Long Valley Caldera

          


Long Valley is a 760,000 year old caldera located in eastern-central California, bounded on the west by the Sierra Nevada and on the east by the White Mountains. Over 600km3 of ash and lava was expelled during the caldera-forming eruption, making it one of the most violent eruptions in earth history.

The caldera has recently reawakened. In May of 1980 four M 6.0+ earthquakes rocked the caldera. Accompanying this seismicity has been reinflation of the central resurgent dome at rates upwards of 3mm/yr, several theorized dike intrusions in the southern moat and at Mammoth Mt., as well as massive volcanic gas exhalations on the flanks of Mammoth. This activity has initiated a new phase of study and monitoring efforts that has culminated in a 20+ year baseline dataset that makes Long Valley caldera the perfect laboratory for gauging the strengths and weaknesses of hyperspectral imaging's viability as a monitoring and study tool in active volcanic regions.