South Red Cone, 2016

(Shift moves in; Command on Mac zooms out. Might need to click on image first. On iDevice, can move device around to pan).

Hide... View towards the Ritter Range from South Red Cone. (Most of the terrain is within the Ansel Adams Wilderness). From the left, the view west is down the South Fork of the San Joaquin. The distant lit range to the right is the Sing Peak/Gale Peak area at the southeastern edge of Yosemite National Park. Farther right the Ritter Range rises up with the King Creek drainage facing the camera. On the right edge of that drainage is Red Top Mountain, which is just below the Minarets on the skyline. Farther right, the more distant peak with snow on its left side is Mt. Ritter, with Banner Peak just to its right. Farther right, above the upper end of the San Joaquin drainage, is the Koip Crest area. To its right is San Joaquin Mtn on the Sierra crest. Below this area, the large burned over area from the 1992 Rainbow Fire is visible; Devils Postpile is hiding in the woods beyond the old burn near the South Fork. Farther right, the bare slopes of Mammoth Mountain rise up over North Red Cone, with Lower Crater Meadow at the righthand base of that cone.

Geologically, this is a complex area. The core of the Ritter Range is the debris that fell into a caldera in the Cretaceous c. 100 Ma. Either side of that are older metamorphosed volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, though the foreground is the northern end of the 88 Ma Mono Creek Granite. The distant Sing Peak area has lighter colored 98 Ma Jackass Lake Granodiorite and darker early Cretaceous metavolcanic rocks. The Sierra crest around San Joaquin Mtn is capped with volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks while Mammoth Mountain is a younger (c. 50 ka) dacite dome. Much of the slope below and left of Mammoth Mountain is the 82 ka Andesite of Devils Postpile. The two Red Cones are the youngest geologic feature in view, only 8,000 years old, postdating the last glaciation that sculpted much of the terrain in view.