hot_creek_geological_site

  • "You are standing in the bottom of a large volcanic basin. This 10 x 18 mile depression in the Earth's crust was created about 760,000 years ago when tremendous eruptions blasted nearly 50 cubic miles of molten rock from beneath the Earth's Surface. The ground then sank several hundred feet producing this huge depression referred to as a caldera. Water from the Sierra Nevada filters down through cracks in the Earth's crust and becomes heated by the magma (molten rock). The steam vents, springs of boiling water and occasional geysers of Hot Creek provide dynamic evidence of the areas fiery past.
  • The view from Hot Creek overlook. It's about a quarter mile hike with a 100' drop down the ramp to view the hot springs.
  • Times, they have a-changed. Compare the ugly fencing in 2012 to the following photo from 2005. I guess the fence is a by-product of the 14 people that have died here by scalding.
  • Compare the last photo with what the area looked like in 2005. People EVERYWHERE and even in the creek. While inadvisable and destructive to the creek ecosystem, there has to be a better way of keeping people out of harms way.
  • Hydrothermally altered remains of the Hot Creek Lava Flow that was erupted 288,000 years ago into the ice-age lake that existed in the Long Valley Caldera.
  • The creek's warm waters harbor tremendous aquatic diversity and thus has become a popular fly fishing destination.
  • Several fishermen were trying their luck in the gorge, this one with a guide that probably cost several hundred dollars.
  • View of Hot Creek through the gorge.
  • Apparently the forest service is now VERY SERIOUS about keeping people out of the water.
  • The wooden fence was once used to keep folks out of the pools in the early1980's after new geysering episodes turned "soaking pools" from the 1970's into boiling cauldron o-death. Since that time new hot springs have since emerged and engulfed the fence.
  • Beautiful creek.
  • So why are the pools so blue? The white travertine is a bright backround that provides a reflective surface to bounce back the blue wavelenghts that the water reflects (water absorbs red wavelengths). They're also so hot that very few microbial organisms in the boiling water to dull the color.