Arizona might not be the first place you think of when it comes to volcanoes, but it actually has some of the most mysterious ones in the world! These ancient volcanoes, like the San Francisco Peaks, are now mostly dormant, but they once erupted with huge blasts of lava and ash. The mystery comes from how old and unusual they are—some scientists believe these volcanoes are millions of years old, and their exact origins remain a puzzle. There are lava fields and craters scattered around Arizona that hint at a fiery past. The area around Sunset Crater is especially eerie, with dark volcanic rock and a landscape that feels like you’re on another planet. Even though they’re quiet now, these volcanoes still tell the story of a time when Arizona’s land was shaped by powerful forces from deep inside the Earth. Credit: Navajo Route 15: by Steven Baltakatei Sandoval CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Navajo_Route_15_and_San_Francisco_Peaks,_February_2019.jpg San Francisco Peaks: by Bernard Gagnon CC BY-SA 3.0 CC BY-SA 2.5 CC BY-SA 2.0 CC BY-SA 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/deed.en https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Peaks_01.jpg Mono Crater: by Daniel Mayer CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mono_Crater_closeup-1000px.jpeg San Francisco Peaks: by Martin Ely CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Peaks_Christmas_Day_2010.jpg San Francisco Peaks: by NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/6585/san-francisco-peaks-volcano-field Nate Loper / Flickr Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Phew, you can finally send that last report for the day and breathe out.
00:04The weekend is around the corner, but just when you're about to hit send, you're alarmed
00:09by the low rumbling under your desk.
00:11Is it the light rail passing by?
00:14Unfortunately, that's not the case.
00:16It's a volcano speaking!
00:18What, here?
00:20In Arizona?
00:21That's right, the ground keeps shifting under Arizona, reminding us that Earth is alive!
00:27No panic though, let's arm ourselves with some context.
00:3120 American states have extinct, active, and dormant, currently sleeping, volcanoes.
00:38Among such states, you can find California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.
00:50On the bright side, Arizona's volcanoes are dormant at the moment, but it doesn't mean
00:54they won't go off in the near, or not so near future.
00:59Now how about traveling to Arizona to check the traces of its active volcanic past?
01:05They dot the desert landscapes of this state like spots dot a dalmatian.
01:10There are entire volcanic fields southwest of Phoenix, east of Douglas, near Flagstaff,
01:20north of Kingman, and near the Mexico border.
01:24The most worrying thing about these fields is that even though they're not active at
01:29the moment, eruptions in this region might happen every thousand years or so.
01:34Well, the time seems to be up.
01:37The last powerful and destructive volcanic eruption occurred around 1,000 years ago at
01:42the Sunset Crater.
01:44Oh, this place is worth paying more attention to.
01:47And we will, but a bit later.
01:50First, we have to talk about hotspots.
01:52No, not that place where you can surf the web.
01:56In our volcanic context, a hotspot is a place where insane amounts of heat melt the overlying
02:02crust, Earth's thin outer layer, and form volcanoes.
02:06This heat rises from the mantle, which is located between our planet's dense, superheated
02:11core and the crust.
02:15Want to see an example of this type of volcanism?
02:18Welcome to the Hawaiian Islands.
02:21The Big Island has its active volcanoes because, at the moment, it's situated on top of the
02:26Hawaiian hotspot.
02:28The older Hawaiian Islands were once there too, but later they drifted off towards the
02:34northwest.
02:35It happened because that's where the oceanic crust on top of which they sat, namely the
02:40Pacific Plate, moved.
02:43Now look at the world's ocean basins.
02:45Yes, they're literally dotted with islands that sit on top of hotspots like Hawaii, Iceland,
02:53Samoa, the Galapagos.
02:56Those are probably the most famous examples.
02:59But don't think that continents can't host hotspots.
03:01They can, but those are far less common.
03:05One of the most famous continental hotspots is, ah, I bet you know it.
03:09Yep, the one beneath the Yellowstone Caldera.
03:13By the way, the caldera is a vast volcanic crater, especially one formed as a result
03:18of a massive eruption that led to the collapse of the mouth of a volcano.
03:24The Yellowstone Hotspot is basically the creator of Old Faithful and the rest of the hot springs
03:29and mud pots for which the national park is famous.
03:33Speaking of Old Faithful, let's make a small detour and pay more attention to this wonder
03:39of nature.
03:41It's one of the most well-known geysers in the world.
03:43People have been coming from all over the globe to see it for more than a century.
03:48The cool thing about this geyser is that the likes of it can only form under very specific
03:54conditions.
03:55That's why they're pretty rare.
03:58Magma under the surface superheats pockets of underground water.
04:02The pressure there keeps growing until it eventually pushes the water upward with immense
04:07strength.
04:09A certain volcanic rock with a high silica content lines the tunnel through which this
04:13water escapes.
04:15Basically, it creates a unique pipe that can withstand unbelievable pressure and heat created
04:21by the water erupting above the ground.
04:26Old Faithful was the very first named geyser in Yellowstone.
04:29If you come to visit it expecting the thing to erupt every hour on the hour, you're gonna
04:34be disappointed.
04:36On average, Old Faithful erupts every 91 minutes or so, which isn't that bad either.
04:41Plus, you can download a special app which will provide you with the approximate time
04:46of the next eruption.
04:48But be very careful while visiting and stay away from the site.
04:51The water erupting from the powerful geyser reaches 204 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:57The steam is even more scorching, up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
05:02It's hot enough to bake a cake.
05:06But let's get back to our volcanic hotspots.
05:09Scientists still don't clearly understand why there aren't many hotspot volcanoes on
05:14continental crust.
05:16One reason might be that the continental crust is much thicker than the oceanic crust, which
05:21is about four times as thick on average.
05:25Another reason could be that most of Earth's crust, about two-thirds of it, is oceanic.
05:31This means that there's less continental crust for hotspots to form under.
05:36Now, I bet those of you living in Arizona will appreciate the following info.
05:42We'll talk about a volcanic field right in the heart of this state, the San Francisco
05:47Volcanic Field.
05:50That's a massive area filled with over 600 volcanoes.
05:53Yes, they're mostly small, but it doesn't make them any less impressive.
05:58They're scattered across 1,800 square miles in northern Arizona, a giant territory.
06:04Interestingly, scientists are still debating about whether this volcanic field is actually
06:09sitting on top of a hotspot.
06:12But one thing they agree upon, the volcanoes in this area get younger as you move east.
06:17And this pattern matches up with the North American plate moving west over what could
06:22be a stationary hotspot beneath the surface of our planet.
06:26Cool, huh?
06:29The volcanic Holopaloo in that area started around 6 million years ago, so in geological
06:36terms, it's relatively young.
06:38As for the most recent eruption, it happened less than 1,000 years ago.
06:44The Sunset Crater, which I mentioned before, the one near Flagstaff, is the most famous
06:48vent from that eruption.
06:50The Sinagua people had to leave their homes at Wupatki Pueblo because of the eruption.
06:56That site is now part of the Wupatki National Monument.
06:59There, you can see how people lived in this volcanic region many years ago.
07:06If you go to explore this area, you'll notice that most of the volcanoes there are basalt
07:10cinder cones, small and steep.
07:13The Colorado Plateau has quite dry weather conditions.
07:17That's why the volcanoes haven't worn down much.
07:20Some of the best examples of those cones, like this one, called the SP Crater, still
07:25look like they appeared yesterday.
07:29But look around.
07:30It's not just cinder cones.
07:32The San Francisco Volcanic Field also has a stratovolcano, as well as some lava domes
07:38that formed from volcanic rocks with more silica than basalt you can find in places
07:43like Hawaii.
07:46It means they're thicker and don't flow as easily.
07:49Anyway, the stratovolcano is going to be one of the most epic sites you'll come across
07:54while exploring this volcanic field.
07:56Well not the stratovolcano itself, but the San Francisco Peaks, the remains of that giant
08:01formation.
08:03They stand tall at more than 12,600 feet.
08:07That's four and a half Burj Khalifas placed on top of one another.
08:11It makes the peaks some of the biggest landmarks in Northern Arizona.
08:16They're not only stunning, but also sacred to the Native American people who have lived
08:21in the area for many generations.
08:25Now unlike those super active volcanoes in Hawaii, the San Francisco Volcanic Field takes
08:31its time, thousands of years between eruptions.
08:35But you shouldn't relax just yet.
08:37Geologists say another eruption is likely to happen one day.
08:42It will probably occur in the remote eastern part of the field, away from big towns.
08:47Phew!
08:49If that next eruption is anything like the one that formed Sunset Crater, it would be
08:53quite the show.
08:55Lava fountains and rivers of lava flowing.
08:58At the same time, the next eruption might not happen for centuries, maybe even millennia.
09:05Until then, the San Francisco Volcanic Field will remain a hidden gem of volcanic history,
09:11waiting for its next fiery performance.
09:14That's it for today.
09:18So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:22friends.
09:23Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!