Io Workshop 2010

25-26 May, Provo, Utah

Field Trip

We will spend the second half of day two of the workshop, Wednesday, May 26, on a field trip to the Black Rock Desert.

The field we will visit, Tabernacle Butte, is about 12 km2, and is composed of a collection of young lava flows, ponds, and tubes from the eruption of a tuff cone on the margins of Lake Bonneville about 14,500 yr. B.P.

This well-preserved eruption site, with large and easily accessible tubes and a hikeable summit with an overview of the field, serves as an analogue for volatile-containing mafic eruptions on Io.

We'll drive to and walk around some of the main features of this flow field, which is located 8 km NW of the town of Meadow, Utah, about a 2.5 hour drive south of Provo.

The drive to the field location will be in University, 10-person Chevy vans. Some 10 miles there and back will be on semi-rough dirt roads.

If we leave by noon, eating sandwiches on the way, we can arrive by 2 or 3, spend a couple of hours, and drive back, arriving in Provo by 8 pm.

If there is enough interest, a group may stay late and explore the Meadow Hot Springs.

More details on the geology of the field trip area will be posted.