose a gem like this. In the FlashEarth image, you can see that the fire got terrifyingly close.

Photo unmodified. May 9, 2013. FlashEarth Location.

Geo 1095: March 5, Day 794: Barely Seen Bear

This is, unfortunately, a really crappy photo of a really neat find; I was torn as to whether I should even bother with it. Those dim white forms, behind the plexiglass and condensation, are black bear bones, dated to 3000 years ago. Just how they got here is an interesting question; we're quite some distance from any known natural entrances. We're close to an artificial exit tunnel, blasted in the early 1930s, but the bear clearly didn't use that. It's possible that another entrance has since collapsed or otherwise been hidden, and it isn't really impossible that the bear wandered here, lost in utter darkness. Whatever the means of the bear's demise, these bones were only discovered in 1998, meaning that I didn't see them during my first few visits to this monument. See page 24 of the photographic tour for a better shot.

Photo unmodified. May 9, 2013. FlashEarth Location. (Since we're underground, I have only a vague idea where this is with respect to the surface.)