Human interactions with the Lava Beds landscape
The Modoc group of Native Americans have lived in the region that is now the Lava Beds National Monument for thousands of years. They left little imprint on the land, but they did leave some rock art that is interesting to examine. Two caves—Big Painted Cave and Symbol Bridge Cave—contain pictographs that are painted onto the rocks with a charcoal-based...
Lava lava everywhere—Lava Beds National Monument, NW California
I've said there are just two Cascade Range volcanoes in California—Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta. But there is a third called Medicine Lake Volcano, as shown on the map below (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Volcanoes). Lava Beds National Monument is located just north of the volcano, where numerous flows have completely covered the landscape during the past 500,000 years. Because it is a...
About the Blogger
Karen (here with Mt. Shasta in background) is a geology professor emerita who aims to provide a "pocket geologist" for world travelers. Follow the blog to explore the landscapes of our planet and figure out what causes them to look the way they do.