Lava

<BODY BACKGROUND="../white.jpg"> <CENTER><H1>Lava</H1></CENTER> <HR> <H2>Tabernacle Hill</H2></P> Around 1000 years ago, about the time the Magna Carta was signed, a relatively small volcano in what would someday be central Utah began erupting for the last time. The volcano was born from a 'hot spot' traveling beneath the North American continental plate.</P> The final extinguishing eruption layed out a thick pad of pahoehoe lava about 7 miles in diameter. This type of lava creates lava tubes running beneath the surface encased in thick rough basalt. Today, many of the ceilings of these tubes have collapsed to form 'skylights', or long vertical-walled ravines that twist like a snake. In other areas of the flow, swelling magma beneath pushes upwards cracking the surface to make deep long rifts in the dark surface. </P> I first visited Tabernacle Hill in 1993 and since then have organized many more expeditions. Although not as extensive as mountain or limestone caves, lava fields provide an interesting day of exploration in darkness. <HR><CENTER> <A HREF=tab.hill.jpg>Lava Map</A> <HR> Upcoming Lava Field Photos </CENTER> <CENTER><HR WIDTH=260> <MAP name="linkbar"><AREA shape="rect" href="../aboutme/aboutme.html" coords="23,11,85,65"><AREA shape="rect" href="../links/links.html" coords="180,11,242,65"><AREA shape="rect" href="../renderings/renderings.html" coords="23,84,85,138"><AREA shape="rect" href="../resume/resume.html" coords="102,93,164,147"><AREA shape="rect" href="../stories/stories.html" coords="180,83,242,137"><AREA shape="rect" href="../nopicts/lava/lava.html" coords="82,155,184,174"></MAP> <IMG SRC="../linkbar.jpg" BORDER=NO USEMAP="#linkbar"> <HR Width=90> <a href="email:david@u.cc.utah.edu"><i>email:david@u.cc.utah.edu</i><HR Width=90> <MAP name="home"><AREA shape="rect" href="../index.html" coords="17,4,70,70"></MAP> <IMG SRC="../home.link.jpg" BORDER=NO USEMAP="#home"> </CENTER></BODY>   </HTML>