Within the United States, there are three active supervolcanoes.
They are the Valles Caldera in New Mexico, Yellowstone in Wyoming, and the Long Valley
Caldera in California.
Each of these have produced incredibly large volume explosive eruptions which permanently
changed the overall landscape.
Yet, there is another young supervolcano located in Nevada.
Zooming in from satellite, several large circular depressions in the ground can be observed.
These depressions represent calderas which were formed in eruptions more than 100 times
the size of the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens.
Large volume magma chambers were partially emptied by these eruptions, causing wide swaths
of land to collapse downwards like a sinkhole to form a caldera.
This group of overlapping calderas is today referred to as the Timber Mountain supervolcano,
which is now extinct.
Today, this area is of great economic importance as this unusual supervolcano is the source
of one of the world's largest lithium deposits, which will be mined for centuries to come
to power the way for green energy technologies.
This video will discuss this supervolcano, and how it relates to the lithium deposit
in question.
The Timber Mountain supervolcano is located 20 miles or 32 kilometers northeast of the
town of Betty in Nevada.
It contains three complexes of calderas which correspond to different eras of activity of
the overall supervolcano.
The Timber Mountain supervolcano began forming 15.5 million years ago, when a large volume
of magma intruded into the crust.
Although exactly what fed this magma is unknown, it seeped into the crust along a series of
cracks since the overall landscape was being spread apart to the east and west.
Then, over hundreds of thousands of years, it built up in the underlying crust.
During this time, the magma became more silica rich as it leached material from the surrounding
crust.
Then, 15.25 million years ago, a massive eruption began on the surface.
As a large amount of molten rock and ash was expelled high into the atmosphere, pyroclastic
flows raced across the surrounding landscape, travelling more than 50 miles or 80 kilometers
before they stopped.
In total, 360 cubic kilometers of tephra was ejected, which is more than double the amount
produced from the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, which caused the year without a summer.
The caldera from this first eruption has not been found, as any prominent evidence of it
has been destroyed by more recent eruptions.
The first major still intact caldera to form was the Grouse Canyon Caldera, formed by an
eruption 13.7 million years ago which ejected 210 cubic kilometers of volcanic rock.
Over the next 1 million years, more large explosive eruptions occurred, which deposited
thick beds of volcanic ash known as tuff.
Between 12.8 and 12.7 million years ago, two supereruptions occurred, which each ejected
more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of molten rock, forming the Claim Canyon Caldera.
Over the next several million years, dozens of caldera forming eruptions occurred, forming
more large calderas.
The last of the major eruptions occurred around 9 million years ago, forming the Black Mountain
Caldera.
Soonafter, rhyolite volcanism ceased at the volcano, seemingly around the same time that
the amount of crustal extension in the area reduced.
Since then, the cracks in the crust created by prior caldera forming eruptions has allowed
small batches of magma to intrude into the crust and erupt via a path of least resistance.
This magma had a low silica content, and created a series of dark black colored basalt lava
flows which produced cinder cones, shield volcanoes, and mesas.
One of these features, called the Buckboard Mesa, formed 2.5 million years ago.
Scattered volcanic eruptions continued until 80,000 years ago, forming the Lathrop Wells
cinder cone, shown here.
In the absence of rhyolite forming eruptions, the abundant lithium in the existing rhyolite
largely eroded away into a drainage basin to the west, which is a closed system with
no natural outlet.
This lithium traveled west more than 50 kilometers into a low salt flat referred to as Sacrobatus
Flat.
Numerous younger basalts which are rich in carbonate minerals also eroded to the west.
In high pH water the carbonates combined with the lithium to form a vast amount of valuable
lithium carbonate.
Although this is truly a preliminary estimate, the deposit in question contains an estimated
5.37 million metric tons of lithium.
That represents 7% of the world's total reserves, and singlehandedly could produce enough material
to supply the planet's lithium needs for a century.
I hope that you enjoyed this video.
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