The geothermal areas in Lassen Volcanic National Park include several groups of

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

s and

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s, as remnants of former volcanic activity, exist in

Lassen Volcanic National Park Lassen Volcanic National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in northeastern California. The dominant feature of the park is Lassen Peak, the largest lava dome, plug dome volcano in the wo ...

in northeastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Most of these lie in or are closely adjacent to

Mount Tehama Mount Tehama (also called Brokeoff Volcano or Brokeoff Mountain) is an eroded Extinct volcano, extinct andesite, andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanoes, Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range in Northern California. Part of the Geo ...

's caldera. ''Bumpass Hell'' is the most spectacular of these, but others of importance are ''Sulphur Works'', ''Little Hot Springs Valley'', ''Boiling Springs Lake'' and ''Devil's Kitchen''. In each thermal area, the highest temperature of water generally is close to the boiling temperature at the altitude of the particular spring or fumarole — at Bumpass Hell and on the northwest flanks of Lassen Peak.NPS: Lassen Volcanic National Park, Nature & science, Volcanoes / Lava Flows Temperatures as high as have been recorded in the park. Spring activity varies with water supply. Abundant water results in clear springs during early summer, but as the season progresses and the water supply decreases, springs change successively to turbid, warm pools, spattering

mudpot A mudpot, or mud pool, is a type of acidic hot spring, or fumarole, with limited water. It usually takes the form of a pool of bubbling mud, as a result of the acid and microorganisms decomposing surrounding rock into clay and mud. Description ...

s, and finally steaming fumaroles. There are no true

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring with an intermittent water discharge ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. The formation of geysers is fairly rare and is caused by particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Ea ...

s within Lassen Volcanic National Park. Gases from hot springs are composed mostly of

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

, with minor amounts of other gases. These react with the rocks around the springs to ultimately form

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silicon dioxide, silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to the amorphous (chemical) physical structure, it is classified as a ...

if temperature and

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

ity are high, or

kaolin Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (). ...

if they are low. Deposits of

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and other substances are also found around the springs and in their runoff channels. Solfataric alteration within the caldera of Mount Tehama covers about , much more extensive than the present hot springs basins. indicative of its former extent and suggestive of its waning activity. It is the altered materials in the caldera that yielded most readily to the forces of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

. Diamond Peak is a body of unaltered rock that still remains, because it is more resistant.

Sulphur Works and Little Hot Springs Valley

As in many hydrothermally active areas, the rocks at Sulphur Works and Little Hot Springs Valley in Lassen Volcanic National Park have been chemically altered into bright-colored

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

Sulfurous acid Sulfuric(IV) acid (United Kingdom spelling: sulphuric(IV) acid), also known as sulfurous (UK: sulphurous) acid and thionic acid, is the chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula . Raman spectroscopy, Raman spectra of solutions o ...

and

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...

have broken down hard, gray-green

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

lavas into red, yellow and buff clays and

iron oxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...

s. Many visitors pass through Sulphur Works on their way north on State Route 89 and sense the rotten-egg smell (

hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is toxic, corrosive, and flammable. Trace amounts in ambient atmosphere have a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Swedish chemist ...

) when they pass by a hot vent to the east of the road. Sulphur Works is said to be the volcanic center of the ancestral Mount Tehama.

Bumpass Hell

Near Little Hot Springs Valley is Bumpass Hell, a hydrothermally altered

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

area that spans 16 acres (6.5 ha) and has hot springs, fumaroles, and boiling mudpots. As part of Mount Tehama's main vent, Bumpass Hell is the result of fissures that tap the volcanic heat, thought to be a cooling mass of andesite, perhaps three miles (5 km) below the surface. It is named after Kendall Vanhook Bumpass, a

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

and early settler who worked in the

Lassen Peak Lassen Peak ( ), commonly referred to as Mount Lassen, is a lava dome volcano in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region above the northern Sacramento Valley, it is the southernmost active vo ...

area in the 1860s. Bumpass discovered the geothermal feature and was named on a mining claim for the area. In 1865 the editor of the ''Red Bluff Independent'' newspaper took a trip with Bumpass to see the locale. During this trip Bumpass broke through a thin crust above a scalding hot mudpot; his leg was badly scalded and eventually had to be

amputated Amputation is the removal of a limb or other body part by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is ...

.Entry for "Bumpass, Kendall VanHook" at RootsWeb.com
/ref> The area was named in his honor.

Devils Kitchen

About southeast of Lassen Peak is Devils Kitchen. In this geothermal area the hot springs are so

ic that they have eaten pits and holes in the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

Terminal Geyser

Located in the southeast corner of the park, Terminal Geyser is not actually a geyser, but rather a cold stream flowing over a steam vent. This is about 100 feet (30 m) from the site of a geothermal boring operation that took place in 1962 and 1978. The 4,008-foot (1,222 m) well is now plugged and abandoned.

Boiling Springs Lake

Just northwest of Terminal Geyser, large, warm-water Boiling Springs Lake has many hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles along its west shore. Unlike the more heavily visited areas of the park, this area is not developed with

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway typically built with wooden planks, which functions as a type of low water bridge or small viaduct that enables pedestrians to ...

s or signs and offers a chance to view thermal features in a more natural setting. In 2012, scientists studying the

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

es in Boiling Springs Lake found the first known case of a natural hybrid or "

chimera Chimera, Chimaera, or Chimaira (Greek for " she-goat") originally referred to: * Chimera (mythology), a fire-breathing monster of ancient Lycia said to combine parts from multiple animals * Mount Chimaera, a fire-spewing region of Lycia or Cilicia ...

" virus, apparently made of two very different groups of viruses that recombined into a single

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

.Diemer, Geoffrey S.; Stedman, Kenneth M. (11 June 2013).
"A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses".
''

Biology Direct ''Biology Direct'' is an online open access scientific journal that publishes original, peer-reviewed research papers, reviews, hypotheses, comments and discovery notes in biology. The journal is published by BioMed Central. The journal follows ...

''. Retrieved 29 March 2020. They named this "mythological beast of a virus" the "

Boiling Springs Lake RNA−DNA Hybrid Virus Boiling or ebullition is the rapid phase transition from liquid to gas or vapour; the reverse of boiling is condensation. Boiling occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, so that the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to the pre ...

" or "BSL−RDHV".Thompson, Helen (20 April 2012)
"Hot spring yields hybrid genome: Researchers discover natural chimaeric DNA-RNA virus".
''Nature''. Retrieved 27 March 2020. The study showed there is still much to learn about how viruses can evolve.BioMed Central Limited (18 April 2012)

''ScienceDaily''. Retrieved March 31, 2020. Other types of viral hybrids have since been found elsewhere, and are called the CHIV group (" chimeric viruses"). Koonin, Eugene V.; Dolja, Valerian V.; and Krupovic, Mart. (May 2015
"Origins and evolution of viruses of eukaryotes: The ultimate modularity".
''Virology''. p. 26. Retrieved March 31, 2020.

References

Kendall Van Hook Bumpass
*''Geology of National Parks: Fifth Edition'', Ann G. Harris, Esther Tuttle, Sherwood D., Tuttle (Iowa, Kendall/Hunt Publishing; 1997)

(adapted public domain text; accessed 22 September 2006)
Volcano Hazards of the Lassen Volcanic National Park Area, California
U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 022-00, Online version 1.0 (adapted public domain text; accessed 25 September 2006)

External links

* *
“Hot Water” in Lassen Volcanic National Park— Fumaroles, Steaming Ground, and Boiling Mudpots
USGS fact sheet on Lassen Volcanic National Park
NPS page about the plugging of the well at Terminal Geyser
{{coord, 40.4581, -121.5018, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Lassen Volcanic National Park Hot springs of California Volcanism of California Bodies of water of Shasta County, California Natural history of Shasta County, California