This page contains the material submitted to the local paper - The Davis Enterprise - for Explorit Science Center's news column published in that paper on Fridays.

A Volcano in our Midst

Let's go on a journey and imagine we are about to embark on a fantastic field trip to visit an ancient volcano. This volcano was active during the last ice age and has been dormant ever since. It has a diameter of 10 miles and covers an area of about 75 square miles. This mysterious volcano is spread out into a beautiful mountain range and is just 50 miles northwest from Sacramento.

Traveling toward Yuba City, you see rising up out of the horizon, remnants of a mountain range only 2,117 above sea level. It is the smallest mountain range in the world. A volcano lives there.

Before dams and levees, the ancient Maidu Indians made the volcano their island refuge when the Sacramento valley was an inland sea due to floods by winter run-off. The Maidu who lived there called the volcanic area "Histum Yani" meaning "Middle Mountains of the Valley" or "Spirit Mountain." The mountains seem to rise out of the earth from nowhere, surrounded by vibrant wildflowers and wild mustard green pastures. The Maidu say the spirits of their people rest in the mountains. It is easy to envision such a place because the volcano's mountainous peaks are circular and seem to sweep gently and silently across the landscape as if in a deep sleep.

It is a mystery of how the spirit mountain came to rest right in the middle of part of the valley. But it is not a mystery that the range is actually an extinct volcano that erupted between 1.60 and 1.35 million years ago and is known today as the Sutter Buttes. The Sutter Buttes volcano comes from the stratovolcano variety of the volcano family and its eruptive, petrologic, chemical and tectonic evolution is presently being studied by California geologists. 

On Tuesday, May 21, Brian Hausback of the California State University Sacramento Department of Geology will take us on a visual field trip to the Sutter Buttes. Hausback will give a free lecture about the eruptive history of the Sutter Buttes and will address the isolation of this volcano in the Sacramento Valley. Hausback says the Buttes area is "best known for its prolonged sedimentary history. Studies of the volcanic deposits at this center reveal the history and detail of the eruptions at this unusually isolated and beautiful volcano." Hausback will provide a visual presentation and describe the unique characteristics and significance of the Sutter Buttes as part of Explorit Science Center's "Cutting Edge of Science Lecture Series." at 7:30 p.m. at the Davis Branch Library 315 E 14th Street.

Take your family to hear Brian Hausback this Tuesday and find out how you can join others in taking a real field trip to the beautiful Sutter Buttes plus find out more about California's rich volcanic history. 

The Cutting Edge of Science Lecture Series is free to the public, made possible by sponsor Novozymes Biotech Inc. and hosted by the Davis Branch Library.

Check out these links to find out more about volcanoes in the Sacramento Valley and in California.

The Volcanological Society of Sacramento http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~vssac/

California Volcanoes

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicPast/Places/volcanic_past_california.html

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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is "Exploring the Wonders of Water." Public hours are Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday from 1 to 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.