FIRE AND ICE

The sparkling trout stream known as Mammoth Creek, begins cold and full of life… until it reaches live volcanic vents near the Long Valley Caldera and becomes...
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The sparkling trout stream known as Mammoth Creek, begins cold and full of life… until it reaches live volcanic vents near the Long Valley Caldera and becomes a dangerous, yet beautiful landscape of sky-blue boiling pools, steaming shorelines, and bubbling cauldrons of hydrodynamic power.

The Hot Creek Geologic Site is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey and in addition to being gorgeous, it acts as an important fault activity indicator. Part of the Long Valley Caldera, the creek is icy with snowmelt until it reaches upwelling springs of water heated by the Inyo Dome magma some ten miles away. This water, which reaches temperatures as high as 430 degrees Fahrenheit deep underground (where the pressure keeps it liquid) eventually percolates up in numerous locations along the stream and elsewhere, raising the temperature dramatically.
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