Touring Oregon's Longest Lava Tube

Touring Oregon's Longest Lava Tube | Oregon Geology [CC]

Рет қаралды 2,158

Жыл бұрын

Lava River Cave, just south of Bend, is Oregon's longest lava cave. Over 5,000 feet from daylight to the end, it is an easy cave to explore and the Deschutes National Forest maintains the cave for public visitation (there is a small fee to visit). This cave houses numerous original features - that is, they are largely unchanged from when Newberry Volcano produced this lava flow ~75,000 years ago. One stretch has two levels, though the upper is inaccessible. This happens because lava can be present for a long time in a lava tube and it sometimes would crust over and divide the tube in half. Ergo, multiple levels. This is a fantastic lava tube to visit if you've never been to one before.

Пікірлер: 23

@DeathValleyDazed Жыл бұрын

Very informative colonoscopy through Mother Nature’s intestines. Rock on Andrew!

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

🤔

@1234j Жыл бұрын

Really interesting! Great video. Learned lots. Thank you from England.

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed!

@phil8662 10 ай бұрын

I visited this cave a few weeks ago. It was a fun underground hike. Tips for anyone planning a visit: It is slow going because of irregularities in the floor of the cave; if you aren't careful you'll trip on something. You have to constantly move the flashlight down to look at the ground (to make sure you don't trip) and then up to see the cave. If you don't have your own flashlight, you can rent one for a about $5. You must have a reservation. Reservations go on sale 1 or 2 days early and they go fast. There are bathrooms near the parking lot; use them if you think you will need to go. There's nowhere to go in the cave. Bring a light jacket or sweatshirt, it is a somewhat cold in the cave.

@NightBazaar 2 ай бұрын

Aren't reservations primarily for guided tours?

@AlexsMemeDump Жыл бұрын

Thank you for activating a core memory from when I toured this at age 9 or 10 while visiting Sunriver. It's awesome to get some new info about the area, and I appreciate the addition of CC!

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

No shortage of great places to visit in Central Oregon! KZfaq’s auto caption generator is getting so good that editing the auto-caption text is trivial for short videos. Always worth the effort.

@kennethhummel4409 Жыл бұрын

Went in to those tubes back when I was 11 or 12 years old. Lanterns works better for seeing in there. It was a hot summer, we didn’t want to go back to the car(102 degrees Fahrenheit).

@donaldjones5712 8 ай бұрын

Me and a friend of mine walked all the way to the end of the cave where it's plugged with sand. That was 1977.

@dancooper8551 Жыл бұрын

Cool! I’ve explored the lava tubes at Craters of the Moon, but never did this one.

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

There is no shortage of lava tubes in the Northwest!

@ayearofwalks Жыл бұрын

This was so fun and informative - thank you so much for the tour!

@raylivengood8040 Жыл бұрын

Ha ha cool. A new video 👍🏻

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

Once in a while I get to it 🙃

@101rotarypower Жыл бұрын

Maybe a Ape Caves tour also?

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

I’d love to! That’s a much longer and wetter cave so it’s a more challenging shoot.

@jdsd744 4 ай бұрын

Me and friends went into the deeper part of the tube where that sign is. It widens out to a small 4 foot high cave, then shrinks down to army crawling again. Those sand areas were not fenced off, nor was the back of the cave back then. We had the smallest of our group ahead of us and told him we'd pull him out if he got stuck!

@BetterGeology 4 ай бұрын

I did that too when I was little. I enjoy a good lava tube crawl!

@sparkyofsocal Жыл бұрын

Curious as to the timeline on a lava tube. Like from eruption until cool down, let’s say ambient temperature of the surrounding area

@BetterGeology Жыл бұрын

If I’m understanding you correctly… lava tubes form basically as soon as a fluid lava flow establishes a stable flow path. They’ll live as long as the lava supply lasts, sometimes for many years (like on Kīlauea before 2017). The insides of lava flows are well insulated and can remain hot enough to be a little gooey for about a month depending on thickness (according to one paper I looked at). It’s during this time that features like the veneered sides and collapses are happening. This is when lava contracts most and therefore when probably 90% of large-scale collapse happens.

@snigwithasword1284 Жыл бұрын

Word is the last Kilauea megaeruption in 2018 that flooded Leilani Estates is still stupid hot! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kJmSrbd7nsyzp40.html

@michaelgpartridge2384 Ай бұрын

Actually, it's very well-known what's beyond the sign at the end of the cave. I've crawled down to the very end of it myself. About 100 years ago for several months a couple local guys dug out the end and created the ditch and tailings you see through the sand. They got about 400 feet when they discovered the ceiling came down to meet the floor, which meant the end of the cave. Look, you gotta know that if there were any more to that cave it would be well-dug out and well-known. Not only has this been a tourist cave for a century or so, but this part of Oregon is crawling with cave moles like myself that don't let any leads go unexplored. . . Great video, otherwise!