Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Newberry National Volcanic Monument is a protected area of the type of a National Monument in the U.S. state of Oregon. It includes the Newberry Volcano, one of the largest surface area in shield volcanoes in the Cascade Range, and about 40 km long lava flow to the northwest. The 224 -square-kilometer reserve was recorded in November 1990 by the U.S. Congress and administered by the U.S. Forest Service. It lies entirely within the Deschutes National Forest, a national forest.

Volcano and reserve are named after John Strong Newberry (1822-1892), a scientist who accompanied from 1857 to 1858 an expedition of the U.S. Army, which was to measure possible Railroads. Newberry played a key role in exploring the geology and botany of Oregon.

Geography

The Newberry Volcano is located in Deschutes County, about 45 km south of Bend. He is a very large shield volcano about 40 km in diameter. Like all shield volcanoes he rises relatively flat from the environment. The highest point of Paulina Peak with 2434 m is about 1000 m above the Deschutes River west of the mountain.

Focus on the volcano 's caldera with a diameter of about 6.5 km. In it, the two lakes Paulina Lake and East Lake, the youngest lava flow Big Obsidian Flow and a small cinder cone called Central Pumice Cone. The lying at 1935 m altitude, up to 76 meters deep Paulina Lake is 615 acres in size, the East Lake is smaller. Both lakes are fed only by rain water, melt water and hot volcanic springs. Outflow of the lakes is the Paulina Creek, which flows through a canyon on the west side of the caldera. Up to this gorge the caldera is surrounded by a 200 to 300 meter high crater rim. Pauline the peak forms a part of the edge. Over the entire surface of the volcano about 400 small cinder cones are distributed. Geologists suspect that the caldera created by the collapse of a volcano of about 2700 meters above sea level and about 40 kilometers in diameter around 500,000 years ago. Large parts of the area surrounding the Newberry Craters were covered by lava flows that are up to 110 kilometers flown. In a gradient in the north-west lies the lava flow Lava Cast Forest, where imprints of tree trunks in the cooled lava are obtained. Nearby are the Lava Butte, a 1528 m high volcanic cone, which rises over 150 feet above the surrounding area, and several lava tubes. The 13 km south of Bend on Highway 97 Located Lava River Cave is one such lava tube, which is about 1.8 km long, up to 15 m wide and 18 m high. Due to the lava flows and the Deschutes River was dammed temporarily; today the threshold is obtained as about 30 m high Benham Falls mentioned waterfalls.

The oldest rocks of the volcano are only about 700,000 years old. In the last 10,000 years there have been about 25 eruptions in the crater, the lava flow Big Obsidian Flow dates from about the year 650 and is the youngest volcanic activity in the central Oregon dar. The volcano is not extinct, in the future, both lava flows like eruptions expect.

History

Excavations at Paulina Lake have shown that Paläoindianer have visited the Caldera already 10,000 years ago. The East Lake Obsidian Flow and the Big Obsidian Flow provided for the Indians valuable obsidian, which they used for stone tools such as scrapers and blades. The Newberry Crater belongs since 1908 to the Deschutes National Forest. In November 1990, the crater was declared a National Monument. The site of the 1889 Lava River Cave discovered in 1926 the State of Oregon paid, which it declared to the state park. 1981 Oregon exchanged the park against other areas of the U.S. Forest Service.

Tourist Facilities

The main visitor center of the National Monument, the Lava Lands Visitor Center is located south of Bend on Highway 97 and provides information on geology, ecology and cultural history. From the visitor center also runs a path to the Lava Butte, from the top of which a further view and a view of the up to 60 m deep crater offers. The Lava Lands Visitor Center is open from May to October. A second, smaller visitor center at Paulina Lake is only open in the summer.

The Lava River Cave is located on Highway 97 south of Bend. The Highway 97 crosses the cavity, which can be visited in the summer.

Since 1912, fish were used in the two lakes in the caldera, mainly rainbow trout and sockeye salmon. Therefore, the fishing is the main tourist activity in the area. At both lakes there is ever a rustic hotel with facilities for anglers; seven campsites are scattered throughout the reserve. Due to the protected area of ​​about 33 km long leads Crater Rim Trail and numerous other ways with a total length of 96 kilometers.

Caldera with the East Lake in the foreground

Lava Butte, a prominent cinder cone at the Lava Lands Visitor Center

Impression of a tree trunk in the Lava Cast Forest

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