This crater
is vivid evidence of one of the geologic forces that shape Death Valley. Unlike
most geological forces the Ubehebe (pronounced you-bee-hee-bee) Crater is about
2,000 years old. Rising magma—hot molten rock—turns ground water to steam.
Intense steam pressure builds until the superheated combination of steam and
rock explodes, creating a crater like this one. The explosion spewed shattered
rock over a six-square-mile area, in some places to depths of 150 feet. Ubehebe
is the largest of many explosion craters in the area at a half mile across and
about 500 feet deep. I took this
photo without using the zoom on the camera to give you an overall impression of
the crater.
I zoomed in a little more with this photo.
This is a
close-up of the far wall of the crater.
There was a
“professional” photographer at the crater so we imposed upon him to take our
photo.
Just to give
you more of what the landscape looks like, this series of photos were taken on
our drive back to Stovepipe Wells after visiting both Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater. I mentioned this before in a previous blog, but I'll say it again. One of the things I really was in awe of in Death Valley was just the overall landscape that was so diverse and colorful.
That ends our Death Valley adventures. We saw everything we wanted to see. There were a few places we couldn't get to since a number of roads were closed from a monsoon a few weeks earlier. These heavy rains cause flash floods that heavily damage some of the unpaved roads. It all worked out okay because that gave us a couple of days left over to relax by the pool.
Psalms 97:5-6 // The mountains melted like
wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole
earth. The heavens declare His
righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory.
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