Long Valley Caldera is a depression in eastern California that is adjacent to Mammoth Mountain. The valley is one of the earth's largest calderas, measuring about 20 mi (32 km) long (east-west) and 11 mi (18 km) wide (north-south). The elevation of the floor of the caldera is 6,500 ft (2,000 m) in the east and 8,500 ft (2,600 m) in the west. The elevation of the caldera walls reach 9,800–11,500 ft (3,000–3,500 m), except in the east, where the wall rises only 500 ft (150 m) to an elevation of 7,550 ft (2,300 m).
Long Valley was formed 760,000 years ago when a huge volcanic eruption released very hot ash that later cooled to form the Bishop tuff that is common to the area. The eruption was so colossal that the magma chamber under the now destroyed volcano was emptied to the point of collapse. The collapse itself caused an even larger secondary eruption of pyroclastic ash that burned and buried thousands of square miles. Ash from this eruption blanketed much of the western part of what is now the United States.
Read more about Long Valley Caldera: Geography, Tourism and Hiking
Other articles related to "long valley, long valley caldera, caldera, valleys":
... In the Long Valley region, where the craters are located, basin and range extension encroaches onto the thick and stable crust of the Sierra Nevada ... Volcanoes erupted from 3.6 to 2.3 million years ago near what is now Long Valley ... Volcanic ash from the massive (600 cubic kilometres / 140 cubic miles of ejecta) eruption of Long Valley Caldera some 760,000 years ago is preserved in the thick Bishop Tuff that ...
... The largest tourist attraction in the caldera is the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area the area offers skiing and snowboarding in the winter, and mountain biking in the ... Hiking and off-road vehicle driving is available throughout the caldera, and in the glacial valleys of the Sherwin Range, immediately to the south of the caldera ... Hikers can hike to several lakes in these glacial valleys, including Valentine Lake, Convict Lake, Lake Dorothy, and Laurel Lakes ...
... system under the chain began in the west moat of Long Valley Caldera 400,000 to 60,000 years ago ... large magma chamber like the one that produced the massive Long Valley Caldera eruption 760,000 years ago ... In 1980, a series of earthquakes and uplift within and south of Long Valley Caldera indicated renewed activity in the area ...
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