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Lassen Park

Seeping deep into the earth, water meets superhot magma and rushes upward as searing steam (195�F : boiling point at this 7,000 ft elevation). 

 

Bumpass Hell : residual mass of cooling andesite lava perhaps 3 miles deep and boiling lakes.

Andesite lavas decompose readily but sulfuric acid and hot steam have greatly speeded up the process to carve out this barren 16-acre bowl. 

The "rotten egg" smell is hydrogen sulfide fumes, rising from deep within this mass.

Bubbling mud : natural hot tubs in the spring, when rain and melting snow provide abundant water, hot pods shrink to mudpots, spattering clay formed from decomposed lavas. 

In spite of boiling lakes, fumaroles and mudpots, what remains of Mt Mazama volcano is still covered with snow in late July...

 

 

 
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Updated 18 oct. 2008