Photograph by S.R. Brantley on 19
May 2002
Lava Creek spills over the surface of a basalt lava
flow that was emplaced about 700,000 years ago. Named
after the falls, the Undine Falls Basalt erupted
before Yellowstone's third caldera-forming explosive
eruption that ejected the Lava Creek Tuff (named
after Lava Creek) about 640,000 years ago. Scientists
first distinguished the Lava Creek Tuff from the
Huckleberry Tuff about 3 km downstream from the falls
in the 1960s. This was the first clue that
Yellowstone's history included more than one
caldera-forming eruption.
