The Big Lava Bed, located in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the southwestern area of the

State of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, originated from a 500-foot-deep

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

in the northern center of the bed. The Big Lava Bed is the youngest feature of the Indian Heaven volcanic field. The 0.9-cubic kilometer lava flow erupted from the cinder cone about 8200 years ago. The

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

traveled 13 km from the source crater. Lodgepole pine, alder, and other pioneer plants struggle to grow, seen sparsely growing between and amid towering rock piles, caves, and strange lava formations. Access into the interior of the

lava bed Lava fields are large, mostly flat areas of surface or subaquatic lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain. Morphology and stru ...

is difficult, since there are no roads or trails crossing the lava field. Explorers who wish to venture deep within the lava flow are advised to choose their route carefully. Compasses are not always reliable, since local

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

influences affect their magnetic performance in the vast expanse of rock.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Gifford Pinchot National Forest - About the Forest (Subsection: Big Lava Bed)

Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Indian Heaven Wilderness

Cascade Range Volcanic fields of Washington (state) Subduction volcanoes Cascade Volcanoes Landforms of Skamania County, Washington Polygenetic volcanic fields Pleistocene volcanism Holocene volcanism Gifford Pinchot National Forest Lava fields Cinder cones of the United States

See also

References

External links