What is the Mesa Falls Tuff?

The Mesa Falls Tuff is a volcanic tuff formation in Idaho produced by the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years ago. This major event formed the Henry's Fork Caldera as the second most recent caldera-forming eruption from the Yellowstone hotspot. It is bracketed by older and younger volcanic formations created by the same hotspot system.

What we know

• The Mesa Falls Tuff was produced by the Mesa Falls eruption, which formed the Henry's Fork Caldera in Idaho. [1, 2]
• The eruption that created the Mesa Falls Tuff ejected 280 cubic kilometers of material approximately 1.3 million years before present. [2]
• The Mesa Falls Tuff represents the second cycle's culmination of the Yellowstone volcanic field. [4]
• The Mesa Falls Tuff is positioned historically between the earlier Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and the later Lava Creek Tuff. [2, 3]

Where to go next

• what followedHow did the Henry's Fork Caldera form?
• compared withWhat was the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff eruption?
• what caused itHow does the Yellowstone hotspot drive regional volcanism?
• whenWhat characterizes the Lava Creek Tuff?
• the bigger pictureWhat geological features make up the Yellowstone Caldera?
• an unexpected connectionHow does an ancient Idaho tuff relate to North American ash beds?Just as the later Lava Creek Tuff created widespread air-fall ash deposits across North America, the broader Yellowstone hotspot activity produced massive regional fallout layers.

Sources

• [1]Mesa Falls Tuff (Wikidata Q6821064) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Mesa Falls Tuff · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Huckleberry Ridge Tuff · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Yellowstone Caldera · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Lava Creek Tuff · CC BY-SA 4.0