Eastern Snake River Volcanics Field Trip October 7-9, 2016

The Geologists of Jackson Hole held a field trip to see and learn about Eastern Snake River Volcanics, at locations several hours west of here over in Idaho, on the weekend of Oct 7-9. The trip was led by Shannon Kobs-Nowatniak & Scott Hughes, faculty from Idaho State University’s Geoscience Department.

Kings Bowl

The area we visited is the type location for Eastern Snake River Plains volcanism and is considered a top analog for lunar and Martian volcanism. Dr. Kobs-Nowatniak & Hughes are currently doing research with NASA using many of these sites to better understand volcanism on other planetary bodies, so they will emphasize those connections.

On Saturday, our first day in the field, we will go to Kings Bowl and Wapi. They are right next to one another and approximately the same age, but they are very different from one another thanks to differences in water interaction, magma volume, etc. Both are consistent with planetary features and may provide us with keys to understand evolution of planetary systems and even allow us to calculate in-ground volatile budgets on Mars.

On Sunday, we visited a series of locations, including Cottrells Blowout and Inferno Chasm (perfect matches for lunar features), Table Legs Butte (diktytaxitic basalt; a piece of this is going to Mars), Big Southern Butte (felsic rock; density plays a huge role in eruptions), and North Robbers (volcanic bomb collecting; just for fun).  Materials

On Saturday we saw the Wapi Lava Field                           On Sunday we saw Big Southern Butte as well other sites.