Dutton Cliff - Prominent Geological Features of Crater Lake National Park

 

No part of the walls of Crater Lake is more impressive than the tremendous Dutton Cliff, which rises almost 2000 feet above the water. Here the somber lava flows are separated by brown and brick-red layers, mostly a few feet thick though reaching a maximum thickness of more than 80 feet, which seem at first sight to be coarse tuff breccias. Careful study shows that all but a few of they brighter layers are the slaggy, autobrecciated tops and bottoms of the flows themselves. It is enough to see how the laws grade imperceptibly into the breccias and to note how they send irregular fingers upward into .... [The Main Andesite Cone of Mazama: Interbedded Andesitic Pyroclastic Rocks, The Geology of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon (1942) by Howell Williams]

Plate 6. Dutton Cliff and Phantom Ship. The triangular cliff in the center of the picture is the filling of a vent, possibly the oldest on Mount Mazama. From this, the Phantom Cone was built, of which Phantom Ship is part. The lakeward dips of the lavas and breccias of this cone are clearly shown. After extinction, the Phantom Cone was eroded and then buried by flows from the main vents of Mount Mazama. Note unconformity on the east (left) side between the Phantom and Mazama lavas. A second unconformity, among the Mazama flows, appears higher up the cliff. Thin glacial deposits occur at this horizon, and water seeps issue from them. (Photograph by U. S. Army Air Corps.)

1. Applegate Peak 2. Bald Crater 3. Cloudcap 4. Crater Lake Caldera 5. Crater Peak 6. Desert Cone 7. Devil's Backbone 8. Dutton Cliff 9. Eagle Crags 10. Garfield Peak 11. Godfrey Glen 12. Grouse Hill 13. Hillman Peak 14. Kerr Notch 15. Llao Rock 16. Llao's Hallway 17. Maklaks Crater 18. Mazama Rock 19. Mount Scott 20. Palisades 21. Phantom Ship 22. The Pinnacles 23. Pumice Castle 24. Pumice Desert 25. Pumice Point 26.  Red Cone 27. Redcloud Cliff 28. Rugged Crest Scoria Cone Scott Bluff Sentinel Rock 29. Skell Head 30. Sun Notch 31. Timber Crater 32. Union Peak 33. Watchman 34. Williams Crater 35. Wineglass 36. Wizard Island Note: the numbers associated with each feature name above correspond to their place on the Custom Google Map below

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