Horseshoe Lake, Mammoth

Since the tree die off in 1989-90, Horseshoe Lake is always a reminder of the volcanic activity in Mammoth Lakes.

Coming down from a hike above the lake, it seemed to take on an even more eerie feeling with the storm cooking up.





Love the Eastern Sierras!

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

Dianna, what killed the tree? Is that ash on the ground in the bottom photo?

Mammoth Lakes is a very geological active area --- earthquakes and volcanic activity. I am attaching a link that can explain the death of the trees better than I can. But basically it is invisible CO2 gas escaping from magma in a fissure. It is a short interesting article, or at I think it is.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/

I remember when it started happening and it was really strange as it took a while for anyone to figure out what was happening! Some people still let their dogs swim in the lake even with the warning signs ---- we don't

The whole area is interesting. From what I have read, they did not know the extent of the Long Valley Caldera until we had satellites because it is so large. That in ancient times, was a monster explosion.

Mammoth Mountain on which people ski is a volcano and not a dead one at that. After some intense earthquake activity many years ago, they built the "Scenic Route" to give another exit for Mammoth tourists and residents out to Highway 395.

Also, after Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980, one of the major TV networks, (I forget which one) took an interest in Mammoth and not only did quite a report on how active it is, they created images of skiers on Mammoth Mountain over Mt. St. Helens blowing up. Needless to say, it hurt tourism and a law suit happened.

Okay --- more information than one asked for. But for anyone interested in volcanoes and earthquakes would find A LOT of interesting places up here ---
On edit --- that is not ash, just the way the light was reflecting on the ground. And one of the strongest earthquakes in recent California History was the 1872 Lone Pine quake south of where we are . It was before all the measuring equipment, but geologists estimate that it was between 7.4 and 7.9 And we have a sweet little cinder cone just south of our town.








[Edited on 7-10-2015 by DianaT]

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

Thanks for the reply Diana, but the link brings me right back to your post! As you are probably aware, things are rocking around here on a regular basis since Anchorage is on a different tectonic plate than the mountains on the other side of Cooke Inlet. Since I have lived here, we have been dusted with ash from three different volcanoes, Augustine, Redoubt, and Spurr! The 1964 Good Friday earthquake pegged out all the seismographs of the time, and I have read estimates that based on measured ground movement, it was probably close to a 9 on the Richter scale.

Quote: Originally posted by StuckSucks

Here's a photo sphere of the dead trees, taken at Horseshoe Lake on 7/9. Two days ago we were hiking the 20 Lakes Basin Trail at 10,200'. It started raining on us, then mixed rain and hail, then just heavy hail. The ground was covered with 1" of the white stuff. Yes, it was cold too.

Tioga Pass Friday morning, July 9, 2015. Imagine my concern as I am about to embark on a 3-day backpack and packed for lows of 42.

Two days later we awoke to BLUE SKY. This is one of the Young Lakes at 10,000 ft. We did backpack in some snow on Friday - and a lot of rain all day.