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Map of Long Valley Caldera Early winter in Long Valley, 2017. Long Valley Caldera is a depression in eastern California that is adjacent to Mammoth Mountain.The valley is one of the Earth's largest calderas, measuring about 20 mi (32 km) long (east-west), 11 mi (18 km) wide (north-south), and up to 3,000 ft (910 m) deep.
A long-quiet yet massive super volcano, dubbed the "Long Valley Caldera," has the potential to unleash a fiery hell across the planet, and the magma-filled mountain has a history of doing so.
The Long Valley to Mono Lake region is one of three areas in California that are in the United States Geological Survey's volcanic hazards program. [ note 2 ] [ 28 ] : 52 These areas are in the program because they have been active in the last 2,000 years and have the ability to produce explosive eruptions.
Large volume volcanic eruptions in the Basin and Range Province include Basin and Range eruptions in Utah, California, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming and Oregon, as well as those of the Long Valley Caldera geological province and the Yellowstone hotspot.
The volcano is still active with minor eruptions, the largest of which was a minor phreatic (steam) eruption 700 years ago. [3] Mammoth Mountain also lies on the south end of the Mono-Inyo chain of volcanic craters. [10] The magma source for Mammoth Mountain is distinct from those of both the Long Valley Caldera and the Inyo Craters.
In 2012, the Long Valley Observatory was integrated into the new California Volcano Observatory based in Menlo Park, California which covers the entire states of California and Nevada, this includes the southern Cascade Range volcanoes in the state of California which were previously under the jurisdiction of the Cascades Volcano Observatory. [3]
The springs near Hot Creek host one of the two known Tui chub populations of the endangered Owens tui chub species. [4]The Long Valley Observatory of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a volcano observatory, monitors spring activity, water temperatures and chemistry, and stream flow, as well as the caldera volcanic activity.
Volcanic activity persisted past 5 million years BP east of the current park borders in the Mono Lake and Long Valley areas. The most significant activity was the creation of the Long Valley Caldera about 700,000 years ago in which about 600 times as much material was erupted than in the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens.