Introduction: A Geologic Legacy

Take a look at a topo map or a satellite image of far Northern Nevada, between the Bull Run and Tuscarora Mountains on the East and the Santa Rosa range on the West, and you'll notice a very large, abrupt, roundish flat spot right below the state line and overlapping into both Oregon and Idaho.  This is the Owyhee Desert, somewhat underheralded in the greater scheme of Nevada deserts (Black Rock or bust!).

It's like Nevada's bald spot!

Thanks to that image from Google Maps you can get some idea of the scale of the great Owyhee Desert.  It's also pretty remote: the nearest thriving metropolii (from the Nevada side) are Paradise Valley (in Humboldt County), Midas, Tuscarora, Owyhee, and Mountain City (all in Elko County) via old dusty trails.  Now consider this: it is all one massive volcanic caldera.

And not just any caldera; it is just one of a sequence of several massive volcanic fields that can be traced from far Western Nevada into Western Wyoming.  13.0-12.8 million years ago the Owyhee-Humboldt supervolcano was THE place to be if you were magma.  Once fed by an enormous mantle plume the region is long since cold; but the hot spot that created the caldera is still warm and very much active under Yellowstone National Park.

The Arc de Triomphe d'un Panache Mantellique.

Now this is a Nevada-related blog, so our goal is not to trace the entire geologic history of the Yellowstone Hotspot.  But I have decided it could make interesting reading and would make great traveling to visit these ancient volcanic fields.  Not only will I get to see these natural wonders, but visiting such places as the Cottonwood Creek, Hanging Rock, Badger Mountain, and Virgin Valley calderas will take me to Soldier Meadows and High Rock Canyon; the McDermitt Volcanic Field/Orovada Rift will take me to the Santa Rosas and Ft. McDermitt country; Owyhee will take me to Midas; and the Bruneau-Jarbidge field will, of course, take me to Jarbidge.  So, hopefully, this will turn into a series of articles coalescing around the theme of the Yellowstone Hotspot in Nevada.

Montana Mountains, Kings River Valley; I didn't realize when

I took the picture that this is the Western flank of the

McDermitt Caldera.

Ooh, this will be fun!