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| Little Lake Volcanic Field | |
|---|---|
| Name | Little Lake Volcanic Field |
| Location | Inyo County, California, United States |
| Type | volcanic field |
| Last eruption | Holocene (disputed) |
Little Lake Volcanic Field is a volcanic field in Inyo County, California, situated near the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada and within the Basin and Range physiographic province. The field occupies a landscape influenced by tectonic interaction among the Pacific Plate, North American Plate, and the Walker Lane fault system, and it lies within a mosaic of federal lands, indigenous territories, and protected areas. It has attracted attention from geoscientists studying Quaternary volcanism, geothermal gradients, and volcanic hazards in the western United States.
The field is located on the Great Basin margin adjacent to the Sierra Nevada (United States), bounded by features such as the Owens Valley to the west, the Death Valley National Park region to the southeast, and the White Mountains (California) to the east. Nearby towns and infrastructure include Bishop, California, Lone Pine, California, the U.S. Route 395, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct corridor. It lies within the broader context of western North American tectonics influenced by the San Andreas Fault, the Garlock Fault, and the Walker Lane shear zone, and it is proximal to hydrogeological systems connected with the Owens River and groundwater basins administered by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Geological Survey. The field's map relationships place it within reach of conservation units like the Inyo National Forest and cultural landscapes associated with the Paiute and Shoshone peoples.
The volcanic field comprises discrete vents, cinder cones, spatter cones, and small shield constructs emplaced on basin-fill sediments and metamorphic footwall rocks of the Sierra Nevada. Volcanic units overlie or intrude late Tertiary and Quaternary basin deposits related to regional extension documented in studies referencing the Basin and Range Province, the Mojave Desert, and the eastern California shear systems. The structural setting shows interplay with normal faults and transtensional structures mapped in association with the Eastern California Shear Zone, the Owens Valley Fault, and splays of the White Mountain Fault. Geomorphological features include lava flow fields, pahoehoe and aa textures, and well-preserved summit craters comparable in morphology to cones studied near Lassen Peak, Mono-Inyo Craters, and the Coso Volcanic Field, while being distinct from caldera systems like Long Valley Caldera.
Radiometric ages and stratigraphic relations indicate a Pleistocene to Holocene span for eruptive activity, with some lava units dated using methods paralleling applications at Mount St. Helens, Yellowstone Caldera, and Mount Mazama. Tephrochronology and potassium-argon/argon-argon approaches have been employed in regional Quaternary studies by laboratories associated with institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Geological Survey, and university volcanology groups at University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, and University of Utah. The temporal pattern suggests episodic eruptions separated by long repose intervals, analogous to eruptive histories described for Newberry Volcano, Medicine Lake Volcano, and Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Paleomagnetic secular variation correlations and cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating have been used regionally to refine chronology in coordination with research programs at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Lavas from the field are dominantly mafic to intermediate, including basalts, basaltic andesites, and occasional andesitic compositions, with mineral assemblages featuring olivine, clinopyroxene, and plagioclase reminiscent of products analyzed from Coso Volcanic Field, Cascade Range, and Basin and Range mafic centers. Whole-rock geochemistry displays silica, alkali, and trace-element signatures that have been compared with datasets compiled by laboratories at the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey, and interpreted in terms of mantle source heterogeneity, degrees of partial melting, and fractional crystallization processes similar to models developed for Haleakala, Kilauea, and continental rift provinces. Isotopic work (Sr-Nd-Pb) used elsewhere by groups at Columbia University and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory informs petrogenetic interpretations addressing crustal assimilation and mantle metasomatism.
The volcanic field sits within high-desert and montane ecotones that host biotic communities comparable to those cataloged in the Great Basin National Park and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, including sagebrush scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and riparian corridors along spring-fed drainages. Land-management frameworks involve the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and state agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which coordinate with tribal governments of the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe for stewardship. Human land uses encompass grazing, recreation, geothermal exploration initiatives akin to projects at Coso Geothermal Field and The Geysers, and conservation efforts connected to migratory corridors identified in collaboration with the National Park Service.
Indigenous peoples including bands of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Mono have long-standing cultural ties to the landscape, reflected in oral histories, archaeological sites, and use areas that intersect volcanic landforms, similar to cultural landscapes recognized at Mono Lake and Manzanar National Historic Site. Euro-American exploration and settlement along routes such as the California Trail and the development of infrastructure including the Los Angeles Aqueduct and U.S. Route 395 brought mining, ranching, and scientific interest. Contemporary cultural significance includes educational programs run by institutions like the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and university outreach from University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Fresno, and ongoing collaborations between scientists and tribal cultural resource managers to document heritage and assess geohazards.
Category:Volcanic fields of California Category:Inyo County, California